Biography
William Shifrin was a member of the New York butchers' union. William Shifrin was indicted for manslaughter after killing, in self-defense, one of five knife-wielding strike-breakers sent against the union during the September 1928 Hebrew Butchers' Union strike. The ILD's Labor Defender took up his defense with a "Shifrin Defense Fund," and he was acquitted at trial.
Daily Worker, November 3, 1928, page 2: The account reports his November 2 not-guilty plea to second-degree manslaughter before Magistrate Barret. Attorney George Z. Medalie requested $15,000 bail, agreed to by the prosecuting attorney, but the judge reserved decision until November 3 at 10:30. This issue establishes a pending bail application, not the later physical release already separately recorded; threatened twenty years to life is not a sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n261-NY-nov-03-1928-DW-LOC.pdf
A. B. Magil’s post-release account reports that Judge James Barret accepted $15,000 bail agreed between defense attorney George Z. Medalie and District Attorney Adelman. It calls the indictment second-degree murder, distinct from manslaughter wording in other stages of the case. Magistrate Dodge had earlier held him for the grand jury. The interview describes jail discussions with fellow workers and reading the Forward. Its rounded seven weeks is not a precise forty-nine-day total, and the stated potential punishment is not a served term. The existing November 3 bail release remains distinct from the later acquittal. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n262-NY-nov-05-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Pages 1-2 report that Magistrate Gottlieb discharged three alleged attackers to serve as prosecution witnesses. The paper characterizes Shifrin's killing as self-defense and announces trial for April 7; the already documented later acquittal is not moved to that prospective date. It also names Loskowitz, Newburg/Newberg and Klueger in related assault prosecutions. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n334-NY-apr-02-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The April 24 account reports acquittal Monday, April 21, 1930 on the second-degree-murder prosecution and uses the phrase “resulted in his discharge.” Given separately documented earlier bail, discharge from the case is not automatically treated as physical release after continuous imprisonment. The original confrontation and its independently established 1928 date are not silently changed by this account. Daily Worker, April 24, 1930, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n353-NY-apr-24-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
1920s remaining-entry review: The Daily Worker, November 5, 1928, page 1, explicitly gives the September 10 arrest and reports actual release from Bronx County Jail at noon on the preceding Saturday, November 3, on $15,000 bail. The complete original page was visually checked. The existing November 3 release date is retained but its meaning is corrected: release on bail is distinct from later acquittal. September incarceration remains month precision; no admission day is copied from the arrest.
S. Millgrom’s January 1929 Labor Defender article describes the grand-jury charge against William Shifrin as second-degree murder and $15,000 bail, while later summaries call the prosecution manslaughter. This preserves the reported charging stage rather than silently flattening the two descriptions. The article presents a self-defense account, which is attributed to the labor-defense author and Shifrin’s interview; it does not itself record the later acquittal. Existing independently sourced November 3 bail-release date is retained.
Daily Worker, November 3, 1928; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Another postponed Bronx hearing
The April 8, 1930 issue reports that William Shifrin’s Bronx hearing came up the previous day and was again postponed. The paper calls him a fur worker and describes the manslaughter case as arising from self-defense against armed attackers; this occupational wording differs from the butchers’ union account already preserved here and is not used to replace it. Held for trial is treated as the report’s description of a pending prosecution, not proof of a new jail admission or continuous confinement after the independently recorded November 3, 1928 bail release. This procedural notice supplies no new verdict, physical discharge or actual custody duration; the separately recorded later acquittal remains unchanged.
Daily Worker, April 8, 1930, original pages 1. Accounts and allegations are attributed to the newspaper; prospective proceedings are not treated as completed events.
Daily Worker, April 2, 1930; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
