Biography
Virgil Hutton was an unemployed Harlan County miner hired to distribute National Miners Union leaflets calling miners to strike. On Christmas night 1931, mine guards Owen Sizemore and Dixon confronted Hutton and Kyke Hall after they left the Blue Diamond Coal Company camp at Chevrolet. Hutton said Sizemore seized his arm and beat him over the head with a revolver before Hutton fired in self-defense; Dixon then shot Hutton across the scalp. Hutton was arrested and was free on bond by the beginning of January 1932. He was later held in the jail at Mount Sterling, convicted of murder in Harlan County Circuit Court, and sentenced to five years.
The Daily Worker of December 30, 1931, pages 1 and 3, reports a bond hearing before Judge Howard on December 29 in the Owen Sizemore killing case. Hutton was set $10,000 bond and his release was expected in two days, while trial was announced for March 1. The anticipated release is not treated as actual release. The article prints Vergil and quotes a prosecution witness as acknowledging that Sizemore had beaten Hutton; the newspaper challenged that witness's account of the weapons. These are contemporary contested accounts, not independent findings.
The Pineville dispatch dated December 31, 1931 reports Hutton actually out on bond in the Owen Sizemore case. This is confirmation of bail release by that day, beyond the earlier forecast that freedom was expected in two days. It does not establish December 31 as the precise discharge date or a completed custody interval; the continuation appears on page 7. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n002-NY-anniversary-ed-jan-02-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The December 28 Pineville dispatch published December 29 reports Hutton, printed Virgin Hutton, and Kyle Hall held without bond in the Owen Sizemore murder case. It describes Hutton’s injuries after a revolver beating and calls Hall an eighty-two-year-old bystander. The age and spellings are source claims, not a calculated birthdate or new people. Farmer, Hutton’s father-in-law, is reported bailed. This earlier report does not override later confirmation of Hutton’s bail by December 31 or Hall’s reported bail in the December 30 issue; exact physical discharge days remain unknown. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n312-NY-dec-29-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The January 10, 1932 Big Spring Daily Herald picture caption identifies Hutton, his wife and their daughter outside the Mount Sterling, Kentucky jail and describes him as held in the Owen Sizemore murder case following distribution of literature calling a January 1 mine strike. This caption supplies contemporary mine-strike context, but does not date the photograph or establish the start or end of a new jail interval. It does not override separate reporting of his earlier bail release. Source: https://newspapers.swco.ttu.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12255/11733/The_Big_Spring_Daily_Herald__1932-01-10.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=3#page=6
The January 9, 1932 New Leader photograph caption identifies Hutton in prison with his wife and child visiting and connects the alleged killing to a mine guard’s attack while union literature was being distributed. This is caption evidence without a dated new custody interval. It prints the guard’s first name as Virgil, conflicting with the independently recorded Owen Sizemore; the established case name and separate confirmation of earlier bail release are preserved. The existing identified portrait is retained. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-leader/1932/v13n02-jan-09-1932-NL.pdf#page=6
The December 28 report describes his arrest while distributing NMU relief leaflets at Wallins Creek and the alleged assault by W. A. C. Brock and James Dixon. A Tuesday hearing was still prospective. Kyla Hall was separately jailed; no additional arrest or exact discharge follows from the article. Daily Worker, December 28, 1931, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n311-NY-dec-28-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The December 28, 1931 Wallins Creek report describes Hutton distributing National Miners Union leaflets when deputies attacked him at Chevrolet; it says Sizemore was killed in the ensuing scuffle, with the shooter not established by this account. Hutton was held for court Tuesday. His unnamed father-in-law was also arrested and released under $5,000 bond, while the companion printed Kyla Hall was jailed. The description of an attack the day before the December 27 meeting differs from the existing Christmas-night chronology; that conflict is retained rather than silently replacing the arrest date. The ILD announced a defense and characterized a possible shooting by Hutton as self-defense. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n311-NY-dec-28-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
