David Greenglass, Prosecution Witness In Rosenberg Trial, Dies

The New York Times has published an obituary of David Greenglass, the brother of Ethel Rosenberg. Mr. Greenglass provided crucial testimony during the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg that ended in their convictions for conspiracy and espionage. They were executed in 1953. Fifty years later, Mr. Greenglass, who served nearly ten years in prison for his role in the conspiracy, admitted to reporter Sam Roberts that he lied on the witness stand.

Mr. Roberts published a book about Mr. Greenglass and the trial, The Brother: The Untold Story of Atomic Spy David Greenglass and How He Sent His Sister, Ethel Rosenberg, to the Electric Chair  (2001). Other books on the topic include Michael and Robert Meeropol, We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (1975),

The Rosenbergs figure in E. L. Doctorow's novel The Book of Daniel (1971), a fictionalized version of the trial which is based on the Rosenberg trial (filmed as Daniel (1983)), which stars Timothy Hutton, and in Robert Coover's The Public Burning (1977). Ethel Rosenberg appears as a character in Tony Kushner's play Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (1993) (revised 2014).

More about the trial here at Professor Douglas Linder's Famous Trial website.