For the sixth time, the mousy little engineer and his wife, waiting in Sing Sing's death house, had petitioned the highest tribunal. . . .
For the sixth time, a majority of the nine Justices rejected a Rosenberg appeal. . . .
Then, as the clock ticked toward 11 p.m. Thursday, the hour of death for the spies, Supreme Court Justice William Douglas acted alone.
Unexpectedly, the court having recessed for the summer, he granted the stay of execution that the full court had denied.
That touched off, within the next 24 hours, one of the most dramatic and novel episodes in all the august annals of the U.S. Supreme Court. . . .
Time June 29, 1953, "The Last Appeal"
—"The Last Appeal,"
Time, June 29, 1953
That’s what I’m counting on most of all – the stories.
—Josephine Paris
(as played by Ethel Rosenberg) in The Valiant, by
H.E. Porter and
Robert Middlemass
Of course, none of us had much money at the time,
so we would just meet at someone’s house after skating and have food,
a spaghetti dinner or something of the type, and then we would sit around and tell stories and laugh.
Dick was always the highlight of the party because he has a wonderful sense of humor.
He would keep everybody in stitches. Somethimes we would even act out parts.
I will never forget one night when we did “Beauty and the Beast.” Dick was the Beast,
and one of the other men dressed up like Beauty. This sounds rather silly to be telling it now,
but in those days we were all very young. . . . It was good, clean fun, and we had loads of laughs.
—Mrs. Richard Nixon
All my humor is situation stuff. . . .
—Mr. Richard Nixon
I did not come to tell you things
that you know as well as I. Public Papers of the Presidents, April 7, 1953
—Dwight David Eisenhower
April 7, 1953
for justice william o. douglas,
who exchanged a greeting with me while
out walking on the old canal towpath
one day not long after these events . . .