CALL TO RELIGIOUS NETWORK STARTED SPY CASE ROLLING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706400002-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 19, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706400002-6
ARTIC!~S ~PP1?R~
ON PoGE~~.
~~IASHIV .TON POST
19 June 1985
Call to Religious Network
Started Spy Case Rolling
Walker Daughter AsMed `700 Grub' Help
By Chris Spoler
and Molly Sinclair
wa.lie~cm PuK shEt Writers
Laura Walker Snyder wanted
guidance from God. And listen-
ing to the voice of video evan-
gelism, she sought a way to end
the bitterness, the conflict and
the troubles in her life.
"That original call," said Terry
Heaton, producer of "The 700
Club," which received a tele-
phone appeal fmm Snyder in
1983, "came from a young girl
with her marriage on the rocks,
her family in shambles, seeking
prayer and guidance. That is
what started the whole ball roll-
ing.'
Advice from an anonymous
telephone counselor that day
eventually led Snyder to born-
again Christianity and to an at-
tempt to rid herself of the per-
son she believed had tainted all
she loved and had nearly taunted
her into doing the unmentionable
to her country: her father, John
Anthony Walker Jr., now ac-
cused of being a Soviet spy.
Snyder's beliefs impelled her
to call her mother in an attempt
to persuade her to talk to federal
authorities about John Walker,
friends said. And with a phone
call seven months ago, Snyder
touched off the unraveling of an
alleged spy ring that authorities
say included not only her father
but her younger brother and un-
cle.
She kept quiet for years, she
said, because her estranged hus-
band "blackmailed" her, threat-
ening to implicate her father if
she attempted to regain custody.
of their son. Her husband, who
lives in Laurel, denied that
charge yesterday.
~'; Snyder's remarks were part of an
".interview, which Snyder offered to
Abe. t~ristiaa Bct>~Stirig Net-
work last week for its "700 Club"
program. One part ~ the interview
was aired yesterday; another is
scheduled for today.
john Walker, she said in today's
segment, didn't tike me to call him
Dad. He likes to pretend that he has
no responsibility to his children.
He's just this guy I happen to know.
"He wanted to live in the greatest
cwmtry in the world and to have all
the benefits and the freedom of liv-
ing in this country, but he didn't
want to have to be loyal to it," she
said in yesterday's interview. "He
would rather sell it "
Her father's chosen life, which
she said was a known deception in a
family of six that would be divided
by divorce, was a cruel secret for
Snyder to keep over the last few
years. she said in the interview.
Love for her son Christopher-a
love that last week pushed her to
make a desperate, successful effort
to claim the child based on counsel-
ingwith alawyer from the Christian
Broadcasting Netwozk-was what
led Snyder and her mother to re-
port Wallter in November 1984 as a
spy, she said.
Phillip Marls Snyder denied in a
telephone interview yesterday that
he had made such a threat and said
his wife was "hiding behind God" in
her attempt to get Christopher.
Federal indictments charge
Wallcer, 47, with espionage and por-
tray him as the mastermind of a
conspiracy that authorities say is
one of the most serious espionage
cases in recent years.
Also charged are his son Michael
Lance, 22, John Walker's brother
Arthur James, 50, and John Wallc-
er's former colleague and Navy
friend, Jerry Alfred Whitworth, 45.
FBI affidavits had indicated ear-
lier that they were led to Walker by
a tip from two confidential infor-
mants.
Walker's former wife, Barbara,
has said in interviews that she made
a call to the FBI. Larva Walker Sny-
der had been identified as the other
person who implicated Walker.
Snyder, who has been separated
for the last three years from her
husband and 5-year-old son, has
refused to discuss her role since the
series of arrests began in mid May.
That silence ended in the televi-
sion studio of the religious network
that Snyder said helped her appeal
to her mother, who resembles her
25-year-old daughter, to tell the
truth about a family deception.
Those who have come to know
the pretty, dark-haired woman said
Snyder made the decision to expose
her father more than a year after
she contacted counsebrs at "The
700 Club," a religious organization
that has afive-day-a-week televi-
sion show and a telephone counsel-
ing service.
Her friend Marie Hammond, the
wife of a former Army colleague of
the Snyders, urged Laura Snyder to
make the call for guidance, friends
say. Hammond dialed the number
and Snyder spoke, Snyder said in
the interview. Snyder, as she told
the counselor, was looking for a
solution to a troubling problem-
one that erupted when her mar-
riage to Phillip Mark Snyder
ended-of how to obtain custody of
her son.
Snyder said she had wanted the
child since the couple separated in
1982 but, as she told friends since
the alleged espionage has come to
light, something her husband had
threatened to make public stopped
her.
Her husband, she said, knew John
Anthony Walker Jr. was a spy. Her
father had repeatedly tried to en-
tice her into selling secrets when
she was a communications special-
ist in the Army from 1978 to 1979,
she said, and she shared her fright
and shock with her young husband.
When the marriage failed, she said,
her husband, whom she now calls "a
little immature, irresponsible .
[butt sweet and gentle," threatened
to reveal that. .
O~ftrnulr
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706400002-6
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706400002-6
'My hw>~d was bladanailiog
me, Setyder aid m the tdeviaion
interview. "He told me that if I tried
to get the, baby he would teen my
other in or tell what he knew sad
he would destroy the bmifj- "
? glydEr. in tYe itterview, gives
thin accamt of what happened next:
Her counaebr at 'Flee 700 Club"
prayed in tongues and then a~ered
a mesage, which Snyder reconttted
to Mends. She wan told that: She
shotdd.stop seeing her then boy.
friend. Steven The Lord bad heard
her cries and seen her tears. She
should guard against bitterness.
She should be baptized in the family
of the Lord. And her son world be,
returned to her.
? ~ Snyder, struck that the temsebf
would know the name of her boy.
friend, followed the advice. She
prayed. But as the months passed,
Snyder realized the only way to lose
that bitterness would be through
heir family, most importantly her
mother. Barbara Walker.
At the time, Snyder, who was liv-
ing is Buffab, N.Y., hadn't spoken
for 18 months to her mother, who
was living on Cape Cod, Mesa. It
was the kind of self-inducxd es-
trangement that seemed a way of
life for the Walker clan, a family
that Snyder said in the tekvisiott in-
terview was never close. But Sny-
der, looking for the spiritual heal-
ing, again reached for the phone.
It was Nov. 23, 1984, her moth-
er's 47th birthday.
During that call, Snyder appealed
to her mother's sense of family.
Snyder said she was thinking, "You
don't understand the pain I'm going
through. You haven't lost a child."
You haven't. heard from me for 18
months, she told her mother, now
you know what I've bees going
through without Chriatopher.~
"Aa long as the other was free,"
said producer Heaton, "they real-
ized they would never see their son
~~.1 "
The day after the phone call, Bar-
bara Walker went to the FBI, Sny-
der said is the interview.
"I supported her 100 percent
from the very be~nniag the
day after I called her, she called me
std aid, 'I called the FBL I turned
your father in sad will you help me,
wfil you support me?' "Snyder sad
in the interview. "I said: Absolutely
.... I will go to the ends of the
earth for you."
Neither of the two realized Mi-
chaei Wsllter world be implicated is
tde cane. Barbara Walker has throe
voiced bitter. angry woods about
her husband far allegedly drawing
the youngest of their four children
into a spying-for-profit scheme.
Snyder described the realisation ss
a "fatal bow."
"I've always been very close to
my brother. I'm devastated ... .
. Something inside is teWng me my
father knew that he'd been turned
in and he did this. He never told my
mother [about Michael] because my
mother met with him last summer
and he could have said, 'Barbara,
don't do this because your son's in-
volved.' I'm not admitting my
brother's itwl, I'm just aying~wyat
:the s are saying.
"See the irony?" Snyder said.
"She. turns in my father so that I can
fight for my son and her own son is
now a victibrv:"
Describing her father as a manip-
ulative, self-centered and arrogant
man, Snyder said she believed her
father "brainwashed" her brother
into cooperating with his life style
when the boy moved into his ha~be
in Norfolk after the divorce.
If Michael acted as prosecutors
charge, she said, "I don't thick he
really understood what he was do-
ing. I know Michael was manipu-
lated. My father tried it with me.
"First, he'd break you down and
make you feel like the lowest form
of life. He'd say, 'You know, you're
never going to be successful and
you can't do anything with your life.
You're not a very bright person.
Why don't you let me help you
make a bt of money ....You're
just never going to make it in this
world, don't you understand?
You're just not anybody special. But
I've got a way of helping you to
earn a great deal of money.' "
Walker's arrest on May 20 re-
leased Snyder from the fear that
her family would be exposed by her
husband.
It led her to retreat from public-
ity to the small town of Cantos,
N.Y., where her friends the Ham-
monds lived. Together, they would .
make week>S- trips to a nearby fun-
damentalist church, where they
would sing. Pray. dance and speak
in tongues with others In the 250-
member congregation. according to
Richard W. Sinclair, pastor of the
Christian Fellowship Center.
That newfomd freedom also
drove her to pot to take her child
from her btubatd.
She said she made her move the
day befaee Father's Day with her
friad, btarle I'Iammoad, who had
helped her make the move toward
Christianity Years ago.
Cary Evaw, the. corporate attor-
ney for the Christian Brosdcaatjag
Network, acid yesterday that he ad-
vised the young mother that, be-
cause the duple was stiitl married,
she had a much right to her son as
the fatbar. Prinoe George's Canty
police say no charges will be filed
thed~~~M
R helped her get the address,.
Evans acid. "We weal the+ough the
U.S. attacney'a of&e is Hsvitidoe+e
and they gave the address and the
telephone mtmbee." Evans aid yes-
terday he did not consider hissself
was her spie~-
Wit! that hd j Eras the broad-
caseit~ astwoet, Snyder said she
levied a plan to stake out her hus-
batd's apartment in Laurel sad take
the boy when he was playing. The
plea wonted.
"NQVr .that she Jw her. son, .ohs
win be ~ apnea ~de6aice plans
in the inture, Evatte aid. ''gut ev-
erything in her life up lentil now has
been directed at'getting custody of
her son:," Yesterday's broadcast
showed her with Christopher.
It was, she nodded in agreement
with her interviewers, a "tremen-
dous anaw-er to prayer."
StaJjwritsrs Si~aron LaFmniers
and Victoria Cbu~vi!!s
contributed to this rs~ort
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706400002-6
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706400002-6
3
A LOOK AT JOHN A. WALKER !R.'S FINANCIAL HISTORY
1966: John Anthony Walker Jr. serves ss a radioman
on the USS Simon Bolivar, a nuclear submarine; he
earns (6,720 a year.
July 6, 1966: Walker buys 4.87 acres of land for
516,025 in Ladson, S.C., a rural community about 14
miles north of Charleston, according to local court
records. Walker takes out a first mortgage of $15,400.
He also takes out a second mortgage of $4,250,
apparently to finance construction of a one-story
concrete block building that first houses a sandwich
shop, then a bar and now is headquarters for VFW Post
3433. Today the land and building have a combined
assessed value of $49,100. In a financial statement
Walker files m federal court,Walker says he still owes
$10,000 on the property and his monthly payments are
f 110. VFW Post Commander Glen Houck says the post
had rented the building from Walker since 1982.
Previously it was a "rundown red-neck bar," he adds.
1968: Walker's estimated annual salary is now $8,700
July 1968: Walker Duys two lots in the Bahamas,
according to Vernon Curtis, a real estate agent in
GeorgeTown, a settlement on the island of Exuma
northwest of Nassau. Curtis gives this account of
Walker's transactions: Walker purchases the land sight
unseen for about f 1,200 per lot. After personally
inspecting the properties in November 1968 he swaps
them for two others in the same area. The price for the
new lots is (2,995 each. Walker makes a small down
payment on the lots and pays them off in about 10
years. Today the lots, still undeveloped, would sell for
about $10,000 each. Says Curtis: 'It was a good
investment."
June 23, 1975: Walker
Enterprises of Virginia
Beach is incorporated with
Arthur Walker as president
and John Walker as
secretary-treasurer. The
brothers have an
arrangement with local car
dealers to install radios and
stereo equipment in cars.
But the business doesn't do
well, and the IRS places a
$28,207 lien against the
firm for failure to pay its
1979 taxes. The charter is
dissolved in 1983.
July 15, 1975: Walker
buys a third lot in Exumas
in the Bahamas for $5,393,
according to records there.
July 21, 1975: Walker buys acanal-front lot in
Colmgton Harbour, a development in North Carolina's
Outer Banks area. Court records suggest Walker pays
$5,500 in cash for the undeveloped lot. Current
assessed value for the lot is $6,500. Walker pays an
annual membership fee of $75. "
Febrwry 25, 1976: Walker borrows (6,400 from the
Navy Federal Credit Union, Norfolk, to buy a $8,900
houseboat with a 250-horsepower engine. Walker pays
off his four?year loan in two. On the loan application
Walker lists $108,000 in assets, including 10
100-ounce bars of silver, the Norfolk house, the South
Carolina property and the North Carolina lot and debts
~
president and Arthur Walker as secretary-treasury.
Laurie Robinson, his former partner and now full owner.
says the business now grosses about f 120,000 a year
Jan. 30, 1981: Associated Agents ~s incorporated with
John Walker as president and Arthur Walker as
Secretary-treasurer. The company also operates as
Electronic Counter-Spy, court records show. Walker,
through Associated Agents and Counter?Spy, helps
companies guard against industrial espwnage
1982: John Walker pays Arthur Walker $12,000 cash
(or classrfied material relating to national defense,
according to Arthur Walker's statement to the FBI.
Arthur had obtained the papers from the VSE Corp , a
Norfolk defense contractor, where he had been working
since Februrary, 1980, according to an FBI affid~tv~t
1983: Walker borrows money from the Navy Federal
Credit Union to buy a 1980 Chrysler New Yorker,
according to court records. Today he owes $800 on the
car, which is assessed at (6,500.
1969.1971: According to an FBI affidavit, Walker takes
several trips to the Washington D.C. area and drops a
paper bag containing what is believed to be classified
documents. On one trip he colkets s paper bag
containing (35,000, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said this information was provided by a
confidential informant.
Nov. 5, 1974: Walker and his wife buy a house at
8524 Okf Ocean View Rd., Norfolk, assuming a
f45,000 loan. The balance on the loan today is
(40,194 'and monthly payments are $440. After the
couple divorces in 1976, the house is conveyed to John
Walker. The house is now assessed at $80,000.
Feb. 25, 1975: A business started by Walker, the
American Association of Professional Sales Persons, is
incorporated. The business is dissoved on June 1,
1979.
:limit; Jghn Walker gives his son, Mchael, $1,000 .n
e nge for documents received earlier, accord~nK to
an FBI affidavit.
May 20, 1985: John
Walker is arrested, and his
son, Michael, is arrested
two days later. Brother,
Arthur, is arrested May 29,
and friend, Jerry Whitworth,
is arrested June 3. All are
charged with espionage.
June 4-5, 1985: IRS seizes
of $117,000.
seizes all of Walker's
Msrch 3, 1976: Walker buys aocean-front lot in property to satisfy tax lien
Norfolk a short distance from his home. Court records fo- $252,488 for
indicate the property costs (52,700 and he takes out a unreported income since
(30,000 mortgage. The mortgage is satisfied August 1979.
13, 1981. The property is now assessed at $52,000.
Walker's houseboat is kept at the lot. John A. Walker Jr.
June 22, 1976: Barbara and John Walker divorce; the
agreement calls for Walker to pay his ex-wife a f 10,000
cash settlement and $500 a month in child support.
She also receives some property in Florida which they
jointly owned while he receives the South Carolina and
North Carolina properties.
July 1976: Walker retires from the Navy after 21 years
with an annual salary of about (18,000. He now
receives retirement pay of about $14,500 annually.
May 12, 1977: Walker borrows money from the Navy
Federal Credit Union to buy a new single?engine
Grumman American aircraft. Today, Walker still owes
about (11,000 on the plane, which is assessed at
(16,500. The plane is kept at Norfolk International
airport.
Nov. 7, 1977: Walker borrows money from the Bank of
Virginia?Eastern to buy two outboard motors. The loan is
paid off Feb. 2, 1979, court records show.
Oct. 21, 1980: Confidential Reports, a private detective
firm, is incorporated; John Walker is named as
a
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706400002-6