Dear Dad and Mom:
My thoughts are a jumble. My emotions are bled white. I have become callous. I have been dancing on a razor. I close my eyes and I feel my falcon beating hard into the wind.…
Chris laid down his pencil. For a long time he looked at his words under the dim light of his cell, which was partially blocked by the shadow of his trousers. The trousers were knotted into a noose and hanging from the bars above his head.
Chris was writing a suicide note.
Once again he had weighed his options and concluded that dying was better than living.
His sentencing was tomorrow, and he was certain to get a life term.
He felt the lowest that he had felt since the day of his arrest. His sense of doom had kept him awake most nights since he had learned that Vito Conterno had turned his letters over to the prosecution.
Vito was still in the cell beside his, and as Chris looked up from his words he occasionally yelled an epithet at him. Lately, he had gotten a small measure of revenge on Conterno. Other inmates in D Block hadn’t believed him when he shouted that he wasn’t the snitch, Conterno was! But luckily, Bill Dougherty had another client in D Block, a drug dealer; Dougherty had told him the story, and this new prisoner had corroborated Chris’s account. Now most of the other prisoners weren’t speaking to Conterno.
Conterno also was awake in his cell on the night before Chris was to be sentenced: Chris could hear him pacing and groaning. He knew the old Mafioso was having heart pains again and tried to enjoy the thought. “I hope your heart bursts, Conterno!” he said loud enough for him to hear. “I hope you die!” Moments of pleasure were rare in his cell, but this was one of them.
Chris wanted Conterno to go to sleep so that he could go ahead with his suicide, but Conterno continued to moan and pace the floor in a monotonous thump.
Chris looked back at the few words he had written and wondered what he could say next. He wanted to say that he was not ashamed of what he had done, that he would do it over again. But mostly, he sought the words that somehow, against all the odds, would convince his father that he was right. He wanted him to understand. But what could he say? They were two people living in the same world who spoke different languages, each indecipherable to the other.
At dawn, the letter was still unfinished, and Chris removed the pants he had tied to his bars that were to serve as his noose.
As it had in the days when Chris had plotted to murder Daulton and on the eve of his testimony, his courage failed him again. Somewhere, through the night, he had heard the distant voices of Monsignor McCarthy and the sisters of St. John Fisher preaching that it was a mortal sin to take one’s own life—as grievous as taking another’s life. He ridiculed himself for his weakness.
His courage failed him that night in another way, too. Chris wanted to tell the judge what he really believed about the nation-states and their blind march toward self-destruction. Mentally he composed a script that would lay it all out right between the eyes.
But he decided that if he was going to have any chance of escaping prison for the rest of his life, he couldn’t say what he believed.
He began to write a speech to the judge.
“If ever there was a case in which a person presented himself in total puzzlement, your client is it,” Judge Kelleher told George Chelius and Bill Dougherty a few hours later.
Kelleher had before him a presentencing report from the Federal probation officer who had been assigned to evaluate the defendant and report any special circumstances the judge should weigh in his behalf. It was a long and detailed exposition on the life of Christopher John Boyce—twenty-six pages, single-spaced, that tracked Chris from St. John Fisher to the three colleges he had tried before going to work at TRW, and his subsequent arrest. The probation officer had talked to Chris’s family, many of his former teachers and neighbors, and had found no one who would say anything negative about him. It was as if he were a surgeon, responding to symptoms of a malignancy, who had gone looking for a tumor and had found the organ normal, and it seemed to befuddle him.
At the probation officer’s request, Chris had written an account of his experience—essentially the same one he had told at the trial—and answered so many questions about it that one day following a session with the P.O., he told one of his lawyers: “This guy’s a spy freak. He wants to hear all the dicey details.” In a rambling, sixteen-page handwritten memoir, Chris recounted for the probation officer the story he had told from the witness stand, but added some details. He first described how he purportedly had blurted out the information about Australia and the CIA to Daulton, while he was high, and then continued:
A couple of weeks later under similar circumstances I had another private conversation with Lee at his father’s house. Our discussion again drifted to Australia, and he inquired how I had come by that knowledge. I informed him I worked in an encoded communications room and that I was also aware of treaty violations perpetuated [sic] by the CIA against that government. I stated that I wished that and all other instances of CIA abuse could be made public, but to do so always left one open to a lawsuit. He stated that that sort of activity could best be handled by a third party. I replied that that had been the problem with the Pentagon Papers. He stated that his father, an ex-colonel in the Army Air Corps, had many influential friends, including many lawyers and business men. He said without revealing the source of the information a la Deep Throat he could make public the information. Sitting there stoned on hashish the idea sounded plausible and I told him it might work but that it would have to be documented. He suggested I outline in writing in general terms what I had told him. Later in the evening he informed me that his parole officer had issued a warrant for his arrest and that his father had given him money to leave the country and he had decided that soon he would go to Costa Rica. He stated that he would try to take care of the letter before that and would do what he could. I left the Lee house at about one in the morning and went home to my father’s. I learned later in the week that he had left the country. I was surprised that he had not said goodbye.
A few days later I received a call from Lee at my parents’ house and I took it in my father’s bedroom. Lee sounded belligerent and mentioned that he had taken my letter to his people. I asked, “what people?” He asked if I was sure I wanted to know. I answered in the affirmative and said, “come on tell me.” He said “I gave it to the Russians.” I said, “Come on, really, who did you give it to?” He replied again that he had given it to the Russians and informed me that he had taken it to the Soviet embassy in Mexico. I hung up on him and sat down on my father’s bed. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard.… The phone rang again and I took it off the hook, replacing the receiver and then setting it on the floor. I left my father’s house and went to my apartment in Hermosa Beach. I began to drink and consider my next course of action.
Chris’s story then described how Daulton had threatened him and his father with exposure unless he fed him more information from the vault. “I told him to drop dead and in no uncertain terms would I cooperate with him. He told me for $200 he could have me taken care of if I didn’t want to play ball. He said he had copies of my letter and asked me how I would like to have them mailed to TRW. I hung up on him.”
Chris wrote that a CIA technician had told him that much of the equipment in the Black Vault had been compromised when North Korea had captured the American spy ship Pueblo, and other NSA equipment had been seized by Communist agents in Africa during racial strife.
Lee continued to call me at work and threaten me with exposure by mailing my letter to my employment. I also learned at this time that he was a heroin addict.
With this knowledge I decided I had two options. Kill him outright or destroy his credibility with the Russians. I did not know who his real employer was and even now I am not sure. If I successfully murdered him I still had the problem of recovering the copies of my letter he retained. I would also have to contend with his narcotics co
nnections with whom he was threatening my life. Not even owning a gun I decided on my second choice. His demands continued on my line at work.
Chris said that he had bought a gun, but had tried to satisfy Daulton’s demand with outdated materials from the vault, photos of training manuals and materials he’d been told had been compromised.
I began to lead a reckless life. I drove like a maniac on the freeways with no regard for my safety. I would go alone to falcon cliffs and climb down my lines hand over hand to the nesting ledge not really caring if I fell. I slipped from a raft in the Colorado River in the turbulence and came close to drowning. I frequently considered shooting Lee and then myself but I could not bring myself to go through with it. I became moody and depressed and escaped more and more often with pot, hashish and cocaine, all of which Lee gave me. I realized that under the circumstances my girl friend and I could never be married and she finally left me. I began to drink heavily and by October, ’76, Lee had given me a total of $10,000 all of which I spent in quick sprees, considering even the money incriminating. Lee attempted to turn me into a heroin addict by lacing the cocaine he freely supplied me. After getting sick and realizing another one of his ploys, I refused further narcotics from him. I began to go over to his house armed with my automatic looking for an opening but I could never pull it out of my pocket and if I did I wasn’t sure whether I would stop and who I would include. I never willfully committed espionage and what was supplied was useless. Perhaps that was the CIA’s intention from the start. What I am guilty of is being a coward, although had I become a killer I had no idea who in the end I would have to settle with.
It was a well-reasoned tale of espionage by extortion, a blending of lies and reality.
The probation officer’s presentencing report was sympathetic and compassionate, and appeared in almost every line to be straining to believe Chris. Once again, Boyce had made a conquest. The report said in part:
In his written and oral statements, the defendant notes a deep personal and societal disillusionment with the centralization and abuse of power by the Government and several of its agencies and specifically, the CIA. To him he became a witness to, and an instrument of, this abuse, which was all the more shocking as it involved CIA activities in Australia, “a true friend and ally.”
The defendant is the product of a stable, moral oriented middle class religious family, having the physical, intellectual and personal wherewithal to be successful. With no prior law violations but this one, he continues to command the respect of his family and friends, whose unwavering faith in him is remarkable. A pattern of radical changes emerge from the defendant. Having a strong Catholic religious upbringing in which he fully identified, his teens saw him at first question and then ultimately reject the fundamental precepts of that religion. Having a Catholic centered conservative view of politics, society and authority, this too was disturbed during his teens and rejected. The defendant, before entering high school, seemed to identify with authority figures in both the home, school and in society. Although the defendant never underwent a rebellion against a domestic authority, it is clear that he did reject other such sources. His acts in this offense are a manifestation of his rejection of Governmental authority.
Chris’s actions, he said, had been influenced by Watergate and by revelations of official corruption and of abuses of American power abroad. “The defendant pursued his understanding of ‘corruption’ and held rather deep rooted opinions concerning them; to some extent the defendant’s motivation was an attempt to expose what he considered to be unjust and unlawful activities of the CIA,” the probation officer said.
Richard Stilz, the prosecutor, would say later that he had given copies of the letters Chris wrote to Vito Conterno to the probation officer, but, curiously, there was no reference to them in the probation report. Stilz also said the probation officer promised to send the letters to Judge Kelleher before Chris was sentenced.
The probation officer concluded in the report that he believed Chris’s story of being dragged into the espionage scheme because of his Ellsberg-like impulse to expose evil in government. He accepted Chris’s lies as the truth, but his report also contained a good deal of insight into the puzzling young man:
The defendant had two important motivating factors: 1) His desire to attack central authority by virtue of his loss of faith in central government; 2) At the same time to expose the Central Intelligence Agency with an implicit faith in Government. These contending factors, it is suggested, were both operative with the defendant, and are consistent with the views set forth above, namely, that the defendant had developed these two attitudes toward authority in general. The reason why the defendant engaged in writing the letters exposing the Central Intelligence Agency, and handing them to Lee, lies in these two motivations. If the defendant were purely intending on exposing the Central Intelligence Agency, he probably would have engaged in a more direct and less dangerous route.
It is felt that the defendant’s continued cooperation with Lee arose out of a personal fear of Lee. This is suggested by the reputation that Lee had in the community. Although the defendant may have been coerced by Lee, it is not felt that the immediacy of Lee’s threats excuses the defendant’s actions. On the one hand we have the threat of exposing Boyce, with a possible harm to his family, and on the other hand we have the compromising of the United States concerning national defense and sensitive communications information. As between the two it is fairly evident that the implied threats do not justify his actions.
However, the defendant did apparently make a good faith attempt to resolve the dilemma that he was placed in in a way which would harm neither the United States nor himself or his family. The defendant apparently felt that he could control the flow of information, as he was the only person with access to it, and that he could thereby control both Lee and the Russians. To some extent the defendant drew incorrect inferences concerning the potential harm involved in his actions, and thereby did not correctly appreciate the harm involved, but nevertheless it appears that in most instances the defendant was attempting to resolve the dilemma that he found himself in without injury. When the defendant states that it was never his intent to injure the United States, it is felt that he is being basically honest.
The fact that the defendant received money tends to suggest his pecuniary interests in his activities. It is felt however that the defendant’s motivation was not financial, but that his interest is more consistent with what has been discussed above.
What is perhaps the most shocking aspect of the defendant’s activities is the continuity of it and the fact that there was much time to reflect and to consider alternative means to resolve the dilemma that he describes. It simply strains credibility that the defendant was at all times being threatened. Nor is this his position. His own statements reflect that the threats were no longer immediate, but were only implicit.
In assessing the defendant generally, it is to be noted that there is nothing in his past to suggest that he would engage in this type of activity. His prior record and general community adjustment, his personality and relationship with friends and family all strongly indicate that this is out of character with the defendant.
Because of these facts, the defendant was given the benefit of the doubt in many close factual questions. By and large he has been very open, candid and fundamentally honest. This is consistent with his general reputation and with the assessment made here.
Without making a recommendation for a sentence, the report concluded:
It adds little, but it must be said that the defendant has derived a lifetime of experience by virtue of this episode, his detection and processing through the courts. It is felt that the defendant will eventually return to society and function as an asset in it, with a rather unique appreciation of himself, his motivation and his future purposes.
Judge Kelleher seemed utterly perplexed over the decision he faced on sentencing the young man who had so obviously impressed his prob
ation officer. The probation report had been sealed from public scrutiny, but the judge alluded to it in remarks to Chelius and Dougherty, emphasizing that the probation officer had suggested there was a strong chance their client could be rehabilitated, and there was “some good” in him. Chelius asked the judge to consider sentencing Chris on an interim basis for ninety days so that he could be examined in depth by the Federal Bureau of Prisons psychiatrists and then the judge could decide on the final sentence. Before ruling on this request, Kelleher asked Chris if he had anything to say before sentence was passed.
Chris had looked into a dilemma the night before: Should he tell the court how he really felt about the United States, the nationalists and their crazed march toward oblivion? Or should he plead for his future? It was, he would recollect later, a one-sided struggle with his conscience, and a brief one. He opted for survival.
50
His face reddening, Chris rose and walked slowly to the same lectern that had been used by the lawyers who had argued his guilt or innocence.
“I stand convicted of a great offense,” he began. “I have had much time to consider what I believe to be my primary error in thinking in this matter.
“There have been times in my life when I have been caused to face intense dilemmas. My judgments, my mistakes defy explanations. I address myself to that which I fail to understand.” He paused, letting the words resonate in the quiet courtroom.
“I have witnessed a lack of trust in this country between the governed and their government. As I grew older, I became aware that the overwhelming majority of young people of my age placed little or no faith in our established institutions. It was not that we failed in our commitment to democratic principles. It was that we no longer were confident of the direction our government had taken.”
The Falcon and the Snowman Page 38
