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West Virginia
Political repression plays out state by state — shaped by local institutions, prosecutors, and movements for defense. These are the documented political prisoners and cases the census holds for West Virginia.
38Documented
0In custody
35Released
Eras of repression in West Virginia
Where West Virginia’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1920s 13
1910s 8
1930s 6
2010s 4
1700s 3
2000s 1
Documented cases
38 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
J
Jerry Dale Lowe
Released
Jerry Dale Lowe, a safety committeeman from Logan County, West Virginia, who was framed up for the shooting de...
J
John M. Lynch
Released
John M. Lynch was a West Virginia coal miner serving a ten-year sentence at the Moundsville penitentiary on wh...
R
Raymond McSurley
Released
Raymond McSurley was a West Virginia labor prisoner serving a twelve-year sentence at the Moundsville penitent...
E
Ernest Mullins
Released
Ernest Mullins was a West Virginia miner serving ninety-nine years at Moundsville on a murder frame-up from th...
C
C. M. Nelson
Released
C. M. Nelson was sentenced to two years in prison. He served in Moundsville Penitentiary from September 13, 19...
O
Osip Orloff
Released
Osip Orloff was a Russian-born coal miner arrested with a comrade near Farmington, West Virginia in July 1932...
P
Pete Radocowich
Released
Pete Radocowich was one of the union miners imprisoned at the West Virginia penitentiary in Moundsville after...
C
Charlie Slom
Released
Charlie Slom began serving a prison sentence on September 13, 1918, in Moundsville Penitentiary.
T
Tony Stafford
Released
Tony Stafford, an Italian-born union coal miner, was imprisoned at the West Virginia penitentiary in Moundsvil...
J
Joseph Tracz
Released
Joseph Tracz was one of the union miners imprisoned at the West Virginia penitentiary in Moundsville after the...
C
Charles H. Waters
Released
Charles H. Waters was a conscientious objector from West Virginia imprisoned during World War I. Court-martial...
R
Robert Webber
Released
Robert Webber was framed on a "dynamite" charge and sentenced to one to ten years at the Moundsville penitenti...
O
Oscar Wheeler
Released
Oscar O. Wheeler was the Communist Party's candidate for governor of West Virginia, sentenced to six to fiftee...
J
James Woods
Released
James Woods, from Wheeling, West Virginia, was sentenced to three years in prison and served in Atlanta Penite...
Institutions in West Virginia
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in West Virginia that appear in the census’s case files.
West Virginia State PenitentiaryMoundsville, West Virginia
16 cases
Federal Reformatory for Women, AldersonAlderson, West Virginia
10 cases
West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville
5 cases
Federal Prison Camp, AldersonAlderson, West Virginia
4 cases
Mill Point Federal Prison CampMill Point, West Virginia
4 cases
Fort RandolphPoint Pleasant, West Virginia
3 cases
FPC BeckleyBeaver, West Virginia
2 cases
FPC AldersonAlderson, West Virginia
2 cases