WASHINGTON'S 10 MOST WANTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604930002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604930002-1
ARTICLE APP RED
ON PAGE 1%1
WASHINGTONIAN
June 1985
WASIILNGTON'S
10
MOSI
WANTED
? 'X Cf/ZP7F_D
Francis Terpil: Renegade Spy
and Trainer of Terrorists
Born: November 2, 1939 (has also used
'February 11, 1939), in Brooklyn, New
'York. _
,Height: five feet. ten inches.
Weight:.170 to 215 pounds.
Hair: brown.
Eves: hazel.
Wanted for solicitation to commit mur-
der and on other charges.
Former CIA asents Francis Edward Ter-
pil and Edwin P. Wilson attempted in
L976 to arrange the assassination of an
opponent of Libyan dictator Muammer
el-Qaddafi. Their target, a Libyan who
had tried to overthrow Qaddafi in 1975,
was living as an exile in Egypt in August
1976 when Terpil and Wilson offered
,three Cuban-Americans $1 million for
his murder. The Cubans notified the
CIA.
In December 1979 Terpil was arrested
by New York City police and charged
with illegal possession of automatic
weapons and conspiring to sell them to a
terrorist group.
On April 23, 1980, a federal grand
jury here indicted Terpil, Wilson, and
another man for conspiring to supply the
Libyan government with weapons and
material used to make explosive devices,
and to train terrorists in the production
of explosives. They were also charged
with soliciting to commit murder and
conspiring to commit murder in connec-
tion with the 1976 plot against Qaddafi's
opponent in Egypt.
Terpil was arrested then on those fed-
eral charges, but he posted bond and fled
the US before a court appearance in Sep-
tember 1980. Terpil's wife, Marillyn,
and Wilson also fled the country.
Terpil was tried in absentia in New
York state court in 1981, convicted on
the charges pending against him there,
and sentenced to 53 years in prison with
the recommendation that he never be
paroled.
Wilson was lured back to the US in
1982. tried, and convicted of numerous
charges: he is now serving 52 years in
federal prison.
Marillyn Terpil surrendered to US au-
thorities in New York in 1983, after she
and Frank Terpil split up. Under an ar-
rangement with prosecutors, she was
placed on probation for conspiring with
her husband to procure a false US pass-
port for an Iranian refugee. The Ter-
.pils' home, at 1102 Chain Bridge Road
in McLean, was sold at auction for
;$485,000 in September 1983 to help
settle a S4.6 million federal tax lien
against the couple.
During the past five years, Frank Ter-
pil has lived in Syria, Lebanon, Eastern
Europe, and Grenada-he left Grenada
not long before the. US invasion in Octo-
ber 1983. He has been an adviser to
former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and'
to the Palestine Liberation Organization
as well as to Qaddafi.
Regarded as armed and extremely
dangerous, he is wanted on many
charges, including soliciting to commit
murder, weapons violations, failure to
register as an agent of the Libyan gov-
ernment. and failure to appear in court.
******* XCE TEjD
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604930002-1