In early June 1937, Juliet Stuart Poyntz took a call in her room at the American Woman’s Association Clubhouse at 353 West 57th Street in Manhattan. Shortly afterwards, she left the building and was never seen again. While friends were concerned about her whereabouts, her disappearance went unreported for nearly seven months. At the time of her disappearance, Poyntz worked in the Soviet underground, and long absences were not uncommon for her.
On December 17, Arthur Irwin of the New York World Telegram, broke the story of Poytnz’s disappearance and revealed that no one had seen or heard from her since June. At the time the sensational story of an American couple known as Mr. and Mrs. Donald Robinson was in the papers. The Robinsons had traveled to Moscow only to go missing and then reappear imprisoned in Lublanka prison. This public disappearance may have increased interest in Poyntz whose own disappearance was reported at the same time. To some, it appeared that three American citizens, who were all entangled with the Soviet underground, were caught up in Stalin’s terror. While the Robinsons, later to be uncovered as Arthur and Ruth Rubins, were located, Poyntz was never seen or heard from again.
Carlo Tresca, Poyntz friend and anti-Stalinist anarchist claimed, without evidence, that the Soviets kidnapped and murdered Poyntz with the help of the American Communist Party. This story went unverified and uninvestigated, but has become foundational in American anticommunism regularly appearing in the news media, among scholars, and by determined anticommunists. What never seemed to concern many is what actually happened to her.
This website is a companion to the book Where is Juliet Stuart Poyntz? Gender, Spycraft, and Anti-Stalinism in the early Cold War. It offers a selection of images and primary source documents to help you understand the Poyntz case.
Denise Lynn, Ph.D. 