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John Anthony Walker Jr. (July 28, 1937 – August 28, 2014) was a
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
chief warrant officer Chief warrant officer is a military rank used by the United States Armed Forces, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Pakistan Air Force, the Israel Defense Forces, the South African National Defence Force, the Lebanese Armed Forces and, since 2012, th ...
and communications specialist convicted of
spying Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
for the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
from 1967 to 1985 and sentenced to life in prison. In late 1985, Walker made a
plea bargain A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...
with federal prosecutors, which required him to provide full details of his espionage activities and testify against his co-conspirator, former
senior chief petty officer Senior Chief Petty Officer ''(SCPO)'' is an enlisted rank in the navies of some countries. United States U.S. Coast Guardsenior chiefpetty officercollar device U.S. Coast Guardsenior chiefpetty officerinsignia Senior chiefpetty officer ...
Jerry Whitworth. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to a lesser sentence for Walker's son, former Seaman Michael Walker, who was also involved in the
spy ring Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
. During his time as a Soviet spy, Walker helped the Soviets decipher more than one million
encrypted In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...
naval messages, organizing a spy operation that ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported in 1987 "is sometimes described as the most damaging Soviet spy ring in history." After Walker's arrest,
Caspar Weinberger Caspar Willard Weinberger (August 18, 1917 – March 28, 2006) was an American statesman and businessman. As a prominent Republican, he served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades, including chairman of the Californ ...
, President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
's
Secretary of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
, concluded that the Soviet Union made significant gains in naval warfare attributable to Walker's spying. Weinberger stated that the information Walker gave Moscow allowed the Soviets "access to weapons and sensor data and naval tactics, terrorist threats, and surface, submarine, and airborne training, readiness and tactics."
John Lehman John Francis Lehman Jr. (born September 14, 1942) is an American private equity investor and writer who served as Secretary of the Navy (1981–1987) in the Ronald Reagan administration where he promoted the creation of a 600-ship Navy. From 2003 ...
,
Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...
during the Reagan Administration, stated in an interview that Walker's activities enabled the Soviets to know where U.S. submarines were at all times. Lehman said the Walker espionage would have resulted in huge loss of American lives in the event of war. In the June 2010 issue of ''Naval History Magazine'', John Prados, a senior fellow with the
National Security Archive The National Security Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985 to check rising government secrecy. The Nat ...
in Washington, D.C., pointed out that after Walker introduced himself to Soviet officials, North Korean forces seized USS ''Pueblo'' in order to make better use of Walker's spying. Prados added that North Korea subsequently shared information gleaned from the spy ship with the Soviets, enabling them to build replicas and gain access to the U.S. naval communications system, which continued until the system was completely revamped in the late 1980s. It has emerged in recent years that North Korea acted alone and the incident actually harmed North Korea's relations with most of the
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
.


Early life

Walker was born in Washington, D.C., on July 28, 1937, and attended high school in
Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
. After dropping out of high school, Walker and a friend staged a series of burglaries on May 27, 1955. Their loot included two tires, four quarts of oil, six cans of cleaner, and $3 in cash. The pair evaded police during a high-speed chase, but were arrested two days later. He was offered the option of jail or the military.Herbig, Katherine L. and Martin F. Wiskoff. (July 2002
Espionage against the United States by American citizens, 1947-2001
FAS website. Accessed August 1, 2015.
He enlisted in the Navy in 1955, and successfully advanced as a
radioman Radioman (RM) was a rating for United States Navy and United States Coast Guard enlisted personnel, specializing in communications technology. History of the rating The rating was created originally in 1921. In 1997, under the direction of Chi ...
to
chief petty officer A chief petty officer (CPO) is a senior non-commissioned officer in many navies and coast guards. Canada "Chief petty officer" refers to two ranks in the Royal Canadian Navy. A chief petty officer 2nd class (CPO2) (''premier maître de deuxi ...
in eight years. While stationed in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Walker met and married Barbara Crowley, and they had four children together, three daughters and a son. While stationed on the nuclear-powered Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) submarine in
Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
, Walker opened a bar, which failed to turn a profit and immediately plunged him into debt. In 1965 Walker transferred to the newly built FBM, , where he received a
top secret Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...
crypto clearance to work in the submarine's communications spaces. He and other members of the submarine's communications team were members of the
John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, or libertarian ideas. T ...
, distributing literature about the organization to crew members and to friends ashore, where Walker attempted the
playboy lifestyle ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...
.


Spy ring

John Walker was promoted to
warrant officer Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the mos ...
in March 1967 and in April was assigned as a communications watch officer at the headquarters of
COMSUBLANT Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic (COMSUBLANT) is the Submarine Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet type commander under the United States Fleet Forces Command. The principal responsibility of the Admiral commanding is to operate, maintain, train, and eq ...
in
Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...
, where his responsibilities included "running the entire communications center for the submarine force...." Walker began spying for the Soviets in late 1967, when, distraught over his financial difficulties, he walked into the old
Soviet embassy This is a list of diplomatic missions of Russia. These missions are subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Russian Federation has one of the largest networks of embassies and consulates of any country. Russia has significant ...
in Washington, D.C., sold a top-secret document (a radio cipher card) for several thousand dollars, and negotiated an ongoing salary of to a week. Soviet KGB general Boris Aleksandrovich Solomatin "played a key role in the handling of John Walker". Walker justified his treachery by claiming that the first classified Navy communications data he sold to the Soviets had already been completely compromised when the
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
ns had captured the U.S. Navy communications surveillance ship, . Yet the Koreans captured ''Pueblo'' in late January 1968 – many weeks ''after'' Walker had betrayed the information. Furthermore, a 2001 thesis presented at the
U.S. Army Command and General Staff College The United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC or, obsolete, USACGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military ...
using information obtained from Soviet archives and from
Oleg Kalugin Oleg Danilovich Kalugin (russian: Олег Данилович Калугин; born 6 September 1934) is a former KGB general (stripped of his rank and awards by a Russian Court decision in 2002). He was during a time, head of KGB political ope ...
, indicated that the ''Pueblo'' incident may have taken place because the Soviets wanted to study equipment described in documents supplied to them by Walker. It has emerged in recent years that North Korea acted alone and the incident actually harmed North Korea's relations with most of the
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
. In the spring of 1968 John Walker's wife discovered items in his desk at home causing her to suspect he was acting as a spy. Walker continued spying, receiving an income of several thousand dollars per month for supplying classified information. Walker used most of the money to pay off his delinquent debts and to move his family into better neighborhoods, but he also set aside some for future investment, such as turning around the fortunes of his money-losing bar by hiring a skilled bartender. While Walker occasionally used the services of his wife, Barbara Walker, he anticipated the possibility of losing access due to reassignment. Walker's chance to seek further assistance came in September 1969 when he became the deputy director of the radioman A and B schools at the
Naval Training Center San Diego Naval Training Center San Diego (NTC San Diego) (1923–1997) is a former United States Navy base located at the north end of San Diego Bay, commonly known as "boot camp". The Naval Training Center site is listed on the National Register of His ...
. There, Walker befriended student Jerry Whitworth. Walker was transferred from San Diego in December 1971 to become the
communications officer A communications officer is a naval line officer responsible for supervising operation and maintenance of a warship's signal flags, signal lamps, and radio transmitters and receivers. The communications officer is usually responsible for encrypti ...
aboard the supply ship . Whitworth, who would become a Navy senior chief petty officer/senior chief radioman, agreed to help Walker gain access to highly classified communications data in 1973; and served aboard ''Niagara Falls'' after Walker retired from the Navy. Transfer to the staff of commander of the Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet had stopped Walker's access to the data the Soviets wanted; but he recruited Whitworth to keep the data flowing – softening the idea of espionage by telling him the data would go to
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, an ally of the United States. Later, when Whitworth realized the data was going to the Soviets instead of Israel, he nonetheless continued supplying Walker with information, until Whitworth's retirement from the Navy in 1983. In 1976, Walker retired from the Navy in order to give up his security clearance, as he believed certain superior officers of his were too keen on investigating lapses in his records. Walker and Barbara had also divorced. However, Walker did not end his espionage, and began looking more aggressively among his children and family members for assistance (Walker was a
private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
during this time). By 1984, he had recruited his older brother Arthur James Walker (August 5, 1934 – July 5, 2014), a retired
lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...
who served from 1953 until 1973 and then went to work at a
military contractor The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and servi ...
, and his son Michael Lance Walker (born November 2, 1962), an active duty seaman since 1982. Walker had also attempted to recruit his youngest daughter, who had enlisted in the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
, but she cut her military career short when she became pregnant and refused her father's offer to pay for an abortion, instead deciding to devote herself to full-time motherhood. Walker then turned his attention to his son, who had drifted during much of his teenage years and
dropped out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most ind ...
of high school. Walker gained custody of his son, put him to work as an apprentice at his detective agency in order to prepare him for espionage and encouraged him to re-enroll in high school to earn a diploma, then to enlist in the Navy. When Walker began spying, he worked as a key supervisor in the communications center for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's submarine force, and he would have had knowledge of top-secret technologies, such as the
SOSUS The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was a submarine detection system based on passive sonar developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet submarines. The system's true nature was classified with the name and acronym SOSUS themselves classi ...
underwater surveillance system, which tracks underwater acoustics via a network of submerged
hydrophone A hydrophone ( grc, ὕδωρ + φωνή, , water + sound) is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potenti ...
s. It was through Walker that the Soviets became aware that the U.S. Navy was able to track the location of Soviet submarines by the
cavitation Cavitation is a phenomenon in which the static pressure of a liquid reduces to below the liquid's vapour pressure, leading to the formation of small vapor-filled cavities in the liquid. When subjected to higher pressure, these cavities, cal ...
produced by their propellers. After this, the propellers on the Soviet submarines were improved to reduce cavitation. The Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal was disclosed in this activity in 1987. It is also alleged that Walker's actions precipitated the seizure of USS ''Pueblo''. CIA historian H. Keith Melton states on the show ''Top Secrets of the CIA'', which aired on the
Military Channel American Heroes Channel (formerly Military Channel and originally Discovery Wings Channel) is an American multinational pay television television network, channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. The n ...
, among other occasions, at 0400CST, February 5, 2013: In 1990, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' journalist John J. O'Connor reported, "It's been estimated by some intelligence experts that Mr. Walker provided enough code-data information to alter significantly the balance of power between Russia and the United States". Asked later how he had managed to access so much classified information, Walker said, "
KMart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...
has better security than the Navy". According to a report presented to the
Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) leads national counterintelligence (CI) for the United States government. It is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). History The position of Natio ...
in 2002, Walker is one of a handful of spies believed to have earned more than a million dollars in espionage compensation, although ''The New York Times'' estimated his income at only $350,000.
Theodore Shackley Theodore George "Ted" Shackley, Jr. (July 16, 1927 – December 9, 2002) was an American CIA officer involved in many important and controversial CIA operations during the 1960s and 1970s. He is one of the most decorated CIA officers. Due to his ...
, the CIA station chief in Saigon, asserted that Walker's espionage may have contributed to diminished B-52 bombing strikes, that the forewarning gleaned from Walker's espionage directly affected the United States' effectiveness in Vietnam. Independent analysis of Walker's methods by an American Naval officer in Cold War London, Lieutenant Commander David Winters, led to operational introduction of technologies – such as over-the-air rekeying – that finally closed security gaps previously exploited by the Walker spy ring.


Arrest and imprisonment

John and Barbara Walker divorced in 1976. Their marriage was marked by physical abuse and alcohol. By 1980 Barbara had begun regularly abusing alcohol and was very fearful for her children. She wanted the children not to become involved in the spy ring; that led to constant disagreement with John. Barbara tried several times to contact the Boston office of the FBI, but she either hung up or was too drunk to speak. In November 1984 she again contacted the Boston office and in a drunken confession reported that her ex-husband spied for the Soviet Union. She did not then know that Michael had become an active participant; she later admitted she would not have reported the spy ring had she known her son was involved. The Boston office of the FBI interviewed Barbara Walker and initially considered her story to be the rantings of a drunken, bitter woman trying to "drop a dime" on an ex-husband. Since Barbara's report regarded a person who lived in Virginia, the Boston office sent the report to the Norfolk office. When the FBI in Norfolk reviewed the report, the counterintelligence squad concluded it might be a truthful report and initiated a discreet investigation. The FBI conducted an interview of Walker's daughter, Laura, who confirmed that her father was a KGB spy and said that he had tried to recruit her into his espionage ring while she was in the U.S. Army. When both Barbara Walker and Laura Walker passed polygraph examinations, electronic surveillance was authorized by the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants ag ...
against John Walker. In May 1985 the FBI learned through the electronic surveillance that it was likely that John Walker would travel out of town on the weekend of May 18 and 19, 1985. On May 19 Walker left his house in Norfolk and was followed covertly by the FBI to the Washington, D.C., area, where the surveillance was joined by personnel from the FBI's Washington field office. Later that evening about 8:30 p.m. he drove to a rural area in
Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous county in the state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat and largest municipality is Rockville, although the census-design ...
, where he was seen placing a package in a wooded area near a "No Hunting" sign. The FBI retrieved the package that was found to have 124 pages of classified information stolen from the aircraft carrier , where Walker's son, Michael, was assigned. John Walker was arrested during the early morning hours of May 20, 1985, by a team of agents from the Norfolk and Washington FBI field offices. The FBI apprehended Walker himself at a motel in Montgomery County by telephoning his hotel room and telling him that his car had been hit in an accident. Barbara Walker was not prosecuted because of her role in disclosing the ring. Former KGB agent
Victor Cherkashin Victor Ivanovich Cherkashin (russian: Ви́ктор Ива́нович Черка́шин) (born 22 February 1932) is a former Soviet foreign counter-intelligence officer of the PGU KGB SSSR. He was the case officer for both Aldrich Ames, a CIA ...
, however, describes in his book ''Spy Handler'' that Walker was compromised by FBI spy Valery Martynov, who overheard officials in Moscow speaking about Walker. Michael Walker was arrested aboard ''Nimitz'', where investigators found a footlocker full of copies of classified matter. He had to be taken off his ship under guard to avoid getting beaten by sailors and Marines. Arthur Walker and Jerry Whitworth were arrested by the FBI in Norfolk, Virginia, and Sacramento, California, respectively. Arthur Walker was the first member of the espionage ring to go to trial. During the arrest of Arthur Walker, he was read his rights and repeatedly told he needed to stay silent until he could retain a lawyer, but kept admitting complicity in an effort to "show remorse". He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to three life sentences in a federal district court in Norfolk. Walker cooperated somewhat with authorities, enough to form a plea bargain that reduced the sentence for his son. He agreed to submit to an unchallenged conviction and life sentence, to provide a full disclosure of the details of his spying and to testify against Whitworth in exchange for a pledge from the prosecutors that the maximum sentence requested for Michael was 25 years imprisonment, which was later Michael's sentence. All the members of the spy ring besides Michael Walker received life sentences for their role in the espionage. Whitworth was sentenced to 365 years in prison and fined $410,000 for his involvement. Whitworth was incarcerated at the
United States Penitentiary, Atwater The United States Penitentiary, Atwater (USP Atwater) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in unincorporated Merced County, California. The institution also includes a minimum-security satellite camp. It is operated by ...
, a high-security federal prison in California. Walker's older brother Arthur received three life sentences plus 40 years and died in the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in
Butner, North Carolina Butner is a town in Granville County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,397 as of the 2020 census. Butner was managed by the state of North Carolina from 1947 through 2007. History A bill passed by the North Carolina General ...
on July 5, 2014, six weeks before the death of his younger brother. Walker's son, Michael, who had a relatively minor role in the ring and agreed to testify in exchange for a reduced sentence, was released from prison on
parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
in February 2000. Walker was incarcerated at FCC Butner, in the low security portion. He was said to suffer from
diabetes mellitus Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
and stage 4
throat cancer Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...
.


Death

Walker died while he was suffering from cancer and diabetes on August 28, 2014, while still in prison. He would have become eligible for parole in 2015.


See also

*
KL-7 The TSEC/KL-7, also known as Adonis was an off-line non-reciprocal rotor encryption machine.
"Adonis" cipher machine (U.S. Navy 1950s – 1970s) *
KW-37 The KW-37, code named JASON, was an encryption system developed In the 1950s by the U.S. National Security Agency to protect fleet broadcasts of the U.S. Navy. Naval doctrine calls for warships at sea to maintain radio silence to the maximum ext ...
"Jason" cipher machine (U.S. Navy 1950s – 1990s) * , a ship that Walker served on as CMS custodian *
Hans-Thilo Schmidt Hans-Thilo Schmidt (13 May 1888 – 19 September 1943) codenamed Asché or Source D, was a spy who, during the 1930s, sold secrets about the Germans' Enigma machine to the French. The materials he provided facilitated Polish mathematician Maria ...
* Hitori Kumagai * 1985: The Year of the Spy * '' Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage'' — a book that includes a description of the Walker spy ring role in its dangerous compromise of technical secrets of some of the vital tactical capabilities of U.S. Navy nuclear submarines and critical covert intelligence gathering operations during the Cold War. * ''
Family of Spies ''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. Plot John A. Walker ...
'' — TV movie based on John Walker's espionage.


References


Further reading

* Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar; ''Merchants of Treason: America's Secrets for Sale'': New York: Delacorte Press, 1988, (about half of the book is devoted to the Walker case) * John Barron; ''Breaking the Ring: The Bizarre Case of the Walker Family Spy Ring''; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987, * Howard Blum; ''I Pledge Allegiance: The True Story of the Walkers: an American Spy Family''; Simon & Schuster Books, 1987, * Kneece, Jack; ''Family Treason: The Walker Spy Case''; Paperjacks, 1988, * Robert W. Hunter; ''Spy Hunter: Inside the FBI Investigation of the Walker Espionage Case''; Naval Institute Press, 1999, * Pete Earley; ''Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring''; Bantam Books, 1989,
"The Navy's Biggest Betrayal"
''Naval History Magazine'' * Offley, Ed; ''Scorpion Down: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion''; Chapter 12 "The Fatal Triangle"; New York, Basic Books, 2007, * Walker, John Anthony; ''My Life as a Spy''; Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2008, * Walker, Laura; ''Daughter of Deceit: The Human Drama Behind the Walker Spy Case''; W Pub Group, 1988, {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, John Anthony 1937 births 2014 deaths Admitted Soviet spies American people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union American people who died in prison custody American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Military personnel from Pennsylvania Military personnel from Washington, D.C. People from Scranton, Pennsylvania People convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention Private detectives and investigators Spies who died in prison custody United States Navy officers