Beffel, John Nicholas

Journalist.

John Nicholas Beffel (1887 1973) Radical journalist, publicist, and editor. A prolific writer of articles, essays, and publicity dealing with leftist issues, many pertaining to the syndicalist labor organization the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), anarchism and several noted anarchists. Beffel also produced short stories, autobiographical sketches and poems. Much of his activity involved defense committees for accused radicals in such cases as: the Mooney Billings Case in which the two men were found guilty of a fatal bombing during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco in 1916; the Centralia, Washington, case in which ten IWW's were accused of murder during an assault of IWW headquarters in connection with an Armistice Day parade in 1919; Sacco and Vanzetti; the Kentucky Miners Defense, stemming from the bloody “Battle of Evarts” in Harlan County, 1931; the case of Athos Terzani, an anti fascist accused of accidentally murdering a comrade during a fascist rally in New York in 1933; and the un¬solved political murder of anti fascist leader Carlo Tresca in 1943. Beffel was also involved with The League for Mutual Aid, a social service agency for leftists in need of assistance, founded by Roger Baldwin in 1920. Much of the boxes of correspondence relates to Beffel’s organizational and publicity efforts in these causes; much of the rest concerns his writings or those of his correspondents. Beffel edited several (published and unpblished) manuscripts, primarily by or about various anarchists (including Mikhail Bakunin, Rose Pesotta, and Harry Kelley, co-founder of the Ferrer colony in Stelton, N.J.), was interested in, and wrote about mysterious disappearances, and sometimes wrote articles under the names of Lancey Fitzgibbons, George Moresby, Mary Starland, Daniel Tower and others.

John Beffel was a radical journalist, publicist and author who sometimes wrote articels under the names of Lancey Fitzgibbons, George Moresby, Mary Starland, Daniel Tower and others.

Worked for the Chicago Daily News, and the Detroit Free Press. Later, he was managing editor for the Chicago Herald-Examiner, the New York World, the New York Daily Call and the New York Herald Tribune. For two years, he was publicity director for the American Civil Liberties Union. From 1936 to 1939 he was associated with the Brooklyn Public Relations Bureau.

In 1944 he began to handle publicity for the Workers Defense League, and engaged in free-lance publicity work, writing and editing.