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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 20, 1963)
MEJFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MCOFORD. OREGON THURSDAY. JUNE SO. IM3 Guilt of Rosenbergs Doubted Again Today by Early B 7 By ROBERT BUCKHORN United Press International Washington - ICPB - "Daddy, what is it, a circus?" A child shouted to his father as their car slowly moved past the police-ringed crowds lining the street across from the. White House. Despite the flags, the signs, and the shouting people, what the child actually saw was the climax of a death watch. The date was June 10, 1953. In a few hours, atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were to die in the Sing Sing electric chair for a crime which President Dwight D. Eisenhower had described as worse than murder. On this June 19, a decade after the death of the out wardly harmless looking elec trical engineer and his plump wife, some of the same peo ple who led the losing fight for presidential clemency filed into New York City's Carnegie Hall to repeat their cry. "Doubts as to the guilt of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have' been increasing through the years," Mrs. Morton So bell, wife of one of the key members of the Rosenberg spy ring, told United Press International this week. A sponsor of the Carnegie Hall rally, Mrs. So be 11 is chairman of the committee to secure justice for Morton So bell. "My husband is a complete ly innocent man," she de clared. ' Ten years ago a jury felt differently. Sobell was sen tenced to 30 years in prison on charges of conspiring with the Rosenbergs to commit espionage. He is now eligible for parole. None has been granted. But there has been no letup in efforts to get him freed. He has an appeal pend ing before the U. S. Supreme Court, and still is trying to win presidential clemency. Before New York's state executioner, Joseph P. Fran eel, threw the switch that ended their lives in the elec tric chair, the Rosenbergs also made use of every legal recourse to escape their court ordered fate. But the mass of Americans accepted the jury verdict and the judge's sentence as just and reasonable. Began In London The downfall of the Rosen bergs began in London, a half a world away from their apartment on New York's east side. In 1949, Scotland Yard trapped Dr. Klaus Fuchs, a scientist turned atom spy for the Russians. Fuchs impli cated, but could not identify by name, a courier who had served him earlier In the United States. Using this skimpy lead, the Federal Bureau of Investiga tion tracked down a Phila delphia chemist named Harry Gold, who confessed. From Gold, the trail led to Ethel Rosenberg's brother, David Greenglass, an ex-army ser geant who had worked on the U. S. atomic bomb project during World War II. Greenglass confessed in June, 1950. Two months later the Rosenbergs were in jail, charged with stealing secrets of the atomic bomb for Rus sia. With them was Morton Sobell, who had fled to Mex ico. He was deported, then arrested by the FBI. Only one member of the ring man aged to evade the dragnet. Anatoli Yakovlev, a minor Russion diplomat who served as a contact for the ring, fled before he could be indicted. The Rosenberg-Sobcll trial got underway In New York March 6, 1951, before a jury of 11 men and one woman. The most damning testimony came from Greenglass, the Government's key witness. He said that his sister and her husband had recruited him into the spy ring when he was assigned to the Los Alamos, N. M., atomic bomb project. According to Green glass, the Rosenbergs told him that Russia was "an ally of the United States and de served to have the bomb." Once he agreed to join the Rosenbergs, Greengiass said he drew sketches of bomb parts and passed them to the Rosenbergs, using Gold as a courier. Greenglass said he kept up his spying until early in 1946. No Stamps No Gimmicks No Contests Every Customer Is a CASH SAYING WINNER Over 1000 Lower Daily Shelf Prices In Every Dept. 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Gold corroborated much nf Greenglass' testimony. The Rosenbergs went on the stand in their own dp- lease. They denied all thai charges. They were not spies, , mey torn me jury. But tney ln . voked the Fifth Amendment when asked about their Com munist Party activities. So bell did not go on the witness) stand, despite testimony from. Government witnesses that he tried to recruit member (or the spy ring. As the trial progressed, one. man - Judge Irving R. Kauf man - became more and mora key figure. He refused to let the storm stirred up over the case creep into the court room. He treaded the thin line of Impartiality with a grace that won him near unanimous praise from the legal profession. He shrugged oft middle-of-the-night tele phone threats against his Ufa and saw to it that the Rosen bergs were given every oppor tunity to defend themselves. Even today, he retains his detached legal air. Asked for comment on the case, he said he preferred to let the record speak for itself. When the last arguments were heard, the Jury brought In the guilty verdict. Judge Sentences The next step was up to Judge Kaufman. On April 5, 1051, he sentenced the Rosen bergs to death, saying they had "altered the course of history . . . unfavorably to your country." For Sobell the punishment -was 30 years in prison. For Greenglass 15 years. At earlier trials, Gold had been oivn 3n v,nr Klaus Ftirhfl was sentenced to 14 years by a British court. Both Green a1na and ITurha nrA nnu frA. " ' ----- Once the verdict was in, the legal and propaganda bat tle to save the Rosenbergs from the chair began In earn est and was to drag on for two years after their conviction. One ol the Key claims or. the Rosenberg lawyers was that the two were tried u legally under the Espionage Act OP in inneaa oi ma Atomic Energy Act of 1946. The Government said the Espionage Act was applicable since the indictment charged that the overt acts of stealing' atomic secrets took place in 1944 and 1943. However, in the indictment, the Govern ment did claim the conspiracy continued until 1930 which, the Rosenberg lawyers said, brought it under the Atomic Energy Act. If the Rosenbergs had been tried under that act. a jury would have had to im pose the death sentence, not the judge. Fire Appaals Five appeals on beliall or the Rosenbergs were taken bs high as the Supreme Court. But only one produced a really dramatic turn. On June 17, iosj, two aays before the spies were to die. Supreme Court Justice Wil liam O. Douglas granted the Rosenbergs a stay on grounds there were "serious doubts" that they could be sentenced to death. But the stay was short-lived. The full court vacated it by a vote of 6-2. As the day for electrocution drew near, President Eiscn hower was besciged with ap peals for clemency. In fact, the White House received more mail on the Rosenbergs than it had on any issue sines Eisenhower took office. Mrs. Rosenberg herself wrote Eisenhower a letter asking for clemency. "Ask yourself," she said, whether the death sentence "docs not serve the ends of force and violence rather than enlightened justice." Eisenhower turned down all the appeals. On rejecting the last on the day set for the execution, he said: Refused Clemency "By immeasurably increas ing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have con demned to death tens of mil lions of Innocent people all . over the world. The execu tion of two human beings U 3 grave matter, but even graver is the thought of the millions whose deaths may be directly attributable to what these spies have done. ... I will not Intervene in this matter. On the night of the execu tion, pickets paraded back and forth in front of the White House urging Eisen- 1 . U i.. Millfl nOWCr 1U UliaiigV ma iiiiiiv. Across the street a crowd esti mated at 7.000 persons watched the drama run to the final curtain. In Sing Sings death row, the Rosenbergs prepared calmly for their fate. The Justice Department offered them a reprieve, if they would confess. They said nothing. At 8:06 p.m., EDT, Julius Rosenberg was pronounced dead. Ten minutes later Elhcl was dead
