Biography
Edward Hamilton, from Chicago, Illinois, was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to ten years in prison and fined $30,000. He served in the Cook County Jail and Leavenworth Penitentiary from September 1917 to December 25, 1921. At Leavenworth he was confined in segregation continuously, beginning on April 14, 1919, because he "broke dishes" and created disturbances in the dining room. The prison guards classified Hamilton as a "dangerous and irresponsible character." In a letter to the warden dated October 30, 1919, Hamilton reported that he and other IWW prisoners were "set upon with clubs, rocks and black-jacks" by guards and other prisoners assisting the guards.
