George O'Connell

Released
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1910s
Inmate Number:#13576
State:California
Time Imprisoned:
5 Years 4 Months 21 Days
Support
Labor Organizing Anti-War Civil Liberties Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
George O'Connell

Biography

George O'Connell was an Industrial Workers of the World member from Imperial, California, prosecuted in the federal government's mass Sacramento IWW case during the First World War. Convicted of conspiracy arising from the union's anti-war activity and its organizing, he was sentenced in January 1919 to ten years in federal prison. He was held from at least August 1918 and served at Leavenworth Penitentiary as inmate 13576 until his release on December 22, 1923. The Industrial Worker of May 1923 gives his birthday as May 30; no birth year is recorded.

The National Archives confirms the inmate number, and the Department of Justice collection at Cornell holds a fourteen-page file covering his clemency application and his conduct at Leavenworth.

Case

United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
Charges: Federal conspiracy prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 — the mass IWW trial at Sacramento.
Sentenced: January 1919
Incarcerated: August 1918
Released: Dec 22, 1923
Sentence: Ten years, on conviction in the mass IWW trial at Sacramento. Held from at least August 1918 until release on December 22, 1923. Leavenworth inmate 13576. The custody is anchored at August 1918 and held at month precision, that being the earliest month he can be placed in custody; the original arrest day and the Leavenworth admission day are both unresolved. The row previously carried the December 1923 release with no start date at all, so the profile published no imprisonment figure whatever.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Kansas

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