For years, Alger Hisss detractors have cited the testimony of Nathaniel Weyl as proof of his guilt. For those who arent familiar with Weyl, he worked in Department of Agriculture while Hiss was there, and he claimed in 1952 to have been the so-called Ware Group of secret communists and that Hiss had also been a member.
But there were lots of problems with Weyls testimony. For example, although he had many opportunities to do so, he never said anything about Hisss involvement until long after Hiss was convicted. Also, no one else, even those who had admitted being part of the group, remembered Weyls association with it. In fact, even Whittaker Chambers never mentioned him. There are other problems with his testimony, but still, historians such as Allen Weinstein, G. Edward White and John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, lean on his tenuous story.
The other day, I was sorting through some files when I came across this fascinating document. Its a two page memo by Elinor Ferry, a journalist and investigator who helped piece together Hisss motion for a new trial in the 1950s and then began but never finished a book on the case. In the course of her research, Ferry spoke to a Washington D.C.-based psychiatrist named Benjamin Weininger. Weininger, it seemed, had half the members of the Washington area Communist Party as patients, and one of them was Nathaniel Weyl. If these notes are correct, Weyls testimony was the result of a phony recovered memory ploy.
The notes also mentioned the story of Katherine Wills Perlo, another account cited by Weinstein as proof of Chambers story. Perlo, who had once been married to Victor Perlo, wrote a letter to president in 1944, claiming that her husband was part of an underground group. Weinstein also relies on her letter to support Chambers, but Weininger also saw her and his own thoughts on her credibility.
I should mention that when I first saw this interview, I mentioned it to Bill Reuben, who didnt believe it for a second, saying that the Party forbade its members from undergoing psychotherapy, Maybe, but this account seems credible.
Here is the document, in Ferrys handwriting. The source is Harvard Law School Library.
For years, Alger Hiss’s detractors have cited the testimony of Nathaniel Weyl as proof of his guilt. For those who aren’t familiar with Weyl, he worked in Department of Agriculture while Hiss was there, and he claimed in 1952 to have been a member of the so-called Ware Group of secret communists and that Hiss had been as well.
But there were lots of problems with Weyl’s testimony. For example, although he had many opportunities to do so, he never said anything about Hiss’s alleged involvement until long after Hiss was convicted. Also, no one else, even those who had admitted being part of the group, remembered Weyl’s association with it. Even Whittaker Chambers, who claimed to be the group’s courier, never mentioned him. There are other problems with his testimony, but nonetheless, historians such as Allen Weinstein, G. Edward White and John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, continue to lean on his tenuous story.
The other day, I was sorting through some files when I came across this fascinating document. It’s a two-page memo by George Eddy (1907-1998), a former New Deal economist, who researched but never published a book on the Hiss case. In the course of his research, Eddy spoke to a Washington D.C.-based psychiatrist named Benjamin Weininger. At times it seemed that Weininger had half the members of the Washington area Communist Party as clients, and one of them was Nathaniel Weyl. If these notes are correct, there are even more reasons to suspect Weyl’s testimony.
The notes also mentioned the story of Katherine Wills Perlo, another account cited by Weinstein as proof of Chambers story. Perlo, who had once been married to Victor Perlo, wrote a letter to FDR in 1944, claiming that her husband was part of an underground group. As it turns out, Weininger also saw her and also offered his insights into her credibility.
I should mention that when I first saw this interview, I mentioned it to Bill Reuben, who didn’t believe it for a second, saying that the Party forbade its members from undergoing psychotherapy, Maybe, but this account seems credible.
Here is the document, in Eddy’s handwriting. The source is Harvard Law School Library.
