Biography
Thomas Harty was one of the marine transport workers imprisoned at the Maine State Prison in Thomaston in the seamen's case of the early 1920s — the same prosecution that held Peter Dirks and Dan Fallon, already recorded in this database. His sentence was raised to seven to eleven years, and his letters appeared in the ILD's Labor Defender through 1927, which listed him on its roster of American class-war prisoners.
The June 1925 labor-press political-prisoner birthday notice lists him — as Tom Harty — at the Maine State Prison, Thomaston, with a June 17 birthday (no birth year is given).
The International Labor Defense holiday roster in the December 29, 1925 Daily Worker lists this prisoner, printed as Tom Harty, at Thomaston Maine. This documents confinement at the roster’s reporting time, without establishing an admission, transfer, release, new conviction or complete duration. Existing independently sourced custody chronology remains separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n297-NYE-dec-29-1925-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
A joint letter signed Thomas Harty, Danny Fallon and Peter John Dirks, printed in May 1926, directly documents their actual imprisonment at Maine State Prison in Thomaston and describes the labor dispute behind the seamen's case. The letter does not state Harty's total actual served duration or endpoints. Fallon's seven-year nominal term and predicted release dates are not copied into Harty's case.
Dirks’s letter individually says Harty’s sentence was increased from five-to-ten to seven-to-eleven years. The birthday-gift list separately locates him at Thomaston. His fellow prisoner’s expected June parole is not attributed to Harty.
