Biography
Private First Class Bruce "Gypsy" Peterson founded Fatigue Press, one of the best-known Vietnam-era GI underground antiwar newspapers, at Fort Hood, Texas. Targeted by the Army for his organizing, he was arrested three times on marijuana charges widely regarded as a frame-up — the final arrest, in August 1968, resting on a claim of a microscopic trace found in his pocket lint. He was court-martialed and sentenced to eight years' hard labor at Fort Leavenworth. He was released on appeal after serving about two years.
Contemporary appeal report and sentence discrepancy
The February 23, 1970 Statesman reports Howard Levy’s preceding Wednesday lecture about military resistance. Levy identifies Gypsy Peterson as the first editor of the Fort Hood underground paper and reports that Peterson’s marijuana conviction had already been overturned after two years in prison, despite the evidence having been lost during analysis. This is a contemporary appeal and imprisonment account, not an express report of physical discharge on a particular day. The article gives Peterson a seven-year imposed sentence, whereas the existing separate-source record gives eight years. That discrepancy is retained rather than silently replacing the sentence. Levy’s own separately described sentence in the same article is three years, not seven. Nor are Peterson’s reported two years converted into an exact served-day counter or back-calculated release date. Fort Hood newspaper, nickname and marijuana-prosecution context identify the existing Bruce “Gypsy” Peterson profile, not another Peterson.
Statesman composite, February23 and25,1970, original PDF pages3 (printed February23 p6).
