11OULD Ths DOLPHIN Lairirsrammal LUBER/WIWI CASE

1. 4 Pi ger ss Imo:4311g ypewri er ody Powell's Ordeal by Fire/John Rockwell on Linda Ronstadt „ tis A S I,' 4 '1 1 +

OCTOBER 14. 1977 SI Oil THE FEATURE NEWS MAGAZINE

.11OULD ThS DOLPHIN lairiRsrammAL LUBER/WIWI CASE. CTENSIN Are* Cittlaw • -- I 11 The typewriters are a:ways the key" (Richard 'iron to Chuck Colson, as told hyionn Deane

BY FRED COOK

New evidence from F.B.I. files, involving double agents and a typewriter that was apparently purchased before it was built, raises old questions about the Hiss case.

The Alger Hiss case, the water- the year in an effort to wipe out his 1950 Hall. was Schrnahrs employer in the lat- shed episode of an entire generation conviction for perjury, based on the er 1930s and 19-1.0s. Broady recalls one tarred with the shadow of an alleged charge that he lied in denying Whittaker daring exploit of Schmahi's that illus- Communist menace, is heading for a new Chambers' accusations that he had been trates both his skill as a double-agent and and probably final showdown in the a Communist and a spy. his skill in getting out of scrapes. During a visit to Germany in the courts based on two discoveries. It ap- The two elements—the activities pears that the antecedents of the Water- of the double-agent and the origin of the days shortly after Adolf Hider seized gate "plumbers" are to be found in this Woodstock—interlock to give a new pic- power. Schmahl ingratiated himself with controversial case, which altered the ture of a Byzantine struggle that was to Hider's personal photographer to such course of American politics and stimu- profoundly influence the political struc- an extent that he managed to steal and lated much of the rhetoric of the cold ture of two decades. Out of it Richard duplicate the keys to the darkroom and war. Nixon emerged as a national public the private filing cabinets containing un- As a result of recent Freedom of figure, his feet set on the path that would published pictures of the Fuehrer. He Information suits. Hiss' attorneys have ultimately lead to the presidency, Water- purloined some of the best prints and discovered: first, that Hiss was victim- gate and disgrace. Out of it came the smuggled them back to the United ized by a double-agent, a detective McCarthy era with its chant of "twenty States. "Some were not exactly flatter- hired to help him who was actually art in- years of treason." Out of it came the ing." Broady recalls, with a chuckle. formant for the Federal Bureau of Inves- knee-jerk, hardline reflexes of Demo- tigation: and second, that the Justice De- cratic administrations, forever shy of be- "and of course those were the ones that partment deliberately withheld from the ing labeled "soft on communism''—and sold for the most money here. There was defense exculpatory material in FBI files so, in the end, committed to the ultimate a great furor in Germany when these pictures appeared in the American media, indicating that the mysterious Wood- folly of the war in Vietnam. stock typewriter—a vital exhibit that The key figure. a man of intrigue and the Nazis arrested Schmahl. They played a major role in Hiss' conviction— and mystery, is a German-born private thought they had him dead-to-rights, and was a phonied and fraudulent machine. detective, Horace W. Schmahl—short, it was touch-and-go there for awhile. Of These will be the major pillars of squat, with a heavy guttural accent: mas- course. I pulled all the strings I could a cot-am nobis action (a writ to correct ter of many languages and endowed with here, and Schmahl is pretty wily. He earlier judicial error) that Hiss' attorneys a wily ability to talk his way out of the finally talked his way out of it." are determined to file before the end of most precarious situations. The man who could walk away John G. (Steve) Broady. the fa- unscathed after rifling the private photo- Fred Cook is the author of The Unfin- mous private eye once convicted and im- graphic flies of Adolf Hitler was still ilhed Case of Alger Hiss and The FB prisoned for bugging New York's City working for Broady in 1948 when the Noboly Knows. .4E0.1-WS 23 P.-G T. 44UP. ay NEIL SELK.14( Enter the double agent. Edward C. McLean, Hiss' original attorney, con- tacted Broady. Hiss recalls McLean later telling him: "We're not big enough for Steve Broady to handle this-himself, but he'll assign a couple of his men." The investigators Broady put on the case were Schmahl and Harold B. Bretnall. It would appear from McLean's time sheets, however, that Schmahl was in charge. All conferences, telephone calls and reports deal with Schmahl; Bret- nail's name never appears. Hiss met Schmahl in a conference in McLean's office on October 22, 1948. "I didn't like him," he recalls now. "He was short, squat, with a heavy German accent . . . and there was just something about him [Hiss shrugs recalling his intuition] that I didn't like. But Broady vouched for him, and so . . . [another s hrug]. • It was not, Hiss says, until years Schmahl and Broady: On the Woodstock trail later—after he had been convicted and was preparing an appeal—that Chester Hiss-Chambers cast erupted in eight- dared. Hiss had brought home for his Lane, his new counsel, shocked him column headlines during the height of wife to copy on an old Woodstock type- with the question: "Did you know that the Dewey-Truman presidential cam- writer the family once had owned. Schmahl was a double agent?" paign. This started a typewriter hunt un- Chester Lane had seen much war- A cornerstone of the Republican rivaled in history. Hiss' wife, Priscilla, time service in Washington. running campaign strategy was the oft-repeated nee Fansler. had been given the Wood- Lend-Lease and inevitably coming into charge that the Roosevelt and Truman stock by her father. Thomas. Fansler contact with intelligence agencies. When Administrations had been dyed pink by had been in partnership with Harry L. Hiss told him he had no idea that Moscow. Support for this thesis was Martin in a Philadelphia insurance busi- Schmahl had played a double role, Lane offered by• Whittaker Chambers, a ness from the spring of 1927 (a signifi- insisted: "Well, I know he was a double round-faced. beefy editor of Time maga- cant date) until late 1930. When the part- agent. I can't tell you how I know, but I zine. nership broke up, Fansler gave his know. Try to think back on everything he Chambers rook the stand before daughter the Woodstock that he had pur- did for you." the House Un-American Activities Com- chased. Mrs. Hiss had used the machine Thinking. however, could not mittee in the hot summer of 1948 and to type letters, but it had long since van- prove the deed. Proof rested in FBI files. testified that a number of second-eche- ished from the Hiss household, having then closed to the defense but forced lon New Deal figures in the 1930s had been discarded as a virtually worthless open now through Freedom of Informa- been Communists. Among those he piece of junk. Where was it now? And if tion actions. These documents reveal named was Alger Hiss, who had gone on it could be found, would it prove or dis- that Schmahl had been an undercover to become a rising young star in the State prove Chambers' tale of document agent for U.S. intelligence agencies in Department and had been a member of copying? various capacities for 20 years and that. the American delegation at the wartime big-power conference at Yalta. Amazingly, in the light of subsequent developments. Chambers repeat- Chambers , who had sworn Hiss had never edly testified under oath that Hiss had been a spy, declared Hiss' had always never been a spy. He had been too valu- able to the party to be risked in such a been a spy. role, Chambers declared; his function had been to influence policy. In November 1948, the totally unexpected happened: Truman defeated Dewey. And Chambers, as he later re- vealed in his book, Witness, felt threat- ened. The administration he had done so much to blacken had been returned to power and was in a position to investigate and possibly prosecute him. Instantly, Chambers' oft-times repeated tale of subversion took a ISO- degree turn and became a story of espionage. Hiss had sued Chambers for libel; and when depositions in the libel case were taken in Baltimore, Cham- bers. who had sworn Hiss had never been a spy, declared Hiss had always been a spy. And he produced a batch of State Department documents that. he de-

St NEW IMES 10/1 AfT7 for more than two years. he regularly in- Hiss' story concerning the typewriter dent FBI investigation: it was an authori- formed the FBI of everything he learned and 'several other points' has been zation to make full use of the double- about the Hiss defense. found to be inaccurate. , . Schmahl agent to penetrate the Hiss defense. The Schmahl was born Horst W. did state that if Hiss were proven wrong New York bureau responded in a tele- Si.hrnahl in Dusseldorf, Germany, on on 'one more thing' his firm would with- type December 23. informing Washing- June 28. 1908. He came to the United draw from the case." ton that Schmahl had been interviewed States in August, 1929; served for a time This attitude, even at this late by two FBI agents on December 11. as a deputy sheriff in Nassau County. date, comes as news to John Broady. Schmahl had told the agents, the teletype Long Island; then went into private de- Schmahl's employer. "I questioned both said. "that during the war he had worked tective—and undercover—work. Hiss and Chambers," Broady says, for military intelligence" and "that for The FBI teletypes so far released "and I thought Chambers a kook and the past twenty years he has been han- trace Schmahl's dual role in the Hiss Hiss a high-type public official. I doubt- dling international work for the Depart- case almost from beginning to end. A ed very much that Horace Schmahl ment of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's memo from the FBI bureau in Phila- would db anything to harm Alger Hiss." office in the Southern District of New delphia on December 7, 1948, reported That isn't what the FBI records York." that Schmahl had telephoned Martin. seem to show. They reveal, for example. Subsequent FBI memos leave no Fansler's former insurance partner, try- ing to locate samples of typing done on the old Woodstock. Schmahl is quoted Woodstock N 23C,699 would have been as telling Martin he was cooperating with federal authorities and advising Martin manufactured in the latter part of to do the same. 1929--and could not possibly have There was nothing at the time especially suspicious in this, for Hiss been the machine in the office in 1927. and his attorney were also cooperating with the FBI, apparently in the belief that an impartial investigation would establish Hiss' innocence. For it was on this same December 7 that McLean turned over to the New York FBI some vital evidence later to be used against Hiss—three letters that Priscilla Hiss had typed on the old Woodstock in the 1930s. A teletype from the New York office to Director J. Edgar Hoover that same afternoon disclosed that Schmahl had been in touch with the FBI and "de- sired to know if he should furnish any information he might obtain" when he talked to Martin in person the next day. Schmahl was advised, the memo says, that on December 16, 1948--the day af- doubt about the continuing collaboration that the FBI always conducted its own ter Hiss' indictment—Schmahl turned of Schmahl and the bureau. On Novem- independent investigations and that he over to the FBI information potentially ber 18, 1950, the New York office re- was not to give the impression he was embarrassing to Chambers' wife, Es- ported that Schmahl. "who worked for representing the bureau in any way. The ther. Schmahl had learned from the Bal- the Hiss attorneys and subsequently fur- message added that, when McLean and timore Credit Bureau that Esther Cham- nished information on a confidential ba- Priscilla Hiss visited the FBI office later bers had obtained credit with the help of sis." had kept agents advised about in the day, McLean "was informed of the credit rating of another Chambers— Hiss' appeal strategy. It added: "As pre- Mr. Schmahl's telephone [call] and re- Jay. an assistant administrator in the viously stated. Schmahl will keep our quest." This cryptic reference does not Treasury Department. His wife's name. New York Office advised of any perti- make clear just what McLean, who is however, was Anne, and Esther Cham- nent developments." now dead, was told about Schrnahl's of- bers, questioned by the FBI. couldn't Enter now more ghosts from the fer to tell the bureau all he learned. explain "the errors" in the application underground of espionage and double "Of course," Hiss says now, "up she had filed. agents. The Central Intelligence Agency to the date of the indictment on Decem- The relationship between has admitted to Hiss' attorneys that it ber 15, there would have been no objec- Schmahl and the FBI now became clos- possesses a large file on Schmahl, but it tion to Schmahl's talking to the FBI if he er. A teletype from Washington to the has fought disclosure on the hoary old • could learn anything from them. But af- field on December 22, 1948, reads: grounds of "national security." It did on ter that he should have had no contact" "Schmahl may know where the type- one occasion deluge the Hiss defense The FBI Riles establish, however, writer is located. Schrnahl's instructions with hundreds of pages of reports deal- that Schmahl's contacts were continu- from Hiss and Hiss' law firm would be ing with Schmahl's possible involvement ous, and give a picture of a detective of great interest, as well as Schmahl's in the March 12. 1956. kidnaping of Dr. who seems hardly to have been dedicat- observations concerning the results of Jesus de Galindez. a Columbia Universi- ed to the cause of his client. Typical is a his own investigation. He may have an ty instructor and the foe of the Dornini• teletype from the Philadelphia bureau on idea as to the serial number of the type- can dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo December 8, reporting Schmahl's ques- writer, where it was disposed of, when it Molina. The reports had nothing to do tioning of Martin in the presence of Mar- was disposed of, if it was repaired, etc. with the Hiss case, but they did confirm tin's attorney. It said: Suggest bureau and New York office that Schmahl had worked for the office "Martin and his attorney both consider advisability of immediate inter- of military intelligence and the Office of gained the impression from Schmahl that view with Schmahl." Strategic Services (the World War II spy there is doubt in his mind as to Hiss' in- It was an authorization that aban- forerunner of CIA). The CIA furnished nocence since Schmahl told them that doned all pretense of an ethical, indepen- Hiss attorneys with a "partial invento-

PrCTOS. PER GEL'S iP.4 Ica .477 NEN 71%4E:5 27 chine was "sitting right there" on a table in the home of a mover named Ira Lock- ey—only it wasn't: another time, it was supposed to be in a closet—only it wasn't. Mike Catlett, who was helping in the search, claimed he had seen FBI agents at Lockey's place and wouldn't go near it. As for Lockey, he refused to talk, then he professed to know nothing—and then, suddenly (and only when Hiss' attorneys accompanied Catlett to his house) Lockey produced Woodstock N 230,099 like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The defense offered the Wood-Wood- stock in evidence during the Hiss trials. the second of which, in early 1950. ended in Hiss' conviction for perjury. The prosecution called the documents and the Woodstock (which the defense had produced but which sat in court like an accusing prosecution exhibit) "the immutable witnesses" to the crime it said Alger Hiss had committed. Yet the government .must have •••-• e?. . — known, as laymen and even Hiss' trial Pumpkin Surprises: Rep. Richard M. Nixon (right) prepares for his Senate race counsel did not, that the witnesses were anything but "immutable." At the heart ry" of other documents relating to stunned when document experts told of the government's case lay a spurious Schmahl, and a court battle is now going them that the typing matched that of the contention—that the typing of each in- on to force full disclosure. Baltimore documents and the original dividual typewriter has identifiable char- It could be a pivotal battle be- letters typed by Priscilla Hiss in the thir- acteristics that make it as distinctive as cause the little that has seeped out from ties. the human fingerprint. Hence the Hiss under the official rug contains some tan- Professor Allen Weinstein, who defense, having accepted Woodstock N- talizing clues. A confidential memo from secured the first release of FBI docu- 230.099 as the original Hiss machine and the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Head- ments under a Freedom of Information having been told by its own document quarters for the Second Army on Gover- action, is now preparing a book that, he experts as well as those of the FBI that nor's Island during World War II. re- indicates. will attempt to prove Hiss guil- its typing matched that of the Baltimore veals that Schmahl had come under sus- ty. Weinstein has charged that Hiss lied documents, was boxed into a position in picion as a possible Nazi sympathizer. when asked by the FBI and the grand which it had no rational explanation to The memo, dated February 7. 1941, said jury what had become of the typewriter. support its claim of innocence. that Schmahl "strenuously denies" Hiss had already suggested to his attor- The defense could not know that these charges though admitting to an ac- neys that it might have been disposed of the government's typewriter-fingerprint quaintance with Fritz Kuhn, the Ger- to the Catletts, but he told the prosecu- analogy was fraudulent. But the FBI and man-American Bund leader, and Adam tors he had no independent recollection the government must have known, for Kunze, an avowed pro-Nazi and, signifi- of what had become of it. This may well forgery by typewriter had been practiced cantly perhaps, a genius at constructing have been the literal truth. Hiss in his with great and startling success by the and repairing typewriters. own book, In the Court of Public Opin- clandestine services in World War II. With Horace Schmahl and Adam ion, wrote that he did not know what had The British Secret Service, with which Kunze, one begins to get at what well become of the Woodstock, but that his the FBI maintained close liaison, had on may be the heart of the continuing Hiss stepson. Timothy Hobson, suggested in one occasion fabricated a document with case—the mystery of the double agent a family conference that the Catletts such skill—duplicating paper, ribbon, and the mystery of the typewriter. The might have it. Hiss passed this tip on to ink, typing and official letterhead— that Hiss defense, after giving the FBI sam- his lawyers before he testified before the it was accepted by the pro-Nazi Vargas ples of Priscilla Hiss' typing, tried to find grand jury, but he was hardly under any government of Brazil as evidence of the old Woodstock. The FBI, naturally. obligation to be more than literally truth- Nazi plotting against Vargas. And so it was hunting for the same machine. ful to the federal bloodhounds who were changed Brazil's entire policy toward the It should have been an uneven by then obviously baying on his trail. Axis powers. contest. The FBI had some 35 agents In any event, the Woodstock was By comparison, the forgery of combing Washington, and other agents not easily found. Donald Hiss. Alger's documents Chambers produced in Bal- in field offices across the country track- brother. and his associates had a difficult timore and tagged to Hiss would have ing down clues to the identity of the elu- time with the Catletts. It is a labyrinthine been as easy as embellishing a fairy story sive typewriter. Yet the Hisses, ama- tale, filled with indications that FBI for some wide-eyed, credulous kid. But teurs in the detective business, found it. agents (as would be logical) had already was this, in fact, the case? Or at least found a machine. questioned anyone who might have had The question was never raised un- The Woodstock that they finally possession of the machine. When Ches- til Chester Lane, convinced of Hiss' in- traced through their former servants, the ter Lane became suspicious about the nocence on the espionage charge, honed Catletts, bore the serial number N- Woodstock, he tried to backtrack on the in on the mystery of the Woodstock and 230.099. Hiss and his attorneys had an- manner in which it literally fell into the the possibility of forgery by typewriter. ticipated that the typing done on the ma- hands of the defense. I-le found a maze He took two approaches. He tried to find chine would disprove Chambers' of conflicting and contradictory stories:- out from the Woodstock factory in charges; and they were apparently One time the Hisses were told the ma- Woodstock. Illinois. when a machine

30 NEN TI MES 10114.177 . bearing serial number N 230,uw would 230.099. FBI bureaus all over the coun- showed that the Fansler-Martin machine have been manufactured; and he hired try thrashed around to determine wheth- was purchased in 1927. Salesman Grady Martin K. Tytell. a typewriter expert, to er they had erred in their original investi- was re-interviewed in Milwaukee and in- manufacture a machine that would dupli- gation. All that this frantic re-examina- sisted "that he could not have sold this cate the typing of the Baltimore docu- tion produced, the documents show, was typewriter [N 230,0991 as he sold no ments. a confirmation of the original data. The typewriters subsequent to leaving the Joseph Schmitt, plant manager at Chicago office on May 20. 1949. sent FBI employ of Woodstock in December. Woodstock, gave Lane's investigator Director Hoover a list of serial numbers 1927." one important clue. The type used on the furnished by Joseph Schmitt, "indicat- The evidence now dragged out of machine produced in court, he said, ing the various serial numbers being used the FBI files seems conclusive. The could not have been used on a machine at the times technical changes were Woodstock machine produced in court with the serial number N 230,099. Such a made in Woodstock typewriters." was a phony, not the original Fansler- machine would have been manufactured SchmiU vowed for the accuracy of the Martin machine, and the inescapable in August or September. 1929. but the list, the Chicago office reported, and it conclusion is that it was planted on the kind of type on N 230.099 had been dis- showed that a highly significant change- Hisses with the deliberate intention of continued at the end of 1928. Schmitt over had been made in March, 1929. wrecking the defense, a tactic that suc- added without elaboration that his com- That was when machines labeled "New ceeded brilliantly. The corollary is that pany "had helped the FBI find the type- Style Action" were first produced. start- the FBI. by the time of the trials at least. writer in the Hiss case"—just one of ing with serial number 220,000. was fully aware of this fact, as its own many assertions, including some by This was the reason, it now be- internal memoranda show, but it kept Richard Nixon himself, that either the comes apparent, that Schmitt could have this vital exculpatory data from the de- FBI or the House Un-American Activi- been so positive in telling Lane's inves- fense until recently compelled to unbur- ties Committee had "found" the type- tigator that 230,099 could not have been den itself. writer they were never supposed to have manufactured before August or Septem- The FBI's sensitivity to the type- had in their possession. ber, 1929. Yet the FBI's re-investigation writer issue and its collaboration, either Lane. in arguing the appeil, told the court that he had been blockal at every turn by the FBI when his research turned to the sensitive issue of the typewriter. When he sought records, the FBI would not give them up; when he tried to interview witnesses like Schmitt, his agents encountered FBI surveillance, and FBI pressure sealed lips so that po- tential witnesses refused to sign affida- vits. Now, as a result of the Freedom of Information actions, the FBI has been forced to cough up some of the evidence it withheld from Hiss during his trials and appeal. One revealing FBI report from the Philadelphia office on Decem- ber 23, 1948, summarized what had been learned by questioning and re-questioning all sources. It pointed out that no exact record of serial numbers had been kept by the Woodstock company, but it added that a "trade-in manual for the use of dealers" listed the approximate serial numbers for each year. According to this manual. Woodstocks coming off the line at the beginning of 1929 started with the serial number 204,000; in 1930, the start- ing number was 240,000. Before you choose a career, In other words, Woodstock N- 230,099 would have been manufactured figure ail the angles in the latter part of 1929, as Schmitt had told Lane's investigator—and could not What are you shooting for—money, good things happening, possibly have been the machine in the prestige, security? Or would you be We con share them with you. Let us Fansler-Martin insurance office in 1927. happier making some corner of the mail you our free newsletter for young About that 1927 date for the purchase of world a better place for everyone who people interested in social action and the Fansler machine there could be little hangs around? religion. It tells what others are doing, doubt. for the FBI added: More and more young people like and bow they do it. "In view of the fact that Thomas you are searching Far a lifework rather Just send your MOTe and address to Grady, the salesman who sold the Wood- than a lifestyle. As a community of WORD ONE, Roam 411, 221 W. Madi- stock typewriter to the Fansler-Martin men concerned about social justice son St., Chicago, IL 613606. partnership, resigned on December 3, and human rights, especially in the 1927, it would appear, therefore, that the inner city and the Third World, we see Maybe something will click for you. serial number of the typewriter sold to Fansler-Martin would be less than 177,000." The Claretians After the Hisses found N- A Roman Catholic community of priests and brothers

'7x'4177 NEN 7SAES al by quiet acquiecence or active participa- forthcoming book. pens insist on working from originals be- tion, in a plot to frame Alger Hiss has "I can't tell you who this comes cause there is to much loss of detail in a long been apparent to me. I had original- from," he began. "You will just have to photostat. ly. like most Americans at the time, con- take my word for it that it comes from a "In addition to all this, the Hiss sidered Hiss guilty as sin. It was a con- very old and very trusted friend of the defense had given up on private detec- viction based upon those documents firm, a man whose integrity is beyond tives before the Tytell machine was Chambers had produced. Documents question and whom we trust completely. made. Information about this was tightly couldn't be refuted, could they? That's why we are so worried. ' held in their own office, and no private Then Carey McWilliams, editor "Now, our friend tells us this: He detective could possibly have had photo- of The Notion, persuaded me to examine knows a private investigator who says stats of the typing." the record in the Hiss case, and I found he was hired by a law firm. not the pres- I told John I was certain of these myself unable to swallow Whittaker ent Hiss law firm, to help investigate the facts, but I would check with Mrs. Helen Chambers' changing and conflicting ac- case. in the course of his work, he ob- Buttenwieser, Chester Lane's law part- counts under oath. Especially incredible tained photostats of the typing produced ner, and write him a letter confirming was his version of his break with Com- by the Tytell machine, and the typing what I had told him. We parted, and I munism. He pictured it in Witness as a does not match that of the documents at started back to the newspaper office. life-shattering experience, a time so trau- all. Any expert could detect the fraud in As I walked, I puzzled over matic that he lived in terror of retribution a minute, and we will look extremely John's startled reaction when I men- and slept with a gun at his side. There should have been, it would seem, no The forgery of documents Chambers doubt in a man's mind about just when he had undergone such an ordeal; and in produced in 3altimore and tagged to Chambers' case, in nearly a dozen recit- Hiss would have been as easy as als, there had been no doubt. He had in- variably fixed the year of his break with embellishing a fairy story for some Communism as 1937. But the documents wide-eyed, credulous kid. he had so suddenly and dramatically produced were dated in 1938—the fast of them April I, 1938. If his unwavering recollection through the years had been correct. then he could not have gotten the documents from Hiss and they had to be forgeries; and so, in the first Hiss tri-

al—after several queasy shifts of the Labk

date of his break—Chambers settled $iit

upon a positive date. April 15, 1938. one NEIL 1/ 1/ that, at least. would not do violence to 0 the dates on the documents he had produced. 8 This highly suspect sequence, Chester Lane's research into the origin of N 230.099, his success in having Mar- foolish if we publish your book." tioned the name of Ray Schindler. Then tin Tytell build a Woodstock that du- I was taken aback—and quite the truth hit me. Schindler and Erle Stan- plicated the typing of the documents—all amazed at the effrontery of a maneuver ley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason, of this and much else convinced me that that had some transparent flaws. and for years one of Morrow's most suc- the government's case against Hiss "Look, John." I said, "two cessful authors. were collaborators in a reeked with a rotten odor. So I wrote a things strike me about this right off the project called "The Court of Last Re- long article for The Notion , and in 1958 bat. In the first place, the Hiss defense sort.•• investigating cases in which jus- expanded the article into a book. The quickly discovered that they could not tice might have gone awry and present- Unfinished Story of Alger Hiss. Then trust private investigators. Everyone ing their findings as a regular feature of magazine. strange things began to happen. they tried appeared to be hooked directly Argosy The following morning, after Mrs. I was sitting at my rewrite desk in into the FBI; and whenever they sought Buttenweiser had confirmed everything I the old New York World-Telegram & a particular piece of .information they had told John and had extended an invi- Sun on March 25. 1958, when I received found that the FBI, obviously tipped off, tation to Morrow to examine all the cor- a telephone call from John Willey, my had gotten there just one step ahead of respondence and records if they wished,"'-' editor at William Morrow. He sounded them. For instance, they employed Ray I wrote John Willey a letter (I still have a worried. Schindler at one point early in the inves- copy preserved on old newsroom copy "Fred," he said, as 1 recall, "we tigation; his bills were so huge that he al- paper) that began: "If I am right, the re- have been warned by a very old and very most bankrupted the law firm—and then port that you discussed with me yester- trusted friend of the firm that we have a he refused to sign an affidavit about what day was written by Raymond Schindler bad one in your book, and we will look he had done for them." and came to you through Schindler's foolish if we publish it." When I mentioned Schindler's Court of Last Resort buddy. Erie Stan- Completely taken aback. I asked name. John Willey started as if some ley Gardner." John who had made such a charge. He ghostly courtesan had jabbed him with After John Willey had read the couldn't tell me, he said, but Morrow re- her 1890s hatpin. I noted the reaction, two-page letter, he telephoned me. garded it as a very serious matter. Could but I was too busy spelling out the facts "Fred," he said, "that was an interest- we have lunch together that very day? to pay any more attention to it at the ing letter you wrote. A very interesting A few hours later, an extremely time. letter." worried editor and an equally concerned "The second point. John," I went He chuckled and I chuckled—and writer sat down to lunch: I asked John on. "is that no expert worthy of the Morrow went ahead with the book. Willey to spell out the details of the name will put his reputation on the line I had predicted in the last line of charges that had been leveled against my on the basis of photostats. Document ex-

33 r.E.v 'IMES 10/1407 my letter that the devious Schindler- key,' the president told Chuck. 'We built Gardner maneuver would probably turn one in the Hiss case.' " •out to be only the first endeavor of the He did not identify the "we," but MOVING? kind. And I was right. in earlier discussions with aides during Just before publication, I received the Watergate crisis he had asserted that a telephone call from a writer unknown he had conducted the Hiss investigation DON'T to me. He said he had published an arti- with just two House committee aides, cle on one phase of the Hiss case, and he and he had added: "We got it FORGET wanted to have lunch with me and tell done . . . We then got the evidence. me about his experiences. A check we got the typewriter, we got the Pump- showed that he had, indeed, written the kin Papers. We got all that ourselves. YOUR MAIL. article he mentioned, and so I agreed to The FBI did not cooperate." A month before you move, see him. Colson has said he can't remem- He turned out to be a short, ber the conversation Dean quotes. but pick up a free Change of stocky man. wearing a black beret and Dean's, gift of total recall is well-estab- Address Kit from your Post with a jaunty, foreign-agent air about lished—and, in addition, Nixon's remark him. Over lunch, his friendly, solicitous ties in with a number of other similar Office or letter carrier. questions seemed to focus on two major slips over the years. Mail the cards to points: Just what had impelled me to In an official report in 1951. the your bank, charge write the Hiss book? And would I please House Un-American Activities Commit- be careful when the book was published? tee wrote: "The committee wishes to accounts. Everyone. His magazine article had brought him commend the Federal Bureau of Investi- such a barrage of vile abuse, he said, that gation for its work in bringing this case he just couldn't imagine what I would be to a successful conclusion. The location When you kr. will help in for when I published a book. I had a of the typewriter [a Most peculiar phras- your moil move whit you. family, didn't I? Yes, a wife, son and ing) and certain other pieces of evidence daughter, all living at home. Well, it was needed during the trial of the case was going to be just terrible for air, he amazing." said. There would be telephone calls at Nixon himself, in his own book, all hours of the night. Denunciations. Six Crises—a work to which he constant- Obscenities. Perhaps I should have my ly referred in talking to his palace guard GE Of ADDRESS KIT Al phone unlisted. during the Watergate crisis—wrote ex- No, I told him; I wouldn't. I had plicitly: "On December 13, FBI agents written the Hiss book as an act of con- found the typewriter. On that same day. science, convinced the case was as bad I appeared before the Grand Jury with as the famous French Dreyfus case; microfilm [of a second batch of docu- and I intended to play it straight and see ments that Chambers had taken from a what happened. pumpkin on his farm] . On Decem- Nothing did. The book was pub- ber 15, the critical last day, an expert lished, died quietly in the hostile atmos- from the FBI typed exact copies of the phere of the l950s. and I received not incriminating documents on the old one abusive call. The effect, of course. Woodstock machine and had them flown was to convince me of the accuracy of up to New York as exhibits for members the conclusions I had reached: for, if a of the Grand Jury to sec , . case is valid, there is no need for such After I had called attention to this obviously inspired, Machiavellian ma- statement that swore at the very funda- neuvers designed to kill off a book that mentals of the government's case, Nixon questions it. became unavailable to the press. His This conviction has been rein- public relations men attempted to ex- forced by a series of developments plain that it was all just a researcher's er- through the-years. The thrust of all is in ror. The researcher had come across the just one direction: time and again, those clipping of a story written by Tony Smith closest to the prosecution, those in the for the Scripps-Howard newspapers on best position to know, have made the December 13, 1948. Smith reported that same assertion—that the government, House investigators (not the FBI as Nix- either the FBI or agents of the House on wrote) had found the typewriter in the Un-American Activities Committee. Hiss case. But Smith's story had con- found the typewriter before mysterious tained none of the specific details that Woodstock N 230,099 turned up in the appeared in the Nixon account; and it possession of the Hisses. seemed incredible then, as it does today, John Dean in his recent hook, that Richard Nixon, the principal accus- Blind Ambition, made the latest contri- er of Hiss, could have been the victim of bution in the chain. According to Dean, a "researcher's error" about a case he Nixon and his special counsel, Charles knew so intimately. Colson. were discussing the Dita Beard Such unconscious disclosures memo, which referred to a commitment seem like confirmation of the clues that by the International Telephone & Tele- lurk in the FBI's tracking and re-tracking graph Company to contribute $400,000 of the origin of N 230,099. Was this ma- to the 1972 Republican campaign. Nixon chine indeed fabricated and planted on was anxious to prove the memo a forg- Hiss to frame him for a deed he didn't ery: commit? "'The typewriters are always the That, of course, is the vital ques-

10r 4177 NEW TIMES 33 Lion. and again there is one tantalizing jured in an automobile accident in merit is resisting every step of the way. t-hread. In the mid-1960s, Harold Bret- Westchester County. The accident, com- "Under the Freedom of Informa- nall—the detective who had been as- ing so soon after Bretnall's disclosure, tion Act,- Hiss says. "you are supposed signed to the Hiss case by Broady along made Hiss' lawyers suspicious, but to be able to get the information in the with Schmahl—walked into the law Bretnall lived long enough to assure files in twenty days. We've been battling office of Walter E. Beer, Jr. It was the them that the accident had been an acci- for twenty months. The CIA has given office with which Chester Lane had been dent, that no foul play had been in- us a partial inventory of the material associated before his death. volved. they have on Schmahl, and it refuses to Breinall, looking around, spotted A check of old Manhattan tele- say what else it may have. We want a full the file of courtroom testimony in the phone directories showed that Kunze's inventory. Hiss case and asked one of Beer's assis- shop. in the late 1940s, had been located "The FBI has given us 'summar- tants if the office had a special interest in right where Bretnall said it had been. ies' of reports from its regional offices the case. The lawyer acknowledged that Schmahl had moved to Fort Lauderdale, and argues that it believes everything of it did. Then Bretnall astonished Beer and Florida, and refused to talk about the significance was sent to headquarters. his associates by saying:"Oh, I know all case. It was a dead end except for one But we are going into court to try to get about that. Hiss was framed." other intriguing item. When Martin Ty- the basic information to which we think He explained that his one-time tell began to scrounge around typewriter we are entitled." partner. Schmahi, had been a friend of shops hunting old Woodstock type with Such preliminary legal skirmishes Adam Kunze and that he had learned which to fabricate the machine he made are delaying the filing of Hiss's corarn from Schmahl that Kunze had built the for Chester Lane, where did he obtain a rtobes action, and the vigor with which mysterious Woodstock. Kunze. he said, lot of this rare. out-of-date type? In the the government is fighting in the cause of had had a typewriter business on Green- shop of Adam Kunze. delay adds one final note of suspicion to wich Street in lower Manhattan, but There, at the moment, i5 where it a case riddled with suspicious circum- Kunze was dead. rests. Hiss and his lawyers are still bat- stances. If the case against Alger Hiss True or not? Hiss' lawyers had lit- tling the FBI and CIA in the courts in an was a valid case, why the resistance? tle chance to and out. Shortly after Bret- effort to and out what may still lurk un- Why not open the files, put it all on the nall talked to them, he was fat, in- disclosed in the secret files. The govern- line, and let it all hang out? io

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Wom05'iacm.51AMOARDliPmnut MODEL 5P12.:-, WOODSTQOt IYPEWRIERTIMPANY- The true grit of Alger Hiss court," says Hiss. "You have to keep This should have been a shock pressing until they finally reach a place to Hoover because the charge that Hiss where there is nowhere else to go. But had been a Communist was founded all of this is terribly time-consuming Alger Hiss. at long last, is an an- upon Chambers' sworn testimony be- gry man. and terribly expensive. fore congressional committees and the . In the almost 20 years that I "I think they probably have two federal grand jury that Alger Hiss had have known him. Hiss, gentle and soft- motives in all of this. The longer the belonged to a Washington Communist spoken, seemed to take an almost dis- case is dragged out, the more they hope cell headed by Ware in the 1930s. passionate view of his own case. you will become discouraged. And A second discovery in the New Though he insisted on his innocence then, if i die, the case is dead; there is York files is even more damaging. The and continued stubbornly to try to no way my heirs could fight it. CU be 73 New York FBI bureau on February 2, prove it. the fury that might be expect- next month, and the actuarial tables are 1949. drafted a long pre-trial scenario, ed in him seemed lacking. But now his on their side." outlining the evidence needed to con- voice quivers as he discusses new dis- In financing this long and costly vict Hiss and discussing how it should coveries about the duplicitous role the delaying battle, Hiss has had the help be handled. A section labeled "Docu- late J. Edgar Hoover played in his case. of a dedicated band of volunteers, and mentary Evidence" dealt with the core "1 never felt angry at anyone has gone on the lecture circuit to raise of the case—the 69 pages of typed doc- until I began to go through the docu- funds. He spoke at 15 colleges this year uments Chambers had claimed under at 52,500 per appearance, and the ments we are now getting from the FBI oath that Hiss had brought home from under the Freedom of Information whole amount has gone to finance the the State Department to be copied by Act."Hiss said in a soft voice.sitting in legal effort. his wife. the New York office of the National As this issue of New Times goes Discussing these documents, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee. to press, Hiss' aides are just beginning New York bureau included a paren- "I never felt bitter or vindictive to search through the first batch of thetical jarring note: " It is not clear at toward Whittaker Chambers because I those 60.000 supposedly nonexistent this time if Chambers can testify that considered him of unsound migd, and it documents. Two early discoveries he received these particular 69 docu- was difficult to get steamed tip about seem to demonstrate that the govern- ments from Hiss, but upon establishing him. I didn't even feel particularly bit- ment's case against Hiss was built on the facts of this situation, decision can ter about Richard Nixon; he was just a cheap. opportunistic politician. But Hoover was supposed to be the head of an impartial investigating agency, and the documents we are getting show that he played a partisan role throughout. He issued specific instructions: 'Get evidence to support what Chambers has to say.' And again, when there was a chance the grand jury might indict Chambers for perjury instead of me, Hoover issued instructions: 'Forget Chambers. Get Hiss.' Obtaining such information hasn't been easy. Hiss' attorneys. K. Randlett Walster and Victor Rabi- nowitz. have been tied up in court for 4 nearly two-and-a-half years while the "New FBI" of Clarence Kelley and quicksand—and that the FBI knew it. be thereafter reached as to who is in a the U.S. Department of Justice have The first was a telex from the position to introduce these docu- fought every attempt to uncover what New York bureau. dated January 14, ments." might be hidden in their files. 1949 (after Hiss's indictment and while Chambers, of course, had testi- They contended that "all rele- the case was being prepared for trial) in fied that he got all these documents vant" material bad been sent to FBI response to a query from Leo Laughlin from Hiss. but now he was waffling. In headquarters in Washington. Hiss' at- in the Washington headquarters, ques- the end, he was brought up to scratch torneys argued they should have the tioned information sent the day before. and testified in the trial as he had previ- right to determine what was "rele- It reads: "He [Laughlin] stated that the ously that the dccuments came from vant." and they wanted to see the Director had questioned whether the Hiss. Only the FBI knew how uncer- material in bureau files in New York, name of Donald Hiss (Alger's brother] tain and unreliable this testimony was. Boston and Philadelphia. The New should have been included in the group Summing up. Hiss declares: York bureau was the key because its Chambers claimed was operating under "We can now show that basic elements agents were the ones who questioned Harold Ware [a Communist cell lead- of the government's case were tainted and coached Chambers in preparing the er]. I advised him, after checking with by non-disclosure of evidence vital to case for trial. S[pecial] Argent] Thomas Spencer. the defense and by misleading tactics— The FBI at first insisted that who was at that moment interviewing or worse. There are not many cases in there were no additional documents in Chambers. that the teletype as sent was which you can demonstrate malfea- the New York FBI office. But after correct; that Donald Hiss was, accord- sance on the part of the government three months of legal haggling, the gov- ing to Chambers. in the group. I also and we couldn't. except for the material ernment at last threw up its hands and advised that he [Chambers] had not put we are obtaining under the Freedom of said in effect: "All right. There are Alger Hiss in the group because he was Information Act. But now we can, and 60,000 pages of reports in the New not sure Alger Hiss was in the group. now we have the grounds for the carom York office. You can have them." Consequently, no statement was made noifis action we hope to ale by the end "You have to keep going into regarding Alger Hiss." of November." —F.C.

10/14/77 NEN 11 MES 33