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compensation. Mr. Stripling. You just gave him the car? Mr. Hiss. I think the car just went right in with it... Mr. Stripling. What kind of a bill of sale did you give Crosley? Mr. Hiss. I think I just turned over&mdash;in the District you get a certificate of title, I think it is, I think I just simply turned it over to him. Mr. Stripling. Handed it to him? Mr. Hiss. Yes. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 958-959 (PDF 468-469)</ref> or loaned<ref>Hiss: "my letting Crosley use the Ford... it is even possible that he returned it to me after using it... Whether I gave him the car outright, whether the car came back, I don't know." [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1093, 1095, 1104 (PDF 603, 605, 614)</ref> the car [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html to Chambers] in June 1935, after buying a new car.<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 957 (PDF 467)</ref> But Hiss did not buy a new car until some three months after this, and he continued to pay insurance on the Ford for a year [[#refCohen93|after he claimed to have gotten rid of it]].

compensation. Mr. Stripling. You just gave him the car? Mr. Hiss. I think the car just went right in with it... Mr. Stripling. What kind of a bill of sale did you give Crosley? Mr. Hiss. I think I just turned over&mdash;in the District you get a certificate of title, I think it is, I think I just simply turned it over to him. Mr. Stripling. Handed it to him? Mr. Hiss. Yes. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 958-959 (PDF 468-469)</ref> or loaned<ref>Hiss: "my letting Crosley use the Ford... it is even possible that he returned it to me after using it... Whether I gave him the car outright, whether the car came back, I don't know." [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1093, 1095, 1104 (PDF 603, 605, 614)</ref> the car [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html to Chambers] in June 1935, after buying a new car.<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 957 (PDF 467)</ref> But Hiss did not buy a new car until some three months after this, and he continued to pay insurance on the Ford for a year [[#refCohen93|after he claimed to have gotten rid of it]].

Chambers' version would be corroborated by the car's certificate of title, which showed that Hiss actually transferred the car on July 23, 1936, to the Cherner Motor Company, which [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html sold it the same day] to the [[Communist]]<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 60</ref> William Rosen for $25. The address listed on the certificate was not Rosen's but [http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html that of Benjamin Bialek], a [[#refHaynes5-10-05|leading official of the Baltimore Communist Party]]. The company's records of the transaction had vanished.<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1065 (PDF 566); [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 47</ref> The salesman for the transaction refused to testify on grounds of potential self-incrimination; later investigation would establish that [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0505&week=b&msg=02ybKmtOa6aYfyrfupryvw&user=&pw= he was a secret Communist] who on other occasions conducted automobile transfers to assist Soviet intelligence. Richard Tourin, son of a photographer for [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Philip Rosenbliet]’s espionage apparatus, wrote in his memoir that his father’s Soviet contact in 1937 rewarded his father’s service to the Soviets with [[#refHaynes5-10-05|a used car supplied via William Rosen]]. Rosen would [[#refHissAppellate|refuse to answer]] [http://www.leagle.com/decision/1949361174F2d187_1293.xml/UNITED%20STATES%20v.%20ROSEN questions about his role] in the transfer or in the [[Communist Party]] on grounds [[#refHissAppellate|of potential self-incrimination]]. Hiss's attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch,<ref>This was the same attorney who had represented Communist underground boss [[J. Peters]] in his deportation hearing; he would later represent [[Julius Rosenberg|Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]] in their espionage trial. [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 53. Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, characterized him as "[http://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/flatview?cuecard=1746 a communist ideologue]."</ref> told him:

Chambers' version would be corroborated by the car's certificate of title, which showed that Hiss actually transferred the car on July 23, 1936, to the Cherner Motor Company, which [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html sold it the same day] to the [[Communist]]<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 60</ref> William Rosen for $25. The address listed on the certificate was not Rosen's but [http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html that of Benjamin Bialek], a [[#refHaynes5-10-05|leading official of the Baltimore Communist Party]]. The company's records of the transaction had vanished.<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1065 (PDF 566); [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 47</ref> The salesman for the transaction refused to testify on grounds of potential self-incrimination; later investigation would establish that [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0505&week=b&msg=02ybKmtOa6aYfyrfupryvw&user=&pw= he was a secret Communist] who on other occasions conducted automobile transfers to assist Soviet intelligence. Richard Tourin, son of a photographer for [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Philip Rosenbliet]’s espionage apparatus, wrote in his memoir that his father’s Soviet contact in 1937 rewarded his father’s service to the Soviets with [[#refHaynes5-10-05|a used car supplied via William Rosen]]. Rosen would [[#refHissAppellate|refuse to answer]] [http://www.leagle.com/decision/1949361174F2d187_1293.xml/UNITED%20STATES%20v.%20ROSEN questions about his role] in the transfer or in the [[Communist Party]] on grounds [[#refHissAppellate|of potential self-incrimination]]. Hiss's attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch,<ref>This was the same attorney who had represented Communist underground boss [[J. Peters]] in his deportation hearing; he would later represent [[Julius Rosenberg|Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]] in their espionage trial. [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 53. [[Alan Dershowitz]], Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, characterized him as "[http://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/flatview?cuecard=1746 a communist ideologue]."</ref> told him:

{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a [[#refNYRB|dummy transaction]] concerning the Ford car.... [A]t some later date, a man came to see Rosen and told him that the title certificate to the Ford was in Rosen's name and asked Rosen to sign an assignment of it to some other person. Rosen did this. The man who came to see Rosen was a very high [[Communist]]. His name would be a sensation in this case. The man who ultimately got the car is also a Communist. Bloch implied that Rosen was a Communist too....<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 53</ref>}}

{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a [[#refNYRB|dummy transaction]] concerning the Ford car.... [A]t some later date, a man came to see Rosen and told him that the title certificate to the Ford was in Rosen's name and asked Rosen to sign an assignment of it to some other person. Rosen did this. The man who came to see Rosen was a very high [[Communist]]. His name would be a sensation in this case. The man who ultimately got the car is also a Communist. Bloch implied that Rosen was a Communist too....<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 53</ref>}}

The title transfer bore a signature Hiss acknowledged to be his own,<ref>Mr. NIXON. All right; you are willing to testify now then that since Mr. Smith did notarize your signature as of that time, that it is your signature? Mr. HISS. On the basis of the assumptions you state, the answer is "Yes".... Mr. NIXON. You don't deny, however, that the notarization of your signature on the transfer to Cherner Motor Co. in July of 1936 is your signature? Mr. HISS. I certainly do not. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1116, 1119 (PDF 626, 629)</ref> notarized by Hiss's [[Justice Department]] colleague W. Marvin Smith. In 1948 Smith would tell the [[HUAC|Thomas committee]] that he had notarized Hiss's signature on the transfer,<ref>Mr. STRIPLING. I show you a photostatic copy of an assignment of title which was... subpenaed from the files, of the Vehicles and Traffic Division of the District of Columbia... It states in part... "Assignment of title. For value received the undersigned hereby sells, assigns, or transfer unto (name of purchaser)"; then, written in is "Cherner Motor Company; address, 1781 Florida Avenue, Northwest"... It says, "Signature of Assignor, Alger Hiss." Then it says, "On the 23d day of July 1936, before me, the subscriber, a notary public of the District of Columbia, personally appeared Alger Hiss, who made oath in due form of law that the above statements are true. Witness my hand and notarial seal, W. Marvin Smith, Notary Public." Is that your signature, Mr. Smith? Mr. SMITH. It sure does look like it. Mr. STRIPLING. You say it does? Mr. SMITH. Yes; I have no doubt it is. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1072 (PDF 582)</ref> but before he could so testify in the Hiss [[trial]], Smith would would be found dead from a fall down a five-story Justice Department stairwell; there would be no witnesses.<ref>"U.S. Lawyer Who Figured In Hiss Case Killed in Fall," ''The Washington Post,'' October 21, 1948, p. 1. Cf. "[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19510317&id=lQ8pAAAAIBAJ&sjid=39YEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4789,1952807 Drew Pearson's Washington Merry-Go-Round," ''The Southeast Missourian'', March 17, 1951], p. 6</ref>

The title transfer bore a signature Hiss acknowledged to be his own,<ref>Mr. NIXON. All right; you are willing to testify now then that since Mr. Smith did notarize your signature as of that time, that it is your signature? Mr. HISS. On the basis of the assumptions you state, the answer is "Yes".... Mr. NIXON. You don't deny, however, that the notarization of your signature on the transfer to Cherner Motor Co. in July of 1936 is your signature? Mr. HISS. I certainly do not. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1116, 1119 (PDF 626, 629)</ref> notarized by Hiss's [[Justice Department]] colleague W. Marvin Smith. In 1948 Smith would tell the [[HUAC|Thomas committee]] that he had notarized Hiss's signature on the transfer,<ref>Mr. STRIPLING. I show you a photostatic copy of an assignment of title which was... subpenaed from the files, of the Vehicles and Traffic Division of the District of Columbia... It states in part... "Assignment of title. For value received the undersigned hereby sells, assigns, or transfer unto (name of purchaser)"; then, written in is "Cherner Motor Company; address, 1781 Florida Avenue, Northwest"... It says, "Signature of Assignor, Alger Hiss." Then it says, "On the 23d day of July 1936, before me, the subscriber, a notary public of the District of Columbia, personally appeared Alger Hiss, who made oath in due form of law that the above statements are true. Witness my hand and notarial seal, W. Marvin Smith, Notary Public." Is that your signature, Mr. Smith? Mr. SMITH. It sure does look like it. Mr. STRIPLING. You say it does? Mr. SMITH. Yes; I have no doubt it is. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1072 (PDF 582)</ref> but before he could so testify in the Hiss [[trial]], Smith would would be found dead from a fall down a five-story Justice Department stairwell; there would be no witnesses.<ref>"U.S. Lawyer Who Figured In Hiss Case Killed in Fall," ''The Washington Post,'' October 21, 1948, p. 1. Cf. "[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19510317&id=lQ8pAAAAIBAJ&sjid=39YEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4789,1952807 Drew Pearson's Washington Merry-Go-Round," ''The Southeast Missourian'', March 17, 1951], p. 6</ref>