John Arthur Paisley (August 25, 1923 – September 24, 1978) was a former official of the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

Early life

When Paisley was two-years-old, his father left the family. He was raised by his grandparents when his mother went to work as a

practical nurse A licensed practical nurse (LPN), in much of the United States and Canada, is a nurse who cares for people who are sick, injured, convalescent, or disabled. In the United States, LPNs work under the direction of physicians, mid-level practition ...

Career

Paisley served in the CIA from 1963 to 1974. During his career, he was heavily involved in Soviet operations. On January 7, 1979, The New York Times' investigative report ("The Missing CIA Man", by Tad Simic), revealed that "Paisley was called in when the C.I.A. began the lengthy and laborious process of debriefing Nosenko, a member of the K.G.B.'s Second Chief Directorate, responsible for counterintelligence within the Soviet Union, who had defected to the United States early in 1964. Nosenko was the most important K.G.B. officer ever to defect. Ostensibly, Nosenko's greatest value to United States intelligence was to provide information on Soviet counterintelligence agents operating at home and abroad. This may have included data on counterintelligence in the strategic field - part of Paisley's expertise - and Paisley became enmeshed in the most controversial C.I.A. secret intelligence project of the decade". For additional details, refer to https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/07/archives/the-missing-cia-man-hissuicide-was-bizarre-the-nature-of-his-cia.html Paisley retired as deputy director in the Office of Strategic Research, the branch that monitored Soviet military movements and nuclear capabilities.

Later life and presumed death

Around 1976, Paisley and Maryann separated. In December 1977 and March 1978, he attended two five-day "personal awareness" seminars conducted by

Lifespring Lifespring was an American for-profit human potential organization founded in 1974 by John Hanley Sr., Robert White, Randy Revell, and Charlene Afremow. The organization encountered significant controversy in the 1970s and 1980s, with various ...

. According to Paisley's

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

, Paisley began attending individual and group

psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...

sessions in April. On September 24, 1978, Paisley disappeared after setting sail on the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

with his

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

''Brillig''. On October 1, a body claimed to be his was found floating in the Bay near the mouth of the

Patuxent River The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeast ...

with a gunshot wound to his head and a weighted dive belt around his waist. His boat was found the previous week

run aground Ship grounding or ship stranding is the impact of a ship on seabed or waterway side. It may be intentional, as in beaching to land crew or cargo, and careening, for maintenance or repair, or unintentional, as in a marine accident. In accidenta ...

. However, the autopsy report later revealed discrepancies with his documented height and weight, leading to long-held suspicions that the badly-decomposed body, as was found, was not actually Paisly's. ee 'Senate inquiry' below Due to the advanced state of decomposition of the body when it was found, fingerprinting was not possible, and other means of positive identifications were similarly impossible to be ascertained. The CIA arranged for the body to be cremated, without family, friends and/or associates having had an opportunity to positively identify the remains as Paisley's. Shortly after his presumed death, the psychiatrist stated Paisley was to attend a group therapy session in

Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place (Chevy Chase (CDP), Maryland) that straddle the northwest border of Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Several settlements in th ...

on September 26 with his estranged wife to discuss the failure of their marriage. He speculated that due to personal developments Paisley may have been experiencing "feelings of loss and abandonment".

Senate inquiry

Due to the circumstances of Paisley's death and press speculation, the

United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of ...

(SSCI) opened an inquiry in order to determine if his death was due to his activities with the CIA. After a two year investigation and three public statements, the SSCI reported that it "found no information to support the allegations that Mr. Paisley's death was connected in some way to involvement in foreign intelligence or counterintelligence matters." In 1989,

Crown Publishers The Crown Publishing Group is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House that publishes across several fiction and non-fiction categories. Originally founded in 1933 as a remaindered books wholesaler called Outlet Book Company, the firm expanded into ...

put out ''Widows'', a book by William R. Corson, Susan B. Trento, and Joseph J. Trento that stated the CIA failed to properly investigate the deaths of Paisley and two other CIA officials,

Nicholas Shadrin Nicholas George Shadrin, born Nikolai Fedorovich Artamonov (1922 – December 1975), was a Soviet naval officer serving in Gdynia, Poland who defected to the United States of America in 1959. Life Shadrin was born in the Soviet Union in 1922. ...

and

Ralph Sigler Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

. The authors state that the body discovered in the Chesapeake Bay was not Paisley's. In 2022,

Harper Harper may refer to: Names * Harper (name), a surname and given name Places ;in Canada * Harper Islands, Nunavut *Harper, Prince Edward Island ;In the United States *Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County * Harper, Il ...

published "The Spy who Knew Too Much", by

Howard Blum Howard Blum () (born 1948) is an American author and journalist. Formerly a reporter for ''The Village Voice'' and ''The New York Times'', Blum is a contributing editor at ''Vanity Fair'' and the author of several non-fiction books, including th ...

, in which the author maintains that Paisley, working as a double agent, and at his request, was exfiltrated by the USSR and his death in the US was staged, presumably by the KGB Counterintelligence.

Notes

References