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To understand the various changes in the conditions of Lorton Sobell's
imprisonment, it is necessary to understand that the Rosenberg-Sobell case was
to have become the basis for a series of sensational so-called "espionage"
trials.  These  trials were to prove that the country was honeycombed with
spies, with persons whose alleged sympathy for another form of government
had turned them into enemies of the United States, and whom our government 
must execute as well as imprison in order to survive.

It is a fact of history that these trials did not take place.  The Rosenbergs
were executed, Sobell was imprisoned, but their courage and the campaign in
their behalf guarantted, for a period at least, that there could be only
one--and only one--Rosenberg-Sobell Trial.

                                       2.

After Julius Rosenberg was arrested, the Attorney General's office and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed virtually every living person
who had graduated from New York's City College with Mr. Rosenberg.  They were
seeking someone who could be persuaded or coerced into testifying falsely
against him.  In the course of this search for a false witness, the prose-
cution came across the name of Morton Soboll.  Whether it was Roy Cohn or
some other unscrupulous member of the prosecution staff who first realized
the potential importance of Morton Sobell is not known, but the fact that he
was a classmate of Julius Rosenborg, a scientist, and that he was  vacationing
in Mexico City with his family, made him, in someone's eyes, an excellent
target for sensational "LASTER SPY" and "CAUGHT FLEEING"  headlines.

Lest Mr. Sobell foil these headlines by returning to the United States as he
planned, it was arranged with Mexican underworld elements that he be beaten,
kidnapped and brought over the Texas border in a blaze of newspaper print.
Undoubtedly, some members of the prosecution staff felt that Morton Sobell's
very innocence of the sensational charges aganst him would frighten him into
utter "cooperation".  Their error made history.

The first period of Mr. Sobell's imprisonment was marked by anxious and unre-
lenting attempts to compel him to testify in the case being prepared against
the Rosenbergs.  It is a matter of record that it was not until 43 days after
his arrest that the prosecution drew up its indictment against him.  He was
subjected to every conceivable harrassrnent in his relations with his attorneys
and family.  But by the time the trial opened it became clear that Morton
Sobell's declaration of innocence would become part of the court record and
of history.

Just as the death sentcnce against Ethel and Julius Rosenberg was correctly
understood, in part, as an attempt to "third degree" them into a false con-
fession, so the 30-year sentence against Morton Sobell arose from the same
motives.  In effect, the Attorney General's Office said to them: "These
sentenccs should tell you that we mean business.  You are holding up our time-
table of espionage trials.  We need your cooperation, and we can pay for it
with leniency."

The Rosenbergs and Sobell correctly interpreted this to mean that they were
being called upon to denounce innocent men and women, to place these people
in prison and death houses, to purchase their lives and liberties with the
lives and liberties of other decent Americans,