Biography
James P. Thompson was one of the founders of the IWW, from Seattle, Washington. James P. Thompson was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago. He was sentenced to ten years in prison and a $30,000 fine and served in the Cook County Jail and Leavenworth Penitentiary.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly roster, printed as THOMPSON , JAMES P., reports: Federal . Indicted Chicago , Sept. 28 , 1917. Conspiracy to violate Sections 6 , 19 and 37 and Section 4 of Espionage Act. Convicted , 10 year sentence . Bond, $ 10,000 . Leavenworth Federal prison pending appeal . The roster is a contemporary labor-defense account. Its indictment, bail and imposed-term information is kept distinct from actual admission/release and complete time served; no missing gate date is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=20
Official roster contradicts the inherited twelve-month total
The Leavenworth inmate roster reproduced on page 6 of the National Archives at Kansas City’s October 2017 newsletter individually lists James P. Thompson. Its “actual time served” column records 3 years, 3 months, 7 days, already more than the inherited twelve-month total formerly stored here. That twelve-month total has therefore been cleared rather than presented as established time served. The roster’s compilation date and a complete set of physical custody endpoints are not supplied in this reproduction, so this entry is preserved as a historical custody observation, not assumed to be a final lifetime total. The separate “minimum term expires” column is not an actual release register; no release day is copied from it. Bail and parole annotations also mean the period must not be assumed continuous.
National Archives newsletter, page 6, reproduced RG 129 inmate roster
The March1922 official report lists J. P. Thompson in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Seditious conspiracy. a sentence of August 30, 1918, 10 years at Leavenworth and 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. [PDF19]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 19.
