Joseph William Scherrer & Maia Turchin-Scherrer, Communists Arrested in 1954 Pueblo
Joe & Maia (top); their crew (bottom)
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Communists in Pueblo Arrested
1954; August 24; Senator Joseph McCarthy, the most famous of the “red hunters” in America, had been disgraced earlier in the summer of 1954 when he tried to prove that communists were in the CIA & the U.S. Army; most Americans however still believed that communists were at work in their country.
1954; August 22: Pueblo's Colorado State Fair's five-day run includes first-ever weekend dates.
August 2, 1954; a Pueblo husband & his Pueblo wife were arrested as conspiring to teach & advocate the violent overthrow of the US government as Communists.
Joseph William Scherrer, 34, was arrested at his home in Pueblo, Colorado, & his wife Maia Turchin-Scherrer, 36 (Marilyn was only 36 years old when she died; she too possibly had Communist sympathies) was arrested at the Denver Municipal Airport, where Maia was waiting on somebody.
1950s was the Consensus Decade; the decade when all of the 60% white middle class in the US had it figured out: let's all be Capitalists & Imperialists & institute Christian Sharia law & add God to the Pledge of Allegiance & maintain White Supremacy thru segregation (tho in 1954 Brown v Board of Education was passed, so the white supremacist dictatorship dam had just broke in 1954);
60% of whites were middle class in 1950; but how vapid. how empty; If Marilyn wasn't killed, then she killed herself... if everything in Amerika was so great, then how come the #1 American Hollywood star, a national treasure, a national sex symbol... why was Marilyn Monroe so sad & depressed that she'd take her own life?
The most disgraceful activities of AMerican authorities happened in combatting the 2nd "red scare", going after Communist & Communist sympathizers. Trump is a Confederate-sympathizer... yeah Donald, u denounced the KKK & Nazis, but you forgot to shit on the Confederates & fuck the Confederacy;
We tolerate Nazi sympathizers, but not Communists?
Right, "fkn commies", right? fuck that "fuck the commies" bullshit;
McCarthyism is a dark period in American histoyr. Americans were being arrested just for thinking about Communism, just being a "sympathizer", only 1 of 2 main economic ideas of how a society should govern itself, was a crime in of itself.
Dwight David Eisenhower also had a program called "Operation Wetback" where he sent millions of immigrants back to Mexico.
1 good thing about Dwight David Eisenhower: he was against the dropping of the 2 atomic bombs in WW2. He didn't believe we needed to drop the bombs on Nagasaki & Hiroshima.
xxx
America's nationwide hunt for Americans who merely sympathized with the Communist Party hit paydirt in Pueblo in dramatic fashion on August 2, 1954 w/ the arrest of Joseph William Scherrer at his home;
Joseph William Scherrer was arrested at his house because of some rat teacher; some unnamed male English teacher, who apparently used to be a Communist at the UofColorado, but was now working with the FBI, and that male English teacher is the one who found out about Joseph William Scherrer.
I'm skeptical of the "capitalism or bust" teachers. esp since they're being paid by the govt, and therefore don't understand capitalism whatsofknever.
At the end of the school year, the Pueblo School Board fired that unnamed rat teacher for poor performance.
Joseph Scherrer, nor Maia Turchin, didn't commit any violent crimes. Their arrest, capture, imprisonment, & trial were the crimes committed.
Apparently, Joseph William Scherrer was an organizer for the Boulder, Colorado area; Joseph William Scherrer was also the main Communist organizer for the Pueblo region as well. Joseph attended meetings; & he attended and taught in educationals.
Maia Scherrer began her party activities in New York.
7 Reds Arrested By FBI; The FBI has seized two more alleged top Communists in a 24-hour roundup that has netted seven arrests. FBI is bragging that they captured 3 "top level underground chiefs".
Four others were arrested in Denver on Sunday. The FBI arrested Arthur Bary, 42; his wife, Anna, 29; Harold Zepelin/Zepelinsky, 28; and Lewis M. Johnson, 34. Almost simultaneously, Mrs. Patricia J. Blau, 42, was arrested at her Los Angeles home.
All 7 were arraigned before U.S. commissioners on charges of violating the Smith Act, which makes it a crime to advocate forcible overthrow of the government.
The 6 arrested in Colorado were allowed individual $100,000 bonds by U.S. Commissioner Joseph Neff, some white collared mafia POS. Fuck you Joseph Neff!
6 were held in a Denver County jail.
Patricia Julia Blau is in Los Angeles County jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.
apparently, the 7 Communist Party leaders arrested by the FBI in Denver, Pueblo, and Los Angeles were linked yesterday with 11 Communists convicted in New York of conspiring to overthrow the government.
"On one occasion, Joseph William Scherrer said to a group that the transition from capitalism to socialism could not be effected by a slow change and could only be effected by a revolution. On another occasion, he stated to a group that workers in the United States could relieve their oppression just as the workers in Russia did by revolution.
On a different occasion, Joseph William Scherrer stated to a group that Negroes should have the right to govern themselves, make their own laws, and have complete autonomy as the people of the Ukraine did.
On another occasion, Joseph William Scherrer stated how Negroes in the South could protect themselves with arms and face terrific odds against them, and that people anywhere could protect themselves at any time against terrific odds by taking up arms and using force.
And on still another occasion, Joseph William Scherrer said that workers in Bessemer, Alabama, had some pitched battles; that a local leader was successful in using firearms; that the Communists could get in power in Pueblo through the Union; and that they could have their labor difficulties and do the same as was done in Bessemer, Alabama."
I skimmed over the lawsuit by the government. It's a weak lawsuit. Basically, they were talking about this & that all over, but never did anything to anybody. The Puebloan couple - Joseph William Scherrer, 34, & his wife Maia Turchin-Scherrer, 36 - weren't Communists because they hated Amerika, but because they loved the poor, which America had plenty of, including 40% whites.
The most dramatic crime that happened in the Joseph Neff/J. Edgar Hoover/Joseph William Scherrer brouhaha were them being arrested & tried.
Here's 1 FBI note:
"At the meetings and educationals, Marxism-Leninism was expounded, taught, and studied as the preferred form of government; and in connection therewith certain well recognized literature expounding such viewpoint was used. Meetings were held in secret; sometimes curtains were drawn; sometimes voices were lowered at meetings; sometimes fictitious names were used at meetings; sometimes those attending went to & from meetings in small numbers as a means of avoiding notice or detection; and in some instances, aliases were used in dealing with outsiders."
The defendants were without counsel. The court appointed eleven members of the Bar in Colorado to act as their counsel. Later, retained counsel represented one of them. Including recesses and intermissions, the trial consumed about sixty days.
They were convicted on May 27, 1955 in a federal district court trial, which was tried in Denver.
All of the defendants were found guilty and were sentenced to imprisonment for specified periods and to pay fines in specified amounts.
All were assessed heavy fines and sentenced to jail. They are free on bail.
The FBI said Scherrer was arrested at his Pueblo residence while his wife was apprehended by FBI agents at Stapleton Airport in Denver. The other five were nabbed quietly by FBI agents late Sunday, four in Denver and the fifth in Los Angeles.
None of the seven offered any resistance. The FBI said all had been charged with conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government by force.
Those arrested in Denver Sunday included Arthur Bary, 42, described by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as a "prize catch" and one of the party's "outstanding west coast underground leaders." Hoover said in Washington that Bary had been assigned the job of spying on the FBI to learn how the federal agency was able to track down party underground leaders.
Mr. DURAN reported at trial that: "In the year 1949, a 2-day and 2-night school, strictly Communist, was held at the Ute Ranch. The chairman of that school was Maia James Scherrer."
xxx
The conviction of seven alleged Communists has been reversed by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals which ordered a new trial. Herbert M. Boyle, first assistant United States Attorney, said a decision on a new trial must be made by the Justice Department in Washington. "The appellate court said the charge of conspiracy to organize was invalid because the three-year statute of limitations started to run in 1945. The seven were indicted in 1954, nine years after formal organization of the Communist party.
Eisenhower banned the Communist Party in 1954; "President of the United Stales is making statements in Denver that could have bearing on our case," Zepelin said. He apparently referred to the bill outlawing the Communist party which President Elsenhower signed at the summer White House last week.
Responding to this fear, Congress passed the Communist Control Act in August 1954. The act declared that, “The Communist Party of the United States, though purportedly a political party, is in fact an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States.” The act went on to charge that the party’s “role as the agency of a hostile foreign power renders its existence a clear and continuing danger to the security of the United States.” The conclusion seemed inescapable: “The Communist Party should be outlawed.” Indeed, that is what many people at the time believed the Communist Control Act accomplished.
The Act made membership to the Communist Party a criminal act and stipulated that all Party members would be sanctioned with up to a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for five years or both. Additionally, according to the third section, the Communist Party would be deprived of “the rights, privileges, and immunities of a legal body.” [4]
J. Edgar Hoover, opposed the bill on the count that it would have forced the Communist movement underground
A young Pueblo couple and a former Puebloan were abruptly arrested in August 1954 as part of a statewide FBI probe into Communist Party activities. Even more shocking to Puebloans, the next year a young Pueblo County High School teacher stepped forward as the key witness in the case.
Unknown to the county school board, the male English teacher was a former leader of Communist Party activities at the University of Colorado. He had later renounced his activities and worked secretly with the FBI to identify 32 people as active Communists, including the trio from Pueblo.
The teacher - a Boulder native - was not rehired the following year due to poor performance, according to the school board.
The Scherrers got out of. Jail Aug. 24 on $5,000 bond each.
xxx
August 2. 1952. DENVER, Colo., Aug. 2.ttPS--The rreit of two more Communist »rty leaders today was announced y the FBI whteh said 'the seven leds nabbed during a two-day period included three top-level mderground chiefs. AH seven were charged with conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government bv force. All will be given a prelimi-
A hearing on her return to Denver is scheduled Thursday.
Communist Party leaders arrested by the FBI in Denver, Pueblo, and Los Angeles were linked yesterday with 11 Communists convicted, in New York of conspiring to overthrow the government. . ,-.V Two of the seven were arrested yesterday and five of them were l .? SSJS S rr mot a perma- 13. lk ) , SI. MORALES y -S Frommes Specialist iff Come in Today tor FREE EXAMINATION Reasonable Rates Private Office HOLItS: DAILY 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M. SATCBDAT U to 1 P.M. FOUNTAIN SERVICE Counter and Carry-Out Cold Refreshing Drinks CARAMEL CORN HAND MADE CANDY CARAMEL APPLES Krispy Korn Shop 38 East Adams p,ht,. your window. fei l ffMM i 1 Keeps room enoler and pro- 5S5.V? 1 M " ItilV W 4" (iteet fjJJaj,,'"ts rrom lun'i q problem v5Swi5I5 'l if I y V fzZ -r-"1' ' nM i rn tin 'ar9e Specialists In Patio Covers (! 'TsSfSl J, ROLLED UP cr too small. TERMS IF DESIRED j fS :! J AlumaRoll Awninqs H Ovum tayatMt $ALP $l$IALi$T PJQJUQUiiC.ii. Phone AL 3-3863 f 505 'i North First St. T5S5 f Ai-Itarm S II 1 Flncrr-tlp llrht control Win. . - !1 iUki dow can be cleared for more 1322 Grand AVfi. Si mV tME FENCE CO. iiioi. for eaT vuh ni ir f I u imuuxj taken into custody Ssunaay in what the FBI described as the last of a current driye. All have been charged with conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the' government by force and will be given a preliminary hearing in Denver Aug. 16. THE COMMUNISTS convicted in New York were not named as co-defendants. T,h e ' complaint; against the seven merely said they had conspired with the New, York Reds and William Z. Foster, who has been charged with advocating the overthrow of the government but who never has been tried because of ill health. Arrested yesterday in Pueblo were Joseph William Scherrer, 34, and his wife, Maia, 36, of Pueblo. Arthur Bary, 42; his wife, Anna, 29, of Denver; Lewis Martin Johnson, 34, formerly of Phoenix; Harold Zepelin, 29, of Denver; and Patricia Julia Blau, orst Fedeiro 42, of Los Angeles, were arrested Sunday.
Joseph William Scherrer; Maia Scherrer, Also Known As Maia Turchin;;;
He was present when Anna said that force was the midwife of every old society pregnant with the new; was present at an educational when Zepelin said that the party through the workers of the United States and the world was going to lead the workers out from under oppression by revolution; was present at a group meeting when Maia said that after civil, legal, and political means were exhausted, Negroes should take up arms to protect themselves; and was present when a speaker said that workers would create force and through it would resort to violence and that some of them would have to die.
On an occasion fixed in the record, Maia said in the course of a meeting that after all civil, legal, and political means had been exhausted, Negroes should take up arms to protect themselves. On another occasion, she said that the party was going to supply leadership to millions of workers and that as the result they were going to liberate them by revolution. And she said at a meeting that she thought it was not impossible to get some members of the party in the Ordnance Depot at Pueblo, and that it could be done very silently and safely. She was present when Anna said that force was the midwife of every old society pregnant with the new; was present when Anna said that the party would liberate the Negro and Mexican workers by revolution; was present when Anna said that if the party was in power among the workers in the basic industries in Colorado and there were strikes, they could affect the regional and national economy; and was present when Zepelin said that if an effort was made to outlaw the party, it would go underground. She was present when Scherrer said that Negroes could use arms to protect themselves; was present when he talked of autonomy for Negroes like that in the Ukraine; and was present when he said that workers in the United States could relieve their oppression just as workers in Russia did by revolution. She was present when Bary compared the party to an army general staff and talked of having cadres in correct position when the right time came; was present when Zepelin said the party must organize the Negro and Mexican people, and that it would fight to liberate the Negro people; was present when Patricia said that it was necessary to create a huge Mexican organization in the Southwest to overthrow the capitalists; and was present when the speaker at a meeting said that the party would create a force and through it would resort to violence, and that some of them would have to die.
Later, she was a member of the state board in Colorado; was a member of the educational and labor committee; attended meetings; and attended and taught in educationals. And Patricia was a member of the state board in Colorado; was organizational secretary; was organizer for the section at Pueblo, Colorado; was a delegate to a national convention; attended meetings; and attended and taught at educationals.
d was present when the speaker at a meeting said that the party would create a force and through it would resort to violence, and that some of them would have to die.
Patricia stated in the course of a meeting that it was necessary to create a huge Mexican organization in the Southwest to overthrow the capitalists; and on another occasion, she said that it would be very fine if certain dissatisfied persons working at White Sands and Los Ala
Reds Rounded Up by FBI ntry hearing here August 16. The two arrested early today were identified by the FBI as Joseph William Scherrer, 34, of Pueblo, Colo., and his wife, Maia Scherrer, 36.
The others arrested Sunday on a quiet midtown Denver street, near the state capitol, were identified by the FBI as Bary's wife, Anna, 29; Lewis Martin Johnson, 34. and Harold Zepelin, 29. Patricia Julia Blau, 42, was seized by FBI agents in Los Angeles. Unable to make bond, they were placed in the custody of the U. S. marshals in Denver and Los Angeles. The FBI withheld details of the arrests except to say all were taken without resistance. The four arrested Sunday in Denver were apprehended quietly on Logan St., apparently as they attempted to rendezvous. They were arraigned at a midnight session before U. S. Commissioner Joseph D. Neff who set bond for each at $100,000. In Los Angeles, Mrs. Blau indicated she would waive a California hearing and accept extradition te Denver. She was held in jail in lieu of $20,000 bail set by U. S. Commissioner Howard V. Calverley. Mrs. Blau, the FBI said, was a former Communist party section organizer. She was arrested last night while working In a Los Angeles bakery under her maiden name of Patricia Julia Bel!.
The FBI said Scherrer was arrested at his Pueblo residence while his wife was apprehended by FBI agents at Stapleton Airport in Denver. The other five were nabbed quietly by FBI agents late Sunday, four in Denver and the fifth in Los Angeles. None of the seven offered any resistance. The FBI said all had been charged with conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government by force. Those arrested in Denver Sunday included Arthur Bary, 42, described by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as a "prize catch" and one of the party's "outstanding west coast underground leaders." Hoover said in Washington that Bary had been assigned the job of spying on the FBI to learn how the federal agency was able to track down party underground leaders.
Mr. DURAN. In the year 1949 a 2-day and 2-night school, strictly Communist, was held at the Ute Ranch. The chairman of that school was Maia James Scherrer.
May 27 1955; convicted; The conviction of seven alleged Communists has been reversed by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals which ordered a new trial. Herbert M. Boyle, first assistant United States Attorney, said a decision on a new trial must be made by the Justice Department in Washington. "The appellate court said the charge of conspiracy to organize was invalid because the three-year statute of limitations started to run in 1945. The seven were indicted in 1954, nine years after formal organization of the Communist party. They were convicted in the May 1955 in a federal district court trial.
Defendants in the case, which was tried in Denver
Still valid, Boyle said, was the charge that the seven conspired to unlawfully overthrow the government by force and violence as sp.eedily as circumstances might permit. 'The circuit court, however, ordered the entire case for new trial because the charge of the organizational conspiracy was permitted to go to the jury. Defendants in the case, which was tried in Denver, were: Mrs. Patricia Blau of Anthony, N.M.; Arthur Bary of San Pablo, Calif,; his estranged wife, Anna, of Denver; Lewis M. Johnson of Boston, Mass.; Harold Zepelin of Dever; Joseph Scherrer and Maia Scherrer, believed to be somewhere on the West Coast. .
FBI arrested a bunch of people in Denver, and Joseph William Scherrer & his wife; The next day the FBI completed the roundup by arresting Mr. and Mrs. Joseph William Scherrer of Pueblo, Colo, The Scherrers got out of. Jail Aug. 24 on $5,000 bond each.
Communists in Pueblo Arrested
1954; August 24; Senator Joseph McCarthy, the most famous of the “red hunters” in America, had been disgraced earlier in the summer of 1954 when he tried to prove that communists were in the CIA & the U.S. Army; most Americans however still believed that communists were at work in their country.
1954; August 22: Pueblo's Colorado State Fair's five-day run includes first-ever weekend dates.
August 2, 1954; a Pueblo husband & his Pueblo wife were arrested as conspiring to teach & advocate the violent overthrow of the US government as Communists.
Joseph William Scherrer, 34, was arrested at his home in Pueblo, Colorado, & his wife Maia Turchin-Scherrer, 36 (Marilyn was only 36 years old when she died; she too possibly had Communist sympathies) was arrested at the Denver Municipal Airport, where Maia was waiting on somebody.
1950s was the Consensus Decade; the decade when all of the 60% white middle class in the US had it figured out: let's all be Capitalists & Imperialists & institute Christian Sharia law & add God to the Pledge of Allegiance & maintain White Supremacy thru segregation (tho in 1954 Brown v Board of Education was passed, so the white supremacist dictatorship dam had just broke in 1954);
60% of whites were middle class in 1950; but how vapid. how empty; If Marilyn wasn't killed, then she killed herself... if everything in Amerika was so great, then how come the #1 American Hollywood star, a national treasure, a national sex symbol... why was Marilyn Monroe so sad & depressed that she'd take her own life?
The most disgraceful activities of AMerican authorities happened in combatting the 2nd "red scare", going after Communist & Communist sympathizers. Trump is a Confederate-sympathizer... yeah Donald, u denounced the KKK & Nazis, but you forgot to shit on the Confederates & fuck the Confederacy;
We tolerate Nazi sympathizers, but not Communists?
Right, "fkn commies", right? fuck that "fuck the commies" bullshit;
McCarthyism is a dark period in American histoyr. Americans were being arrested just for thinking about Communism, just being a "sympathizer", only 1 of 2 main economic ideas of how a society should govern itself, was a crime in of itself.
Dwight David Eisenhower also had a program called "Operation Wetback" where he sent millions of immigrants back to Mexico.
1 good thing about Dwight David Eisenhower: he was against the dropping of the 2 atomic bombs in WW2. He didn't believe we needed to drop the bombs on Nagasaki & Hiroshima.
xxx
America's nationwide hunt for Americans who merely sympathized with the Communist Party hit paydirt in Pueblo in dramatic fashion on August 2, 1954 w/ the arrest of Joseph William Scherrer at his home;
Joseph William Scherrer was arrested at his house because of some rat teacher; some unnamed male English teacher, who apparently used to be a Communist at the UofColorado, but was now working with the FBI, and that male English teacher is the one who found out about Joseph William Scherrer.
I'm skeptical of the "capitalism or bust" teachers. esp since they're being paid by the govt, and therefore don't understand capitalism whatsofknever.
At the end of the school year, the Pueblo School Board fired that unnamed rat teacher for poor performance.
Joseph Scherrer, nor Maia Turchin, didn't commit any violent crimes. Their arrest, capture, imprisonment, & trial were the crimes committed.
Apparently, Joseph William Scherrer was an organizer for the Boulder, Colorado area; Joseph William Scherrer was also the main Communist organizer for the Pueblo region as well. Joseph attended meetings; & he attended and taught in educationals.
Maia Scherrer began her party activities in New York.
7 Reds Arrested By FBI; The FBI has seized two more alleged top Communists in a 24-hour roundup that has netted seven arrests. FBI is bragging that they captured 3 "top level underground chiefs".
Four others were arrested in Denver on Sunday. The FBI arrested Arthur Bary, 42; his wife, Anna, 29; Harold Zepelin/Zepelinsky, 28; and Lewis M. Johnson, 34. Almost simultaneously, Mrs. Patricia J. Blau, 42, was arrested at her Los Angeles home.
All 7 were arraigned before U.S. commissioners on charges of violating the Smith Act, which makes it a crime to advocate forcible overthrow of the government.
The 6 arrested in Colorado were allowed individual $100,000 bonds by U.S. Commissioner Joseph Neff, some white collared mafia POS. Fuck you Joseph Neff!
6 were held in a Denver County jail.
Patricia Julia Blau is in Los Angeles County jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.
apparently, the 7 Communist Party leaders arrested by the FBI in Denver, Pueblo, and Los Angeles were linked yesterday with 11 Communists convicted in New York of conspiring to overthrow the government.
"On one occasion, Joseph William Scherrer said to a group that the transition from capitalism to socialism could not be effected by a slow change and could only be effected by a revolution. On another occasion, he stated to a group that workers in the United States could relieve their oppression just as the workers in Russia did by revolution.
On a different occasion, Joseph William Scherrer stated to a group that Negroes should have the right to govern themselves, make their own laws, and have complete autonomy as the people of the Ukraine did.
On another occasion, Joseph William Scherrer stated how Negroes in the South could protect themselves with arms and face terrific odds against them, and that people anywhere could protect themselves at any time against terrific odds by taking up arms and using force.
And on still another occasion, Joseph William Scherrer said that workers in Bessemer, Alabama, had some pitched battles; that a local leader was successful in using firearms; that the Communists could get in power in Pueblo through the Union; and that they could have their labor difficulties and do the same as was done in Bessemer, Alabama."
I skimmed over the lawsuit by the government. It's a weak lawsuit. Basically, they were talking about this & that all over, but never did anything to anybody. The Puebloan couple - Joseph William Scherrer, 34, & his wife Maia Turchin-Scherrer, 36 - weren't Communists because they hated Amerika, but because they loved the poor, which America had plenty of, including 40% whites.
The most dramatic crime that happened in the Joseph Neff/J. Edgar Hoover/Joseph William Scherrer brouhaha were them being arrested & tried.
Here's 1 FBI note:
"At the meetings and educationals, Marxism-Leninism was expounded, taught, and studied as the preferred form of government; and in connection therewith certain well recognized literature expounding such viewpoint was used. Meetings were held in secret; sometimes curtains were drawn; sometimes voices were lowered at meetings; sometimes fictitious names were used at meetings; sometimes those attending went to & from meetings in small numbers as a means of avoiding notice or detection; and in some instances, aliases were used in dealing with outsiders."
The defendants were without counsel. The court appointed eleven members of the Bar in Colorado to act as their counsel. Later, retained counsel represented one of them. Including recesses and intermissions, the trial consumed about sixty days.
They were convicted on May 27, 1955 in a federal district court trial, which was tried in Denver.
All of the defendants were found guilty and were sentenced to imprisonment for specified periods and to pay fines in specified amounts.
All were assessed heavy fines and sentenced to jail. They are free on bail.
The FBI said Scherrer was arrested at his Pueblo residence while his wife was apprehended by FBI agents at Stapleton Airport in Denver. The other five were nabbed quietly by FBI agents late Sunday, four in Denver and the fifth in Los Angeles.
None of the seven offered any resistance. The FBI said all had been charged with conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government by force.
Those arrested in Denver Sunday included Arthur Bary, 42, described by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as a "prize catch" and one of the party's "outstanding west coast underground leaders." Hoover said in Washington that Bary had been assigned the job of spying on the FBI to learn how the federal agency was able to track down party underground leaders.
Mr. DURAN reported at trial that: "In the year 1949, a 2-day and 2-night school, strictly Communist, was held at the Ute Ranch. The chairman of that school was Maia James Scherrer."
xxx
The conviction of seven alleged Communists has been reversed by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals which ordered a new trial. Herbert M. Boyle, first assistant United States Attorney, said a decision on a new trial must be made by the Justice Department in Washington. "The appellate court said the charge of conspiracy to organize was invalid because the three-year statute of limitations started to run in 1945. The seven were indicted in 1954, nine years after formal organization of the Communist party.
Eisenhower banned the Communist Party in 1954; "President of the United Stales is making statements in Denver that could have bearing on our case," Zepelin said. He apparently referred to the bill outlawing the Communist party which President Elsenhower signed at the summer White House last week.
Responding to this fear, Congress passed the Communist Control Act in August 1954. The act declared that, “The Communist Party of the United States, though purportedly a political party, is in fact an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States.” The act went on to charge that the party’s “role as the agency of a hostile foreign power renders its existence a clear and continuing danger to the security of the United States.” The conclusion seemed inescapable: “The Communist Party should be outlawed.” Indeed, that is what many people at the time believed the Communist Control Act accomplished.
The Act made membership to the Communist Party a criminal act and stipulated that all Party members would be sanctioned with up to a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for five years or both. Additionally, according to the third section, the Communist Party would be deprived of “the rights, privileges, and immunities of a legal body.” [4]
J. Edgar Hoover, opposed the bill on the count that it would have forced the Communist movement underground
A young Pueblo couple and a former Puebloan were abruptly arrested in August 1954 as part of a statewide FBI probe into Communist Party activities. Even more shocking to Puebloans, the next year a young Pueblo County High School teacher stepped forward as the key witness in the case.
Unknown to the county school board, the male English teacher was a former leader of Communist Party activities at the University of Colorado. He had later renounced his activities and worked secretly with the FBI to identify 32 people as active Communists, including the trio from Pueblo.
The teacher - a Boulder native - was not rehired the following year due to poor performance, according to the school board.
The Scherrers got out of. Jail Aug. 24 on $5,000 bond each.
xxx
August 2. 1952. DENVER, Colo., Aug. 2.ttPS--The rreit of two more Communist »rty leaders today was announced y the FBI whteh said 'the seven leds nabbed during a two-day period included three top-level mderground chiefs. AH seven were charged with conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government bv force. All will be given a prelimi-
A hearing on her return to Denver is scheduled Thursday.
Communist Party leaders arrested by the FBI in Denver, Pueblo, and Los Angeles were linked yesterday with 11 Communists convicted, in New York of conspiring to overthrow the government. . ,-.V Two of the seven were arrested yesterday and five of them were l .? SSJS S rr mot a perma- 13. lk ) , SI. MORALES y -S Frommes Specialist iff Come in Today tor FREE EXAMINATION Reasonable Rates Private Office HOLItS: DAILY 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M. SATCBDAT U to 1 P.M. FOUNTAIN SERVICE Counter and Carry-Out Cold Refreshing Drinks CARAMEL CORN HAND MADE CANDY CARAMEL APPLES Krispy Korn Shop 38 East Adams p,ht,. your window. fei l ffMM i 1 Keeps room enoler and pro- 5S5.V? 1 M " ItilV W 4" (iteet fjJJaj,,'"ts rrom lun'i q problem v5Swi5I5 'l if I y V fzZ -r-"1' ' nM i rn tin 'ar9e Specialists In Patio Covers (! 'TsSfSl J, ROLLED UP cr too small. TERMS IF DESIRED j fS :! J AlumaRoll Awninqs H Ovum tayatMt $ALP $l$IALi$T PJQJUQUiiC.ii. Phone AL 3-3863 f 505 'i North First St. T5S5 f Ai-Itarm S II 1 Flncrr-tlp llrht control Win. . - !1 iUki dow can be cleared for more 1322 Grand AVfi. Si mV tME FENCE CO. iiioi. for eaT vuh ni ir f I u imuuxj taken into custody Ssunaay in what the FBI described as the last of a current driye. All have been charged with conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the' government by force and will be given a preliminary hearing in Denver Aug. 16. THE COMMUNISTS convicted in New York were not named as co-defendants. T,h e ' complaint; against the seven merely said they had conspired with the New, York Reds and William Z. Foster, who has been charged with advocating the overthrow of the government but who never has been tried because of ill health. Arrested yesterday in Pueblo were Joseph William Scherrer, 34, and his wife, Maia, 36, of Pueblo. Arthur Bary, 42; his wife, Anna, 29, of Denver; Lewis Martin Johnson, 34, formerly of Phoenix; Harold Zepelin, 29, of Denver; and Patricia Julia Blau, orst Fedeiro 42, of Los Angeles, were arrested Sunday.
Joseph William Scherrer; Maia Scherrer, Also Known As Maia Turchin;;;
He was present when Anna said that force was the midwife of every old society pregnant with the new; was present at an educational when Zepelin said that the party through the workers of the United States and the world was going to lead the workers out from under oppression by revolution; was present at a group meeting when Maia said that after civil, legal, and political means were exhausted, Negroes should take up arms to protect themselves; and was present when a speaker said that workers would create force and through it would resort to violence and that some of them would have to die.
On an occasion fixed in the record, Maia said in the course of a meeting that after all civil, legal, and political means had been exhausted, Negroes should take up arms to protect themselves. On another occasion, she said that the party was going to supply leadership to millions of workers and that as the result they were going to liberate them by revolution. And she said at a meeting that she thought it was not impossible to get some members of the party in the Ordnance Depot at Pueblo, and that it could be done very silently and safely. She was present when Anna said that force was the midwife of every old society pregnant with the new; was present when Anna said that the party would liberate the Negro and Mexican workers by revolution; was present when Anna said that if the party was in power among the workers in the basic industries in Colorado and there were strikes, they could affect the regional and national economy; and was present when Zepelin said that if an effort was made to outlaw the party, it would go underground. She was present when Scherrer said that Negroes could use arms to protect themselves; was present when he talked of autonomy for Negroes like that in the Ukraine; and was present when he said that workers in the United States could relieve their oppression just as workers in Russia did by revolution. She was present when Bary compared the party to an army general staff and talked of having cadres in correct position when the right time came; was present when Zepelin said the party must organize the Negro and Mexican people, and that it would fight to liberate the Negro people; was present when Patricia said that it was necessary to create a huge Mexican organization in the Southwest to overthrow the capitalists; and was present when the speaker at a meeting said that the party would create a force and through it would resort to violence, and that some of them would have to die.
Later, she was a member of the state board in Colorado; was a member of the educational and labor committee; attended meetings; and attended and taught in educationals. And Patricia was a member of the state board in Colorado; was organizational secretary; was organizer for the section at Pueblo, Colorado; was a delegate to a national convention; attended meetings; and attended and taught at educationals.
d was present when the speaker at a meeting said that the party would create a force and through it would resort to violence, and that some of them would have to die.
Patricia stated in the course of a meeting that it was necessary to create a huge Mexican organization in the Southwest to overthrow the capitalists; and on another occasion, she said that it would be very fine if certain dissatisfied persons working at White Sands and Los Ala
Reds Rounded Up by FBI ntry hearing here August 16. The two arrested early today were identified by the FBI as Joseph William Scherrer, 34, of Pueblo, Colo., and his wife, Maia Scherrer, 36.
The others arrested Sunday on a quiet midtown Denver street, near the state capitol, were identified by the FBI as Bary's wife, Anna, 29; Lewis Martin Johnson, 34. and Harold Zepelin, 29. Patricia Julia Blau, 42, was seized by FBI agents in Los Angeles. Unable to make bond, they were placed in the custody of the U. S. marshals in Denver and Los Angeles. The FBI withheld details of the arrests except to say all were taken without resistance. The four arrested Sunday in Denver were apprehended quietly on Logan St., apparently as they attempted to rendezvous. They were arraigned at a midnight session before U. S. Commissioner Joseph D. Neff who set bond for each at $100,000. In Los Angeles, Mrs. Blau indicated she would waive a California hearing and accept extradition te Denver. She was held in jail in lieu of $20,000 bail set by U. S. Commissioner Howard V. Calverley. Mrs. Blau, the FBI said, was a former Communist party section organizer. She was arrested last night while working In a Los Angeles bakery under her maiden name of Patricia Julia Bel!.
The FBI said Scherrer was arrested at his Pueblo residence while his wife was apprehended by FBI agents at Stapleton Airport in Denver. The other five were nabbed quietly by FBI agents late Sunday, four in Denver and the fifth in Los Angeles. None of the seven offered any resistance. The FBI said all had been charged with conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government by force. Those arrested in Denver Sunday included Arthur Bary, 42, described by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as a "prize catch" and one of the party's "outstanding west coast underground leaders." Hoover said in Washington that Bary had been assigned the job of spying on the FBI to learn how the federal agency was able to track down party underground leaders.
Mr. DURAN. In the year 1949 a 2-day and 2-night school, strictly Communist, was held at the Ute Ranch. The chairman of that school was Maia James Scherrer.
May 27 1955; convicted; The conviction of seven alleged Communists has been reversed by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals which ordered a new trial. Herbert M. Boyle, first assistant United States Attorney, said a decision on a new trial must be made by the Justice Department in Washington. "The appellate court said the charge of conspiracy to organize was invalid because the three-year statute of limitations started to run in 1945. The seven were indicted in 1954, nine years after formal organization of the Communist party. They were convicted in the May 1955 in a federal district court trial.
Defendants in the case, which was tried in Denver
Still valid, Boyle said, was the charge that the seven conspired to unlawfully overthrow the government by force and violence as sp.eedily as circumstances might permit. 'The circuit court, however, ordered the entire case for new trial because the charge of the organizational conspiracy was permitted to go to the jury. Defendants in the case, which was tried in Denver, were: Mrs. Patricia Blau of Anthony, N.M.; Arthur Bary of San Pablo, Calif,; his estranged wife, Anna, of Denver; Lewis M. Johnson of Boston, Mass.; Harold Zepelin of Dever; Joseph Scherrer and Maia Scherrer, believed to be somewhere on the West Coast. .
FBI arrested a bunch of people in Denver, and Joseph William Scherrer & his wife; The next day the FBI completed the roundup by arresting Mr. and Mrs. Joseph William Scherrer of Pueblo, Colo, The Scherrers got out of. Jail Aug. 24 on $5,000 bond each.
Arthur Bary, 12, of Denver, list- ed by-the FBF as an outstanding underground Communist, appeared with his six co-defendants. All are charged with conspiring to teach and to advocate the overthrow of the government by violence and force Rary. a stout, narK-nalrcol man | with a I'csonnnl. voice, was arrest- led in Denver the night of Aug. I 'along with his wife, Anna, 2f); Har- I old Zepclin, 28, and Lewis Martin I Johnson, 34, Patricia .Julia Blau, M2. was picked up the same night In Los Angeles.
Eisenhower banned the Communist Party in 1954; "President of the United Stales is making statements in Denver that could have bearing on our case," Zepelin said. He apparently referred to the bill outlawing the Communist party which President Elsenhower signed at the summer White House last week.
All were assessed heavy fines and sentenced to jail. They are free on bail.
The nationwide hunt for Communist Party sympathizers hit paydirt in Pueblo in dramatic fashion.
A young Pueblo couple and a former Puebloan were abruptly arrested in August 1954 as part of a statewide FBI probe into Communist Party activities. Even more shocking to Puebloans, the next year a young Pueblo County High School teacher stepped forward as the key witness in the case.
Unknown to the county school board, the male English teacher was a former leader of Communist Party activities at the University of Colorado. He had later renounced his activities and worked secretly with the FBI to identify 32 people as active Communists, including the trio from Pueblo.
The teacher - a Boulder native - was not rehired the following year due to poor performance, according to the school board.
The Scherrers got out of. Jail Aug. 24 on $5,000 bond each.
August 24, 1954; Senator Joseph McCarthy, the most famous of the “red hunters” in America, had been disgraced earlier in the summer of 1954 when he tried to prove that communists were in the U.S. Army, most Americans still believed that communists were at work in their country.
Responding to this fear, Congress passed the Communist Control Act in August 1954. The act declared that, “The Communist Party of the United States, though purportedly a political party, is in fact an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States.” The act went on to charge that the party’s “role as the agency of a hostile foreign power renders its existence a clear and continuing danger to the security of the United States.” The conclusion seemed inescapable: “The Communist Party should be outlawed.” Indeed, that is what many people at the time believed the Communist Control Act accomplished.
The Act made membership to the Communist Party a criminal act and stipulated that all Party members would be sanctioned with up to a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for five years or both. Additionally, according to the third section, the Communist Party would be deprived of “the rights, privileges, and immunities of a legal body.”
J. Edgar Hoover, opposed the bill on the count that it would have forced the Communist movement underground
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