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In 1950, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
arrested Julius Rosenberg (1918-53), an electrical engineer who had worked
(1940-45) for the U.S. army signal corps, and his wife Ethel (1916-53);
they were indicted for conspiracy to transmit classified military
information to the Soviet Union.
In the trial that followed (Mar., 1951), the government charged
that in 1944 and 1945 the Rosenbergs had persuaded Ethel's brother, David
Greenglassan employee at the Los Alamos atomic bomb project to provide them
and a third person, Harry Gold, with top-secret data on nuclear weapons.
The chief evidence against the Rosenbergs came from Greenglass and his wife, Ruth. Both
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty (1951) and received the death sentence; Morton Sobell, a codefendant, received a 30-year prison term, as did Harry Gold; and David Greenglass was later sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
Despite many court appeals and pleas for executive clemency, the Rosenbergs were executed on June 19, 1953. They became the first U.S. civilians to suffer the death penalty in an espionage trial.
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The
bodies of executed atom spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg lie in coffins.
The bodies, which were to be buried the next afternoon, were clad in
white sheets. Mrs. Rosenberg's head was covered with a bit of silk to
hide the spot where her head was shaven for the electrocution's helmet.
Julius Rosenberg wore a white skullcap and a Hebrew prayer shawl.
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