David Greenglass is Dead (1 Viewer)

[jazzeum]

Greenglass, who falsely implicated his sister Ethel Rosenberg in the case by the same name and whose evidence sent his sister to the electric chair, has died. Years later, he said he couldn't remember whether it was his wife or his sister who had typed up the notes that Julius passed to the Russians. He said that he had no regrets in falsely accusing his sister as his wife was more important than his sister or parents. Nice brother. May he rot in hell.

 

[Combat]

There is a good book on him called "The Brother" by Sam Roberts. I always find the quirks of fate in history to be interesting. For example, Greenglass apparently got the assignment at Los Alamos completely by chance which led to this entire ordeal. Like Oswald getting a job at the Texas School Book Depository. A random occurrence with large implications.

 

[damian]

There is a good book on him called "The Brother" by Sam Roberts. I always find the quirks of fate in history to be interesting. For example, Greenglass apparently got the assignment at Los Alamos completely by chance which led to this entire ordeal. Like Oswald getting a job at the Texas School Book Depository. A random occurrence with large implications.

Well that is the whole debate about Oswald
Have not read much about Greenglass.

 

[Combat]

Well that is the whole debate about Oswald
Have not read much about Greenglass.

The Rosenberg case resonated in its day but has been largely forgotten. For a period of time, there was some debate about the guilt of the Rosenbergs, but with the opening of the Russian archives in the 90's makes it certain now that Julius Rosenberg was clearly a spy. It's somewhat less clear what his wife Ethel knew or did to perpetuate his efforts. She was arrested primarily to pressure Julius into naming names. The authorities never bargained on both Julius and Ethel refusing to cooperate with a death sentence hanging over them. And they were stuck with carrying out the punishment when they refused. David Greenglass was Ethel's brother. By chance (apparently) he was assigned to Los Alamos during the war and provided Julius with information about the atomic bomb program. There is some debate about how useful that information was to the Russians but it was clearly a treasonous act. He was willing to name names, however, to save himself and spent only ten years in jail. He apparently had no guilt regarding what he did and largely attributed the responsibility for their deaths to Julius and Ethel for not cooperating with the authorities. "The Brother" is an excellent book about the case. Some interesting parallels with Oswald. Greenglass espoused a lot of pro-communists ideals while in the service and even at Los Alamos which was a top secret facility. It somewhat boggles the mind that such a person did not draw more attention with his political beliefs. Oswald did the same in the US Marines. He even learned Russian while in the service. Fodder for the conspiracy types, but just an example of how common sense prevails mostly in hindsight when at the time most people were too busy to care about a couple of miscreants in their ranks.

 

[damian]

Thanks for that informative post
I suppose that during WWII Russia was an ally but by the time of the Kennedy assassination the situation was different
I will try and read a bit about the Rosenberg's

 

[jazzeum]

Combat hit it right on the head. In the early 50s this country was paranoid about Communists. Everybody thought there was one under every bed. Some people refused to knuckle under and were ostracized. In this atmosphere the Rosenberg case broke. Julius did turn over secrets but it's now considered that what he turned over wasn't that useful to the Russians. He certainly didn't turn over the secrets of the bomb to the Russians; Klaus Fuchs had already done that.

The Rosenbergs were caught up in the hysteria of the times. I'm not even sure it merited the death sentence. The conduct of the Judge and the prosecutor was not exemplary either; the trial judge, Irving Kaufman, went on to become the head of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, one of the most prestigious courts among the various Courts of Appeals. Their two young sons later wrote a book called (I think) "We Are Their Sons."

That period of history is not one of our finest.

 

[BLReed]

That period of history is not one of our finest.

Yes, not one of the finest as we missed few.