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Harry Gold Held Neurotic in F.B.I. Rosenberg Files

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Harry Gold Held Neurotic in F.B.I. Rosenberg Files S THE NEW YORK TIMES, SA Ti Harry Gold Held Neurotic In F.B.I. Rosenberg Files NYTimes RW epf.0 6 AWS WASHINGTON, Dec. the revolutionary with exagger- Harry Gold was described as a ated ego and oversensitivity, neurotic and hostile personal- reVressed hostility. ity with traits adding up to "His early history with eco- "imbalance" in a court-ordered nomic difficulties and racial psychiatric report six months prejudices, peer religious in- before his testimony in the trial fluence and a mother with early of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. radical political ideas—all have The testimony of Mr. Gold, a added to his imbalance. conferred atomic-spy courier "His :fanatic drive when he for the Soviet Union, helped thought he was right made bring about 1951 death sen- him totally oblivious of every- tences for the Rosenbergs and thing." a 30-year prison term for Other documents showed re- Morton Sobell for conspiracy to peated but unsuccessful efforts commit espionage. by the F.B.I. in the early years A summer of the psychiatric of Mr. Sobell's imprisonment— report turned up today among he served nearly 18 years—to 29,000 pages of Federal Bureau induce 'him to give up his of Investigation files released protestations of innocence. on petition of Michael and Unlike the Rosenbergs, Mr. Robert Meeropol, the Rosen- Sobell did not testify at his bergs' sons, who hope to trial. He would have faced demonstrate their parents' in- problems explaining an alleged nocence. "flight to Mexico," which he Mr. Gold testified In March said in a recent autobiography 1951 that he had obtained had been motivated in part atomic information from David by a hope to avoid possible Greenglass, another major perjury charges for a false anti. prosecution witness, but he COnimunist oath as a. defense was never cross-examined by engineer. defense counsel. A July 1, 1952, New York Psychiatric reports had been memorandum quoted a con- ordered in Philadelphia by fidential prison informant as Federal Judge James P. Mc- asserting that Mr. Sobel' told Cranery before he sentenced him: Mr. Gold Dec. 9, 1950, to 30 "I was the fall guy in this years in prison as a spy con whole thing. I am Innocent. spirator with Dr. Klaus Fuchs, I was around when a lot of the British atomic scientist. • things happened and a lot of A 1966 effort by Mr, Sobell people were involved in it. I've to challenge Mr. Gold's credibi- got a 'story to tell—a good lity in a bid by Mr. Sobell story to tell, and they'll listen for a new trial led the Federal to me!" Bureau of Investigation in New But the mrnemonandum we York to ask whether Mr. Gold nton: has ever undergone psychiatric "During recent conversation examination, and an F.S.I. reply [name blanked out] had with from Philadelphia dated July [apparently the informant] and 8, 1966, noted two 1950 tests. the reading f the letters of Eummary of Findings Mrs. Sobel' to her husband, it has become quite evident They were reported in the that Sobell would like to coo- file of the Federal court proba- perate with 'the Government tion officer in Philadelphia. but is being prevented from One, by a five-member team, doing so because of the in- concluded that "Gold showed fluence his aife exercises over no latent or potential psycho- any decision in this matter." pathic tendencies," the Phi- 'Arrogant' and 'Stubborn' ladelphia agents said. By March 30, 1954, another The other summarized the F.B.I. document said, "Sobell findings of Dr. Samuel Leopold, is arrogant, stubborn, proud, director of the Neuropsychia- self-centered and egotistical," tric Division of the Philadelphia although the agency went on Municipal Court, as follows: with at !east four interviews "The report indicated the with him in Alcatraz Pentiten- Gold has above-normal mentali- tiary during the year. ty. He is not insane but shows An F.B.I. response from New a neurotic personality charac- York on April 24, 1951, to terized by extreme orderlines a request for an appraisal of and compulsions. He has poor Mr. Sobell's appersonality, relationship to the world, dom- shortly after his sentence said, inated by resentful ideas and "Sobell lives in a world of with immature psychosexual electricity and electronics," development. with classical music and photo- "This personality is present graphy his only diversion diver- in the mystic, the fanatic and sions. .
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