This is an updated post from 2019
A few years ago, someone in a Facebook group I belong to asked if anyone else remembered a story or rumor about Montclair in the mid-50s. The story was about a guy who owned a repair shop on La Salle Ave and was a spy for the FBI.
It took me a while, but I found it.
There are a few different versions of how they started working for the FBI.
Double-Lives
Dickson P. Hill, an Oakland radio store owner, said he and his wife Sylvia lived “double lives’‘ as Communists for the FBI from 1945 to 1949.
They joined the Alameda County Communist Party in 1945 and rose to the positions of membership chairman and education chairman receptively while serving as undercover agents.
Approached By Communists
Dickson P. Hill said he and his wife were approached by communists in 1944 and asked the FBI what they should do. The FBI told them to try to join the Party so they could do the country “a great service.”
⬅ The Montclarion 1952
He named more than 50 one-time Reds in the Oakland-Berkeley area; he said he had met personally and identified 36 organizations as Communist Party clubs during his time as a member.
They finally quit as Communists for the FBI in 1949 because of the “tremendous mental pressure” of concealing their FBI connections from the Reds and his Red connections from their customers and family.
Clubs They Joined
The Hills were members of several clubs during this time. One was the North Oakland Communist Club, which held its meetings at Technical High School. Another was the 16th Assembly District Communist Club in Montclair. Some of the names he named were Montclair Residents, and one stood out to me because of the family’s history in Montclair.
Hill testified that Mirian Chown, the wife of Paul S. Chown, was a member of the Montclair Club. They were both communists. Hill stated that Paul was a “special group” member and had other party assignments.
Paul was the son of Sidney Chown, who owned a 2 1/2-acre ranch off of Snake Road and grew up in Montclair. Chown was the leader/representative of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE), Local 1412, and it was rumored that the union was kicked out of the CIO due to its leaning toward Communism.
Chown denied that.
Lived in Montclair
Dickson and Sylvia Hill lived on Snake Road in the Montclair District of Oakland. They had three children.
The Hills owned and operated the Montclair Radio & T.V. Sales and Repair shop at 6127 La Salle Ave.
Sometime between 1949 and 1952, the Hill’s divorced.
Joins Party to Help FBI in Roundup of Subversives
In April 1953, Sylvia Hill testified in the United States District Court in Pennsylvania that she heard Steve Nelson tell members of the Communist Party in California “to get the United States Government in as many internal difficulties as possible.”
Mrs. Hill testified that she met Nelson when she was chairman of the Communist Party in Alameda. She said she heard him address a party meeting and declared:
“It was a mistake for me to believe Communism and capitalism could. live together.”
She also testified that she joined the Communist Party in 1944 or 1945 after an FBI agent approached her and said,
“Would you like to do this? There will be nothing in it for you, but you will be doing your country a great service.”
She was the education director from 1946 to 1947 for the North Oakland Branch of the Communist Party; the name was later changed to the 16th A.D. (Assembly District) club in Montclair.
Nelson was one of five communists on trial charged with conspiring to overthrow the Government.
In 1944, Steve Nelson lived at 425 Taurus Rd in the Merriewood section of Montclair.
House Un-American Activities Committee Hearings
In 1953, Dickson was one of nine witnesses who appeared before the committee at City Hall in San Francisco. He was the only “friendly” witness.
During his testimony, he named names and organizations with communist ties.
He also testified that “the Reds backed a third-party idea in the 1948 election as a rich source of new recruits,” and made the Emeryville Westinghouse Electric plant one of their prime infiltration targets.
More Info:
Testimony of Paul Chown – Internet Archive
- Reluctant Witnesses – Dec 03, 1953, San Rafael Independent
- Eight Witness Refuse to Reply – Dec 03, 1953, San Bernardino Sun
- 1500 Longshoreman Mass – Dec 03, 1953 Oakland Tribune
- John Mass Refuses to Testify – Dec 03, 1953- SF Examiner
- John Mass Page 2 – Dec 03, 1953, SF Examiner
- Treufhalf Arrested – Dec 03, 1964, Oakland Tribune
- Hearings Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House. Committee on Un-American Activities Volume 3 – Google
Amazing…I did not know that the son of Sidney Chown was a leftist. Chown and his wife owned a horse ranch on the 3.5 acre site that is now the location of Italian Colors. This was the original “Piedmont Stables”. The Chown Trail in Redwood Regional Park is named for Sidney.
I knew it, but it didn’t really hit me until I was rewriting this post. I read about Paul when I was researching my piece on “Montclair East” which is where the ranch was located.https://abitofhistory.site/2021/10/05/montclair-east/