Biography
John M. Foss was a steam fitter from Seattle, Washington. John M. Foss was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to five years in prison and fined $30,000. He served in the Cook County Jail and Leavenworth Penitentiary from October 1917 to April 1918, from September 1918 to September 1919 and from April 1921 to June 25, 1923. He had a wife and three children.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly prisoner roster provides a contemporaneous procedural account. The roster reports that he was out on $5,000 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=10
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 John M. Foss. Its “actual time served” column records 1 year, 7 months, 10 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 John W. Foss in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy and violating the espionage act. a sentence of August 30, 1918, 5 years Leavenworth; fined $30,000.. 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. [PDF8] The appendix prints JohnM.Foss and records bond release September4,1919, return after599days outside prison and parole denial September15,1921. List1 prints JohnW.Foss. The initial variation is retained;599days is a custody gap, not service. [PDF77]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 8.
