Charles Rothfiser
Biography
Charles Rothfiser, also recorded as Charles Rothfisher, edited the IWW’s Hungarian-language newspaper in Chicago. Convicted in the 1918 Chicago IWW mass trial, he received a twenty-year sentence and a $20,000 fine and was held at Leavenworth Penitentiary until bond was posted in April 1919. Rothfiser did not surrender after the appeal failed. He was one of nine defendants identified in IWW records as having jumped bail and left for Soviet Russia in 1921.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly prisoner roster provides a contemporaneous procedural account. The roster reports that he was out on $10,000 bond pending appeal in the Chicago IWW prosecution. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=18
The March1922 official report lists Charles Rothfisher in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Seditious conspiracy. a sentence of August 30, 1918, 90 years at Leavenworth; fined $20,000.. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF17]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 17.
