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DEFENDANTS
Julius Rosenberg: Julius Rosenberg, the son of Jewish Polish immigrants, was born on May 12, 1918 in New York City.  As a boy, Julius attended a religious school in lower Manhattan. His father hoped that he would become a rabbi, but Julius enrolled at the City College of New York to study electrical engineering.
        Many college students in the 1930's were concerned about the economic chaos of the depression. Strikes and violence, loss of homes and jobs, were indicators that the political and economic system was going bankrupt. And overseas fascism was a growing threat. So it was not unusual that some of the best minds and most caring people of that time pursued an interest in politics by  joining socialist or communist organizations. 
        Julius joined the Steinmetz Club, the campus branch of the Young Communist League. There he would meet Morton Sobell. The summer after Julius graduated in 1939, he married Ethel Greenglass. They both became members of the American Communist Party.
        After almost a year of doing freelance work (until the fall of 1940), Julius was hired as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. In 1942 he  was promoted  to the position of inspector. By 1943, the Rosenbergs were not active in the Communist Party.
        Early in 1945, when his past membership in the Communist Party came to light, Julius was fired from his job with the Signal Corps. He took a job with the Emerson Radio Corporation for awhile; and then in 1946 formed G & R Engineering Company with his brother-in-laws Bernard and David Greenglass, and Isadore Goldstein. [partnership disbanded]
Julius lived with his wife and two children (from 1942) in a three room apartment near the waterfront in Manhattan's lower East Side.
        On June 17, 1950, based upon David Greenglass' statements to the FBI, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage. He was tried (March 6, 1951) on the charge of conspiring to commit espionage; and after a guilty verdict (March 29, 1951) was sentence to death. The appeal process lasted over two years while Julius was on death row. Here he maintained his innocence and hoped for leniency. It was during these years that the case aroused the attention of the international community.
        Julius Rosenberg was put to death in the electric chair at Sing-Sing Prison in New York on June 19, 1953.

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Ethel Rosenberg: Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg, the only daughter of Barnet and Tessie Greenglass was born September 28, 1915 in New York City. The  family was poor and  they lived in a crowded, shabby unheated  tenement apartment on the lower East side of Manhattan. Ethel attended a religious school, then high school and graduated at the age of only 15.
         Almost immediately after finishing school, Ethel became a clerk for a shipping company. Here she was confronted with poor working conditions and low salaries. But instead of accepting her plight and that of her fellow workers, she decided to speak out and to organize. Four years later she was fired because of her role as the organizer of a strike of 150 women workers. Labor issues and politics were combined when Ethel joined the Young Communist League and eventually became a member of the American Communist Party. 
        Besides being an activist, Ethel enjoyed singing, and had aspirations of becoming an opera singer. She was waiting to go on stage to sing at a New Years Eve benefit when she first met Julius Rosenberg. The couple were soon married in the summer of 1939.
         Although still interested in politics, most of her time and energy were spent at home caring for her two sons Michael and Robert. In 1943 she left the Communist Party and a few years later was helping her husband in the business with her brother David Greenglass. 
         During the spring of 1950 David Greenglass, named Julius Rosenberg as a participant in the spy ring. This led to the arrest of her husband on June 17. Almost two months later on August 11, 1950, Ethel Rosenberg was herself arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5, 1951 after a guilty verdict, she was sentenced to death. The next two years of Ethel Rosenberg's life were spent on death row at Sing Sing prison. Here she maintained her innocence and hoped for leniency. 
        Ethel Rosenberg was put to death in the electric chair at Sing- Sing prison in New York on June 19, 1953.

". . . We wish we might have had the tremendous joy and gratification of living our lives out with you. Your Daddy who is with me in the last momentous hours, sends his heart and all the love that is in it for his dearest boys. Always remember that we were innocent and could not wrong our conscience. We press you closes and kiss you with all our strength. Lovingly Daddy and Mommy"                                                            From Ethel's final letter to her sons.

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Morton Sobell: Morton Sobell and Julius Rosenberg were students attending  CCNY studying engineering. Here they became friends and both, for a short time, were members of the Young Communist League. (Morton and his wife Helen have stated that they had never belonged to the Communist Party.) Also at CCNY, Morton became good friends with Max Elitcher, a Stuyvesant High School classmate. After graduation (with a degree in electrical engineering) Max and Morton shared an apartment in Washington D.C. where they worked for the Navy Bureau of Ordnance. 
        In 1941 Morton left Washington but still kept in contact with Elitcher. It was in 1943 that Max, who was recently married, took his new wife to Schenectady to meet Morton. Morton at the time was working for General Electric. Two years later Elitcher was best man at Sobell's wedding.
          Several years later both Max and Morton were living in Flushing, Queens, New York and both working for the Reeves Instrument Company. In June of 1950 Morton, his wife Helen and their two children left on a trip to Mexico. While living in an apartment in Mexico City, Morton learns of the arrest of Julius Rosenberg. He then considers trying to find passage for himself and his family from Mexico, but without the proper documents was unable to do so. In the middle of August the Sobells were kidnapped by Mexican thugs and delivered to U. S. authorities at the border where the FBI arrested him for conspiring with Julius Rosenberg to violate the espionage laws.
      The trial began March 6, 1951. Max Elitcher, the government's only witness, testified against his friend Morton Sobell. And as with the Rosenbergs, the jury delivered a guilty verdict. Morton Sobell was sentenced to 30 years in prison, five of which he served in Alcatraz. He was finally released from prison in 1969. His autobiography, On Doing Time, details his experiences in jail and presents his view of events before, during and after the Rosenberg trial. Morton Sobell is currently involved as a civil liberty activist and maintains his innocence to this day.

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PROSECUTORS
Herbert Brownell: Herbert Brownell, born in Peru, Nebraska in 1904, started began his career as a lawyer in New York City in 1927. Except for the years 1953 to 1957, when he was the Attorney General under President Eisenhower,  he continued in private practice as a lawyer up to his retirement in 1989. 
           Mr. Brownell became active in New York State politics and served in the state legislature (1933 - 1937). He managed Thomas E. Dewey’s successful campaign for the New York governorship (1942) as well as Dewey’s unsuccessful presidential bids (1944, 1948). From 1944 to 1946 he chaired the Republican National Committee and was instrumental in getting Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for office (1951). Bownell was named Attorney General and functioned as a close adviser to the president, wielding considerable influence over many of the president's decisions.
          These decisions included the presidents denial of clemency for the Rosenbergs. Was Brownell also influential in having the President believe that the Supreme Court reviewed the Rosenberg case? Did he play a part in keeping the President uninformed about the extent of world opinion regarding this case? 
          According to journalist Robert Donovan and Presidential speech writer Emmet John Hughs, both of whom were present at various meetings between President Eisenhower and Brownell, the Attorney General told Eisenhower that Douglas's stay was "without foundation". Brownell also added that "information which corroborated the guilt of the Rosenbergs was in possession of the government. . . . but could not have been used at the trial."  Brownell had no such evidence. 
          Perhaps the most flagrant misuse of the office of Attorney General occurred during the week of June 15, 1953. During a meeting brokered by Justice Jackson, Brownell met with Chief Justice Vinson. This ex parte type of communication was highly improper and violated many canons of  judicial conduct. FBI memoranda state that it was during  this meeting that the contingency plan of a special court session was to happen if one of the Justices delivered a stay of execution.
          Brownell's rush to execute the Rosenbergs was not to be slowed down. Since the Supreme Court's special session pushed the execution to Friday at 11:00 pm, the defense asked for a delay (to Saturday night) because Friday sundown starts the Jewish sabbath. Herbert J. Brownell now had his chance to extend his maliciousness to a new height: he scheduled the executions earlier that day at 8:00 pm.
           In 1957 he resigned his position as U. S. Attorney General and returned to his New York law practice. He died in 1996.
 

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Irving Saypol: Irving Saypol was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Chief Prosecutor of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Morton Sobell. Saypol graduated from Brooklyn Law School and quickly rose through the ranks of the United States Attorney's office. Saypol was an experienced prosecutor of Communists, as he had convicted Alger Hiss, William Remington, Abraham Brothman and others prior to taking on the Rosenberg case. Part of his success was attributable to his sincere belief that he was punishing evil. Some of his critics charge that Saypol, who warmed to his task at prosecuting the Rosenbergs, blurred any distinction between the crime charged - conspiracy to commit espionage - and treason. His success in the Rosenberg trial accelerated his career. Saypol was appointed to the New York Supreme Court just months after the trial.

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Roy Cohn: Roy Cohn was the son of Judge Albert Cohn of the New York State Supreme Court, joined the U.S. Attorney's office following law school. He became one of Irving Saypol's assistants on the Rosenberg prosecution team (Cohn had worked with Saypol prior to the Rosenberg case in an trial of eleven Communists).
          In Cohn's autobiography (The Autobiography of Roy Cohn, co-aurthored by Sidney Zion) he reveals his collusion with Judge Irving Kaufman before, during and after the Rosenberg trial. He even reveals his frame-up technique (page 160): ". . . as a young assistant U.S. attorney, I convicted my share of people on uncorroborated accomplice testimony." He describes how the U.S. Attorney offers a deal to a guilty defendant, if he/she agrees to name as an accomplice the person the prosecutor wishes to frame. The jury convicts both, the framed victim is heavily sentenced, while the actual criminal receives a minor sentence.
        During the trial, Cohn was noticed by Senator Joseph McCarthy and  later served as his aide. Senator McCarthy, became infamous for his accusations of Communist infiltration of the State Department and other high government posts. Cohn provided legal guidance to the Senator in his Communist "witch-hunt" which would become known as "McCarthyism." Eventually Senator McCarthy's influence declined and he, along with Cohn, was discredited. 
         From 1954 to 1986, he became a political power broker and
much-sought legal talent with Saxe, Bacon & Bolan (and predecessor firms) in New York City. Known as a loyal advocate, he gave lavish annual parties for his famous, fashionable clients and friends at his Greenwich, Conn., estate. Thrice tried and acquitted on federal charges of conspiracy, bribery, and fraud, he was disbarred two months before his death from AIDS in 1986. He admired dogs and had an extensive collection of stuffed animals.

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WITNESSES
David Greenglass: David Greenglass, known as "Doovey" to his older sister Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg, was born in 1922. A machinist who had learned his trade at Manhattan's Haaren Aviation High School, he was married Ruth Prinz at the age of twenty and shortly after was inducted into the Army. He was stationed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and then later in the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. 
        In late November 1944, David got a few days leave to see his wife, Ruth in Albuquerque on their second wedding anniversary. It was from her at this time that he he allegedly learned the nature of the secret project at Los Alamos. "She told me that Julius has said that I was working on the atom bomb." [NCRRC: if the Manhattan Project was a secret, and it was top secret, how did Julius at the end of 1944 know about it.]  It was when David was on furlough in January of 1945 that he prepared some sketches and a written description of lens mold experiments that he gave to Julius. Ruth mentioned "that David's handwriting would be bad . . . and Julius said . . . Ethel would type it up." [NCRRC: David was a draftsman and his handwriting was extremely legible.] 
          When his leave ended, David returned to Los Alamos. Several Months later, Ruth followed him to New Mexico and rented an apartment in Albuquerque, where David spent weekends. It was in June of 1945 that the supposed exchange involving Jello boxes,  money and passwords took place. 
          In September of 1945 David was again on leave and supposedly he and Ruth bought material to the Rosenbergs for filming and typing in their living room. [NCRRC: David Greenglass admitted he lied about this meeting on 60 Minutes II, December 5, 2001.]
After his army discharged, David joined his brother Bernard and Julius in a machine shop business. The business did last long and the partnership broke up; not all that amicably.
       Shortly after Klaus Fuchs was arrested in England, David and Ruth Greenglass were interrogated by the FBI arrested in the United States. Greenglass under the threat of a long prison sentence and possibly a death sentence, decided to be a prosecution witness against his sister and his brother-in-law. He did this because in exchange for immunity for his wife Ruth, so that she might remain with their two children; and a light sentence for himself. To his surpass he received a 15 year sentence. He served only 10 years and remained together with with Ruth when he was released in 1960. 
          Even though the Greenglasses changed their name and address, they were found in 1987 by Sam Roberts of the New York Times. David was living under an assumed name in a single-family house in the Queens, New York. After fourteen years, for monetary reasons alone, he decided to be interviewed by Roberts.  These interviews resulted in the book The Brother, published in the fall of 2001. In this book Greenglass admits that he lied on the witness stand. "My wife is my wife. I mean, I don't sleep with my sister, you know."  From David Greenglass's point of view, such fidelity was commendable.
          Further admission of perjury came on 60 Minutes II, December 5, 2001. It was this perjury that strapped his sister Ethel into the electric chair. According to Roberts, Greenglass, when asked if he would have done anything differently, replied "Never. "And when asked on 60 Minutes, why didn't the Rosenbergs talk (lie) and give names like he did, he said "In one word - stupidity."

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Ruth Greenglass: Ruth Printz, born in 1925, grew up in the same New York City neighborhood as her future husband, David Greenglass. In late November 1942, Ruth married David Greenglass in November , 1942 before he was drafted. Both Ruth and David had an interest in politics and together they joined the Young Communist League.
          The couple had not been married long before David was drafted in 1943. He was eventually stationed at Los Alamos working as a machinist on the Manhattan Project. The two had always been a close couple and Ruth tried to see David as much as possible. To do this they rented a house in nearby Albuquerque, where David would spend weekends.
          At the end of the war Ruth and David  moved back to New York City and became parents. From 1946 to 1950 Ruth had two miscarriages and had a near fatal accident. Most of her time was spent caring for her children.
         When the FBI questioned David Greenglass in 1950 about suspected espionage activities, he agreed to confess and to be a witness against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. This was done in exchange for immunity for Ruth so that she could remain at home with their two children. The FBI threatened the couple with imprisonment and even death. (Even though the FBI claim that she was never arrested, there does exists a mug shot of Ruth.) And while in custody during the seven months before the trial, they changed their story with regard to the Rosenbergs.
         Ruth eventually testified against the Rosenbergs at trial stating that Ethel Rosenberg had typed up the notes that David Greenglass had provided, implicating Ethel in the espionage ring. FBI documents and later admission by her husband indicate that this was perjured testimony. And was her testimony that it was Julius and Ethel who urged her to convince David Greenglass to become involved is espionage also perjury? Ruth Greenglass , a confessed spy, was never even indicted. She rejoined with her husband after his release from prison, changed her name and sought anonymity.

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Harry Gold: Harry Gold was the son of poor Russian Jewish immigrants. He was a small quiet boy abused by his schoolmates. As a young man both he and his family became interested in Socialism, which probably led him to make contacts within the Communist movement. 
In 1935, Gold, a nondescript chemist working for a sugar company, decided to act on his Communist sympathies by stealing industrial secrets from his factory and passing them on to the Soviets.
         As Gold escalated his espionage activities he began to tell his various contacts elaborate tales of his family life. But Gold's tales were all fantasy, he was actually a bachelor. He was an inveterate liar. (His own attorney  John Hamilton disclosed that his client sometimes supplied the Soviets fictitious names and delivered fabricated reports about these nonexistent contacts.) Gold also began drinking heavily and was sloppy with the evidence of his illegal activities. Perhaps he wanted to be caught. 
        Gold, after given several days warning that the FBI were going to search his home (without a warrant), did not get rid of any incriminating evidence. Was Gold mentally tired of continuing with deceit and intrigue? And why did the FBI allow Gold to get rid of any evidence in his home? Even more mysterious is the Gold-Fuchs connection. Fuchs never identified Gold as his contact. The physical description of the courier that Fuchs is said to have used definitely did not fit Harry Gold. Gold had the ability to perpetrate fantastic deceptions and lies. His statements regarding people, places, dates, meetings, conversations are later denied or altered. 
        When the FBI caught up with him, he surrendered meekly, "confessed" and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He then offered to be a witness for the government in the Rosenberg trial.
          He often readily agreed to change his testimony to suit the FBI. "I come from Ben from Brooklyn" becomes "I come from Julius." "Information from Greenglass was of no value" to it was "extremely excellent and very valuable."  Even Gold's connection with Anatoli Yakovlev, the absent co-defendant, is suspect. Many personal details (given at pre-trial hearing) about Yakovlev, later proved to be false.
       Gold later admitted that during pre-trial hearings he could not recall Greenglass's name. That he had "completely forgotten" his meeting with Yakovlev in New York; his visit to David Greenglass in New Mexico; and the password "I come from Julius."   Needless to say the FBI helped him to remember these details.
        Other inconsistencies are Gold's registering at the Albuquerque Hilton under his own name; and possibly forged registration cards with wrong dates. And if Gold, as a courier picked up classified material from Fuchs, why would he then, on the same trip, stop at the Greenglass's? This goes against any type of espionage protocol. 
        Unfortunately Harry Gold was not cross-examined by Bloch. Thus, the truth behind Harry Gold's testimony lies buried in the files of the FBI and in a Philadelphia cemetery; he died August 28, 1972, seven years after he was released from prison. 

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Max Elitcher:  Elitcher and Sobell became friends while attending Stuyvesant High School together. Later, between 1934 and 1938 they both attended the College of the City of New York where they both studied electrical engineering. It was during this time that the two men  met Julius Rosenberg. Following graduation, Elitcher and Sobell moved to Washington DC to become junior engineers at the Navy Bureau of Ordinance. The two remained close friends and even shared an apartment together. In 1941 Morton left Washington but still kept in contact with Elitcher. It was in 1943 that Max, who was recently married, took his new wife to Schenectady to meet Morton. Morton at the time was working for General Electric. Two years later Elitcher was best man at Sobell's wedding.
        In 1948, Elitcher left government service to take a job at Reeves Instrument. Elitcher and his wife moved into a house in Queens, New York. Their backyard neighbors were the Sobells. 
        Elitcher maintained that Julius Rosenberg had attempted to recruit him as a spy during the years 1944 -1948. Elitcher then testified that in the summer of 1948, he accompanied Sobell to Catherine Slip in Manhattan, where he was to deliver something (it seemed to be a 35 millimeter film can) to Julius Rosenberg. Sobell left the car briefly with the film can; Elitcher never saw the person who received it. His testimony, which required continual prompting by prosecuting attorney Saypol, raised objections from the defense. When Elitcher repeated parts of his testimony there were changes and omissions. 
        Furthermore, Elitcher admitted that he lied on a federal Loyalty Oath form in 1947 and was extremely fearful of being charged with perjury. This he stated was a factor in becoming a witness for the prosecution.
         Although Elitcher shared many of Rosenberg's and Sobell's political beliefs, he claimed to have never passed secret information to either. And he never met the Greenglasses and was never indicted for perjury. 
 

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THE SUPREME COURT: The Roosevelt-Truman Supreme Court was in place from the time of the Rosenberg's arrest to their executions. During those 28 months the Supreme Court never reviewed the Rosenberg case. That a case of type, with so many controvertible issues, was  never examined by the court displays the highest form of judicial insolence. Politicization and internecine squabbles contaminated the judicial process.