William Remington

William Walter Remington (October 25, 1917 – November 24, 1954) was an economist employed in various federal government positions until his career was interrupted by accusations of espionage made by the Soviet spy and defector Elizabeth Bentley. He was convicted of perjury in connection with these charges in 1953, and murdered in prison in 1954. His death has been cited as one of the few murders attributable to McCarthyism. [cite book
last = Schrecker
first = Ellen
authorlink = Ellen Schrecker
year = 1998
title = Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=SgX4AAAACAAJ&dq
publisher = Little, Brown and Company
pages = pp 361
id = ISBN 0-316-77470-7]

Early life and public career

He was born in New York City and raised in Ridgewood" [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60812F73D58157A93C7AB178AD95F408585F9 Remington Denied Link to Red Spies. Former Federal Economist Was Serving 3-Year Term on Perjury Charges.] ", "The New York Times", November 25, 1954.] , in Bergen County, New Jersey, by Lillian Maude Sutherland (1888-?) and Frederick C. Remington (1870-1956). [1920 US Census for Glen Rock, New Jersey] [cite journal | last =Ogden | first =David | authorlink = | coauthors = | date = | year = | month = | title =Cold War Science and the Body Politic | journal = | volume = | issue = | pages = | publisher = | location = | issn = | pmid = | doi = | bibcode = | oclc = | id = | url =http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/literature_and_medicine/v019/19.2ogden.html ] His father worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Two Pictures |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888975,00.html |publisher=Time (magazine) |date= |accessdate=2008-06-07 ] ; his mother as an art teacher in New York. Remington was admitted to Dartmouth College at age 16, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in 1939, and earned a Master's degree from Columbia University in 1940.cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Death Among Thieves |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,820921,00.html?promoid=googlep |publisher=Time (magazine) |date=1954 |accessdate=2008-05-11 ] Remington's parents were poor and demanding and he developed a somewhat unconventional and flamboyant personality. From an early age, he was drawn to radical leftist politics, and declared to his friends that he was a Communist when he was 15. In college, he became active with members of the Young Communist League, and later the Communist Party of the United States. In testimony, Remington stated that while he was a Republican when he entered college, he "moved left quite rapidly" and became a radical but was never a Communist Party or Young Communist League member at Dartmouth. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0713F73E5B127A93CAAB178AD85F458585F9 "The Nation; Draft Arithmetic"] , "The New York Times", January 28, 1951. Accessed June 19, 2008. "He went to Dartmouth a Republican but 'moved left quite rapidly' and considered himself a 'radical.' He was not a member of the Communist party or Young Communist League but occasionally told other students in jest that he was a 'bolshevik.'"] Whether or not he ever officially joined the party would later become a point of contention in his legal battles.

Remington was employed in a number of posts, principally as an economist:
*Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, Tennessee, September 1936 to May 1937;
* Workers Education Committee, Knoxville, April to August 1937;
*Junior Economist with the National Resources Planning Board, Washington, D.C., May 1940 to July 15, 1941;
*Associate industrial economist in the Office of Price Administration of the Office for Emergency Management, from July 1941 to February 1942;
*Assistant to the Director of the War Production Board, February 1942 to October 1943;
*Assistant to the Director of Orders and Regulations Bureau in the War Production Board, October 1943 to 1946;
*President's Council of Economic Advisers, March 1947 to March 1948.Trussell, C. P. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70717FF3C5E167B93C2A81782D85F4C8485F9 "Exposure Hinted of Loyalty Files; Raising of Curbs on Records Is Predicted as Key Men Confer in Washington"] , "The New York Times", September 10, 1948. Accessed June 19, 2008.]

For his position with the Office of Price Administration, Remington was required to undergo a loyalty-security check, which began in 1941. He admitted having been active in Communist-allied groups such as the American Peace Mobilization, but denied any sympathy with communism and swore under oath that he was not and had never been a member of the Communist Party. Some questions were raised by Remington's leftist affiliations, but the investigation was superficial and his security clearance was approved.

Accusations of espionage

In March 1942 and continuing for two years, Remington had occasional meetings with Elizabeth Bentley in which he passed information to her. This material included data on airplane production and other matters concerning the aircraft industry, as well as some information on an experimental process for manufacturing synthetic rubber. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805638,00.html "A Woman's Memories"] , "Time (magazine)", January 8, 1951. Accessed June 1, 2008.] Remington would later claim that he was unaware that Bentley was connected with the Communist Party, that he believed she was a journalist and researcher, and that the information he gave her was not secret. In fact, Bentley was not only a Communist and an espionage agent for the Soviet Union, but in 1945 she would break with the Communists and become an informer for the FBI. She would implicate a number of her contacts, including Remington. Bentley's revelations of Soviet espionage activities in the United States received a great deal of press attention. Of the more than 80 Americans—including several employees of government offices—she named as working for the Soviets, only William Remington was still working in a government position.

Acting on Bentley's information, the FBI began a secret surveillance of Remington in late 1945. Remington had by this time become disillusioned with communism and broken off his relationships with radical organizations, so the investigation revealed nothing of interest. [Harvnb|May|1994|p=87] In 1946, Remington was working with the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion. From there he transferred in March 1947 to a position with the President's Council of Economic Advisers, where he was paid an annual salary of $10,305. Because the FBI was keeping Bentley's testimony and its investigation of Remington secret, it raised no objection, with the result that Remington remained in fairly high-level government posts.

In 1947, Remington was interviewed by the FBI and also questioned before a federal grand jury in New York City about the information he gave to Elizabeth Bentley. He testified that no secret information was involved, and the issue seemed to end there. In an apparent attempt to bolster belief in his innocence, Remington became an anti-communist informer from this time and for the following year. He sent the FBI information on over fifty people, only four of whom were connected with his case. Most of those he named he had never met. He accused them of being Communists, isolationists, Negro nationalists, or "extreme liberals." He also verbally attacked his wife Ann, from whom he was now estranged, and his mother-in-law Elizabeth Moos, both avowed Communists.

Another loyalty investigation of Remington was opened early in 1948, and in June, he was relieved of his duties pending the findings of that investigation. In July of that year, the New York World-Telegram published a series of articles about Elizabeth Bentley, and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations opened hearings to investigate her charges. At these hearings, Bentley made her accusations against Remington, and in his own testimony, Remington once again denied them. Remington's name and the charges against him were now public; the Washington Post called him "a boob . . . who was duped by clever Communist agents." At his loyalty review hearings, Remington downplayed his earlier connections with Communist and leftist organizations, and claimed that his wife's adherence to Communist doctrine was the reason for the end of their marriage.

While testifying before the Senate, Bentley was protected from libel suits. When she repeated her charge that Remington was a Communist on NBC Radio's Meet the Press, he sued her and NBC for libel. At this point, Remington's case acquired considerable notoriety. When Remington's lawyers attempted to subpoena Bentley, she initially could not be found, prompting headlines of "RED WITNESS "MISSING" AT 100-G SLANDER SUIT" and the like. When she finally reappeared, she was subpoenaed for the libel suit, but refused to testify at Remington's still-ongoing loyalty hearing. The Loyalty Review Board noted that the only serious evidence against Remington was "the uncorroborated statement of a woman who refuses to submit herself to cross-examination," [Harvnb|May| 1994 |p=129] and cleared Remington to return to his government post. The libel suit was settled out of court shortly after this, with NBC paying Remington $10,000. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Other Voices |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,820552,00.html |quote=When ex-Spy Bentley repeated her charge on a television show, Remington sued for $100,000 slander, settled out of court, reportedly for $10,000. |publisher=Time (magazine) |date=May 15, 1950 |accessdate=2008-05-31 ]

econd round of investigations

In 1950, the FBI and the federal grand jury in New York City both reopened their investigations of Remington. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) also opened new investigation of him. Because of continuing suspicions about him, Remington had been demoted in his position with the Commerce Department, and his once-promising career in the Truman administration was stagnant. Ann Remington, now divorced from William, was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. After initial reluctance, she testified that her husband had been a dues-paying member of the Communist Party, and that he had given secret information to Elizabeth Bentley, knowing that Bentley was a Communist herself.cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Remington Case; Prosecution's Witness |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C14FA3E591B728DDDA80B94DA415B8089F1D3&scp=1&sq=The+Remington+Case%3B+Prosecution%27s+Witness&st=p |quote=William W. Remington, 34, is a Dartmouth honor graduate who worked his way up in Government service from a $2,000-a-year job with the National Resources Planning Board in 1940 to a $10,305-a-year job with the Department of Commerce in 1948. |work=New York Times |date=December 31, 1950 |accessdate=2008-06-04 ] However, a few days later she recanted, and stated that she would claim marital privilege and refuse to testify against her ex-husband in any trial.

Despite uncertainty about the quality of their case, the grand jury decided to indict Remington for committing perjury when he denied ever being a member of the Communist Party.

Two trials

Remington's first trial began in late December 1950. The prosecution team was joined by Roy Cohn, later to become famous as Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel and already a noted anti-communist. By the time of the trial, Ann Remington had changed her mind again, and she testified that her ex-husband had been a Communist Party member, and that he had knowingly given secret information to Elizabeth Bentley. Bentley also testified, repeating her charge that Remington had given her secret information, saying with regard to the synthetic rubber formula, "He said to me that… he thought that the Russians would need something very much like this." [Harvnb|May| 1994 |p=227] The prosecution also showed that Remington had handled secret documents that were somewhat similar to the aircraft production information that Bentley said she received from Remington.

During the trial, the defense attorneys revealed that John Brunini, the foreman of the grand jury that indicted Remington, had a personal and financial relationship with Elizabeth Bentley, having agreed to coauthor a book with her.

After a seven-week trial, Remington was convicted. Judge Gregory E. Noonan handed down a sentence of five years--the maximum for perjury--noting that Remington's act of perjury had involved disloyalty to his country. In the atmosphere of McCarthyism prevalent at the time, Remington's conviction was celebrated by many. An editorial in "The Washington Daily News" stated in part::"William W. Remington now joins the odiferous list of young Communist punks who wormed their way upward in the Government under the New Deal. He was sentenced to five years in prison, and he should serve every minute of it. In Russia, he would have been shot without trial." [Harvnb|May|1994|p=267]

Remington's attorneys appealed the verdict, and the judicial panel hearing the case included Judge Learned Hand, considered one of America's most eminent jurists. The conviction was overturned on the grounds that Judge Noonan's instructions to the jury were too vague as to exactly what constituted "membership" in the Communist Party, and a new trial was ordered. Learned Hand also criticized grand jury foreman John Brunini and Thomas Donegan, the assistant to the Attorney General who directed the grand jury investigation, over Brunini's relationship with Bentley and for "judicial improprieties" in their abusive treatment of both Ann and William Remington during questioning. [Harvnb|May| 1994 |p=179]

Instead of retrying Remington under the existing indictment, the government presented a new indictment, this one charging Remington with five counts of perjury, all of them regarding points of testimony he had made during the first trial. Not included was the charge from the first trial: that he perjured himself when denying he had ever been a Communist Party member.

The second Remington trial began in January 1953 with Judge Vincent L. Leibell presiding. This trial proceeded much more quickly, lasting only 8 days. The jury found Remington guilty of two counts of perjury: in his testimony that he had not given secret information to Elizabeth Bentley, and that he did not know of the existence of the Young Communist League, which had a chapter at Dartmouth while Remington was a student there. [cite news
title=Remington Convicted
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889623,00.html
quote=William Remington, former Government economist, was found guilty... of perjury on two counts: 1) denying he had passed secret information to onetime Communist Spy Elizabeth Bentley, and 2) denying that he knew about the existence of a Young Communist League chapter at Dartmouth...
publisher=Time (magazine)
date=Monday, February 9, 1953
accessdate=2008-05-29 ] Judge Leibell sentenced Remington to three years in prison. While his attorneys prepared another appeal, Remington began his sentence at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. The appeals court upheld the original verdict, and in February of 1954, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. [cite court
litigants=United States v. Remington
vol=
reporter=
opinion=
pinpoint=
court=United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
date=November 24, 1953
url=https://www.fastcase.com/Google/Start.aspx?C=9c9e2bbdd854c5b943efab301b1cbcce05234b1faa1fd219&D=cdf46080dab20e2ad8f3c7a284c2920bb2420431fdee35ef
quote=]

Imprisonment and murder

One of Remington's fellow inmates at Lewisburg was George McCoy, a violent man with an I.Q. of 61. McCoy was known to have made a number of angry remarks about Remington's supposed communism. On the morning of November 22, 1954, McCoy convinced another inmate, 17-year-old juvenile delinquent Lewis Cagle, Jr., to join him in attacking Remington as he slept. Cagle used a piece of brick in a sock as a weapon, striking Remington four times on the head. Two days later, Remington died of his injuries. [cite news
title=Remington Dies in Prison. 2 Inmates Named as Killers.
url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30715F73D58157A93C7AB178AD95F408585F9
quote=William W. Remington... died in the Federal penitentiary here today of injuries received in a beating on Monday.
publisher=New York Times
date=November 25, 1954
accessdate=2008-05-29 ] In reporting the attack to Remington's second wife, the prison warden described it as "not a personal attack against Bill. ... but just the actions of a couple of hoodlums who got all worked up by ... the publicity about Communists." [Harvnb|May| 1994 |p=308] The FBI stated that robbery was the motive for the crime. [cite news
title=Remington Death Laid To Robbery. 3d Convict Named In Killing. F.B.I. Says He Admitted Looting Victim's Cell.
url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00812FE3959177B93C5AB178AD95F408585F9
quote=The Federal Bureau of Investigation said today that an accused slayer of William W. Remington, former Government economist, had asserted that robbery was the motive for the crime.
publisher=New York Times
date=November 27, 1954, Saturday
accessdate=2008-06-04 ] His funeral was held in Ridgewood, New Jersey on November 28, 1954. [cite news
title=Policeman Guard Remington Rites. Six Posted at Jersey Church Because of Threats to Kin of Convict Slain in Prison.
url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F5081FF73D58157A93CAAB178AD95F408585F9
quote=A simple funeral service for William W. Remington, slain Federal prisoner, was held at 10 A. M. today ...
publisher=New York Times
date=November 28, 1954
accessdate=2008-06-04 ]

With his death, Remington was once again in the headlines. Much attention was focused on whether more should have been done to protect him in prison, and whether his murder was motivated by anti-communism. When Cagle confessed, the FBI made an attempt to quell this speculation by instructing him to phrase his description of the crime as if he and McCoy had been trying to rob Remington. [Harvnb|May|1994|p=314] However, when McCoy confessed four days later, he proudly bragged that he hated Remington for being a Communist and denied any robbery motive.

Worried that Cagle and McCoy's confessions might be ruled inadmissible and afraid that a jury would be sympathetic towards men who murdered a Communist, [Harvnb|May| 1994 |p=318] U.S. attorney J. Julius Levy accepted pleas of second degree murder from McCoy and Cagle. The two men received life sentences.

Biographer Gary May concludes: "Clearly, Remington was no political innocent duped by the Communists, and his conviction for perjury seems justified. Yet Remington was no pro-Soviet automaton, no slave to Party or ideology, and not even the FBI, at least privately, was willing to classify him as a Russian spy." [Harvnb|May| 1994 |p=321]

ee also

*McCarthyism
*Elizabeth Bentley
*Communist Party of the United States

References and notes

----

*Harvard reference
Surname= May
Given= Gary
Title=Un-American Activities: The Trials of William Remington
Publisher=Oxford University Press
Year=1994
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=iWYcAAAACAAJ&dq
ID = ISBN 0-19-504980-2