Skip to content
Learn More → State by State

Pennsylvania

Political repression plays out state by state — shaped by local institutions, prosecutors, and movements for defense. These are the documented political prisoners and cases the census holds for Pennsylvania.

836Documented
12In custody
544Released
4Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Pennsylvania

Where Pennsylvania’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1930s 257 1700s 79 1910s 76 1920s 72 1960s 69 1800s 59

Documented cases

836 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

D
Dominic Larefice
Dominic Larefice was one of the ten Cheswick defendants individually named in Vern Smith’s retrospective artic...
J
John Laughery
Released
John Laughery was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched...
W
William Lawrence
Released
William Lawrence was arrested during a second raid on labor and Communist offices in Scranton, Pennsylvania in...
S
Sam Layman
Sam Layman was a Philadelphia needle-trades activist whose arrest during a union meeting at headquarters and s...
I
Irving Lazar
Irving Lazar was arrested at a Workers Party open-air meeting at 13th and Reed Streets in Philadelphia on an a...
C
Christian Frank Lellig
Released
Christian Frank Lellig was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-mar...
H
Herman Lemke
Released
Herman Lemke was from eastern Pennsylvania. Herman Lemke served in Atlanta Penitentiary from December 30, 1918...
P
Pete Lesko
Released
Pete Lesko was a coal striker prosecuted in Washington County, Pennsylvania, during the 1931 coal strike. He w...
A
Adolph Lewis
Adolph Lewis, reported aged 39 and of North Wanamaker Street, was individually named among eleven people arres...
K
Kenneth Lewis
Released
Kenneth Lewis appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 lists of imprisoned draft and...
T
Theodore Lienkiewicz
Theodore Lienkiewicz was one of five young Glen Alden Shaft 20 miners and United Anthracite Miners of Pennsylv...
M
Michael A. Lindner
In Exile
Michael A. Lindner, who later used the name Michael Sutherland, was one of the Intrepid Four. The four enliste...
T
Theodore Lincoln Linkiewicz
Theodore Lincoln Linkiewicz was a 30-year-old president of Number 20 Tunnel Local of the United Anthracite Min...
C
C. Lippa
C. Lippa was the Philadelphia organizer of the Shoe and Leather Workers Industrial Union. The Daily Worker of...
P
Peter Lisle
Released
Peter Lisle was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the Wh...
J
John Little
Released
John Little was a labor organizer arrested during July 1930 raids associated with the Pennsylvania anthracite...
D
David Lock
Released
David Lock was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched in...
J
Joe Lorie
Joe Lorie was one of the ten Cheswick defendants individually named in Vern Smith’s retrospective article in t...
F
Fred Lubrisky
Fred Lubrisky was one of three workers named on page 3 of the Daily Worker, October 15, 1931, as arrested and...
G
George Lucas
Released
George Lucas was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the W...
D
Dorthy Luciasano
Dorthy Luciasano was named among three people arrested at the Creighton coal-strike picket line in the June 19...
B
Bram Luckom
Released
Bram Luckom was a conscientious resister imprisoned at Allenwood during the1960s.
W
William James Lyles
Released
William James Lyles was a Philadelphia defendant in the 1967 RAM-related conspiracy prosecution. Contemporary...
H
Henry Lynch
Released
Marshall identifies Lynch as a Marietta, Pennsylvania resident arrested in the election-period operation descr...

Institutions in Pennsylvania

Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Pennsylvania that appear in the census’s case files.

Fort MifflinPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
48 cases
Allegheny County WorkhouseBlawnox, Pennsylvania
34 cases
Walnut Street JailPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
20 cases
Philadelphia GaolPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
18 cases
United States Penitentiary, LewisburgLewisburg, Pennsylvania
14 cases
Butler County PrisonButler, Pennsylvania
11 cases
FCI AllenwoodWhite Deer, Pennsylvania
10 cases
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas / SCI Pennsylvania state prisonsPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
9 cases