The story of the innocent Hungarian who spent 20 years in prison in the USA
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András (Andrew) Tóth entered the history of the American justice system as Praying Andy. He was sentenced to death at first, but then it was modified to life imprisonment even though he was innocent. His story helped the movement of getting compensation in similar cases a lot.
According to Telex, András Tóth was born in Lengyelfalva in 1854 and decided to go to the USA in 1885 to save some money and buy a house for his family in Hungary. By then, he already had five children, so leaving his wife and daughter at home, he travelled to Pennsylvania with his four sons. The J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works belonging to Andrew Carnegie hired him, so he moved to Braddock.
As a Hungarian, he was not alone since many people working in the factory had a migrant background, including Irish people, Italians, Croats, Poles, Czechs.
The work was exhausting: 12-14 hours per day and no day-offs.Â
As the years passed, he managed to save money, and by 1891, he thought he could travel home. However, his destiny took a tragic turn after the New Year’s Eve party of 1890.
- Hungarians spend almost twice as much on alcohol than the average European
- Hungarian parliament votes to channel prison compensation to crime victims
The Hungarian workers agreed that they cannot tolerate working on January 1, so they would not. However, Mr Carnegie hired Irish workers to complete the tasks, which angered the Hungarians who
drank a lot of pálinka on New Year’s Eve.
As a result, believing that they were right, 200 of them attacked their Irish colleagues on January 1. 16 people were injured, one of them, the Irish Michael Quinn, later died in the hospital.
Even though eye-witnesses gave contradictory statements, Michael Sabo (Mihály Szabó), George Rusnak (György Rusznyák), and Andrew Tóth were sentenced to death. However, some people regarded the sentencing too harsh, and among them was Andrew Carnegie. They said that the Hungarians did not even speak English too well, so they did not receive a fair trial.
TRISTE! This tragedy is nothing new, but far worse for foreign nationals than for US citizens. America is not the kind caring place of its propaganda!
TRISTE! This tragedy is nothing new, but far worse for foreign nationals than for US citizens. America is not the aind caring place of its propaganda!