The main discussion of the song is in this thread. In 2002, I got a note and some clippings from the local newspaper reported who covered the story in 1948. I was getting married about the time he wrote to me, and I never got around to contacting him. I did collect a number of newspaper clippings from the story. It was the worst California air crash up to that time; and it was front-page news in most California newspapers for two days, until Gandhi was assassinated.
It didn't get much coverage in the New York Times article that Woody read, but it did get good coverage in California. Although I found lots of coverage of the wreck, I never did find a list of the names of the deportees.

-Joe Offer-