May 26, 1941

Spy

In 1985, considered to be the “year of the spy,” Aldrich Ames, a longtime agent for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was one of many intelligence workers who began to spy for the Soviet Union. In April of that year, he delivered an envelope to a Soviet diplomat. In that parcel was classified information—and a request for $50,000. On June 13, Ames, who had planned to “earn” just enough to pay for his upcoming wedding, delivered a second batch of information to an employee of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. The two shopping bags full of classified documents included damaging information, such as the so-called “keys to the kingdom,” a list of Russian military and intelligence officers who worked as double-agents for the CIA or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). (See original entry on Ames in Outlaws...