Christopher Boyce
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| TRW |
The Case of the Falcon and the Snowman.
By
Kenneth Lafler.
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| Christopher boyce |
In 1977 an espionage case stunned the United States and it's intelligence
community.
| But what was most disturbing about this crime were the two young men accused of committing it. Their names were Christopher Boyce and Andrew Dalton Lee. |
Both came from very wealthy families. Both had known each other since childhood. And both were raised in the exclusive community of Palos Verdes.
Boyce's father was a former FBI agent who had taken a position at a major aircraft corporation in
Southern California. He was in charge of plant security.
Lee's father, who was a Pathologist was a prominent doctor in Southern California.
Boyce attended a Private Catholic School called St. John Fisher. He was an A student, he was also an altar boy along with Lee who also attended St. John Fisher. Boyce was also on the debating team and student body president. After his arrest several of his teachers had said he was the finest student they ever had in their class.
When Boyce began attending Palos Vedes High School he renewed his friendship with Lee. The two shared a mutual interest in the ancient sport of falconry. This is where Boyce got his code name, The Falcon.
Lee's code name was The Snowman due to the fact that he was heavily addicted to cocaine and heroin and was considered by the police to be a major drug dealer in the Palos Vedes area. He was also facing charges that could add up to years in prison for drug distribution and possession.
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| Andrew Daulton Lee |
After graduating High School, Lee who was a natural business man had begun turning what was a small drug operation in to a substantial enterprise.
Boyce seemed to just drift aimlessly with no real interests such as college or sports. Plus his grades had plummeted.
After Boyce had dropped out of his third college, his father called a friend at TRW Systems Corporation to see if there were any openings.
As hard as it is to believe, at 22 years of age, Christopher Boyce, a college drop out who was extremely disillusioned with the United States Government, was given Top Secret Clearances from the FBI, CIA, DOD and NSA plus a Crypto Clearance for classified transmissions.
He was given a job in TRW's Black Vault, one of the most secret area's in the country. Here he had access to all Cia Transmissions from CIA Headquarters in Langley Virgina and the CIA's base in Alice Springs Australia. These were called TWX's.
Unknown to most of the public the
company they associate with credit
reports is one of the most advanced information collecting agencies in the world.
TRW is owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency. TRW builds most of the advanced satellites in the United States.
TRW is responsible for collecting data feeds directly from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virgina.
Boyce began reading the transmissions from Alice Springs and discovered that the United States was not only spying on unfriendly countries but was conducting satellite over flights of friendly nations as well.
After a party a Lee's house one Friday night, Boyce was discussing the work he did for TRW and his disillusionment with the United States. Lee suggested they sell the information to the Russian Embassy in Mexico. Boyce felt this would be a good way to protest what the government was doing.
Lee had just been arrested again for possession and had begun planning to flee to Mexico to avoid prosecution. With Boyces help Lee could afford to stay in Mexico indefinitely.
For the next year and a half Boyce and Lee sold some of America's top secrets to the Russians.
They compromised several different projects including the Ryolite and Argus Satellite system's plus a project being studied called
"Pyramider".
Their operation suddenly ended
in January 1977, when Lee was
arrested outside the Mexican embassy with a stack of secret
documents.
Some felt this was one of the worst breech's of
national security in U. S. history,
while others felt the information Boyce and Lee sold to the Russians
was out of date and worthless.
The fact is that the only persons who really know the full extent of the damage are the Russians. Boyce and Lee seemed to have just filmed and sold anything they could get their hands on. When debriefed by the CIA Boyce himself had said he had no idea of how much information they had sold to the Russian's.
Boyce was sentenced to forty years at the Lompoc prison facility in Central California and Lee was given the death penalty.
In 1980 Boyce escaped from the Lompoc Detention center. After a year and a half of hiding in Idaho at a ladies residence named Gloria White's who was some what of a fugitive herself Boyce was caught. White would often help people in trouble with the law.
Boyce was finally captured at fast food restaurant in Washington
eating a hamburger and reading book on flying. His plan had supposedly been to fly across the Bering straight to Russia and turn himself over to the KGB whom he said had promised him a commission as an officer. Whether this was true or not Boyce was taking flying lessons, particularly on navigating in the polar regions.
Since the Boyce and Lee case there have been far worse cases of espionage such as the Walker and Ames cases and both Boyce and Lee have been released early. Both are on parole for the remainder of their lives.
by
Kenneth Lafler
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