Biography
Otto Mills was a Harlan County, Kentucky miner prosecuted after the May 5, 1931 Battle of Evarts. He was among the defendants brought to trial at Mount Sterling that November. While most of the group had obtained $15,000 bonds, Mills and Jim Reynolds remained in the Mount Sterling jail. In 1932 Mills pleaded guilty to one manslaughter charge and received a sentence of two to three years. The prosecutions formed part of the campaign against miners organizing in the Harlan coalfields.
The September 12, 1931 Daily Worker includes this name in its Harlan murder-indictment list and describes the International Labor Defense’s preparations, including Franklin Reynolds and Leo Gallagher and challenges to alleged planted testimony. The list establishes the reported prosecution, but supplies no additional individual admission, discharge, conviction or completed custody total. Its claim to be a complete list does not justify inventing missing defendants. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n220-NY-sep-12-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
In a letter dated January 15, 1932 from Harlan County Jail, Otto Mills says the prisoners had been brought back to Harlan and asks the International Labor Defense for assistance. This is a dated observation of confinement and a reported return within the existing Kentucky case, not a new initial admission, separate arrest, physical release or complete service total.
