(Sanitized)CONTENT AFTER 21 YEARS IN JAIL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00499R000300100001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 21, 1974
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2002/01/04: CIA-RDP84-00499R000300100001-2
A 16 Su day,Apru21.1974 THE WASHINGTON POST
John Do ?
content After
Yeazzmarb in Jail
By Frank: Schumer
The Boston Globe
BOSTON'-To look at
John T. Downey is to won-
der how 21 years of prison
in China could have left so
little a mark on this vigor-
ous and gentle-mannered
man, It
At 43, Downey Is robust
and alert-very much nn
older version of the football
star and wrestling team cap-
tain he was during his un-
dergraduate days at Yale.
There Is still the impish
grin and congenial appear-
ance that his classmates at
Choate must have noticed
when they voted .him "most
popular, most versatile and
most likely to succeed."
With his voguish, wire-
rimmed glasses and his fash-
JOHN DOWNEY
... robust and alert
ionably long hair, Downey With a quick wave of his
ped appears out out of never the to have step mainstream - hand, Downey brushes aside
of American society. Only the prison 21 as a years "pretty he spent in
his gray flannel, cuffed time." Someties he was
.
slacks and his button-down
Oxford shirt, reminiscent of lonely, sometimes fright-,
the Ivy Leaguer's . uniform ; ened, but he was sustained
of a past era, betray Dow- by his unflagging belief that
ney's incongruous fit with someday he would be re-
the present. leased.
In his spacious Cambridge well, "earl heart, I always_
apartment, barren except y always-knew
for newspaper and, legal I'd get out," he said, "I just
texts strewn about, Downey had a hunch I'd return."
tits back, props his feet up Avoiding attention wherever
on his desk, and asks the Possible, Downey spends most
question that has baffled of his time "scrambling to
him most since his return: keep up with all this work" at
"Why does everyone want law school.
to make such it fuss over . As for friends, Jack Dow-
me? You know, [ get letters ney never did find it diffi-
from people asking me what cult to mix. He thinks his
1 think about America after classmates are "a great;"
being away for 21 yaers. But ' bunch of people." He drinks 1
I'm no expert. My opinions with them, mingles with
don't'deserve aqy special at. them and even plays foot-
tention. I don't want to be ball on the Law School team
put on a pedestal." with his classmates, most of
Downey does not think he. f
will follow the star-studded
path to Washington or Wall
Street that many Harvard
law students pursue. "It
would take too much time to
build up a career like that,`he said. Jack Downey does
not have that time to spend.
If there were opportuni
ties lost, career options
closed to him during the
years he was away, Downey
is neither concerned with
dwelling upon them or cast`:
lag any judgments on any. 1
one. Instead, he. has ori-
ented himself to the pres.
ent, happy to pick up they
pieces of his fragmented ca-
reer and start from scratch.
"I'm really pretty content
with my life now," he said.
"Gosh, When I think of some
of the business problems or ;
troubles supporting a family ,
that men my age have, I feel
as free as a bird."
As an :honor student at
Yale, Downey had a world
of opportunities open to
him. In his senior year, he
had decided to follow the le-'
gal career bf his father, a
probate judge in Walling.
ford, Conn., who died in an
automobile crash when Dow-
ney was six. But when a '
CIA recruiter approached:
Downey in the spring of his
senior year, it seemed that a
post with the CIA was "a
good way to keep my op-
tions open."
'His options were abruptly
closed when his plane was
captured flying over Man-
churia on Nov. 29, 1952.
Although Downey refuses
to discuss precisely what his
mission in China was,
Thomas B. Ross, a classmate
of Downey's at Yale and Co-
author of a study of the
CIA, said Downey was a
trainer of agents to be drop.,
ped into China with radio
equipment to monitor con-
versations between nearby .
airfields and Mig pilots
fighting in Korea.
When his team of agents
was captured in early, No-
vember, Downey-assisted
by Richard G. Fecteau of
Lynn, Mass-led a mission
to rescue the agents. When
their plane encircled the
area in search of the cap-
tured agents, the Chinese
were waiting for them. Dow-
ney was sentenced to life
proved For Re-l whom RDP84'0
bp=81 ~-e
 Approved For Release 2002/01/04: CIA-RDP84-00499R000300100001-2
was released in 1972, was
sentenced to 20 years.
Life in prison for Downey
was a regimented schedule
of activities that varied lit-
tle over the 21 years Dow-
ney says his days began at 6
or 6:30, when he was awak-
ened, given his meals and al- .
lowed to take daily exercise.
The prisoners were schooled
in "ideological studies"
which Downey said he
"would prefer not to go
into," and were allowed to
read selected American
peri- odicals.
From newspaper clip-
pings, the letters from home
that the prisoners were per-
mitted to receive and radio
broadcasts, Downey said he
kept in touch with events at
home. "I think I was better
informed about things going
on in America then than I
am now-especially sports.
They gave us all kinds of
'sports articles to read," he
said.
A former English major
with an appetite for litera-
ture and language, Downey
was fed on a steady diet of
English and American nov-
els. In prison, he taught
himself to speak Russian,
French and a little Chinese.
His only companions
were, from time to time,
other American prisoners
and the Chinese prison
guards. His mc(ther, Mrs.
May V. Downey, a school
.teacher in New Britain,
Conn., and his younger
brother, William, a New
York lawyer, were 'allowed
to visit Downey five times.
over the 21 years.)
During the lonely hours,
Downey would indulge his
homesickness and dream
about his carefree under-
graduate days at Yale. "You
know how' it is when you're
away. The good things seem
to grow bigger and the bad
' things disappear," he said.
In December, 1971, Dow-
ney's prison sentence was
reduced to 25 years-a move
Downey attributes to Presi-
dent Nixon's impending visit
and . the Sino-American
thaw. He was released four
years before his 25-year sen-
tence expired. According to
Downey, his release was up-
Some of Downey's friends
dispute his interpretation of
the circumstances leading to
his release. Steven Kiba, a
U.S. pilot who was in prison
with Downey, said earlier
this year that the Chinese
would have released, Dow-
ney sooner if the United
States had admitted he was
a. CIA agent. Jerome A. Co-
hen, a former classmate at
Yale and a professor at Har-
vard Law School, said the
government's repeated de-.
Mal of Downey's involve-
ment with the CIA was the
worst possible tactic.
Downey refuses to. com-
ment on this explanation, al-
though he is careful to point
out that he is "not under
any special orders of se-
crecy by the government"
During Downey's Impris-
onment, the U.S. govern-
ment insisted that he and
and
Feeteau were civilian em-
ployees of the army whose
plane was downed when it,
strayed off course during a
flight from Korea to Japan.
President Nixon. first men-
tioned Downey's link with
the CIA at a press confer-
ence in January, 1973, two
weeks before Downey was
released'
When he came home, he
found that the 21 years had
brought success to many of
his former friends and class-
mates. Thomas J. Meskill,
his next-door neighbor in
New Britain, had become
the governor of his home
state. Jerome A. Cohen, a
college classmate, had estab-
lished himself as a promi-
nent expert on legal matters
at Harvard Law School.
Downey's younger brother
Wiliam was a successful
New York attorney with a.'
wife and family. .'
If someone ' could give.
Downey back the years he,'
lost in a Chinese prison,
would he aim for the honor
and prestigious positions his
old friends achieved?
Downey doesn't think so.
Approved M-BeI.W.