William Ward Pigman

Pigman, an engineer with a Ph.D in chemistry, was an employee of the Bureau of Standards, the source of a number of government documents contained in the Pumpkin Papers that Whittaker Chambers said were given to him for transmission to Moscow.

When the contents of the Pumpkin Papers were revealed, it was found that the material from the Bureau of Standards were Navy Department documents that were publicly available (dealing with such matters as the recommended color to paint fire extinguishers owned by the government) and would have been of no interest to the Soviet Union.

Testifying in December 1948 before the grand jury investigating espionage, Pigman denied handing any documents over to Chambers, saying he had never met him. He also denied being a member of the Communist Party or being associated with it, and described himself as a moderate Democrat.

Recently released grand jury minutes reveal that Pigman was repeatedly threatened with perjury charges, but Pigman maintained his story and was not indicted.