(1950), Marbury's friend from childhood The family of
Alger Hiss sat one pew in front of the Marbury family at their Episcopal church in Baltimore. One of Marbury's sisters worked at the Johns Hopkins University library while Hiss studied there. His cousin Jesse Slingluff Jr. was a fraternity brother with Hiss in
Alpha Delta Phi, as was his wife's brother, Hugh Judge Jewett Jr. (who was in Hiss' class). By 1929, they had become "close personal friends" as adults. Both attended each other's weddings; Hiss was godfather to one of Marbury's children. Marbury was involved in the Hiss case in its hearings, trials, and aftermath for the rest of his life, with a detailed legal essay coming out in 1981 and a memoir around his death in 1988. On August 3, 1948, senior
Time editor
Whittaker Chambers, under subpoena before the
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), mentioned Hiss as a member of the
Ware Group, a spy ring that Chambers had run in Washington during the 1930s. On August 5, 1948, Marbury took Hiss to the offices of
Covington & Burling, where Hiss's brother
Donald worked, for a meeting with Hiss's classmate and Marbury's friend Joe Johnson, helped Hiss to prepare his statement, and then "accompanied" (i.e., not formally as "counsel") Hiss before
HUAC. Thereafter, he left the U.S. for three weeks in Europe on government business. In the "three-ring circus" {{cite news As Marbury summarized the situation: It seemed to me inevitable that if he [Hiss] failed to sue Chambers, his reputation would be so irretrievably destroyed that the
Endowment would have to dispense with his services anyhow.... I warned both Alger and
Priscilla that if there were any
skeletons in the closet of either one of them, they would certainly be discovered if suit were filed, and they both assured me there was no cause for worry on that count.... I again warned about skeletons in the closet and mentioned the case of
Oscar Wilde, but Alger brushed this aside, saying that he had nothing to hide. While Marbury was in Europe, Hiss worked with numerous lawyers led by
Ed McLean of
Debevoise, Plimpton & McLean in New York. While McLean feared that a libel case would come to court too slowly in New York, Marbury argued that Hiss could file in Chambers' home state of Maryland through a Federal Court in Baltimore, if they acted within 60 days. Hiss switched out McLean for Marbury as lead counsel and filed the libel suit on September 27, 1948. During pre-trial proceedings, he recalled, "I made demand on him to produce anything whatsoever which he had in his possession in the way of written evidence which would substantiate his story, and particularly any communications from Alger or Priscilla Hiss." Chambers brought forward the "Baltimore Documents" that included papers handwritten by Hiss and typed on the Hiss family typewriter. Marbury recalled, "I was shocked when I recognized what seemed to be Alger's handwriting.... I was fully aware of the devastating effect that these memoranda would be certain to have on Alger's suit." Nevertheless, Hiss had Marbury send the papers to the
U.S. Department of Justice, clearly expecting it to indict Chambers. Instead, after days of intense grand jury hearings, the Department of Justice indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury on December 15, 1948. The libel suit stalled. When Hiss was convicted of both counts of perjury in January 1950, the libel suit disappeared. (Hiss maintained his innocence until his death, in 1996.) {{cite book {{cite news Years later, Marbury was critical of Hiss. After reviewing his HUAC testimony, he noted: There was no doubt that in his appearances before the Committee in my absence Alger had handled himself very badly. He had adopted a rather arrogant attitude and had repeatedly fenced with the members of the Committee. He had written a letter to the Chairman which reeked with hurt pride and indignation, and had grudgingly admitted association with Chambers under the name of George Crosley, but only after examining his teeth and asking him to read aloud some passages from a document. ==Personal and death==