A
Los Angeles group plotted and dynamited the plant of the Los Angeles
Times, a conservative newspaper. Three of them were convicted and
sent to San Quentin for long sentences. They were John J. McNamara,
his brother, James McNamara, and Matt Schmitt.
At
the prison the two McNamara brothers worked in the printing shop,
and through the years I got to know them. Matt Schmitt worked in the
Fire Department which was outside the walls of the prison, and I got
to know Matt much better. He was an avowed I.W.W., or The Industrial
Workers of the World, a radical group, which advocated direct action
and violence. Schmitt used to talk to me about world revolution and
actually tried to convert me to the I.W.W. philosophy.
Author:
William J. Duffy, Jr.