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Oct 1, 1988 · Based on family papers, wiretapped conversations, trial transcripts and interviews with the principals, this is the most comprehensive look we are likely to get at the inception and operation of what has been called the most damaging spy ring in America's history.
- (379)
- 1988
- Pete Earley
- Pete Earley
- Building A Naval Career
- A Second Career
- Life as A Spy
- End of Walker’s Espionage
- Assessing The Damage
- Sources
John Anthony Walker Jr. was born in 1937, the middle son of a Warner Brothers film marketer and an Italian-American mother. Nicknamed “Smilin’ Jack,” he attended Catholic school and became an altar boy; however, his childhood was traumatic. His father descended into a hell of alcoholism and lost his job. Bankrupt, the family moved near the boy’s gr...
Espionage became Walker’s way out, though in his telling political disaffection also played a role. He suspected John F. Kennedy’s assassination had been engineered by government and corporate leaders intent on preventing the President from toning down the Cold War. In his memoir, Walker recounted his intellectual evolution from 1950s John Bircher ...
John Walker’s trickle of intelligence meanwhile became a flood. According to Walker’s account, he mostly supplied the Soviets with old key lists – much less zealously guarded – and the KGB never pressed him for current or future ones. In fact, the Soviets advised Walker to avoid future material as well as maintenance manuals. Also, their plan for c...
A most troubling aspect of the Walker affair is how it could have gone on for 18 years without authorities uncovering the leak. There is no indication that counterintelligence was even aware of, much less moving to combat, the Walker network. Norfolk FBI spy catcher Robert W. Hunter claimed he knew that an “elusive master spy . . . was out there,” ...
Many observers believe the Walker spy ring created the most damaging security breach of the Cold War. Director of Naval Intelligence Rear Admiral William O. Studeman declared that no sentence a court could impose would atone for its “unprecedented damage and treachery.” Secretary of the Navy John H. Lehman tried to overturn John Walker’s plea agree...
Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (Basic Books, 1999). John Barron, Breaking the Ring: The Bizarre Case of the Walker Family Spy Ring (Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1987). Howard Blum, I Pledge Allegience . . . The True Story of the Walkers: An American Spy Family ...
Family of Spies, also known as Family of Spies: The Walker Spy Ring is a 1990 TV movie based on the espionage of John A. Walker Jr. The film was directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal and starred Powers Boothe as John Walker.
- Spy Action
In 1990, Walker's life from his navy career just before his recruitment as a spy to his and his son's arrest by the FBI was dramatized in a two-part TV movie called Family of Spies on CBS. Walker was portrayed by Powers Boothe .
Mar 11, 2012 · The tale of master spy John Walker, Jr. and his ring - his Navy seaman son, Michael, who had supplied that night's documents from his ship, the nuclear aircraft carrier "Nimitz"; Walker's gullible brother, Arthur; and Walker's best friend, retired naval communications specialist Jerry Whitworth - is dazzling in its detail and especially ...
- (374)
- Pete Earley
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Pete Earley’s gripping tale of master spy John Walker, Jr. and his ring – his son, Michael; his brother, Arthur; and his best friend, Jerry Whitworth – is dazzling in its detail and shocking in its revelations.
Jan 1, 1988 · 354 ratings30 reviews. The Walker family's involvement in spying for the Soviet Union and their conviction on espionage charges is revealed, with new facts about the discovery of their actions and the grand-scale damage done to the nation's security.
