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Robert Soblen Guilty of Spying for Communists

July 13, 1961 - Dr. Robert Soblen (left) was found guilty in New York today of wartime espionage for the Soviet Union. The defendant, haggard and pale from the effects of lymphatic leukemia, a form of incurable blood cancer, faces a possible death sentence. However, it was generally assumed that the 66-year-old psychiatrist would be spared the death penalty. Medical experts have said he may have only a year to live. Soblen, slouched in a large contour chair, groaned and buried his face in his hands after the jury foreman read the verdict. The chief witness in the four-week trial was his brother, Jack, who confessed in 1957 to spying and is serving a seven-and-a-half-year term.


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