FAMILY WITH MANY TROUBLES AT CENTER OF ESPIONAGE CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840056-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: June 10, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840056-9
...?
y,?, T lf'LF. APPEARED NEW YORK TIMES
ON FAGE___7A I --- 10 June 1985
'Not Easy to Answer'
Family With Many Troubles "If the charges are true, how many
mothers in this situation would be able
to make the decision," asked Margaret
At Center of Espionage Case .walker, another daughter. "How can
anyone say if their Dad were a murder- I
er, a Mafioso or a rapist whether they
The following article is based on reporting by Stephen Engelberg and Jane would turn him in? People should. ask
--~"'
/~(J perlez and was written by Mr. Engelberg. themselves that question to see were
my mother is coming from. It's not
SOecW to The NS Yak Those easy to answer."
NORFOLK, Va., Jwie 9-At the cen- . Nomadic Military Life "How far do you go for your fami-
Mrs. Walker has said she would not ly?" she asked.
ter of what the authorities have called
one of the major spy rings in American have turned in her husband if she had Shalel Way, a self-described psychic
history is the troubled family of John known it would implicate her son, de- who reads tarot cards and lived in an
A. Walker Jr. scribed by family members as the fa- apartment behind Mrs. Walker in
It was family ties, the Federal Bu- I voted of the four children. "I believe Skowhegan. said Mrs. Walker had con-
reau of Investigation says, that hqlped I she did not know her son was in suited her in January 1984 and had told
Mr. Walker obtain some of the classi- volved," said Mrs. Walker's sister, of her suspicions about her husband,
fied information he sold to the Soviet Annie Nelson of Anson, Me. "She's not
Union. And it was family turmoil, the type of person who would hurt her may sister, Mrs. something hinted she
punctuated by a divorce nearly a deg kids." mmay have own "Barbara an d I
ade ago, that apparently sowed the Friends and family members said in Walker's dilemma. thing "Barbara d I-Mrs seeds of his downfall. interviews that until now the problems have said shared a a lloot interview of thin in the kitchen
in an
Crosscurrents of the Faintly the Walkers faced appeared traumatic, son
but relatively ordinary. of her farm in Anson, Me. "Barbara
Six months ago, Barbara JOY Crow- The lived the nomadic military life, held a lot of things inside. It was some-
ley Walker. who had been left by her moving from coast to coast as Mr. thing she couldn't handle any longer "
husband one year before the divorce, Walker's career went from Charleston, But most of her family and friends
and left with four ormege hildren in. to S.C., to San Diego to Norfolk. There knew nothing of Mrs. Walker's inner
Withise, her 25- turned her f former husd were instances of adolescent rebellion. turmoil.
Wyear-old daughter, , Laura Margaret Walker gays site did not
W. Snyder, Mrs. Walker told an F.B.I. A Geographic Spilt know of her father's activities, and Pat
agent on Cape Cod of her suspicions The 1976 divorce split the family geO- Crowley, Mrs. Walker's sister-in-law in
that her husband had been selling se- graphically. Mrs. Walker moved with Skowhegan, said, "None of her family
crets to the Russians for about 16 her four children to Skowhegan, t Me., a
her knew that she had held- this
years. mill town near where she had spent her One of Seven Children
Mr. Walker was arrested last month. adolescent years. While John Walker
Then came the arrests of Mr. Walker's was developing a reputation as a flam- Barbara Crowley Walker, one of
son, Michael, a 22-year-old enlisted boyant private detective and electro,l- seven children was born in East Boston
man aboard the aircraft carrier Ni- its expert and would fly his own plane on Nov. 23, 1937. Her father, George
mitz, and his brother Arthur, a 50-year- to pick up the children for vacations, Warren Crowley, was a shipyard
old engineer for a local military con- she worked in a factory cementing welder who died in 1946. A year later,
tractor. A fourth man, Jerry A. Whit- shoes, and struggled to pay bills for her her mother married Oscar Knight
worth of Davis, Calif.. was . also children, a grandchild and her mother. I Smith and took the family to Mercer,
eked out a teal Maine
the
charged in the case. While settling in to her new life in The s la t hamlet
As the details of the espionage case Maine, Mrs. Walker was becoming mill. Barbara Crowley re-living in
have unfolded in the dry prose of prose- troubled by her husband's activities, local paper area before amore her
cutors' affidavits, the private crosseur- according to a friend. Beginning in high school education was completed-
rents of the Walker family have be- 1969, the F.B.I. says, Mrs. Walker sus- Years later, in 1980; Mrs. Wcome painfully public. pected her husband was earning extra the high school ,- Mrs. Walker
equivalency test
Mother has been pitted against fa- cash by selling classified documents. passed
at the same time as her daughter Out from
Cher. Michael, the only son, shunned According to F.B.I. affidavits, Laura this, who had also dropped
both parents when he was in Baltimore Snyder learned of her lather's pur- high school.
recently to appear in court. He did not ported double life as long ago he tried to as 1979, high speak with his mother and did not look when she told the F.B.I. while that was in the They Met in Massachusc=
at his father, who stood beside him in recruit her as a spy it was in Massachusetts somewhere
court. Army. - family members interviewed were
"It's a horrible, hellacious thing," Sometime last year, Mrs. Walker de- not sure where - that Barbara Crow-
said Margaret Walker, the 27-year-old cided to talk with the the F.B.I. Nobody ley met John A. Walker Jr., a young
commercial artist who is the couple's has been able to say exactly what moti- Navy man who was stationed aboard
oldest child. "This has got to be the vated Mrs. Walker, who had moved to the Johnnie Hutchins, a destroyer.
worst thing that anyone could ever Cape Cod to join her daughter, Cynthia, Their wedding, in Durham, N.C., on
wake up to." to get in touch with the F.B.I. when she June 4, 1957, was not a celebrated
did. Those who know her well suggest it family affair. Several of Mrs. Walker's
was an agonizing decision that bal- siblings said they did not know where
anced the possible harm to her family she married or how she met her hus-
against what she thought was right. band.
txn,-nLed
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 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840056-9
Annie Nelson, her older sister, de- After two and a half years aboard the I There was a sharp contrast between
combat stores ship U.S.S. Niagara the life styles of the two parents. John
rn him as "egotistical." Her sis- Falls, Mr. Walker returned to Norfolk A. Walker, after running two busi-
ter-in-law, Pat Crowley of Skowhegan, in 1974 as communications systems ; nesses that failed, was becoming more
said Mr. Walker came to her home officer on the staff of the commander of successful with his private detective
after the marriage and derided chil- the Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet. agency, Confidential Reports Inc. He
dren. "He said they shouldn't be born His last post was as communications had a plane and a houseboat and was
until they were 16 and had brains," offficer o` the Naval Surface Fleet. developing a reputation as a flamboy-
Mrs. Crowley said. "I never liked When tney returned to Norfolk, the ant investigator. The Federal Bureau him." family bought an attractive house in of Investigation has charged that some
One of Barbara Crowley's brothers Ocean View, a working-class neighbor- 1 of the money supporting this way of life
hood near the Navy base. was provided by the Soviets.
said he also disliked Mr. Walker. Joyce Bastian, the Walkers' next- In the neighborhood, some questions
John A. Walker Jr. w~.s born on July door neighbor, said she seldom saw were raised about Mr. Walker's new
28,1937, in Washington, D.C., where his Mr. Walker. "He wasn't around bachelor lifestyle. There was at least
:A "All the kids seemed i one confrontation between an older
m
h
11
uc
s
e --
father, John A. Walker, was a publicist
for Warner Brothers. The family
moved to Scranton, Pa., in 1953.
The senior Mr. Walker drank a Iot,
according to his son James, and left his
wife in the 1960's and has since remar-
ried. He lives Temperanceville, Va.
Mr. Walker's mother, Margaret, is
known as a pious, hard-working woman
who, at 73, still works for a photogra-
phy company. She has declined to dis-
cuss the arrest of her two sons. "She
said she didn't want to see the papers,"
said James Walker. "She said she did-
n't want to know."
John Walker Jr. joined the Navy in
1955, after being caught trying to bur-
glarize a business, his brother James
said. He was apparently given the
choice of jail or the armed services, his
brother said.
John Walker seemed to have an apti-
tude for the Navy. By February 1962
John Walker Jr. was assigned to the
Andrew Jackson, a nuclear-powered
submarine. In 1965, he became part of
the first crew of the Simon Bolivar, an-
other nuclear-powered submarine.
Bill Wilkinson, who was later to be-
come Imperial Wizard of the Invisible
Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan,
said he and Mr. Walker became ac-,
quainted and used to go drinking in
bars that catered to sailors.
He said Mr. Walker viewed himself
as something of a "playboy" who was
nonetheless serious about his career
and took correspondence courses to im-
prove himself.
At the time, Mrs. Walker lived in
Charleston, tending their four children
and working in a bar and restaurant
they had bought nearby.
Pat Crowley, Mrs. Walker's sister-
in-law, said the husband's long deploy-
ments took a toll on the marriage. "She
was married to him, but I don't think
they lived together," said Mrs. Crow-
ley. "He'd be gone for 30 days and back
for 10."
Mrs. Walker, who has confirmed she
was informer to the F.B.I., has told the
bureau that she believes her husband
was recruited by the Russians some-
time in the mid-1960's, according to an
F.B.I. statements about its informers
in the case.
Next, the family came to Norfolk,
where Mr. Walker was communica-
tions watch officer in the message cen-
ter of the Naval Submarine Force.
From there, they moved to San Diego
as an assistant director of the Navy
Communications School. He met Jerry
Alfred Whitworth, the fourth man
charged in the espionage case.
kind of lost."
Gordon Peeler of Norfolk, who was a
friend of Margaret's, the oldest daugh-
ter, recalled: "It always seemed to be
a somewhat tense atmosphere in the
house. It seemed more tense than it
should have been." He also does not re-
call seeing the father very often.
Margaret, Mr. Peeler said, liked to
go to parties and to the beach, which
was nearby. Mrs. Bastian said the
three girls could regularly be seen
pounding rugs and doing chores. One
time, she said, Laura and a teen-age
friend ran away for several days to the
home of the friend's grandmother.
Less than a year after they had
bought the house at 8524 West Ocean,
the Walkers separated.
Albert Teich Jr., the lawyer who han-
dled the divorce, said the discussions
between the two about the property set-
tlement were amiable. "I thought it
was a case where husband and wife
just couldn't get along and so he moved
out," Mr. Teich said.
Mrs. Way, Mrs. Walker's friend in
Skowhegan, Me., said Way helped Mrs.
Walker make decisions by reading
tarot cards for her.
The original divorce settlement had
called for Mrs. Walker to get the family ~
but when the decree became
house
,
final, she decided instead to move to ' Maine, said Mr. Walker flew to Maine
three brothers and in his plane five or six years ago and_
h
ere
Skowhegan, w
a sister lived. "Some people, when they
get divorced, just want to run as far
and fast as they can from bad memo-
ries," said Mrs. Walker's daughter,
Margaret. "It wasn't unusual for her to
want to be with her family."
All four children initially moved to
Skowhegan with their mother. After
about six months, Margaret left to live
with a relative in Boston and later
moved back to Norfolk. Michael never
liked Maine, according to a friend of
Michael's and Cynthia's, Eric Tracey.
Michael was a "cocky" student in the
junior high school, always trying to get
attention, said Paula Nickerson, one of
his teachers.
He returned to Norfolk and lived with
his father while attending private
school.
Cynthia stayed in Maine raising her
infant son, Tommy, and attending a
vocatonal school. Laura left the state
soon after high school to enter the
Army.
At some point since then, her mother
did not hear from Laura for a year and
a half, said Lawrence Vigue, a neigh-
bor in Skowhegan, and Pat Crowley,
Mrs. Walker's sister-in-law.
neighbor and Mr. Walker.
Margaret Walker said her father's
financial status had been much exag-
gerated by news accounts. "The house
has got the same carpeting it had ten
years ago," she said. "He considered
his microwave a big investment." In
recent court filings Mr.' Walker re-
ported a net worth o?about $175,000, an
amount not unusual for a man his age,
Margaret Walker said.
Mrs. Walker, however, was earning
considerably less money. She held a job
at the Dexter Shoe Company, cement-
ing shoes together on a piecework
basis. The work was hard and messy,
but she volunteered for extra shifts.
Her mother lived with her for some of
the time.
"She passed out at work one day,"
said Pat Crowley. "They took her to the
hospital. She worked too hard at that
place. We kept saying 'you're going to
kill yourself.' I'd go over to see her and
she'd say 'I hope you don't mind my
laying on the couch,' and she'd fall
asleep."
There were reminders of the differ-
ence in financial status between herself
and her ex-husband. Eric Tracey, the
took Cynthia and Michael away for a
vacation.
Mrs. Way, the neighbor who read
tarot cards, said Mr. Walker some-
times called his former wife. "He'd be
verbose and had a few drinks," Mrs.
Way said Mrs. Walker had told her,
"and that's when he'd get bragging
that he was selling military secrets to
the Soviets."
Michael appeared to have the most
difficult time adjusting in Maine. He
had some minor scrapes with the local
police. The principal of his junior high
school, Royce Knowles, said that be-
cause Michael was a sophisticated city
'
boy in a rural town, he was placed in an
alternative school program for his jun-
ior high school. He worked on the farm
owned by his teacher instead of paying
tuition for the alternative program,
Mr. Knowles said.
When Michael returned to Norfolk to
live with his father, he was enrolled in '
one of Norfolk's better private schools,
the Ryan Upper School.
Michael worked hard to please his fa-
ther. Neighbors recalled that when his
father left town on business, Michael
would manicure the lawn for his re-
turn.
A
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Robert Bastian Jr., Joyce Bastian's
son, said Michael had worn long hair
when he was 14 years old. When he
came back fror. Maine, though, he was
clean-cut. His nigh school class voted
. him best-dressed.
"Mike had great respect for his fa-
ther," said Mr. Bastian, who was a
friend of Michael Walker's at the Ryan
School. "He looked up to him like he
was an idol."
Michael is listed as one of the part-
,time detectives at his father's investi-
gative agency.
Shortly betore graduation, Michael
surprised his friends by enlisting in the
Navy. "It was right out of the blue,"
Mr. Bastian said. "Personally, I didn't
think Mike was the kind of guy to go
into the Navy."
He met his future wife, Rachel, in
December 1982, just before he was to
enter the Navy. He had second
thoughts about joining, Mr. Bastian
said, but began his four-year tour.
Michael apparently did not care
much for Navy life. In April of this
year, he wrote to his father, whom he
identified by the codename Jaws, that
he had been designated Sailor of the
Month. "If only they knew how much I
hate this carrier," he wrote.
When his bunk in the Nimitz was
searched, 15 pounds of classified docu-
ments were found beneath it, the Gov-
ernment has said.
While Michael Walker was adjusting
to life aboard the Nimitz, his mother
was preparing to leave Maine. Her
mother had died in 1984, and shortly af-
terward she moved to Cape Cod to join
her daughter Cynthia.
Mrs. Walker took a job as a clerk at
the Christmas Tree Shops in West Den-
nis, a small Cape Cod town on the east-
ern bank of the Bass River.
When she decided to get in touch with
the F.B.I., her landlord, Chester Buck,
said he called an F.B.I. agent he knew
in her behalf. Mr. Buck said she did not
tell him what she wanted to discuss,
only that she felt torn between obliga-
tions to family and country.
"She is a very patriotic woman with
(strong loyalties to her country, but she
also has strong feelings about her fami-
ly," Mr. Buck said.
Mrs. Walker. in discussing her deci-
sion with The Cape Cod Times, said:
"Why in the name of all that's holy did
I wait so long? You have the answer.
It's because of what's happening to my
family and my children.
"Was I seeking vengeance? Well, a
part of me wanted to see him get what
he deserved."
Since the news of the arrests, mem-
bers of the Walker family have been be-
sieged by television and newspaper re-
porters. Margaret Walker tells of a
landlord in West Dennis, Mass., who
rented an apartment to a photographer
so that he could aim a lens at the drawn
blinds of the window of her mother's
home.
The camera crews of three networks
have camped on Mrs. Walker's door-
step. A family member said Mrs.
Walker valued her privacy and was un-
happy with all the attention.
The press's dragnet for Walker
family members has stretched from
Virginia, to Pennsylvania and Maine.
Many no longer answer their tele-
phones or doors.
The other day, Margaret Walker sat
in front of a small flickering color tele-
vision, waiting for an announcer to in-
tone the day's revelations in the Walker
-case. She decried the "sensationalism"
of many of the news accounts.
Asked if the recent reports about the
family had helped her to better under-'
stand its past, she paused and said: "I
understand my mother's being reclu-
sive and not getting out much. She cer-
tainly gave her life to her children.
Maybe she did that because she had so
much else on her mind.
"People seem to keep asking me
questions as if they want me to take a
side. How are you supposed to do that?
This is my family."
3
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840056-9