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Edgar Combs

Released
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1920s
Inmate Number:#13381
State:West Virginia
Time Imprisoned:
5 Years 4 Days
Support
United Mine Workers of America
Edgar Combs

Biography

Edgar Combs, a union miner in the West Virginia mine wars, was the only man to serve a long sentence out of the more than eight hundred indicted after the 1921 armed miners' march on Logan County (the Battle of Blair Mountain). Convicted of the murder of a deputy in the Sharples raid that preceded the march, he was sentenced to life — later reduced to eleven years — at the Moundsville penitentiary (no. 13381). The ILD carried his letters in Labor Defender until Governor Gore's reprieve freed him on 5 January 1927.

Case

West Virginia State Penitentiary
Charges: Murder of a deputy (1921 Battle of Blair Mountain / Logan County prosecutions)
Incarcerated: 1922
Released: Jan 5, 1927
Sentence: Life, reduced to eleven years; held at Moundsville (no. 13381); freed by reprieve on 5 January 1927.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: West Virginia