Morton Sobell Free As Spy Term Ends 4 6,7 , WI

By EDWARD RANZAL Morton Sobell, sentenced to 30 years for a wartime espion- nage conspiracy to derived vital national secrets to the , was released from pris- on yesterday after serving 17 years and 9 months. Sobel!, a co-defendant with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, ex- ecuted atom spies, would have been eligible for release in 7% months with. time off for good behavior. In ordering his release yesterday, the Court of Appeals here gave him credit for 7% months he had been held in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail front his arrest until he was sentenced on April 5, 1951. The Government made no move to stay the release order, and the office of United States Continued on Page 48, Column 1 United Press internatonsi LAUGHTER AND TEARS: Mrs. Morton Sobell, right, and Sobell's mother, Rose, reacted to the news of Sobell's release yesterday from the Federal Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pa. Sobell served 17% years of a 30-year sentence for passing U.S. atomic secrets to Russia.

Continued From Page 1, Col. 6 , a scientist wno pertinent both men implored worked on the atom bomb at him to stay. Attorney Robert M. Morgen- the Manhattan Project, was ar- He said that he took a mid- thau said the matter was in rested by British intelligence night auto ride with the two the hands of the Federal Bu- agents. He was convicted of men on which Sobell gave reau of Prisons in Washington. turning over scientific Allied Rosenberg 35-mm film and that Authorities at the Federal secrets to the Soviets. Schell allegedly said, "This is Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., Fuchs talked and the trail very important." He also testi- reported that Sobell left Lewis- led to this country and Harry fied that Rosenberg told him burg by bus at 3 P.M. for Gold, a Philadelphia biochemist. that Sobell had turned over a New York. At the Rosenberg trial, Gold number of important classified testified that he met Ethel's documents. At her home at 30 Charlton brother, , in Street, Sobell's wife, Helen, sai Albuquerque, N. M., in June, Returned by For more than 15 years Mrs. 1945. Shortly before the Federal she was "ecstatic." GreengIass was a machinist Bureau of Investigation closed SobelI, a science teacher at the assigned to the Manhattan Proj- in and arrested Rosenberg in Elizabeth Irwin School, a pri- ett at Los Alamos, N. M. He June, 1950, Sobell shut his vate high school at 40 Charlton said he had been recruited into house in Flushing, Queens, and Street, has spearheaded move- the group by Julius went with his family to Mexico. ments to free her husband, Rosenberg, who gave him half The Government charged charging that evidence against a Jell-o box. Gold showed up that this was flight to avoid him had been manufactured with the other half of the Jell-o arrest and that Sobell had in- and that a Government witness box and said: "I come from tended to go behind the Iron was psychotic. Julius." Curtain. Sobell contended that Despite some public clamor Greenglass said he then it was a business trip. and several books favorable' to turned over to Gold his On Aug. 18, 1950, SobeIl was the Rosenbergs, the Federal sketches of the basic implosion escorted across the border and Courts up to the Supreme Court principle of the atom bomb. arrested in Laredo, Tex. have steadfastly affirmed the This was the sensational part In his various appeals Sobell guilt of the conspirators. of the trial. contended that Elitcher was a psychopathic liar who had gone Depicted as Recruiter SobeIl was linked to the es- pionage conspiracy by two over to the Government side Sobell, now 51 years old, pieces of evidence—testimony to save his own neck. In addi- was all but the forgotten man of a close friend and proof of tion, there were charges that in the Rosenberg case. Trial Sobell's flight to Mexico to there was perjured testimony evidence linked the Rosenbergs avoid arrest. at the trial and that some of directly with the plot to steal The witness was Max Elitch- the evidence was manufactured. atom secrets. Sobell was de- er, also an engineer. He and This was rejected by the courts picted as a member of the Sobell were classmates in high at every turn. espionage conspiracy who re- school and at City College here. Greenglass pleaded guilty in cruited other members and Rosenberg also was graduated the conspiracy and was sen- passed on other national from City College as an engi- tenced to a 15-year term, which secrets to Julius Rosenberg. neer. he has satisfied. Elitcher was From the time Federal Judge After obtaining engineering not named in the indictment. Irving R. Kaufman sentenced degrees, both SobeIl and Elitch- The three judges who con- the Rosenbergs to be executed er got jobs in 1939 with the curred in yesterday's decision at Sing Sing until they were NNavy Bureau of Ordnance in were Paul R. Hays, Leonard P. put to death on June 19, 1953 Washington. In 1943 Sobell took Moore and Henry J. Friendly. there was a clamor and protest a job with in Judge Hays said that in 1980, throughout the world. Govern- Schenectady. It was while with on the basis of a Congressional ment officials attributed the up- G. E. that Sobell allegedly ameledrnent, the Bureau of Pri- roar to the Communist party. turned over to Rosenberg secret Little was heard of Sobell, fire-control designs for weap- the innocuous, pudgy engineer, ons. until after the Rosenberg exe-1 Elitcher testified that Sobel] cution. Then the Committee to recruited him into the Commu- Free Morton Sobel was formed nist party. Ile said that both and money was raised for eight Sobell and Rosenberg asked unsuccessful appeals on the him to obtain classified infor- merits. . mation and that when he was The spy case developed after about to leave the Navy De-