Biography
Leonard Farmer was a Harlan County, Kentucky miner accused in connection with the Christmas night 1931 shooting of mine guard and deputy Owen Sizemore. The confrontation occurred while Virgil Hutton and Kyla Hall were distributing leaflets for a National Miners Union meeting in Wallins Creek. A contemporary report described Farmer as having been somewhere near the scene and named him with Hutton and Hall as facing a capital prosecution. The accusation arose as miners prepared for the January 1932 coal strike.
The Daily Worker of December 30, 1931, page 3, identifies the Farmer accused with Virgil Hutton and Hall as Hutton's father-in-law. It reports that Farmer and Hall were out on $5,000 bond each while held as alleged accomplices in the Owen Sizemore killing; a prosecution witness claimed Farmer had lent Hall a gun. These allegations remain attributed, and the source does not establish Farmer's exact arrest or bail-release day or a conviction.
The December 28, 1931 Daily Worker editorial names Leonard Farmer with Hutton and Hall as facing prosecution after the Sizemore shooting, while the adjacent dispatch mentions an unnamed father-in-law arrested and released under $5,000 bond. The December 29 and December 30 reports identify the co-defendant Farmer as Huttons father-in-law and report his bail. Read together, these reports identify the unnamed relative with the existing Leonard Farmer case, without creating another person or assigning an exact arrest or physical release day. Corroborating sources: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n312-NY-dec-29-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1 ; https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n313-NY-dec-30-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3 . Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n311-NY-dec-28-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The January 1932 Labor Defender reports that Leonard Farmer, Virgil Hutton and Kike Hall were arrested on a murder accusation following the Christmas 1931 shooting in Harlan County. This supplies a contemporary report of Farmer’s actual arrest beyond the accusation alone. The date given for the shooting is not entered as Farmer’s individual arrest or admission date, and no later outcome or complete custody duration is inferred.
Source: Labor Defender, January 1932, original PDF page 8, editorial inset.
