Biography
Jacob Mindel was the senior member of the Foley Square Second String, the Communist Party USAs internal educator, and director of the partys Workers School in New York City for many years. He was 70 years old at the time of his 1951 indictment. Convicted alongside the rest of the second string in January 1953, he was sentenced to two years in federal prison. Because of his age and frail health he served a substantial portion of his sentence at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri.
The released FBI file on Claudia Jones, New York file 100-81752, summarizes the federal Smith Act docket and identifies Jacob Mindel as released on bail on July 17, 1951, during the 1951 bail proceedings. It separately records remand after the January 21, 1953 guilty verdict and actual release on appeal bail on February 10, 1953. These bail interruptions are distinct from the later prison term. Its April 21, 1952 counsel list identifies John T. McTernan as defense counsel for Jacob Mindel. Source: FBI, released Claudia Jones file, New York 100-81752, sections on bail and sureties, counsel and trial proceedings. The file supplies these individual procedural phases without establishing a new complete custody total.
