Biography
Alex Markley was a field organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and a member of UE Local 259 in Holyoke. The case against him grew out of a 1975 strike by UE Local 259 members at the Worthington Compressor plant (Worthington Corporation, Holyoke Works) in Holyoke, Massachusetts, during which strikebreaker ("scab") trucks crossed the picket lines, several strikers were assaulted — one hospitalized — and Markley, a strike leader, was reportedly threatened with death.
According to the federal appellate record, an undercover agent of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Thomas O'Reilly, testified that Markley gave him a homemade "destructive device" — a cardboard tube packed with black powder and fitted with a fuse — in November 1975 and spoke of blowing up trucks of Martin Brothers Trucking Company. Markley was arrested on July 8, 1976 and, according to the UE, held incommunicado for twelve hours before being indicted by a federal grand jury. He and Suares maintained their innocence; the UE and labor supporters characterized the prosecution as an ATF entrapment plot — contending that O'Reilly had appeared during the strike, agitated for violence against the strikebreakers, and that the two men refused, the aim being to pressure them into becoming informers. Local 259 and the International Union mounted a defense campaign, calling the defeat of the charges "a responsibility not only to Mr. Markley, but to the entire labor movement."
He was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts of one count of possessing and four counts of transferring unregistered destructive devices under the National Firearms Act (26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d) and 5861(e)) — a related conspiracy count was dismissed after trial — and sentenced to 18 months in prison. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the convictions on December 16, 1977 (United States v. Markley, 567 F.2d 523, No. 77-1209); the appeal itself was limited to whether the items met the statutory definition of a "destructive device."
