John Anthony Walker, Jr. (b. 28 July 1937, Washington D.C.)[1] was a retired United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer and communications specialist convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985, at the height of the Cold War (1945–91).[2] In late 1985, Walker pleaded guilty in a plea arrangement, whereby, he testified against co-conspirator Jerry Whitworth, gave details of his espionage, and negotiated lenient punishment for his son, Michael Walker.[2] During his time as a Soviet spy, CWO Walker helped the Soviets decipher more than two hundred thousand encrypted naval messages, organizing a spy operation that The New York Times reported in 1987 “is sometimes described as the most damaging Soviet spy ring in history.”[3]
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Walker joined the Navy in 1955 when, arrested for burglary, he was offered the option of jail or the military.[1][4] While stationed in Boston, Walker met and married Barbara Crowley, and they had four children together, three daughters and a son. While stationed on the nuclear-powered submarine USS Andrew Jackson in Charleston, South Carolina, Walker opened a bar which failed to turn a profit and immediately plunged him into debt.[1]
Walker began spying for the Soviets in December 1967, when, distraught over his financial difficulties, he walked into the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC and sold a classified document (a radio cipher card) for several thousand dollars, negotiating an ongoing salary of $500 to $1,000 a week.[1] Walker has justified this betrayal on grounds the classified Navy communications data he had initially sold the Soviets was completely compromised during the USS Pueblo incident (in which a U.S. Navy communications surveillance ship was captured on the high seas by North Korea, and its crew held prisoner for nearly a year). However, the USS Pueblo was captured in January 1968, a month later. Further, a 2001 thesis presented at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College using information from Soviet archives and from Oleg Kalugin, indicates that the Pueblo incident may have taken place because the Soviets wanted to study equipment that was described by documents supplied to them by Walker.[5]
Walker persisted in his activities, receiving an income of several thousand dollars per month for supplying classified information.[1] While Walker on occasion utilized the services of his wife Barbara, he began seeking further assistance in 1969 when, stationed to teach radio operators in San Diego, California, he befriended student Jerry Whitworth.[1] Whitworth, who would go on to become a Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer / Senior Chief Radioman, agreed to assist Walker in accessing highly-classified communications data in 1973.[1] A transfer had stopped Walker's access to the data the Soviets wanted, but he was able to recruit Whitworth to keep the data flowing by telling him the data would be going to Israel. Later, when Whitworth realized the data was going to the Soviets instead of Israel, he nonetheless continued feeding it to Walker. After his Navy retirement in 1976, Walker began looking more aggressively among his children and family members for assistance (Walker was a private detective at this time). By 1984, he had recruited his older brother Arthur, a retired ex-enlisted Lieutenant Commander and his son Michael, an active duty sailor.[1]
In 1990, New York Times journalist John J. O'Connor reported that, "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".[6] Asked later how he had managed to access so much classified information, Walker said, "KMart has better security than the Navy".[7] According to a report presented to the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive in 2002, Walker is one of a handful of spies believed to have earned more than a million dollars in espionage compensation,[4] although The New York Times estimated his income at only $350,000.[6]
In May 1985, the FBI was tipped off to Walker's activities by Walker's then ex-wife Barbara, to whom he had refused to pay alimony.[1] Following an investigation, the FBI arrested Walker, Whitworth, Arthur Walker and Michael Walker. Ironically, Walker himself was arrested using a trick he used to catch people in adultery cases: telephoning their hotel room and telling them that their car was broken into.[1] Barbara Walker was not prosecuted because of her role in disclosing the ring.[1][4] Former KGB agent Victor Cherkashin, however, details in his book Spy Handler that Walker was compromised by an FBI spy named Martynov, who overheard a conversation by chance in Moscow. Documents in his trial, Cherkashin argues, claimed that Martynov played a crucial role in the compromise of Walker's cover.[8]
Walker cooperated with authorities and in a plea bargain, he agreed to submit to an unchallenged conviction and life sentence, provide a full disclosure of the details of his spying and give testimony against Jerry Whitworth in exchange for a pledge from the prosecutors that his son would receive a sentence of no more than 25 years imprisonment.[2][9] All of the members of the spy ring besides Michael Walker received life sentences for their role in the espionage. Jerry Whitworth was sentenced to 365 years in prison and was fined $410,000 for his involvement.
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 in February 2000.[1]
Walker is currently BOP Prisoner number 22449-037 and is incarcerated at a United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (MCFP). He is said to be suffering from diabetes and stage IV throat cancer. His earliest possible parole date is 20 May 2015, at which point he will have served 30 years in prison.[10]
   | Family of Spies: The John Walker Jr. Case - Family of Spies: The John Walker Jr. Spy Case - Crime Library on truTV.com |
| | Family of spies: the John Walker Jr. spy case - Family of Spies: The John Walker Jr. Spy Case - Crime Library on truTV.com |
| | The ultimate export control: why F-14s are being put into a shredder - The Ultimate Export Control |
| | TV View; American spies in pursuit of the American dream - TV VIEW; AMERICAN SPIES IN PURSUIT OF THE AMERICAN DREAM - The New York Times |
| | In short: nonfiction - IN SHORT: NONFICTION - The New York Times |
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