Biography
William Norman Marron, also known as Bill Norman, was executive secretary of the New York Communist Party and a former professional basketball player. Indicted under the Smith Act on June 20, 1951, he surrendered to the United States marshal in Newark on December 5, 1955 and was remanded pending bail. A jury convicted him in August 1956, and on September 17 the court imposed a five-year sentence. He was released on bail pending appeal, and the reviewed record does not establish that he served the sentence.
Contemporary identity and pre-surrender status
The August 9, 1951 Gorman Progress, page 4, reproduced an FBI wanted notice identifying William Norman Marron as Bill Norman, a former professional basketball player also known as Wee Willie Marron. It gives November 10, 1901 as his birthday and reports naturalization through his father in 1919. It identifies him as the New York State Communist Party organizational secretary and states that a New York federal grand jury indicted him on June 20, 1951. The 1951 notice predates his later documented December 1955 surrender; neither indictment nor publication is a custody-admission date. His later bail status and absence of established service of the imposed sentence remain as recorded.
The Gorman Progress, August 9, 1951, page 4, contemporary FBI notice reproduced by the newspaper.
