Evening star., 1950-02-28
Spy Trial Jury Hears
Papers Taken From
Miss CopIon' S Purse
By james J. CuIIinone
Sior Stoff Correspondent

Stor Stoff Correspondent
NEW YORK, Feb. 2s.-Secret
Government documents which the
prosecution contends Judith Cop
Ion. former Justice Department
analyst, planned to give to VAL
entin Gubitchev, Soviet engineer,
were read to jury at the espion-
age trial of the couple in Fed
eral Court today.
Defense efforts to block intro
duction of the "a papers taken
from Miss Coplon's purse after
she was arrested while walking
with Gubitchev last March, were
overruled by Judge Sylvester j.
Ryan.
Judge Ryan reserved decision
on one typewriter document
which gave biographical sketches
of three of Miss Coplon's WASH
ington friends. Abraham Pom
erantz, attorney for Gubitchev,
said the biographies were not rele-
want to the espionage conspiracy
charge on which Miss Coplon
and her client are being tried.
Called Part of Pattern.
Chief Prosecutor John M. Kel-
ley, jr., said the biographies were
part of a pattern established for
Soviet espionage in the famous
Canadian spy trials. They would
furnish to Soviet intelligence bio
graphical material pertaining to
recruits for the Soviet appara-
tuS.'
Mr.. Pomerantz leaped to his
feet shouting for a mistrial "be-
cause of the highly inf1ammatory
remarks of Mr.. Kelley in this
highly charged case"
"The action of the Govern
ment," Mr.. Pomerantz said, "in
dragging this herring into the
case is indecent and improper"
Sketches Are Admitted.
Judge Ryan said he would pass
on the relevancy of the biographi-
cal sketches when they were
reached "in the orderly progress
of the case"
When that stage arrived he ad-
mitted them. There was no
further defense protest.
With the introduction Of the
documents, the prosecution en-
tered the final stage of its case
against Miss Coplon and Gu
bitchev. Mr.. Kelley said the
Government may be able to rest
its case this afternoon or tomor-
row at the latest.
The jury Of six men and six
housewives leaned forward and
listened intently to every word
as the documents were read by
Raymond P. Whearty, special as
sistant to the Attorney General.
Before reading of the docu-
ments began, Mr.. Kelley placed
before the jury a copy OF the
"decoy" report which was shown
to Miss Coplon in her Justice De-
partment Office few hours before
she left for New York to >meet
Gubitchev. a
Jurors Asked to Compare.
The decoy report prepared es-
pecially for Miss Coplon's con-
sumption. falsely stated that two
highly placed officials in Amtorg,
the Russian trading agency, were
confidential FBI informants.
Mr.. Kelley asked the jurors to
compare information in the decoy
with a hand-written memoran-
dunn found in Miss Coplon's purse
which said:
Bureau using two highly placed
Amtorg officials as informants.
One is Needleman, with whom the
bureau maintains "a rather indi-
rect contact through an interme-
diary Bureau has not been en-
tirely satisfied with this arrange
ment or extent Of information
supplied by Needleman, and in or
der to check on Needleman the
bureau desires to obtain from him
more complete information on a
variety of matters, including his
knowledge of activities of Amtorg
which would be in possible viola
ton of the Foreign Agents Regis
tration Act. Bureau asked for
memo on what would constitute
violation of the act. Asks if Nee |
dleman is registered as a foreign !
agent.
Tells Of "Geophones."
Bureau has recently learned
through an informant that Am
torg has been in touch with the
Geophysical Research Corp. re:
Geophones. The fact that these
are used for the purpose of max
ing blast measurements at Ala
mogordo and other testing points
is highly restricted, but Amtorg
apparently must have some knowl-
edge of their use"
Another memorandum found in
the purse:
II have not been able (and don't
think I wild to get the top secret
FBI report which I described to
Michael on Soviet and Commu-
mist intelligence activities in the
United States.
when the moment was fa-
vorable I asked Foley civilian E.
Foley, Miss Coplon's Justice De-
partment boss) where the report
was. Gle had previously remarked
that. he's had such a report. He
said that some departmental off.
cial had it and he didn't expect
to get it back. Foley remarked
there was nothing new in it..
When I saw the report for min
ute I breezed through it rapidly
remember very little. 1t was
about lis pages in length; sum-
married first Soviet intelligence
activities including Martens, Lore
PovntZ. AItschuler. SilyermaSter