"I Wish . . ."

After seven weeks of listening to evidence, 14 hours of deliberation, the jury had made up its mind. There was absolute silence in Federal Judge Edward M. Curran's Washington courtroom as silver-haired Mildred ("Axis Sally") Gillars walked in, smiled faintly, and waited to hear the jury's decision. The verdict: guilty of treason against the U.S.

Axis Sally showed no emotion at the verdict, which carries a maximum penalty of death (no traitor has ever been executed in the U.S. for treason against the U.S.), or a minimum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. But as she left the courtroom she indulged in a final bit of defiant dramatics and daffy reasoning that left newsmen wondering if she really knew what the trial had all been about. Said Traitor Gillars: "I wish those who judge me would be willing to risk their lives for America as I did."

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