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Jun 19, 2023 · The trial court judge, Irving R. Kaufman, called their crime “worse than murder” and sentenced the Rosenbergs to death. Despite numerous appeals, the couple was executed in June 1953.
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- HISTORY Vault: Great Spy Stories of the 20th Century
Michael and Robert Rosenberg became orphans when their notorious parents were executed for espionage. Then what happened?
Michael Rosenberg was listening to The Lone Ranger on the radio when his entire world crumbled. The seven-year-old was engrossed in his favorite program in the summer of 1950 when men burst into his New York apartment and took away his father. Soon, his mother was under arrest, too.
His parents were none other than Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and they were accused of being Russian spies who passed on secret information about nuclear technology as the Cold War kicked into high gear. The arrests started a chain of events that would lead to their execution. But it also changed the life of Michael and his brother Robert forever.
Their story didn’t end with their parents’ deaths. Rather, the executions put them on a path of pain. As the children of America’s most notorious Red Scare-era figures, they were associated with their parents’ supposed crimes. And as they grew, they went on a dramatic search for answers—a search that opened up even more questions about their parents’ past.
Army-McCarthy Hearings
Neither child had any conception that their parents might be Soviet spies. Their childhood in New York City was typical of its time, and both Michael and Robert remember parents who were energetic, affectionate and happy. That all changed in 1950 when Julius and Ethel were indicted for 11 acts of espionage. Both pleaded not guilty, but were convicted and sentenced to be executed.
Delves into celebrated espionage cases of the 20th Century involving spies, moles, dead drops, disguises, gadgets, and more.
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When nobody offered to take them in, the boys were taken to the Hebrew Children’s Home in the Bronx—effectively an orphanage.
“I’m sure that it won’t be long before you’ll get used to your new home,” Julius wrote Michael in November 1950 after they moved to the Hebrew Children’s Home. “Darling don’t worry about a thing.”
But despite the encouraging tone of their parents’ letters, things were not all right. They would never be reunited with their parents, who were convicted and sentenced to the electric chair. The boys visited their parents in Sing Sing prison, where they looked over the electric chair and asked their parents if they were really innocent. Of course they were, they reassured them. Meanwhile, despite an international attempt to stay the execution, all of their appeals for mercy were denied.
10-year-old Michael Rosenberg pats his younger brother, Robert, 6, and tries his best to comfort him, as the youngsters ride away from Sing Sing prison after visiting their parents, convicted atom spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, just a few days before their execution.
Apr 12, 2022 · Peacock has ordered Based on a True Story, a true crime dramedy from Craig Rosenberg straight to series for the streaming platform.
Apr 11, 2022 · Craig Rosenberg is writing 'Based on a True Story,' with Bateman and Michael Costigan's Aggregate Films producing.
Mar 13, 2024 · Physical creator Annie Weisman is joining the upcoming second season of the dark comedy thriller, from Aggregate Films and UCP, as new showrunner. She succeeds series creator Craig Rosenberg...
4 days ago · A bid by Donald Trump and his lawyers to get his 34 felony count conviction in the Manhattan hush money trial thrown out is a longshot at best, according to former Department of Justice official ...
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The heinous execution of the Rosenbergs. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were murdered on June 19, 1953, at the Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Their execution by electric chair was the consequence of a succession of judicial battles, appeals, and public outrage.
