Deadly Farce: Harvey Matusow and the Informer System in the McCarthy Era

Harvey Matusow, a celebrity informant for the government during the McCarthy Era, retracted his testimony in 1955, leading to the dissolution of the Justice Department’s stable of paid informers. Robert M. Lichtman and Ronald D. Cohen draw on FBI records, court transcripts, personal interviews, private papers, and other primary sources to describe the unusual role of Matusow and other ex-Communist informer-witnesses.