Jul 26, 2023
Hede
Hassing, a key witness in the 2nd trial
The second trial: new Judge (an elderly Republican), a new
jury (seven women!), a new lawyer for Hiss (Boston’s distinguished,
quiet Claude Cross), a new strategy by each side, and a lot more
witnesses. The next three Podcasts bring you three witnesses
who did not testify at the first trial, but did at the
second.
One journalist wrote that the minor characters in this Case
contained the raw material for a shelf of unwritten novels.
You’ve already met Julian Wadleigh. Now meet Hede Massing, a
Viennese actress, thrice married and twice divorced, and secret
Communist operative (like her first two husbands) in four
countries. She testifies that she saw Alger Hiss (and even
had a memorable chat with him) in Washington’s Soviet underground
in the mid-1930s. The FBI document expert Feehan gave expert
corroboration for Chamber’s accusations. If you believe
Massing, she gives Chambers eyewitness corroboration. But she
may have been weakened by Claude Cross’s cross-examination, which
left her “visibly flustered.”(Alistair Cooke wrote at 292.)
FURTHER RESEARCH:
Massing’s autobiography, “This Deception,” published by Duell,
Sloan and Pearce in New York in 1951, is available on Amazon and
eBay. She describes her encounter with Hiss at pages
173-75.
Massing led a life of adventure, and paid the price.
Much of her secret life was incredibly boring, establishing new
identities in place after place and then waiting weeks or months
for a real assignment. Her earlier testimony to The Grand
Jury also makes clear the painful psychological struggles facing
ex-Communist spies in the West. There is the obvious guilt
about having betrayed your country to serve another country that
turned out to be worse than you dreamed possible. There is
also damage done to others. Massing told The Grand Jury how
she recruited a State Department economist to spy for the Soviet
Union. In 1948, the economist had just skipped over to the
other side of The Iron Curtain and spent the rest of his life
there. Massing, in front of The Grand Jury, suddenly broke
down crying and asked for a glass of water and a recess.
Later, she explained that she felt personally responsible for the
economist’s ruined life. (I think she was being too hard on
herself. What he did was his responsibility.) She also begged
the U.S. Attorney’s Office to keep her identity and testimony
secret, for two reasons. First, she and her husband had found
jobs but had not disclosed their past crimes, and she was terrified
that they would be exposed and become unemployable. Second —
and this is something several former Soviet operatives corroborated
— she said that when you have lived for years under false names,
sleeping by day and working by night, moving from country to
country and city to city at the KGB’s whim, “it takes all your
gumption and guts to try to live an average life as I am trying to
do.” (Grand Jury Transcript at 3697-98.). Being a secret
agent, in reality, is not like the James Bond movies.
Questions: Judge Kaufman excluded Massing’s testimony at
the first trial. Judge Goddard allowed it at the
second. Was one Judge clearly right and the other clearly
wrong? Do you think Massing helped The Prosecution on the
whole, or was she too damaged on cross-examination? Does the
sudden flight of the State Department economist lend credibility to
her story?
As you hear more about how the second trial differed from the
first, ask yourself what caused the different verdict at the
latter. There are many possible explanations. The Cold
War had gotten substantially colder by the second trial. Hiss
chose a new lawyer, whom few would say was the equal of Lloyd Paul
Stryker. Prosecutor Murphy was trying the case for a second
time and did much better than at the first. There were the
three new witnesses (and more testimony allowed by the repeat
witnesses). The Judge was a Republican appointee. There
were more women on the second jury. Take your pick.