Biography
Unto Immonen was a physical-education instructor at a children’s summer camp near Eben Junction, Michigan. He and his wife, Ruth Lake Immonen, supervised sports at the camp. Police arrested him and cooperative-store manager Eric Fahle Burman on August 6, 1933, after children displayed a red flag. Immonen was convicted under Michigan’s red-flag statute and imprisoned at Marquette. He was released on bail in 1934. The Michigan Supreme Court reversed the convictions and ordered a new trial on May 17, 1935.
The Daily Worker of November 7, 1934 reports that the International Labor Defense had argued the criminal-syndicalism appeal before the Michigan Supreme Court; the case arose after Young Pioneers raised a red flag at a summer camp near Eben Junction.
The November 12, 1934 Daily Worker corroborates eleven months actually spent in jail before five-thousand-dollar bail in the red-flag case with Burman. The article’s Wisconsin headline conflicts with its Michigan references; it supplies no basis to relocate the already established Michigan case or replace the month-based service with an invented exact day count. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n270-NY-nov-12-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=8
The Michigan criminal-syndicalism section prints a two-to-six-year sentence, differing from the two-to-four-year account in the existing record. This source discrepancy does not replace the separately documented bail release or court reversal and is not actual service. Labor Defender, September 1934, original PDF page 18. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n08-sep-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=18
Printed Immenen, the Michigan red-flag defendant is reported sentenced to two to six years. This differs from the existing two-to-four-year description; the discrepancy is retained as a source conflict rather than overwritten or converted to actual time served.
Printed Unto Immonen, he is reported serving two to six years under Michigan’s red-flag law. The existing case gives two to four years, so this is retained as a repeated contemporary discrepancy rather than overwriting the range or counting either sentence as actual full service.
The official report identifies him as Unto Edward Immonen. In testimony quoted by the court, he said a state-police sergeant struck him in the stomach when he declined to identify the camp’s head, leaving him dizzy. Both defendants were arrested and placed in an officer’s automobile. On May 17, 1935, the Michigan Supreme Court vacated both convictions and granted a new trial because prejudicial testimony about Communism and anarchy, together with an erroneous jury charge, denied a fair trial. The court upheld the red-flag statute’s constitutionality; the reversal did not invalidate the statute. This opinion supplies no new date of physical release. Source: People v. Immonen, 271 Michigan Reports 384–403 (1935), especially pp.386–391 and400–403.
