Hiss-Chambers Chapter 30: The Second Trial

Hede Hassing, a key witness in the 2nd trial The second trial: new Judge (an elderly Republican), a new jury (seven women!), a new lawyer for Hiss (Boston’s distinguished, quiet Claude Cross), a new strategy by each side, and a lot more witnesses.  The next three Podcasts bring you three witnesses who did not testify at the first trial, but did at the second.     One journalist wrote that the minor characters in this Case contained the raw material for a shelf of unwritten novels.  You’ve already met Julian Wadleigh.  Now meet Hede Massing, a Viennese actress, thrice married and twice divorced, and secret Communist operative (like her first two husbands) in four countries.  She testifies that she saw Alger Hiss (and even had a memorable chat with him) in Washington’s Soviet underground in the mid-1930s.  The FBI document expert Feehan gave expert corroboration for Chamber’s accusations.  If you believe Massing, she gives Chambers eyewitness corroboration.  But she may have been weakened by Claude Cross’s cross-examination, which left her “visibly flustered.”(Alistair Cooke wrote at 292.)