Rosenberg Scapegoat

Fear, paranoia, and propaganda all dominated the 1940's and 1950's due to McCarthy and his dominating force of communist fear. Many normal families were scared of being 'caught' a communist, or even worse, communist spies. Yet, there was one couple that was affected more than any if these terrified groups of people; they were the Rosenbergs. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a happily and lovingly married Jewish couple that had been married since 1939. But, on July 17th, 1950 Julius was arrested by the FBI in front of his two sons for conspiracy to commit espionage. Almost a month later Ethel was arrested for her supposed involvement. Accused of being Russian spies that had given Russia secret military information that mostly consisted of the USA's development of the atomic bomb; they put their hope of freedom in their lawyer, Emanual Bloch. Bloch would be relentless in his attempt to convince the jury of the Rosenbergs innocence, and later try to convince the legal system that consisted of the Appellate courts, the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court Justices (and even the President) that the death sentence was too harsh of a sentence for the convicted crime; conspiracy to commit espionage.

Though Bloch would try to be relentless with his version of the truth, the prosecution, Irving H. Saypol, would be just as relentless, if not more. He had just won the famous Alger Hiss Case (Crime Library) and rolling on that steam engine of success and "Red Commie" propaganda he was ready to take another "Red" to jail or (in this case) the electric chair. The Judge in the case was Irving Kaufman, well known for his stern rule and scholarly decisions (Crime library). The jury selection could be considered diverse at the time having one African-American man and one woman on the jury, but no jury member was part of the Jewish faith (this fact would be a propaganda factor later on).

The story of the Rosenbergs is not a straight time line of events. The story is more of a ball of yarn of events. The main actions in which the Rosenbergs' were tried and convicted were mostly performed between the years of 1944 until about 1946 when Julius's supposed informant, David Greenglass, was discharged from the army (FBI). During the time that David Greenglass served the United States Army, he was assigned to Santa Fe, New Mexico as part of the Second Provisional Engineer Detachment Unit. While Greenglass was in the Detachment Unit, he was able to access the assembling of an atomic bomb and was able to remember the design and the types of material that the bomb used. In the trial, Greenglass testified that he had given sketches of the design of the lens mold for the bomb to Julius Rosenburg and Harry Gold, another Russian spy. According to testimony given by David and his wife, Ruth, contact between David Greenglass and Julius Rosenburg was not always direct. Allegedly, Julius would talk to David's wife, about what she needed to tell her husband to look for and what he should give his contact(s). David was discharged from the army in 1946 and began working with Julius 1947. When the business that they had formed was not doing as well as David had hoped, he left the company and became a mechanist for the Arma Corporation until his arrest by the FBI in 1950 (FBI).

In court, the prosecution (Saypol) mainly used David's testimony to convince the jury of Julius's guilt. David did not just explain the 'fact' that Julius was his contact and manipulator but also gave detailed examples incriminating Julius; such as a intricately cut Jell-O box to recognize a contact, burning notes in a frying pan, and giving David money to flee the country. Not only were his discussions of the above events that persuaded the jury of Julius's guilt, but the prosecution also submitted 'evidence' of the sketches. Saypol had David try to redraw the sketches he had supposedly given to Julius for the Russians; these were exhibits #6 and #7 (law umkc). After the sketches were presented, Saypol put Walter Koski, an Atomic Energy Commission physicist, to explain the significance that sketches would have for the enemy (law umkc). Koski agreed that the sketches were the general design of the lens but the sketches did not have the accurate dimensions on them (law umkc koski testimony). Koski claims that the exact dimensions were not necessary to help build an atomic bomb (law umkc koski testimony).

After her husband's testimony, Ruth Greenglass took the stand. Her testimony was, in part, to verify parts of David's story, but mainly it was suppose to drag Ethel Rosenburg into the picture. David's testimony did not show much evidence that Ethel had any part in Julius's espionage, but Ruth's account of Ethel's dealings seemed to start to convince the jury that she had something to do with the spy activity. According to Ruth's testimony, she was asked by Julius to get her husband to work as a spy and she was relaying messages between the two when David agreed to help Julius. Ruth continued to corroborate David's story and brought Ethel Rosenburg into the picture. Ruth accused Ethel of typing the notes then destroying the written notes in a frying pan. She also said that Ethel had a very nice, beautiful table that was given to them by a friend; which, according to what she claimed Ethel had said, was converted into a table that stored and prepared microfilm. To help convince the jury that this was the case, the Rosenberg's maid was brought in to testify about the table. The only testimony that was of any use was the fact that the table was one day moved from the living room into a closet (FBI). The maid stated that she asked Mrs. Rosenberg about moving the table back to the living room, but Mrs. Rosenberg declined.

The next effective witness for the prosecution was Harry Gold. Mr. Gold was already facing thirty years for his dealings in espionage, so he seemed to be a neutral subject for either side. He was an effective witness for the prosecution, though he never claimed to have met Julius or having contact with Julius. Mr. Gold described his meeting with David Greenglass, how his secret code was "I come from Julius" (law umkc). The secret code was the only real link that Julius Rosenberg was any part of his espionage web (law umkc). There were two more main witnesses that built the prosecution's case; Elizabeth Bently and Ben Schneider. Elizabeth Bently was a well-known woman ex-spy that turned in many "Red Spies" after turning into an informer for the US. Mrs. Bently claimed that her husband would receive calls from someone named "Julius," on five or six different occasions (law umkc). She also never met Julius Rosenberg, but was able to convince the jury that the "Julius" calling for her husband