CRIME STORIES: THE CASE OF JULIUS AND ETHEL ROSENBERG (TV)
Summary
One in this series of programs exploring true crimes and criminals. This installment looks at the controversial case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, New Yorkers who in 1953 became the only Americans to be sentenced to death for espionage outside military court. Newsman Walter Cronkite speaks briefly of the anti-communist fervor of the early 1950s before the program goes back in time to provide a brief biography of the couple, whose early ambitions were reshaped by the economic and social devastation of the Great Depression; they met as members of the Young Communist League and married in 1939. Julius Rosenberg, viewers learn, was hired as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army Signal Corps but was dismissed in 1945 because of his communist sympathies. Narrator James Naughton quickly discusses the development of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and moves on to the fear that ran through the U.S. when the Soviet Union developed its own bomb; leaders such as F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover believed that the secret of the bomb had been stolen. Naughton details the chain of suspicion that led from Los Alamos scientist Klaus Fuchs, who admitted to spying for the Soviets, through a chemist named Harry Gold to Ethel Rosenberg's brother, David Greenglass. Author Ronald Radosh explains that when Greenglass was arrested, he agreed to testify against his brother-in-law in order to commute his own sentence and save his wife Ruth from prosecution as a spy. Julius Rosenberg was arrested in July 1950, viewers learn, and his wife followed soon after; author Miriam Schneir suggests that the government did not believe that Ethel Rosenberg had actively spied but wished to use her as leverage to induce her husband to confess. An associate, Morton Sobell, was also arrested but received a lighter sentence; in a present-day interview Sobell recalls his arrest as a co-defendant on a charge of criminal conspiracy to commit espionage in wartime. Attorney Raymond Brown explains that this charge requires less evidence than that of treason.
The trial is then laid out for viewers, with footage of Judge Irving R. Kaufman and prosecuting U.S. Attorney Irving H. Saypol; associate James Kilsheimer recalls Saypol as a "stern prosecutor." Schneir argues that the Rosenbergs' attorney, Emanuel Bloch, was well intentioned but in over his head; the Rosenbergs' son Robert Meeropol, who along with his brother Michael was adopted after the Rosenbergs' death, recalls Bloch's kindness and a visit to his parents in prison. Testimony of witnesses for the prosecution is recalled, including the testimony of a friend of Sobell, Max Elitcher, and the words of Ruth Greenglass, who implicated her sister-in-law. The only witnesses for the defense were the Rosenbergs themselves; Schneir suggests that their demeanor and their refusal to discuss their Communist Party membership hurt their case. The program moves through the couple's conviction and fruitless appeals to their execution in June 1953. In an epilogue, Naughton explains that, although the Rosenbergs were for many years assumed to be complete innocent, in 1995 the National Security Agency released old telegrams that implicated Julius Rosenberg as a spy.
Moreover, in 1997 former Soviet spy Alexander Feklisov admitted that he had worked with Rosenberg. In an interview Feklisov recalls the association, although he denies that Ethel Rosenberg was involved. Robert Meeropol argues that even if his father did spy he did not steal the secret of the atomic bomb and should not have been executed. Radosh agrees that the death sentence was not justified but states his opinion that the Rosenbergs were "not innocent." The program concludes with a brief discussion of the fates of the other figures in the Rosenberg trial, including Gold, Greenglass, and the Rosenbergs' children. Commercials deleted.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The New York Community Trust - Haas Foundation Fund.
Details
- NETWORK: Court TV
- DATE: November 30, 1998 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:01
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:65865
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Cold War; Trials (Conspiracy); Trials (Espionage)
- SERIES RUN: Court TV/TruTV - TV series, 1998-2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Eric Ober … Executive Producer
- Lynne Kirby … Executive Producer
- Robyn Hutt … Senior Producer
- Scott Galloway … Supervising Producer
- Dan Sitarsky … Producer, Writer
- Kathryn Pope … Associate Producer
- Eileen Matthews … Associate Producer
- Ken Rarick … Music by
- Josh Sitron … Theme Music by
- Richard Belzer … Host
- James Naughton … Narrator
- Emanuel Bloch
- Raymond Brown
- Walter Cronkite
- Max Elitcher
- Alexander Feklisov
- Klaus Fuchs
- Harry Gold
- David Greenglass
- Ruth Greenglass
- J. Edgar Hoover
- Irving R. Kaufman
- James Kilsheimer
- Michael Meeropol
- Robert Meeropol
- Ronald Radosh
- Ethel Rosenberg
- Julius Rosenberg
- Irving H. Saypol
- Miriam Schneir
- Morton Sobell