Alger Hiss, a government official for the United States, was convicted of perjury on this day in 1950. He'd been accused of spying for the Soviet Union in what turned out to be a dramatic story involving leaked documents, defections, and pumpkins (seriously).
Hiss had been identified by a Soviet spy who'd defected to the U.S. in 1945 as one of dozens of federal employees accused of espionage. Time magazine editor Whittaker Chambers was dragged in front of a congressional committee and said Hiss had been part of a secret communist circle but offered no evidence to prove it. Hiss ended up suing Chambers for libel. In 1948, the editor shared documents exposing their participation in the greater espionage effort that he'd hidden in a pumpkin on his farm — perhaps the most unexpected (and odd) place you could put them.
The statute of limitations on espionage had run out, but the government was able to charge Hiss with perjury for his denials. Historians nowadays generally agree that he was a big fibber, thanks to a comprehensive FBI investigation that made it pretty clear who was involved in the underground espionage ring. Hiss served five years in prison.
Want to learn more? You can see the evidence gathered by the FBI here.
