Biography
Stephen Puleo was a Massachusetts Communist activist. In 1928 the Workers (Communist) Party nominated him as one of its presidential electors in Massachusetts. Police arrested him on Boston Common on April 6, 1930, at a meeting protesting the arrest of Leonard Doherty during a garment strike. Nine people were arrested when police dispersed the gathering. Puleo was one of seven charged with violating park rules; two other participants faced charges of attempting to rescue prisoners. A separate report in the Daily Worker of July9,1930 describes an arrest at Fall River for speaking to textile workers in the name of the Trade Union Unity League against wage cuts, speed-up and unemployment. The report does not establish an exact arrest day or final disposition.
The Fall River report identifies his June 27 promoting-anarchy arrest after a textile-workers and TUUL speech. It also recalls a separate Boston Common arrest about five weeks earlier, without enough precision to replace the recorded earlier park-protest date. The purported 1929 warrant is disputed by the article. Daily Worker, July 4, 1930, page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n160-NY-jul-04-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
A caption identifies Puleo speaking at the April6,1930 Boston Common protest for Leonard Doherty. It states that police arrested Puleo and seven other workers when they resisted the breaking up of the meeting. This documents that actual arrest, without an exact discharge or complete duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1930/v05n05-may-1930-LD.pdf#page=12
June 27 Fall River arrest, not a three-year sentence
Nathan Kay’s July 10, 1930 Daily Worker article explicitly dates Stephen Puleo’s arrest at a Fall River mass meeting to Friday, June 27, 1930 and gives the charge as promoting anarchy. It places the meeting at the Liberty lot under Trade Union Unity League and National Textile Workers Union auspices. The stated three years in jail and $1,000 fine are the possible penalty attached to the charge, not an imposed sentence or time served. The article disputes the police claim of a November 1929 warrant; a warrant date is not substituted for physical arrest. It supplies no personal jail-admission or release day or measured duration. This refines the already separate Fall River case and does not duplicate the April 6 Boston Common protest case. The reported court appearance about five weeks earlier is not converted into a new dated case.
Daily Worker, July 10, 1930, original pages 4. Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
