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As it turned out, Jackson, Frank and Pressman were indeed fired—but [[#refChronology|Hiss was not]]. "Alger must have known at least a week before the purge that it was coming," said Jackson. "He undoubtedly told Pressman, and Lee told him what to do in order to remain in the Department as his pipeline."<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 60</ref>
As it turned out, Jackson, Frank and Pressman were indeed fired—but [[#refChronology|Hiss was not]]. "Alger must have known at least a week before the purge that it was coming," said Jackson. "He undoubtedly told Pressman, and Lee told him what to do in order to remain in the Department as his pipeline."<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 60</ref>
Frank, believing Hiss to be closely linked to a coterie of Communist lawyers at the agency, would later refuse to appear as a character witness for him.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 43</ref> According to reporters Ralph de Toledano (who covered the Hiss trials for ''Newsweek'') and Victor Lasky (who covered the trials for the ''New York World-Telegram''): "When Hiss's lawyers approached a well-known jurist to ask him if he would appear as a character witness [for Hiss]...he said tartly: 'I have no way of knowing whether or not Mr. Hiss was ever a Communist. But as to his character—Mr. Hiss has no character.'"<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 60. [[Whittaker Chambers]] would testify that Hiss had "a great gentleness and sweetness of character," ([[#refHUAC8-7-48|HUAC August 7, 1948]]), although he would later admit glimpsing a "strange savagery" in Hiss's laughter at "the horrible old women of Baltimore" ([[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 363), and "the obvious pleasure he took in the most simple and brutal references to the President's physical condition as a symbol of the middle-class breakdown." (Hiss was one of the few insiders who knew that [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was wheelchair-bound. See, e.g., Hugh Gregory Gallagher, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=kFpgOgAACAAJ FDR's Splendid Deception: The Moving Story of Roosevelt's Massive Disability and the Intense Efforts to Conceal it from the Public]'' [St. Petersburg, Fla.: Vandamere Press, 1999] ISBN 0918339502. To Hiss, according to one scholar, the ailing FDR epitomized "feeble, illegitimate authority that ought to die or disappear but refuses to do so." Alan Fraser Davis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=8bo8AAAAIAAJ Skills, Outlooks and Passions: A Psychoanalytic Contribution to the Study of Politics]'' [Cambridge University Press, 1980] ISBN 0521293499, p. 449, n. 13) That savagery took a distinctly political form, as when Chambers raised with Hiss the issue of the bloody [[Moscow]] [[Great purge|purge trials]]: according to Chambers, Hiss merely replied, "Yes, Stalin plays for keeps, doesn’t he?" ([[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 41) Likewise, when reminded that the prominent [http://mises.org/journals/scholar/MacKenzie7.pdf Democratic Socialist] [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/273508/Irving-Howe Irving Howe] had written that he was convinced of Hiss's guilt, Hiss snapped, "Howe? I don't consider him on the left." [[#refRemnick86|Remnick 1986]]</ref>
Frank, believing Hiss to be closely linked to a coterie of Communist lawyers at the agency, would later refuse to appear as a character witness for him.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 43</ref> According to reporters Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky (who covered the trials for ''Newsweek'' and the ''New York World-Telegram'', respectively): "When Hiss's lawyers approached a well-known jurist to ask him if he would appear as a character witness [for Hiss]...he said tartly: 'I have no way of knowing whether or not Mr. Hiss was ever a Communist. But as to his character—Mr. Hiss has no character.'"<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 60. [[Whittaker Chambers]] would testify that Hiss had "a great gentleness and sweetness of character," ([[#refHUAC8-7-48|HUAC August 7, 1948]]), although he would later admit glimpsing a "strange savagery" in Hiss's laughter at "the horrible old women of Baltimore" ([[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 363), and "the obvious pleasure he took in the most simple and brutal references to the President's physical condition as a symbol of the middle-class breakdown." (Hiss was one of the few insiders who knew that [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was wheelchair-bound. See, e.g., Hugh Gregory Gallagher, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=kFpgOgAACAAJ FDR's Splendid Deception: The Moving Story of Roosevelt's Massive Disability and the Intense Efforts to Conceal it from the Public]'' [St. Petersburg, Fla.: Vandamere Press, 1999] ISBN 0918339502. To Hiss, according to one scholar, the ailing FDR epitomized "feeble, illegitimate authority that ought to die or disappear but refuses to do so." Alan Fraser Davis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=8bo8AAAAIAAJ Skills, Outlooks and Passions: A Psychoanalytic Contribution to the Study of Politics]'' [Cambridge University Press, 1980] ISBN 0521293499, p. 449, n. 13) That savagery took a distinctly political form, as when Chambers raised with Hiss the issue of the bloody [[Moscow]] [[Great purge|purge trials]]: according to Chambers, Hiss merely replied, "Yes, Stalin plays for keeps, doesn’t he?" ([[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 41) Likewise, when reminded that the prominent [http://mises.org/journals/scholar/MacKenzie7.pdf Democratic Socialist] [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/273508/Irving-Howe Irving Howe] had written that he was convinced of Hiss's guilt, Hiss snapped, "Howe? I don't consider him on the left." [[#refRemnick86|Remnick 1986]]</ref>
[[Henry Collins|Collins]] would refuse to testify on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]],<ref>Mr. Stripling. Are you a member of the Communist Party?
[[Henry Collins|Collins]] would refuse to testify on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]],<ref>Mr. Stripling. Are you a member of the Communist Party?