Biography
Joseph Tracz was one of the union miners imprisoned at the West Virginia penitentiary in Moundsville after the July 1922 battle at the Cliftonville mine — a clash during the great coal strike in which striking union miners marched on a scab-run Panhandle mine and the county sheriff was killed. Around forty-nine men were convicted of conspiracy; Joseph Tracz was sentenced to 8 years. The ILD's Labor Defender profiled the Cliftonville prisoners in October 1926, shortly before most of the group were released. The spelling of the miners' names follows that source.
Case
West Virginia State Penitentiary
