Grand Jury to Hear Furry Evidence; District Attorney Aims at Indictment

George E. Thompson, District Attorney for Middlesex Country, indicated last night that he would submit evidence on Wendell H. Furry, associate professor of Physics, "and others," Feb. 1 before a Middlesex grand jury for possible indictment on violation of the 1948 Massachusetts Teacher's Oath.

Thompson refused to comment on the exact nature of his information, collected by a State Police investigation, saying only that police have been reviewing Furry's "entire background" for some time.

When pressed to name "others," the District Attorney explained that the evidence would "speak for itself." It is believed, however, that Thompson plans to reveal new information on Leon J. Kamin, research assistant in the Laboratory of Social Relations.

When A Communist?

"The moot question before the jury will be whether Furry was a member of the Communist Party past 1948," Thompson said.

"If he was a member past 1948," Thompson continued, "the grand jury will consider whether he violated the state teacher oath law."

This law, originally legislated in 1935, was amended in 1948, making it a violation for a state teacher not to support the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States Constitution.

Thomas Dorgan, Suffolk Superior Court clerk, has demanded Furry's prosecution, charging the professor violated this law when he became a member of the Communist Party in 1938.

Final Jury Decision

Thompson last night said he was not in a position to reveal any information about Furry or anyone else whose case would be before the jury. "We plan to examine the activities of various others," he explained, "but other than that it will be a matter for the jury and not for me to discuss."

The police investigation began before Senator McCarthy questioned Furry and Kamin last Friday, Thompson said. At that time Furry admitted he had been a Communist, but declined to name his associates. Thompson refused to comment when asked if his police examination had turned up the names of these associates.