Witness testified in spy case against Ethel Rosenberg

Ruth Greenglass, whose testimony in a sensational Cold War espionage trial helped send her sister-in-law Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair, has died. She was 84.

Greenglass and her husband, David, had been living under aliases to avoid association with the case that led to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953.

Greenglass’ death was revealed in court documents filed by prosecutors in June. Social Security records confirmed that she died April 7 in New York.

Ruth and David Greenglass were pivotal figures in the spy case. They confessed to being part of an effort to smuggle secrets to the Soviets and turned in the Rosenbergs, their own relatives, as the spies who recruited them.

Historians continue to debate the truthfulness of their testimony concerning Ethel Rosenberg, whose guilt has long been questioned.

During the 1951 trial, the couple said they saw her transcribing stolen atomic secrets, using a portable typewriter in her New York apartment.

Their account was the best piece of evidence linking Ethel Rosenberg, the sister of David Greenglass, to an alleged plot to steal research data from the Manhattan Project.

It was also self-serving. By cooperating, David Greenglass, a wartime machinist in Los Alamos, N.M., who had been charged along with the Rosenbergs, was spared a possible death sentence. He served 10 years in prison. Ruth Greenglass was never charged.

Since then, decoded Soviet cables have seemed to confirm that Julius Rosenberg was a spy, but doubts have remained about his wife’s involvement.

In his 2001 book, “The Brother: The Untold Story of the Rosenberg Case,” author Sam Roberts quoted David Greenglass as saying he had no recollection of seeing his sister at the typewriter. He said he made up the account to protect his wife, who, he said, may have improvised the tale to appease prosecutors.

“I frankly think my wife did the typing, but I don’t remember,” he said.

She was born Ruth Leah Printz in 1924 and grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She married Greenglass as a teenager and became involved in Socialist causes. According to the New York Times, she worked for a time as a legal stenographer for a Republican assemblyman but was fired.

David Greenglass said Julius Rosenberg recruited him to work as a spy after he was assigned to Los Alamos, where the atomic bomb was being developed. The two were partners in a machine shop after the war.

After Greenglass was released from prison, the couple lived in the New York area with their children under assumed names. He survives her.

Historians are seeking access to sealed grand jury transcripts from the Rosenberg case. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan said in a June 23 court filing that it would not oppose the release of transcripts from witnesses who have died or who agreed to make their statements public.

Ruth Greenglass was listed in the document as being among the dead.