Biography
Michael Sapper was an IWW delegate and organizer of oil field workers, from New York, New York. Michael Sapper was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Wichita and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, which he served in Leavenworth Penitentiary. The Department of Justice wrote that Sapper "should be permanently segregated from society" because of his political beliefs.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly roster, printed as SAPPER, MICHAEL, reports: Federal . Indicted Wichita , Sept. 24, 1918. ConConspiracy. Convicted Dec. 1919. 7½ year sentence . Leavenworth Federal prison . 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=18
White identifies Sapper among the Wichita defendants held roughly two years before their December 1919 conviction and transport to Leavenworth the following day. The seven-and-a-half-year punishment was imposed, not a complete actual custody total.
Ahmed White, Under the Iron Heel (University of California Press, 2022), physical PDF pages [169, 170] (printed page = physical minus 11); source193 SHA256 7c24fb0ba336fcbf379fb9720f70dcdbf754d796a50dee77b39e38e0f9bd2868.
The March1922 official report lists Michael Sapper in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy and violating the espionage act, etc. a sentence of December 18, 1919, 7° years 6 months at Leavenworth and costs.. 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.
