Freed Cold War Spy Morton Sobel!

QT ANDING before the bar of L' justice in Federal Court here on Thursday, April 5, 1961, a mild-looking man heard Judge Irving R. Kauf- man tell him: "I do not for a moment doubt that you were engaged in espionage activities; however, the evi- dence in the case did not point to any ac- Man tivity on your part in connec- tion with the News atom bomb proj- ect." The •subject and object of these words was Morton Sobell, and sec- onds later he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Then the judge said, "While it might be gratuitous on my part, I also not, at this point my recommendation against United Press international parole for this defendant." More than 18 years in Then and there the stage continuous custody, was set for one of the most massive, most protracted ef- York on April 11, 1917. At forts ever made to free a Stuyvesant High School he prisoner. met Max Elitcher, who later Yesterday, nearly 18 years Was to be the chief Govern- later, Morton Sobell was ment witness against him at given his release, not because the conspiracy trial. Their of the appeals but because friendship continued through be had served his sentence, City College, where they bath with time off for good be- knew Julius Rosenberg, a havior, fellow student. At the time of his trial on Sobell was graduated from charges of conspiracy to com- City College in 1938 and in mit espionage, Sobell was a 1942 received a master's de- relatively minor figure, over- gree in electrical engineering shadowed by two of his co- from the University of Mich- defendants, Julius and Ethel igan. Rosenberg, who were found guilty, denounced by the A Navy Worker in War judge for "putting into the Between 1939 and 1941, he hands of the Russians the worked in Washington as A-bomb," and sentenced to an engineer in the Navy's die. Bureau of Ordnance, and Sympathizers Work Hard during the war continued to work for the Navy, in the After the Rosenbergs were aircraft and marine engineer- put to death in the electric ing division of the General chair at Sing Sing prison in Electric plant in Schenec- June, 1954, the efforts that tady. had been directed in their Later, he lived with his behalf by sympathizers were family in Flushing, Queens, focused on the innocuous and worked at the Reeves looking man who had stood Instrument Corporation plant with them before the bar of in Manhattan on secret work justice. on Government contracts. There were many who ral- Until yesterday, Sobell lied to Sobell's cause—writ- had been in custody continu- ers, academicians and clergy- men—convinced that he ously since Aug. 18, 1950. should not have been tried The first five and a half with the Rosenbergs, that the years of his prison sentence evidence against him was were spent at Alcatraz. Early flimsy and that the verdict in 1956, he was transferred and sentence were excesses to the Federal Penitentiary generated by Cold War hys- in Atlanta. In 1961, he un- teria. derwent a prison operation A dark-haired, bespec- for removal of his gall tacled man who struck most bladder, and in 1963 was observers as being almost transferred to the Spring- pudgy, Merton Sobell broke field, Mo., prison medical into the headlines in August, center. 1950, when he was arrested At the time, Mrs. Sobell under a sealed warrant on reported that his weight had espionage charges in Laredo, fallen from 170 to 128 pounds Tex. Picked up by Federal as he continued to suffer Bureau of Investigation from stomach pains. In Jan- agents as he was deported uary, 1965, he went to the from Mexico, where he had Lewisburg, Pa., penitentiary. flown two months earlier, There, Mrs. Sobell said, he Sobell was held under a was studying to be a dental $100,000 bond. technician. With him was his wife, "You have a choice in Helen, who was to act as Lewisburg of working or spearhead of the unflagging studying, she said. "The drive to regain him his free- only thing is that, if you dom. Joining her in the ef- study, you don't get paid. fort were Sobell's mother, But the top rate at Lewis- Rose, and the two Sobell burg is only 35 cents an hour children, a daughter, Sydney, anyway." now married and a teacher, A few years ago, Mrs. and a son, Mark, a computer Sobell, a petite, dark-haired programmer. former physicist, estimated When their father was the cost of the fight to sentenced to prison, Sydney exonerate her husband at was 11 years old. Mark was about $1-million. 18 months. For Morton Sobell yester- Sobell, whose father, day, there was no exonera- Louis, was a Bronx phar- tion. But there was, at least, macist, was born in New freedom.