The Trial of julius & Ethel Rosenberg
American Politics in the 1950’s can be defined by one word and one man: McCarthy. John McCarthy first came forward on February 9, 1950 saying he had a list of 205 State Department officials who were active members of the Communist Party (Oh and Latham). Just a year earlier, President Harry Truman announced that there was an atomic explosion in the Soviet Union, meaning they were able to create an atomic bomb. The onset fear of nuclear destruction enhanced McCarthy’s persecution of suspected Communists. One of the earliest trials of this capacity took place in March of 1951, and though McCarthy wasn’t involved directly, his future chief counsel Roy Cohn was a chief prosecutor. This was the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Morton Sobell, who were all charged with conspiracy to commit wartime espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union (Knappman 452).
Julius and Ethel were both born to Jewish families in the Lower East Side of New York City, in 1918 and 1915 respectively. While Julius was attending the City College of New York City, he helped to organize the school’s chapter of the Young Communist League. He received his degree in electrical engineering in 1939 and married Ethel Greenglass. They had two sons named Michael (b. 1943) and Robert (b. 1947). Julius worked for the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1940-1945, where he was fired because he concealed his membership of the Communist Party. He subsequently opened a machine shop with Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass. They were in business together until 1949 (“Biographies: Julius Rosenberg”). As for Ethel, during the trial she described herself as a housewife (“Biographies: Ethel Rosenberg”). |
After a series of implications from confessions of Soviet spies, the FBI was led to David Greenglass, who had worked on the atom bomb construction while in the army. After he was arrested, Greenglass “confessed that he had accepted an invitation to engage in espionage presented by Rosenberg and his wife, Ethel, and conveyed to him by his own wife, Ruth, during a visit to New Mexico in 1944” (Knappman 453). Julius and Ethel were arrested along with Julius’ former college classmate Morton Sobell. Roy Cohn was the assistant to prosecutor Irving Saypol. Roy Cohn was the assistant to prosecutor Irving Saypol. The only person Cohn questioned was David Greenglass who was the first prosecution witness against the Rosenbergs and Sobell. Under his questioning, Greenglass stated that he showed Julius crude sketches of his work on the atomic bomb in 1945 that could still be considered classified in 1951 (Knappman 453). When Cohn requested the sketches be brought up for evidence, the Defense attorney Emanuel Bloch requested that it not be show as it was confidential. Judge Kaufman cleared the room of spectators and the evidence was shown anyway (Knappman 454).
With every piece of evidence brought forward, both Julius and Ethel continued to deny accusations. A witness said the Rosenbergs had a console table which they said was “a gift from a friend” but it was kept in the closet (Knappman 455). Both said they didn’t know where it was. Ruth Greenglass said Julius cut a Jell-O box in two as “a recognitions signal if she was succeeded by another courier” (Knappman 454).Once again he denied it. Despite this, all three of them were found guilty. On April 5, 1951, a week after they were charged, Judge Kaufman sentenced Sobell to 30 years and the Rosenbergs to the electric chair (Knappman 455).
Throughout the trial both were described as being cold and emotionless. Ethel Rosenberg was described to be “the most calm and self-assured of any of the defendants, and as seeming to be almost contemptuous of the proceedings. She displayed no emotion when her brother, David Greenglass, testified against her, or when Judge Irving Kaufman sentenced her to death. One juror later described her as ‘a steely, stony, tight-lipped woman.’” (“Biographies: Ethel Rosenberg”).Likewise, her husband was cold and sometimes vague in his answers. At one point, the Judge asked him if he ever belongs to a group that discussed Russian government, to which he replied “Well, your Honor, I feel at this time that I refuse to answer a question that might tend to incriminate me” (Knappman 455). |
The executions of the Rosenbergs were postponed for pending appeals. Many motions were brought forward to appeal the case on the grounds that Irving Saypol conducted an unfair trial, that the sentences were cruel and excessive, and that there was insufficient evidence. The case reached worldwide attention. There were protesters that stood outside of Sing Sing, where the Rosenbergs sat in death row. Millions of people wrote to the White House. Even Pope Pius XII and Albert Einstein appealed for clemency. All of these voices were denied. On June 19, 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at sundown (Knappman 456).
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As a whole, Roy Cohn had very little to do with this case. He was only the assistant to prosecutor Saypol, and (as stated earlier) he only questioned one witness. Even though the amount of he did seemed minimal, he had a huge impact on the trial. First, his questioning of Greenglass presented large pieces of evidence that did not bode well for the Rosenbergs. Second, he was often committing ex parte communication with the judge. In his own autobiography, Cohn stated that he not only communicated with Judge Kaufman separately, but he also pulled strings to have Kaufman work on the Rosenberg case in the first place (Weissbrodt & Aolain). The trail skyrocketed his career and two years late, Cohn became chief counsel to Attorney General Joseph McCarthy. Together they ran aggressive anti-Communist investigations. When Cohn allegedly tried to pull strings for a colleague in the army, he and McCarthy were charged in 1954. Afterwards, McCarthy lost credibility and Cohn went to New York to practice law privately. He ran into several financial troubles with the IRS as well as several federal charges for which he was acquitted. He was disbarred by the state of New York in June 1986. Two months later he died while being treated at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland (“Biographies: Roy Cohn”).
Kushner bookends Roy’s political career in Angels in America: beginning with the Rosenbergs and ending with his disbarment. As noted above, Roy’s involvement in the Rosenberg case is what got him noticed by several people. It is what brought him to McCarthy, the leading man in the Communist witch hunts. He built an empire with McCarthy and rose to infamy, which was brought to a crushing halt in 1986. Kushner found it suitable for Ethel, the woman who created his career, to be there at the end of it too.
Kushner bookends Roy’s political career in Angels in America: beginning with the Rosenbergs and ending with his disbarment. As noted above, Roy’s involvement in the Rosenberg case is what got him noticed by several people. It is what brought him to McCarthy, the leading man in the Communist witch hunts. He built an empire with McCarthy and rose to infamy, which was brought to a crushing halt in 1986. Kushner found it suitable for Ethel, the woman who created his career, to be there at the end of it too.