THE TRIAL OF ETHEL ROSENBERG

SCRIPT EXCERPT

NARRATOR 2: David Greenglass had worked as a GI mechanic on the atom bomb project in Los Alamos. He testified that Julius had recruited him as a spy for the Soviets and that while stationed at Los Alamos he provided Julius with dozens of pages of written description of the bomb. These and other materials were allegedly passed on to the Soviets by other members of the spy ring. . . .

Assistant U.S. Attorney Roy Cohn conducted the direct examination:
COHN: What did Julius Rosenberg say to you?
GREENGLASS: He said to me that he wanted to know what I had for him. I told him “I think I have a pretty good description of the atom bomb.”
COHN: The atom bomb itself?
GREENGLASS: That’s right.
COHN: Did you draw up a sketch of the atom bomb itself?
GREENGLASS: I did.
COHN: Did you prepare descriptive material to explain the sketch of the atom bomb?
GREENGLASS: I did.
COHN: Was there any other material that you wrote up on that occasion?
GREENGLASS: I gave some scientists’ names, and I also gave some possible recruits for espionage.
COHN: Now will you tell what happened, Mr. Greenglass, after you handed this sketch and the descriptive material concerning the atomic bomb to Mr. Rosenberg? What did he do, and what did the others do?
GREENGLASS: Well, he stepped into another room and he read it and he came out and said, “This is very good. We ought to have this typed up immediately.” And my wife said, “We will probably have to correct the grammar involved,” because I was more interested in writing down the technical phrases of it than I was in correcting the grammar. So they pulled — they had a bridge table and they brought it into the living room, plus a typewriter.
COHN: What kind of typewriter?
GREENGLASS: A portable.
COHN: Then What?
GREENGLASS: And they set that up and each sentence was read over and typed in correct grammatical fashion . . .
NARRATOR 1: Manny Bloch cross-examined.
BLOCH: You love your wife very dearly, don’t you?
GREENGLASS: I do.
BLOCH: Do you love her more than you love yourself?
GREENGLASS: I do.
BLOCH: Do you love your children?
GREENGLASS: I do.
BLOCH: Did you at any time think of your wife while you were down here telling your story to the FBI?
GREENGLASS: Of course, I thought of her.
BLOCH: Did you think of your wife with respect to the fact that she may be a defendant in a criminal proceeding?
GREENGLASS: I did.
BLOCH: Now, Mr. Greenglass, your wife has never been arrested, has she?
GREENGLASS: She has not.
BLOCH: And your wife is at the present time home, taking care of your children, isn’t that right?
GREENGLASS: That’s right.
BLOCH: Do you bear any affection for your sister Ethel?
GREENGLASS: I do.
BLOCH: You realize, do you not, that Ethel is being tried here on a charge of conspiracy to commit espionage?
GREENGLASS: I do.
BLOCH: And you realize the possible death penalty, in the event that Ethel is convicted by this jury, do you not?
GREENGLASS: I do.
BLOCH: And you bear affection for her?
GREENGLASS: I do.
BLOCH: This moment?
GREENGLASS: At this moment.

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