Death of witness in Rosenberg case

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.

Her death at age 84 was revealed in court documents filed by prosecutors in late June.

She'd been living under an alias to avoid association with the case that led to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953.

Greenglass and her husband, David, were pivotal figures in the spy case. He was a wartime machinist in Los Alamos. They confessed to being part of an effort to smuggle secrets to the Soviets.

They turned in the Rosenbergs as the spies who recruited them to the task.

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

Source: Associated Press

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