AI Summary
5 min readOn the evening of December 2nd, 1944, in an Albuquerque hotel room, David Greenglass sat on the bed and agreed to spy for the Soviet Union. His wife Ruth had just relayed a request from her brother, Julius Rosenberg, who wanted David to share secrets from his work as a machinist at Los Alamos, the top-secret facility building the atomic bomb. David, an avowed communist, was honored to help. He closed his eyes and began describing the base’s layout, the guards, and the scientists he recognized—Robert Oppenheimer, Harold Urey, Niels Bohr—while Ruth tried to memorize every detail. That night marked the beginning of a spy ring that would eventually unravel, but for now, David felt like a hero.
The Recruiter and the Fuse
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What you'll learn
- 1 American Scandal | The Rosenbergs | The Goose Chase
- 2 Timestamped Outline
- 3 (00:36) **David Greenglass Agrees to Spy** - David and Ruth Greenglass begin their first espionage session in an Albuquerque hotel room, with David describing the layout of Los Alamos and naming key scientists
- 4 (06:08) **Julius Rosenberg's Spy Career** - Background on Julius's journey from communist activist to Soviet spy, including his recruitment of David Greenglass for the Manhattan Project
- 5 (07:11) **Julius Steals the Proximity Fuse** - Julius exploits his position at Emerson Radio to smuggle out a complete proximity fuse, his most valuable act of espionage yet
- 6 (10:49) **Julius Presses for More from Los Alamos** - Julius's handler wants better intelligence from David, so Julius races to the Greenglass apartment when David returns to New York on leave
- 7 (14:10) **The Jello Box Recognition System** - Julius arranges a meeting with courier Ann Sidorovich and creates a clever identity verification method using a cut-up jello box
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
David Greenglass begins working with his brother-in-law Julius Rosenberg to pass secrets from the Manhattan Project to Soviet intelligence. But after the Russians build a bomb of their own, the FBI races to uncover the Americans who helped them.
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