Roy Cohn

Roy Cohn was an American Lawyer, who is best known for having served in two landmark cases, the Army/McCarthy and Rosenberg cases. Cohn was also heavily involved in the string of prosecutions as a result of the Red Scare and the accusations of Senator Joseph McCarthy. It was Cohn’s direct examination of Ethel Rosenburg’s brother that lead to the conviction of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and their subsequent execution. He claims to have personally suggested the death sentence. During the string of prosecutions made in tandem with McCarthy, Cohn and McCarthy also attacked various political figures for alleged homosexuality in an attempt to destroy their credibility. In the years after the Red Scare, Cohn continued to defend and serve for high profile clients, keeping in the public eye. Donald Trump, Mafiosos Tony Salerno, Carmine Galente, and John Gotti, the Roman Catholic Archidose of New York, and the New York Yankees baseball club. Rumors had spread for some time that Cohn himself might have been homosexual, a claim which is given credence by his aggressive attempts to hide his diagnosis of AIDS in 1984. He died of complications related to AIDS in 1986, at the age of 51.