Benjamin Mandel

AKA: Bert Miller
Released
Date of birth:02. 10. 1891
Date of death:08. 08. 1973
Age:81† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1920s
State:New York
Time Imprisoned:
7 Days
Support
Communism Communist Party USA
No image available

Biography

Benjamin Mandel (who used the party name "Bert Miller") was the business manager of the Daily Worker, jailed in the 1927 obscenity prosecution over David Gordon's poem "America." Arrested May 27, 1927 and held in the Tombs, he had served seven days by his June 3, 1927 sentencing, when the court suspended his sentence, calling the time already served sufficient punishment; his conviction was later reversed by the Appellate Division. Mandel broke with the Communist Party in the 1930s and went on to become a research director for the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.

Case

The Tombs
Charges: Obscenity (publication of David Gordon's poem 'America' in the Daily Worker)
Arrested: May 27, 1927
Incarcerated: May 27, 1927
Released: Jun 3, 1927
Sentence: Seven days in the Tombs (May 27 – June 3, 1927); sentence suspended as the time already served was deemed sufficient. Conviction later reversed. Verdict as recorded: Convicted June 3, 1927 (sentence suspended); conviction later reversed by the Appellate Division.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: New York

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