Elizabeth Bentley : Biography

Elizabeth Bentley was born in 1908. She joined the American Communist Party while a student at Columbia University. In 1938 she obtained a secretarial job in the Italian Library of Information in New York. While there, she discovered that it was also a front for the Fascist Italian government's Propaganda Ministry. Bentley used her position to gather information on Mussolini's government and then passed it on to the Italian Communist Party.

Bentley's work for the Italian Communist Party brought her into contact with Jacob Golos, a member of the American Communist Party and the Soviet secret police. The couple became lovers and Bentley became involved in the spy ring that included Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, Whittaker Chambers and David Greenglass.

In 1944 Bentley left the Communist Party and the following year went to the FBI. On 8th November, 1945, J. Edgar Hoover, sent a message to Harry S. Truman confirming that an espionage ring was operating in the United States government. For the next two years FBI agents investigated the 80 individuals she named. However, they were unable to find enough evidence to arrest any of these people.

In July 1948 Bentley appeared before the House of Un-American Activities Committee and during her testimony named several people she believed had been Soviet spies while working for the United States government.

Doubts about Bentley's testimony began to emerge when it was discovered that when checked, much of it was clearly untrue. This evidence was also undermined when it became known that she was being paid by New York World Telegram for this material. However, information provided by Bentley eventually led to the arrest and conviction of Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg for spying. Bentley's autobiography, Out of Bondage, was published in 1952.