The invisible Harry Gold : the man who gave the Soviets the atom bomb

In the history of Soviet espionage in America, few people figure more crucially than Harry Gold. A Russian Jewish immigrant who spied for the Soviets from 1935 until 1950, Gold was an accomplished industrial and military espionage agent. He was assigned to be physicist Klaus Fuchs’s “handler” and ultimately conveyed sheaves of stolen information about the Manhattan Project from Los Alamos to Russian agents. He is literally the man who gave the USSR the plans for the atom bomb. The subject of the most intensive public manhunt in the history of the FBI, Gold was arrested in May 1950. His confession revealed scores of contacts, and his testimony in the trial of the Rosenbergs proved pivotal. Yet among his co-workers, fellow prisoners at Lewisburg Penitentiary, and even those in the FBI, Gold earned respect, admiration, and affection. In __The Invisible Harry Gold__, journalist and historian Allen Hornblum paints a surprising portrait of this notorious yet unknown figure. Through interviews with many individuals who knew Gold and years of research into primary documents, Hornblum has produced a gripping account of how a fundamentally decent and well-intentioned man helped commit the greatest scientific theft of the twentieth century.

The first account of one of the most important and enigmatic spies in U.S. history: the man who delivered the plans for the atom bomb to the Soviets

In the history of Soviet espionage in America, few people figure more crucially than Harry Gold. A Russian Jewish immigrant who spied for the Soviets from 1935 until 1950, Gold was an accomplished industrial and military espionage agent. He was assigned to be physicist Klaus Fuchs’s “handler” and ultimately conveyed sheaves of stolen information about the Manhattan Project from Los Alamos to Russian agents. He is literally the man who gave the USSR the plans for the atom bomb. The subject of the most intensive public manhunt in the history of the FBI, Gold was arrested in May 1950. His confession revealed scores of contacts, and his testimony in the trial of the Rosenbergs proved pivotal. Yet among his co-workers, fellow prisoners at Lewisburg Penitentiary, and even those in the FBI, Gold earned respect, admiration, and affection.

In The Invisible Harry Gold, journalist and historian Allen Hornblum paints a surprising portrait of this notorious yet unknown figure. Through interviews with many individuals who knew Gold and years of research into primary documents, Hornblum has produced a gripping account of how a fundamentally decent and well-intentioned man helped commit the greatest scientific theft of the twentieth century.

Allen M. Hornblum has been executive director of Americans for Democratic Action, chief of staff of the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office, and a college lecturer. His previous books include Sentenced to Science, Acres of Skin, and Confessions of a Second Story Man. He lives in Philadelphia.

Contents 7 Preface 9 Part 1. The Spy 17 CHAPTER 1. South Philadelphia 17 CHAPTER 2. A Debt Repaid 37 CHAPTER 3. The Novice Spy 57 CHAPTER 4. The Evolution of a Secret Agent 73 CHAPTER 5. Semenov , Slack, and Brothman 95 CHAPTER 6. Dr. Klaus Fuchs 119 CHAPTER 7. The Los Alamos Papers 143 CHAPTER 8. The Postwar Years 168 CHAPTER 9. The Hunt for Raymond 190 CHAPTER 10. The Fatal Words 209 Part 2. The Prisoner 233 CHAPTER 11. Conversion 233 CHAPTER 12. To Make Amends 255 CHAPTER 13. Prisoner 19312-NE 289 CHAPTER 14. State of Mind 310 CHAPTER 15. The Campaign for Parole 333 CHAPTER 16. Return 354 Epilogue 371 Notes 379 Bibliography 441 Acknowledgments 449 Index 453