Walter T. Nef

Released

Date of birth:1882

Date of death:01. 06. 1959

Age:77^{† Deceased}

Gender:Male

Race:White

Era:1910s

Inmate Number:#13110

State:Illinois

Time Imprisoned:

5 Years 3 Months 15 Days

Support

Anti-Militarism Anti-War Socialism Anarchism Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Biography

Walter T. Nef Swiss-immigrant IWW organizer who in 1915 founded the Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO 400), the IWW's most successful affiliate, which organized harvest hands across the wheat belt. Later led Marine Transport Workers Local 8 in Philadelphia. Convicted in the 1918 Chicago trial; sentenced to 20 years at Leavenworth. Released by Harding's 1923 amnesty.

Case

United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth

Charges: Conspiracy to violate Espionage Act of 1917.

Arrested: Sep 27, 1917

Sentenced: Aug 29, 1918

Incarcerated: Aug 29, 1918

Released: Dec 14, 1923

Sentence: 20 years federal prison; commuted by Harding 1923 ADMITTED TO BAIL, APRIL 2, 1919. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ordered thirty-eight of the men convicted in the Chicago mass trial released on bail pending its review of the case; the bonds ran from $5,000 to $10,000, with Haywood alone required to provide $15,000. Fifty-five others convicted in the same case did not seek bail. The order is not the release: each man left Leavenworth when his bond was actually furnished, which for those whose dates are recorded here fell between April 28 and September 28, 1919. Reported in the New York Times and across the wire services, April 3, 1919.

Judge: Hon. Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Convicted: Yes

Institution State: Kansas

Walter T. Nef

Biography

Case

Related Cases