Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (85 page)

Sabatini did nothing else to interest the FBI, and the surveillance
ceased by the summer of 1944. Joseph Katz traveled to Los Angeles and
met with Sabatini. He reported that he was ready to resume work, but
Katz felt it unwise to continue to use him on the West Coast. In September Katz summoned him to New York. Several partially decrypted
messages suggest that the KGB gave him a new assignment and worked
out a cover story justifying his travels as part of his familial duties to care
for his aged father. Other messages report that the KGB reimbursed him
for expenses, and his wife received a $50 monthly stipend.42

The KGB deactivated Sabatini early in 1945, when he was inducted
into the Army. Discharged in September 1946, he moved back to the
Pittsburgh area. As discussed in chapter z, in 1948 Moscow Center ordered him reactivated "to create a group on `Enormous"'-that is, on
atomic intelligence. But nothing came of this. Even as the KGB recontacted him, the FBI also showed up. He denied any covert work for the
Soviets, and for the moment the FBI put him aside. But in 1949 the Venona project decrypted a message that enabled the FBI to identify
Sabatini as "Nick," and the Bureau's interest revived. It discovered that
he had moved to California and was undergoing treatment for cancer.
Questioned again, Sabatini offered limited cooperation. One internal FBI
memo noted that he had provided information, "but only what he thinks
we know." He discussed Katz, his surveillance of Krivitsky, and a few
other details of his covert career. Of particular importance, however, he
identified Jones York, which enabled the FBI eventually to expose
William Weisband. Sabatini, suffering from throat cancer, died in 1952.43

Like Sabatini, Zalmond David Franklin was a veteran of the Spanish Civil
War. He was born in 1909 in Milwaukee and studied bacteriology at the
University of Wisconsin. His parents were immigrants from Russia, and
his father was a physician active in Communist causes in Wisconsin. He
and his father both went to Spain in 1937; his father worked as a doctor,
and Franklin later told FBI agents that he worked as a bacteriologist at a
Spanish Republican hospital. However, he was a member of the Veterans
of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and may have minimized the extent of
his International Brigades connection. He also reported his American
passport lost in Spain in 1938. The International Brigades had a policy
(not always enforced) of confiscating the passports of its soldiers, and
many of the Americans who fought with the International Brigades reported their passports "lost" when they returned from Spain.44

Franklin returned to the United States in 1938 (although the timing
is not clear). A 1944 KGB report stated: "`Chap' [Franklin] was recruited
for our work in 1938; for the most part he performs the function of a
courier." It is likely that the KGB spotted and recruited Franklin while he
was in Spain. Louis Budenz, a senior CPUSA official who departed from
the Communist movement in a blaze of publicity in 1945, later testified
that he had been told that Franklin had done "secret work" in Spain and
after his return had been sent on clandestine missions to Canada on behalf of Soviet intelligence. Budenz explained that in 1937 the party sent
him to Chicago to edit a new Communist newspaper, the Midwest Daily
Record. He said that a KGB officer, Gregory Rabinowitz (a pseudonym
used by Grigoiy Rabinovich) asked him to find someone in the Chicago
area Communist Party who could infiltrate the Trotskyist movement, with
a goal of moving to New York and obtaining a position at the Socialist
Workers Party (SWP) headquarters. Jack Kling, head of the Young Com munist League in Chicago, introduced Budenz to Sylvia Callen, a young
Communist social worker who was anxious to help. Her married name
was Sylvia Franklin, and Budenz learned that her husband, Zalmond
Franklin, already worked for the KGB. Budenz recommended her; she
successfully infiltrated the SWP, moved to New York, eventually became
secretary to James Cannon, the SWP's leader, and fed the KGB information on its foe. The KGB provided an apartment for Zalmond in New
York where he and his wife could rendezvous.45

Over the next few years, Franklin carried out a variety of courier jobs
for the KGB. He served as a liaison for Martha Dodd Stern, her brother
William Dodd, Abraham Glasser, and Michael Straight. Not all of these
contacts went smoothly. From his first meeting with Franklin, Glasser
"`began to show nervousness and distrust of `Chap' [Franklin]."' The
KGB did not blame Franklin because Glasser had been spooked by the
defection of his previous contact, Armand Feldman, and he was being
questioned by his superiors regarding his contacts with Russians. Martha
Stern and William Dodd were also dissatisfied with him. The New York
station noted: "`It is clear from the reports that the reason `Chap'
[Franklin] is not doing a good job of guiding these probationers is not
that he is a poor group leader or is very underdeveloped politically or ...
his attitude toward his work, but that these sources require a more mature and authoritative figure."' But, the station told Moscow, it didn't
have anyone else available for the job. And despite his flaws, Franklin
also had connections that the KGB New York station valued highly, such
as his personal relationship with Clarence Hiskey, a scientist working on
the Manhattan Project (discussed in chapter z).46

However, Franklin's relationship with Sylvia Callen deteriorated, and
the KGB was forced into marriage counseling. In February 1943 the
KGB New York station told Moscow:

"We have noticed that in the past few months "Chap" [Franklin] has been
upset, nervous about something. In late December, in a conversation with "Informer'' [Katz], "Chap" declared that while he had still been in Spain he had
been planning to divorce "Satyr'' [Callen] when he arrived in the U.S., but
after she was recruited for our work, "Chap" was dissuaded from divorcing
"Satyr," that he didn't love "Satyr" and had married her by accident. He hadn't
lived with her for about a year already, attributing this to illness....

When "Informer'' asked whether he was living with another woman,
"Chap" replied `no,' but admitted at the following meeting that he was in fact
living with another woman. After two or three weeks "Chap" declared that he
was, after all, still attached to "Satyr'' and thought that he was wrong in saying that he didn't love her. This whole confusion of "Chap's" regarding his personal issues is no surprise to us, since he yields easily to influences. We gave an
assignment to "Informer" to have a thorough discussion with "Chap" and to
explain that he made a mistake by not telling us promptly about his acquaintance with another woman and trying to conceal that fact for several
months."47

Franklin divorced Sylvia in 1943 and married Rose Richter in January
1944. His new marriage also got him in trouble with the KGB, this time
when he boasted to his wife's relatives that he was working for Soviet intelligence. His brother-in-law, Nathan Einhorn, was executive secretary
of the Newspaper Guild in New York, a Communist, and a KGB contact
with the cover name "Egorn." Stepan Apresyan, KGB New York station
chief, informed Moscow in May 1944 that Einhorn had told Bernard
Schuster, the KGB's CPUSA liaison, that Franklin said "he worked for us
and has a special task." Einhorn didn't believe him but thought such loose
talk could cause problems and reported it to Schuster. This incident confirmed Apresyan's earlier judgment that Franklin was unsuited to intelligence work and should be put "into cold storage." Franklin would be instructed "to put an end to his criminal chatter about liaison with us." But
the KGB New York station had a chronic need for couriers, and Franklin
was not entirely put aside.48

When Jones York began cooperating with the FBI in the late 1940s,
he identified Franklin as one of his couriers, and the FBI placed him
under investigation. Louis Budenz also identified him as a KGB agent, although Budenz knew him only through Sylvia Callen and had no knowledge of the details of his work for Soviet intelligence. Years later, Michael
Straight also told the FBI that Franklin had been one of his couriers.
Franklin, who then worked for an optical instrument company, did not
cooperate with the FBI. The Justice Department decided that there was
not sufficient evidence it could use in court to warrant a prosecution.
Franklin died in 1958.

By all odds among the longest-serving Soviet couriers were Morris and
Lona Cohen. Morris Cohen had joined the American Communist Party
in 1935, at age twenty-five. Two years later he was among the more than
two thousand young American Communists who traveled to Spain to fight
with the Communist-led International Brigades. He served with the
Mackenzie-Papineau battalion, a nominally Canadian but largely Amer ican unit. Always an ideological militant, he quickly became one of the
battalion's Communist political commissars. During fighting at Fuentes
del Ebro in October 1937, Cohen was wounded and hospitalized. When
he recovered, International Brigades officials sent him to a training course
in covert radio operations at a secret Soviet-run school in Spain, where
the KGB recruited him. A report written sometime in 1940 for the KGB
indicated: "The greater part of those sent to Spain was chosen by the
Comparty [Communist Party] leadership. The Party's confidence was
borne out by many." Soviet authorities hired ten of these veterans "to
work in the Soviet pavilion at the World's Fair in NY (as security guards,
restaurant and movie theater employees, etc). Two of them still work in
Amtorg: one as a chauffeur, the other in the restaurant (the source Volunteer)." "The source Volunteer" was Morris Cohen. He also worked as a
substitute teacher in the New York schools. These, however, were his
"day" jobs. His real work was for KGB officer Semen Semenov as a
courier and talent spotter for new sources. In 1941 he married Lona
Petka, a fellow Communist, and she soon became a full partner in his es-
pionage.49

Drafted in mid-1942, Morris Cohen served in the Army until 1945.
Before this involuntary leave from the KGB, however, he recruited one
of his International Brigades comrades from Spain, Joseph Chmilevski, as
a technical intelligence source (see chapter 6). While her husband was
overseas, Lona Cohen was used by the KGB as a courier, even as she
worked in two different defense plants. One note in the files indicates
that the KGB formally recruited her in 1942. Semenov used her to pick
up blueprints smuggled out of defense factories by agents; to contact
Communist seamen to deliver and receive messages; and to communicate
with William Weisband, then with the Army Signal Security Agency,
through his brother. But in September 1944 Moscow Center recalled Semenov to the USSR after intense FBI surveillance had destroyed his usefulness, and Lona Cohen was "put on ice."50

Back in Moscow Semenov wrote a long report on his work in America for General Fitin. He was particularly effusive in his appraisal of the
Cohens:

""Volunteer'' [Morris Cohen].-Before going into the army he was used to receive materials from me at meetings with "Emulsion" [unidentified technical
source] and as a talent-spotter, as well as for covering the activities and studying former members of the Lincoln Brigade in Spain. A lead was received
from him and the highly valuable agent "Relay" [Chmilevski] was recruited
with his help. He is fully aware of whom he's working with, he is sincerely de voted to us, ready to carry out any assignment for us. Exceptionally honest,
mature, politically well versed. Ready to dedicate his whole life to our work.
Upon returning from the army he should be used as our full-time illegal. He
can be used along the following lines: a) as a courier; b) to select illegal operatives from among former veterans; c) to arrange safe houses and covers. He
knows the restaurant business well; he could open a small snack bar that
would serve as a meeting place to pass materials, letters, etc. 'Volunteer''
should be given full trust.

"Leslie" [Lona Cohen] ("Volunteer's" wife). Was recruited for contact with
us by "Volunteer." Devoted to us. No special independent work should be assigned to her for now. She could work as a courier and take care of a safe
house. Later she should work as "Volunteer's" assistant. Was used for contact
with "Link" [Weisband] through the latter's brother."51

In January 1945 Leonid Kvasnikov, chief of technical intelligence at
the KGB New York station, cabled Moscow asking for permission to reactivate Lona. In February Fitin approved "`the renewal of ties with her"'
but cautioned: "'She does not have experience in our work, but she has
already run small errands for the station in the past, for instance: contact
with "Link's" [Weisband's] brother, etc. You should have a series of instructional talks with "Leslie" [Lona Cohen] regarding caution and secrecy in our work and also teach her a number of practical methods for
checking oneself when going to a meeting, leaving a meeting, etc.' '152
Lona was listed as a regular agent of the New York station in 1945, usually working under the direction of Alexander Feklisov. The KGB New
York station used her on "Enormous," including one courier run to Los
Alamos to pick up Theodore Hall's material. Along with many other
agents, the KGB deactivated the Cohens in the late fall of 1945.

Moscow Center attempted to revive its American operations in 1948
and in April ordered the New York station to "renew ties with "Volunteer" and "Leslie" [Morris and Lona Cohen]. Volunteer-group handler,
extensive connections among veterans, gave leads, recruited "Serb"
[Chmilevski ]. He was in the army from 42 to 45. "Leslie"-courier, "Volunteer's" wife. She was used to stay in touch with "Mlad" [Theodore
Hall]." A week later Moscow followed up with an order to recontact Hall,
who was finishing his PhD at the University of Chicago, via "Volunteer's
group." Moscow wanted Hall to attempt to return to atomic bomb work
at Los Alamos. The Cohens periodically met with Hall for the next few
years. 53