On Doing Time

by Morton Sobell

During his eighteen-plus years in prison, five of which were spent at U.S.P. Alcatraz in the middle of San Francisco Bay, Morton Sobell learned well the price of "doing time." In 1951, during the dark days of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Morton Sobell were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. Sobell was sentenced to thirty years in prison. The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death and were later executed. The trial remains one of America's most controversial. This is the story of what led up to the trial, to the conduct of the trial--including an account of justice subverted to political ends--and of one man's odyssey through Depression-era radicalism and the hard world of the United States prison system. It is also the story of an intelligent man determined not to be broken, determined to achieve vindication. As part of that effort, after he was released, the author obtained hundreds of previously classified FBI documents that graphically demonstrate the goverment's motives and methods during the Rosenberg-Sobell trial, and beyond. The most relevant of these documents are included on a CD (which comes with the book), giving the reader a rare opportunity to compare the author's original suppositions and his adversary's documentation of its strategy.

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Michele DeSario · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I found the book interesting and thought-provoking, I had some external knowledge that ruined the book for me. If you would like to read this book naively then please skip ahead. I'm not going to label this a spoiler, because it's never stated in the book and has no impact on how you view the ending.

In 2008, Morton Sobell admitted to having an inside source within the White House with whom he stole information which he then passed on to the Soviet Union. Morton Sobell was a Soviet Spy who gave the USSR information about our military and our government, post-WWII after they were our allies.

This ruined the book for me. The whole first half is him talking about how corrupt the government was for not telling him what his charges were, or for fabricating evidence (and I have no doubt that the government was corrupt at this time and many people who were convicted of espionage were innocent), meanwhile, he knew he was guilty. He is proclaiming his innocence and how unfair his situation was, while he knew he had been a spy for the Soviets.

Because I knew he would later admit his guilt, the first 2/3 of the book were not enjoyable to me. It made him seem to be a liar in my mind. However, I did enjoy the last third/quarter of the book where he talks about his experiences in Alcatraz. That was really the reason I picked up this book in the first place. I loved to hear first-hand accounts of the conditions and the experiences he had in this prison that would later be shut down.

Here is the link to the article where I found out about his confession, though you can just google his name and find countless others.
https://www.weeklystandard.com/ronald...

[Patrick O'Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morton Sobell got screwed. He got convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They got sentenced to death in the electric chair. He got off "light" and did eighteen years in prison. He did time on Alcatraz. It was a government sham, a byproduct of McCarthy and his rabid search for the commies in our midst. It was the 50's and nobody seemed to care. The whole story amazes me. The undertones of anti-semitism, the FBI on an unchecked rampage, the public duped by fear. Like to think it couldn't happen today - but that is just wishful thinking as it is happening today. But maybe not as blatantly. Or maybe it is.

I wanted to like this book. The tale is so harsh. the story so dramatic. But I couldn't get over Sobell, as he himself is a serial co-dependent with major control issues. I know, I know, he was imprisoned for something he didn't do. But his poor wife Helen suffered, mainly from Sobell's insistence that he run her life. The amount of time and energy others put in, the visits from his family, his wife, his children, and Sobell just sort of glosses over their efforts, like they should do this because, yeah, he was imprisoned for something he didn't do.

Yes, it is a memoir. It is Sobell's Memoir. About him doing time. I just found him to be incredibly self absorbed.