Biography
Stanley Hancock was jailed with Dorothy Ray in connection with agricultural-worker organizing in California’s Imperial Valley. A Los Angeles dispatch dated November 12, 1934 stated that Hancock had been out of jail since October 27. It also described a planned welcome banquet for the two organizers.
Daily Worker, May 24, 1935: Page 4 retrospectively describes him and Dorothy Ray beginning six-month county-jail sentences in Imperial Valley about the same time in 1934 for organizing lettuce and pea pickers and leading a strike. Six months is the imposed term, not an independently measured time served; the existing October 27 release date is retained. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n124-NAT-may-24-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 4 prints a letter dated July 8 from prisoners at the Superstition Mountain camp in California’s Imperial Valley following the agricultural strike in Brawley. It says they had been jailed for the strike and asked that their prison relief, cigarettes and funds be redirected to the striking maritime workers after hearing of the San Francisco attacks. The report refers collectively to eight prisoners but prints seven signatures; no eighth identity is invented. It establishes actual camp confinement without precise admission, final discharge, sentence or measured duration. Hancock’s signature corroborates the existing Imperial Valley episode; his separately documented later release is preserved. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n172-jul-19-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Pettis Perry's ILD protest on page 5 says vigilantes visited the Imperial Valley chain-gang camp on July 26, burned a cross, claimed the attack on Antonio Solorzano and threatened Hancock and Nieto with death using a whip and a noose. Their existing camp-imprisonment identities are supported by the same cohort and place. The source reports intimidation during confinement, not an executed killing or a fresh custody period. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n192-aug-11-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The July 23 Western Worker prints eight separate signatures to the Imperial Valley camp letter redirecting prison relief and cigarettes to maritime strikers: Stanley Hancock,Y. P. Nieto,A. Solorzano,Juan Olivas,F. C. Macias,Miguel N. Gutierrez,Mike Gutierrez Jr.,andBenito Gutierrez. This version has eight signatures rather than the seven in another reprint. It corroborates confinement, not a new arrest or precise admission, release or complete term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/westernworker/1934/v3-n27-31-jul-1934.pdf#page=14
Sources and evidence limits
Exact admission, charges, sentence and any later imprisonment are not supplied; no six-month continuous duration is assumed.
Historical claims are attributed to the contemporary newspaper. No present-day custody status, demographic classification or precise date is inferred.
Daily Worker, May 24, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 19, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Daily Worker of October 13, 1934, page 4, describes Dorothy Ray and Stanley Hancock still held in an Imperial Valley jail after about six months of imprisonment for lettuce-strike organizing. It reports death threats against Hancock, a noose and steel-studded knout sent to him, an open grave bearing his name and a visit by strangers to the sheriff's office. Hancock's mother sought protection and safe conduct for both organizers to San Diego. The stated October 13-19 release window was prospective, and the sheriff allegedly refused to give an exact date; no physical release on those dates is inferred. Police complicity and torture allegations are attributed to the newspaper and quoted appeals.
The November 12 Los Angeles dispatch reports Hancock and Dorothy Ray freed after their Imperial Valley agricultural-organizing imprisonment, with a November 23 welcome banquet planned. No new exact physical discharge day is supplied; six-month language is not converted into a fixed day count.
