Morton Sobell
Biography
Morton Sobell was a CCNY engineering classmate of Julius Rosenberg's who worked on military radar and ordnance contracts. Fled with his family to Mexico City June 22, 1950; on August 16 was abducted by armed men (likely Mexican secret police acting at FBI behest) and arrested at the Texas border. Convicted with the Rosenbergs March 1951; served 17 years 9 months at Alcatraz (1952-1958), Atlanta, and Lewisburg before parole January 14, 1969. In 2008 he admitted to the New York Times that he had passed military secrets to the Soviets during WWII.
National Guardian, October 19, 1953, national pages 1 and 16: The paper reports that the New York Circuit Court of Appeals denied a new trial October 10, with a ten-day rehearing window and thirty-day Supreme Court appeal window. A national Rosenberg-Sobell defense committee was organized in Chicago by about 150 delegates from 36 states. Its demands included moving Sobell from Alcatraz to facilitate consultation with counsel; that demand does not establish an actual transfer. He remained imprisoned under the thirty-year imposed sentence. The issue treats McCarthy radar-spy allegations as an attack on the defense campaign; those allegations are not adopted as established facts. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/national-guardian/1953-10-19-5-52-nat-guardian.pdf
