Because
the search for the truth about Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers
is an ongoing process, "The Alger Hiss Story" Web
site wil undertake its own original research projects on a
regular basis. Early in 2000, Managing Editor Jeff Kisseloff
interviewed two surviving Hiss case witnesses (neither of
whom had testified in court) and a prominent journalist who
investigated the charges against Hiss from the 1950s through
the 1970s.
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Was
Priscilla Hiss a Spy?
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Whittaker Chambers said that Priscilla Hiss was typing copies
of government documents on her Woodstock typewriter at night;
Elizabeth May and her husband, the Hisses' next door neighbors,
said they knew the story was false. As she recalls it over 50
years later, the thin walls between their two homes kept few
secrets. Click here to read an
interview with Dr. May.
| How
Close Were Chambers and Hiss? |
Whittaker
Chambers said he was a regular visitor to Alger Hiss's homes
on P Street and 30th Street. Hiss's stepson Dr.
Timothy Hobson remembers it differently. Click
here to read an interview with Dr. Hobson.
As
an investigative reporter, Studs Terkel said, Fred J. Cook
was "as close to Lincoln Steffens as you'll find."
Cook's book on the Hiss Case, "The Unfinished Story of
Alger Hiss" (Morrow, 1957), was one of the first re-examinations
of the evidence to take a skeptical view of Hiss's conviction.
Cook was a newspaper reporter for the New York World Telegram
& Sun when he was asked by Carey McWilliams, the editor
of The Nation, to look into the Hiss Case. When he
began his assignment, Cook believed that Hiss was guilty but
changed his mind after spending months researching the case.
Now 89, Cook is retired and living in Interlaken, New Jersey.
Click here to
read an interview with Mr. Cook.
Read the article that became the basis for his book.
Back to the Courtroom
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