National Affairs: Last Scene

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The stay of execution won from Douglas and lost in the Supreme Court (see above) gained less than a day of life for the Rosenbergs. The hour of death was moved from 11 p.m. Thursday to 8 p.m. Friday in order to avoid an execution on the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown on Friday.

Julius entered first into the presence of the ugly, brown-stained oak chair. As he walked through the glaring light of Sing Sing's white-walled death chamber, the three newsmen allowed as witnesses noted that his mustache had been shaved off, that he wore a white T shirt, and that his feet were shod in cloth slippers. The prison chaplain, R^bbi Irving Koslowe, intoned the 23rd Psalm: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want . . ." Just before the chair, Julius seemed to sway. Guards quickly placed and strapped him in the seat, then dropped the leather hood over his face. Three shocks of 2,000 volts each flung his body convulsively against its bonds. Listening with stethoscopes to the heart under the T shirt, attending doctors pronounced Julius Rosenberg dead.

The body was gone only a few minutes when Ethel Rosenberg entered the chamber. She wore a dark green print dress with white polka dots. Cloth slippers were on her feet, too, and her hair had been cropped close on top for the electrode's contact. The rabbi intoned the 15th Psalm: "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?" Just before the chair, the prisoner shook hands, then impulsively brushed a kiss on the cheek of a matron accompanying her. She sat down with taut composure, wincing only slightly as the electrode was applied to her head. The mask fell. Three shocks coursed her body. The doctors still heard a faint heartbeat. They stood back, and Ethel Rosenberg was given two more shocks. Then she was pronounced dead.