Biography
Pete Muselin was a member of the Communist Party from Woodlawn. Muselin, along with codefendants Tom Zima and Milan Resetar, was convicted under Pennsylvania's anti-sedition law and sentenced to five years of hard labor in the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawnox, Pennsylvania. The conviction stemmed from a 1926 raid of Tom Zima's house and Muselin's barber shop, where a large amount of party literature was confiscated. The three defendants were accused of being "active members" and "leaders" of the local branch of the Communist Party. They were convicted of having "frequently taught by word of mouth" the doctrine of communism. Convicted in 1928, their sentences were unanimously upheld by the Pennsylvania Superior Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In 1929, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review their convictions, and they began serving their terms. The Woodlawn defendants did not fare very well in Blawnox. Milan Resetar died in jail (see chapter 14). Pete Muselin's family was rendered destitute and impoverished. His wife, Anne Muselin, described their condition in a letter: I need clothing for both myself and the children. As for myself, I don't care but my children must be clothed. It's better to have them clothed than to pay doctor bills.... You know we must eat. I can't get no work, and even if I did there's no one to care for my children. What must I do? After almost two years in jail Muselin and Zima became disillusioned. In a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union requesting assistance, they criticized the "miserable failure" and "despicable methods" of the pro-communist International Labor Defense, which apparently would not pay an attorney to obtain their release. They were forced to pay $150 for an attorney to file papers for a pardon. They asked the ACLU to file for their pardon on the basis of their recanting membership in the Communist Party and pledging to "desist from all further participation and activities in the Communist movement." In December 1931, Muselin and Zima obtained pardons.
Muselin entered the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawnox on November 26, 1929 and was released on February 3, 1932 — 799 days, about two years and two months of the five-year sentence.
On the release. This record has said that Muselin and Zima obtained pardons in December 1931, while the date recorded for the end of their custody is a parole on February 3, 1932. The two are not necessarily in conflict, a pardon granted in December being capable of taking weeks to take effect, but they are different mechanisms and which one actually opened the gate is not settled here. February 3, 1932 is what is stored, because it is the day the custody ended and that is what the column measures.
