NEW YORK (AP) -- The brother of convicted spy Ethel Rosenberg admits in a new book that
he lied under oath to save himself, and is unconcerned that his perjury sent Rosenberg and
her husband, Julius, to the electric chair 48 years ago. "As a spy who turned his family in... I don't care," David Greenglass says in a television
interview to be broadcast Wednesday. "I sleep very well."
Greenglass, now 79, makes the stunning disclosure of false testimony in "The Brother" by
veteran New York Times editor Sam Roberts, and in a taped interview to be broadcast
Wednesday on CBS' "60 Minutes II."
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted in a sensational trial in 1951 of conspiring to
steal U.S. atomic secrets for the Soviet Union. Both died in Sing Sing's electric chair in June
1953, the only people ever executed in the United States for Cold War espionage.
Greenglass, Ethel's younger brother, admits in the book that he, too, was a spy who gave
the Soviets information about Los Alamos atomic research and a detonator invented by
another scientist.
When the Rosenbergs came to trial, Greenglass was also under indictment and worried that
he and his wife, Ruth, would be convicted. He says Roy Cohn, an assistant prosecutor and
later aide to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, encouraged him to lie.
In court, Greenglass delivered what would be the most incriminating testimony against Ethel
-- that she transcribed his spy notes destined for Moscow on a portable typewriter. His wife
corroborated his testimony.
But now, Greenglass tells author Roberts that he based his account on Ruth's recollection
and had no independent memory of the note-typing. In the TV interview, he repeats this,
saying, "I don't know who typed it, frankly, and to this day I can't remember that the typing
took place. I had no memory of that at all -- none whatsoever."
"Ethel may or may not have typed up David's handwritten notes that September 1945
evening... Who knows?" Roberts writes in his book, published by Random House.
"Handwritten or typed, the notes contained little or nothing that was new. But from the
prosecution's perspective, the Remington (typewriter) was as good as a smoking gun in Ethel
Rosenberg's hands."
In the TV interview, Greenglass is asked why the Rosenbergs went to their deaths rather
than admit espionage.
"One word -- stupidity," Greenglass replies. Asked whether that makes Ethel responsible for
her own death, he says, "Yeah."
In reply to questions, Greenglass admits he is sometimes haunted by the Rosenberg case,
but "my wife says, `Look, we're still alive."'
more…
http://www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?j0184_BC_NY--Rosenbergs-Brothe&&news&newsflash-newjersey
Email this topic to a friend
Printer-friendly version of this topic
Bookmark this topic (Registered users only)
Latest Breaking News (Protected)
