Morton Sobell
Morton Sobell | |
---|---|
Deceased | |
Spouses | Helen Levitov
(m. 1945; div. 1980)Nancy Gruber
(m. 1993; died 2018) |
Children | 1 son and 1 stepdaughter |
Conviction(s) | Conspiracy to commit espionage (50 U.S.C. § 32) |
Criminal penalty | 30 years imprisonment |
Morton Sobell (April 11, 1917 – December 26, 2018) was an American engineer and
He was released in 1969 after serving 17 years and 9 months in prison. After that he became an advocate of socialist causes, conducting public speaking and traveling to Vietnam (during the war), to East Germany (before the fall of the Soviet Union), and to Cuba.
Biography
Morton Sobell was born in New York City to
Sobell began work in 1939 in Washington, D.C., for the Navy Bureau of Ordnance. In 1943 he took a job with General Electric Company, which had major defense contracts, in Schenectady, New York.[4]
According to
In June 1944,
At the beginning of September 1944, Elitcher and his wife went on holiday with Sobell and his fiancée Helen Levitov. Elitcher told his friend of Rosenberg's visit and his disclosure that "you, Sobell, were also helping in this." According to Elitcher, Sobell became very angry and said "he should not have mentioned my name. He should not have told you that." Elitcher claimed that Rosenberg tried to recruit him again in September 1945. Rosenberg told Elitcher "that even though the war was over there was a continuing need for new military information for Russia."[7]
In 1945 Sobell married Helen Levitov (1918–2002), who brought her daughter Sydney Gurewitz, born during her previous marriage. The new couple soon had a son Mark together.[8]
After
There were many questions raised by progressive intellectuals about the Rosenberg and Sobell cases. He was tried and found guilty along with the Rosenbergs and sentenced to 30 years. Both the Rosenbergs were executed. His wife Helen Sobell had worked with others to have the Rosenbergs spared from execution. She continued to work for more than 15 years to gain her husband's freedom. She contributed to eight appeals of his conviction on the merits, but these were unsuccessful. During this time, she taught science at the private Elizabeth Irwin School, a private high school in Greenwich Village. Sobell was initially sent to
Sobell was released in 1969 after serving 17 years and 9 months. It was seven and a half months before he was eligible for parole because the Circuit Court of Appeals gave him credit for the time he was in jail after his arrest and before his trial. His bail had been set at $100,000, which he could not raise.[4][9]
Sobell as political cause
After his release from prison, Sobell went on the speaker circuit, regaling audiences with his account of being falsely prosecuted and convicted by the federal government.
Final admission of guilt
In September 2008, the National Archives released most of the grand jury testimony from the prosecution of the conspiracy case against the Rosenbergs and Sobell, in response to a suit by the National Security Archive, historians and journalists.[18] Sobell, then 91, was interviewed by The New York Times about the case, as he was the only surviving primary figure other than David Greenglass. He was asked if he had given military secrets to the Soviets during World War II (then a war-time ally of the United States). He made the distinction that he had passed only material about defensive radar and artillery devices. This was the first time he had acknowledged his espionage activities. Reporter Sam Roberts pointed out that military experts contended that one device Sobell mentioned in the interview was later used against US military aircraft during the Korean and Vietnam wars. By that time, the Cold War was long underway, and the Soviet Union was considered an enemy of the US. Sobell also said that his co-defendant Julius Rosenberg had been involved in spying:[18]
In the interview with The New York Times, Mr. Sobell, who lives in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, was asked whether, as an electrical engineer, he turned over military secrets to the Soviets during World War II when they were considered allies of the United States and were bearing the brunt of Nazi brutality. Was he, in fact, a spy? "Yeah, yeah, yeah, call it that," he replied. "I never thought of it as that in those terms."[18]
Like the Rosenbergs, at the time of the events for which he was tried, Sobell was a committed communist. In 2018, he told The Wall Street Journal, "I bet on the wrong horse."[19]
Personal life and death
In 1945, Sobell married
In 1990, Sobell met Nancy Gruber. They married in 1993 and he survived her death in 2018. They lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.[22] Sobell died at the age of 101 on December 26, 2018.[23] He was the last surviving member of the Rosenberg spy ring.[24]
Articles/Books
- Evanier, David. 'The Death of Morton Sobell and the End of the Rosenberg Affair', online Mosaic, June 3, 2019.
See also
- Atomic spies
- Julius Rosenberg
- Alexander Feklisov
- Max Elitcher
References
- ^ 1920 United States Federal Census; Bronx Assembly District 7, Bronx, New York. National Archives and Administration.
- ^ "Biographies of Participants in the Rosenbergs Trial".
- ^ Morton Sobell article Archived 2009-04-29 at the Wayback Machine - University of Missouri-K. C. School of Law
- ^ New York Times. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
- ISBN 978-1-929631-08-7.
- ^ Max Elitcher, testimony at the trial of Julius Rosenberg and Morton Sobell (March 1951)
- ^ "Morton Sobell".
- ^ New York Times. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
- ^ Debbie Lord (June 19, 2017). "Julius and Ethel Rosenberg: Why were they executed? Would it happen today?". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
- ^ Reflections on Freedom of Speech and the First Amendment, by George Anastaplo, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007, p. 253
- ^ William M. Kunstler: The Most Hated Lawyer in America, by David J. Langum, 1999, p. 383
- ^ "New Questions On Rosenberg Case", Sidney E. Zion, New York Times, August 28, 1966
- ^ "Did Morton Sobell Get a Bum Deal?" Hartford Courant, June 3, 1968
- ^ Sobell, Morton, On Doing Time, 2001
- ^ a b "Refusing to Cooperate", by Lawrence Kaplan, Monthly Review, September 2001, http://www.monthlyreview.org/0901kaplan.htm
- ^ "TV: 'Rosenberg-Sobell Revisited' Offers New Thinking on Spy Case," John J. O'Conner, New York Times, June 19, 1978
- ^ "Letters", The Nation, April 2, 2001.
- ^ a b c Roberts, Sam, "Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits to Soviet Spying", The New York Times, 11 September 2008
- ^ Evanier, David (June 22, 2018). "'I Bet on the Wrong Horse,' Says an Unrepentant 101-Year-Old Spy". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
- ^ "Helen Sobell, 84; Activist Fought to Save Lives of Rosenbergs". Los Angeles Times. April 24, 2002. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
- ^ "Helen Sobell, ex-husband was convicted spy". San Francisco Chronicle. April 19, 2002. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
- ^ "NANCY GRUBER Obituary (2018) - New York, NY - New York Times". Legacy.com.
- ^ Kaufman, Michael T.; Roberts, Sam (January 30, 2019). "Morton Sobell, Last Defendant in Rosenberg Spy Case, is Dead at 101". The New York Times.
- ^ Evanier, David. "The Death of Morton Sobell and the End of the Rosenberg Affair". Mosaic. Retrieved June 4, 2019.