Skip to content

Alger Hiss

Released
Date of birth:11. 11. 1904
Date of death:15. 11. 1996
Age:92 Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1950s
State:New York
Time Imprisoned:
3 Years 8 Months 5 Days
Support
Communism
Alger Hiss

Biography

Harvard-trained State Department official who served as Secretary-General of the founding UN Conference at San Francisco in 1945; with FDR at Yalta. In 1948, Whittaker Chambers told HUAC that Hiss had been a secret CPUSA member who passed classified documents to the Soviets in the 1930s. The espionage statute of limitations had run; Hiss was indicted for perjury for denying Chambers' allegations. After a hung jury in his first trial, convicted in January 1950; two concurrent 5-year terms. Maintained his innocence for 46 years until his death.

Case

USP Lewisburg
Charges: Two counts of perjury, 18 U.S.C. § 1621.
Arrested: Dec 14, 1948
Sentenced: Jan 24, 1950
Incarcerated: Mar 22, 1951
Released: Nov 27, 1954
Sentence: Two concurrent 5-year federal sentences; served 44 months Charges as recorded: Two counts of perjury, 18 U.S.C. § 1621 (denying passing documents to Chambers; denying seeing Chambers after Jan 1, 1937).
Prosecutor: Thomas F. Murphy
Judge: Hon. Henry W. Goddard (S.D.N.Y.)
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Pennsylvania