Biography
W. M. McGinnis, a Loray mill striker, was one of the seven Gastonia defendants convicted of second-degree murder in the retrial of October 1929 for the death of Police Chief Aderholt, and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years. Released on ILD bail pending appeal, he was among the seven — with lead defendant Fred Beal — who fled to the Soviet Union in 1930 rather than serve the sentences. On 7 June 1929, police attacked the National Textile Workers Union tent colony at the Loray Mill in Gastonia, North Carolina, and Police Chief O. F. Aderholt was killed in the exchange of fire. Sixteen strikers and organizers were charged with his murder — a frame-up, the defense held, aimed at breaking the communist-led Southern textile drive. The International Labor Defense mounted a national campaign for the Gastonia defendants.
