WHO KILLED JOHN PAISLEY?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100180028-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: October 15, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Releas
111QUmRY
15 October 1979
STAT
The CIA calls his death a suicide, but the evidence suggests
that the former intelligence analyst was another cas
in the war over the Russian "mole" tusid e the C A,
4VENTY-TIVO-YE1I R- OLD
Eddie Paisley works as a wai-
ter at aVirginia bar and grill
just outsic, of Washington,
DO T-T;~
an important CIA analyst, was found
dead, floating in the Chesapeake Bay,
oncycarago-The authorities ruled he had
committed suicide. Eddie Paisley be-
lieves his father was murdered. "Some-
body is plugging the case up and trying
to befuddle it as best they can," he says.
"That's what it seems like to me. Ob-
viously something's up, but the CIA
doesn't want anyone to know about it."
Eddie's father, John Arthur Paisley,
left the CIA in 1974 after twenty-one
years of service, for which he was deco-
rated with the Distinguished Medal of
Honor. Since 1969 he had been the dep-
uty director of the CIA's Office of Stra-
tegic Research, the branch that deals
with assessing Soviet nuclear capabili-
ties. He was an important and respected
expert on U.S. and Soviet atomic
weapons and the CIA's computer and
satellite systems. Since his "official" re-
tirement five years ago, he had con-
tinued to work on top-secret agency
projects as a S200-a-day consultant-un-
til he disappeared.
On Sunday, September '24, 1978,
JEFF COLDBERC is codirector of the I trashington-
based.4ssassination Information Bateau.
EFF GOLDBERG
Paisley sailed off from Lusby, Mary-
land, on his 31-foot stoop Brillig for a day
on the bay. He was an expert sailor who
loved the time he spent on his boat. He
apparently planned to work alone that
day, evaluating a sensitive CIA report on
Soviet nuclear strength.
Late in the afternoon Paisley radioed
ashore to friends to say he would be
staying out late on the Brillig. He asked
for the dock lights to be left on for him. It
was the last time anyone is known to
have heard from him.
The next morning the Coast Guard
discovered the abandoned Brillig when a
crab boat reported being almost hit by
it. After boarding the boat, the Coast -
Guard quickly identified Paisley as its
owner, and they noted the CIA docu-
ments in his briefcase. The CIA's security
office was immediately notified.
After a delay of some twelve hours,
the CIA called Maryann Paisley at her
McLean, Virginia, home. The Paisleys
had separated a year earlier after twen-
ty-five years of marriage and he had just
recently moved into a new apartment in
downtown Washington. Maryann Pais-
ley had herself worked for the CIA in
1974 as a contract employee and wa~-
still bound by the agency's security oath.
She understood the CIA's concern for
`securing his sensitive papers, so late that
night she drove out to the Maryland
Diane, and CIA officials. They searched
the Brillig, but apparently removed
nothing. However, there were indica-
tions that other CIA security representa-
tives had already been there, because - i
Paisley's sophisticated radio gear (an-
tennas and transmitters) were gone.
The next morning, Maryann Paisley
sent her son Eddie to check his father's
apartment. He discovered the apart-
ment had already been entered-papers
were in disarray and a camera, tape
recordings, and a Rolodex were missing.
Some nine-millimeter bullets were
strewn on a closet floor. It was later
determined that CIA representatives had
already been there also. The police later
complained that these searches had con-
taminated much of the evidence.
At this point there was no trace of
Paisley. Since he was a strong swimmer,
his family hoped hewas still alive on one
of the bay's small islands. The Coast
Guard made a helicopter and boat
search of the area, but there was no
police investigation because a missing-
person report had not been filed. For a
week Paisley's disappearancewentpub-
licly unreported.
Then on October 1, a bloated, badly
decomposed body was pulled from the,
bay several miles from where the Brillig
had run aground. The victim, shot once ~~
Approved For Release 2007/06/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100180028-5 with a nine-millimr-c1