TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/caps/85/85capts.10

Text File | 1992-09-25 | 3.8 KB | 77 lines

                                                                                July 1, 1985

NATION

A Spy's Unhappy Household


Family squabbles undid an espionage ring


The most damaging spy operation in the U.S. in nearly four
decades was exposed, curiously, through a mundane child-custody
fight. Barbara Walker, the ex-wife, and Laura Snyder, the
daughter, of accused Spymaster John A. Walker Jr., disclosed
last week that Laura's efforts to regain her five-year-old son
led them to report Walker to the FBI. The two women provided
new details of the family's past, revealing some oddly twisted
values. Although Barbara knew her husband was selling secrets
to the Soviets, she seemed equally concerned that he was using
his espionage activities as an alibi for romantic travels with
other women. After she finally turned Walker in to the FBI last
November, Barbara admitted, she warned him she had done so,
thereby giving him a chance to flee.

Some of these insights into the Walker family saga came to light
on cable TV in an interview that Laura Walker Snyder, 25, gave
to the Virginia-based Christian Broadcasting Network. In 1979,
Laura said, she told her husband, Mark Snyder, 26, that her
father had tried to enlist her as a spy while she was in the
Army. After she and Mark separated in 1982, Mark kept their son
Christopher, then 2, and, according to Laura, threatened to
expose John Walker's espionage if she tried to win legal custody
of the boy. "My husband was blackmailing me," Laura charged.
"He told me that if I tried to get the baby, he would turn in
my father or tell what he knew, and he would destroy the
family."  Earlier this month, Laura snatched Christopher from
his father's Laurel, Md., neighborhood.

Mark Snyder insisted that Laura's story was "a bunch of
garbage."  He denied having known of her father's spying or
having made any blackmail threats. He contended that Laura knew
of Christopher's whereabouts and had been free to visit him.

Laura was also at odds with her mother. The two admitted they
had not spoken to each other for 16 months prior to last
November. The daughter claimed that they had quarreled over her
mother's refusal to tell the FBI about John Walker's spying and
thus break Mark's hold on Christopher. Laura considered going
to the FBI alone, but her loyalties were divided. "I was torn
between exposing my father and risking [his spending] his entire
life in jail," she said. "I do love my father."  At the same
time, Laura claimed, her mother had warned, "If you do this,
you're going to destroy the whole family. I could go to jail,
and who knows what else could happen?"

Finally, after Laura broke the ice with a telephone call last
Nov. 23, Barbara agreed to tell the FBI about John Walker's
spying. Only afterward did the women learn that Laura's brother
Michael, 22, had also been implicated in his father's espionage
ring. Said Laura of her mother:  "See the irony?  She turns in
my father so that I can fight for my son, and her own son is now
a victim."

Barbara Walker told the New York Times that the FBI would not
take her seriously at first because she drank heavily before
deciding to take the fateful step. She said she had suspected
her husband of spying since 1967 and had even told their four
children about. "All I tried to do was tell them their father
was not a good person, but he was still their father," she said.
After turning John in, she remained concerned about him. "I
wanted to give John a chance to run. That bond goes a lot
deeper than you think."

Barbara Walker estimated that John Walker may have been paid as
much as $1 million by the Soviets. She could not be more
precise, she said, because "the Russians don't write checks."

--By Ed Magnuson.  Reported by Anne Constable/Washington and
B. Russell Leavitt/Norfolk