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THE SPY

(BAD NIGHT IN SANTA FE)

From 1983-1985, ex-CIA Edward Howard resided in Santa Fe, his life in the state capital resembled something out of a Jim Thompson crime novel. For a price, Howard would sell to his Soviet contacts, data that identified the agency’s underground operatives who worked behind the Iron Curtain.

Once Howard actions were found out, the turncoat was able to make his way to the Soviet Union and find sanctuary. But not before Howard outwitted and outran his FBI pursuers. This real life drama, in which the bad guys won the day, was played out in Santa Fe.

It seems spy mayhem and Santa Fe are synonymous.

In 1945, the Manhattan Project (Atomic Bomb) theorems were secreted out of Los Alamos and given to a Soviet spy in Santa Fe, who then smuggled the proofs to the Soviet Union.

When it comes to cloak and dagger triumphs, Russia’s version of the CIA which is the SVR (KGB), must view Santa Fe, as hallowed ground.

WHO---WHAT---WHERE----EDWARD LEE HOWARD---

Edward Lee Howard was born in Clovis, New Mexico on October 27, 1951. Howard’s father Kenneth, from Marine City, Michigan was an electronics specialist and a career Air Force man. Howard’s mother Mary Jaramillo, was from Albuquerque, New Mexico, she was a journeyman-worker.

Howard spent his youth living at different military reservations. He was an accomplished student, altar boy and Boy Scout. In Germany, Howard learned the language of the populace and became a fan of James Bond novels.

Upon graduating from high school in Branden, England, the conservative-minded teen enrolled at the University of Texas. While going to college Howard joined a Karate club and gained the rank of a Black Belt.

Are Howard’s sterling archival accomplishments fictitious? How could this poster boy of American values, years down the road betray everything he believed in? Perhaps the old adage - Nothing is never as it appears to be - sums up Howard and strange Santa Fe.

In 1972 Howard graduated Cum Laude from the University of Texas, whereupon he joined the Peace Corps and worked for two years in Coast Rica, Dominican Republic and Columbia. While in South America the future Santa Fean became fluent in Spanish.

In Bucaramanga, Columbia, Howard met fellow Peace Corp worker Mary Cedarleaf, who came from a wealthy upper class Barrett, Minnesota family.

Howard finished his Peace Corp commitment in 1974, went back to school and gained a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from American University in Washington D.C. During this time Howard courted Mary and the duo were married in 1976, in St. Paul Minnesota in a Lutheran ceremony.

Howard then went to work for USAID (United States Agency for International Development) as a loan officer, his duty post was Lima, Peru. Conspiracy buffs infer that the USAID, (sometimes referred to as AID) is a CIA front organization. If the assertion is correct, was Howard being groomed for the CIA, years before he officially volunteered for the organization?

In 1979 Howard resigned from AID, he and Mary moved to Chicago. By 1980 Howard was working as an executive for Ecology & Environment (E&E), a firm that managed toxic waste sites and disposal. Unhappy with his business career and his marriage, Howard applied to the CIA in 1980. The Federal agency accepted him into their ranks in 1981.

Howard’s resume sparkled; he was a businessman, former government employee, world traveler and was fluent in German, Spanish and English. More importantly Howard had grown up in a family environment that stressed duty and honor. The New Mexican would fit in perfectly with the CIA’s sophisticated honorable cadre.

Upon Howard’s admittance to the CIA, he was sent to their school at Camp Perry, Virginia, known as “The Farm.” At this top-secret facility the novice agent learned Russian and the tricks of the spy trade. For fifteen months Howard learned the “Holy of Holies” of undercover-espionage work.

The CIA listed Howard as being five foot eleven and weighing anywhere from one hundred and sixty five to one hundred and eighty pounds.

Howard projected himself as being a great tennis player, an expert in hand to hand combat and a lady’s man. Federal identification photos released after Howard’s defection show an arrogant, smirking, egotist, who radiates little humanity.

Amateur profilers thought the CIA fledgling had watched too many “I Spy” television episodes and Howard had patterned his lifestyle after the show’s two leads, Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. “I Spy” was a popular 1960s television series that concerned itself with two American espionage agents who traveled the globe masquerading as tennis pro and trainer. When not saving the western world, the spies were dandies with the ladies.

Howard’s wife, Mary was recruited by the CIA to help her husband with his work. Mary became a quasi-CIA auxiliary member nine months after her husband’s induction. Mary was seen as a self-important Yuppie type, who was a loyal camp follower. If needed Mary would bandage her man’s wounds as she basked in her spouse’s importance.

A new plan was now formulated at CIA headquarters in how to use the two spies, for maximum effect. It was decided that Howard and his wife would be sent to the Moscow station around the third week of June, 1983. The duo would veil themselves as State Department officials with diplomatic immunity.

Howard had lucked out. The Moscow station was the crown jewel of CIA assignments. The intricacies of the Moscow bureau, such as contact information, misinformation and operation strategies were memorized by Howard.

In March 19, 1983 Howard’s son Lee was born.

What has not been found in the dockets and is puzzling, was the infant going to be cared for by Howard’s parents or was Mary going to take the baby with her to Moscow?

I would think, infant Lee would have been left behind? It is documented that after the baby’s birth, Howard’s mother stayed at the Howard’s house and helped Mary with the infant.

In April, Howard was instructed to take a standard pre-departure polygraph test.

The results of this polygraph test revealed that Howard had hidden some serious problems from his CIA handlers. The Howard’s Moscow mission was put on ice and an investigation followed, along with more polygraph tests.

It was discovered that Howard was a cryptic abuser of alcohol, hallucinogens and cocaine. The CIA agent also had a history of petty thievery. Wife Mary had covered for her husband during his schooling and profiling.

Somehow Howard was able to dupe his CIA captains and pass the agency’s initial polygraph test and background checks.

As one punster put it, “Howard had the right stuff to be a master spy, he had thought up more lies by noon, even though he only woke up at 2 p.m., than the rest of the wide awake CIA staff combined.”

Without a concern for what Howard knew and the many lives he held in his hands, on May 2,1983, the CIA gave their future Moscow operative a resignation paper and told him to sign it. If Howard signed the paper he would be able to put down on his resume that he had resigned from the State Department, his job was that of a economic specialist. If Howard did not voluntarily resign, he would be fired. Not wanting to be cashiered and all that went with it, Howard signed the paper, his bright future with the CIA had been scrubbed.

Previous to this firing, whatever Howard wrangled for, he got. The young man had never experienced a major defeat in his life.

The sacked humiliated spy who had envisioned himself as being a suave Ian Fleming type character, was now forced to start a new career.

In August of 1983, Howard moved to Santa Fe with his wife and child. The couple set up residence in Eldorado at 108 Verano Loop. Their imitation adobe house was situated on a one-acre plot.

Howard’s resume line, of being a former U.S. State Department employee got him a job at the State Capital’s Roundhouse in the Revenue Department.

Fatherhood did not slow down fast living Howard. The ex-espionage agent was a mess, his identity had been stripped from him. Howard was drinking heavily, ingesting drugs and having affairs with female state employees. Mary unhealthily tolerated her husband’s swinging lifestyle.

While living in Santa Fe, Howard joined a target shooting gun club, enjoyed violent movies, jogged the dirt roads near his house and flew motorized model airplanes. Howard was not well liked by his state of New Mexico (Legislative Finance Committee) male co-workers. Howard was seen as a lazy, self-entitled, whimpering, feeling sorry for himself type person.

On the evening of February 26, 1984, Howard was at Peppers Restaurant & Cantina, which was located at 2329 Old Pecos Trail. Seasoned Santa Feans, identify the restaurant and bar by its old name, “The Town House.”

High on cocaine and alcohol, Howard followed a group of young adults into the nightspot’s parking lot. Different sources have the group being made up of many couples or of three young men and one young woman.

Brazenly, Howard engaged the woman in the group and then tried to force her into his car. The young lady’s friend Peter Hughes, age twenty-four, and her escort checked Howard’s advances.

After a brief confrontation, the group left cursing curled lip Howard in the cantina’s car lot and drove to Hughes’ Santa Fe Avenue house.

As the group of pals were in Hughes’ driveway, Howard drove up to the gathering and became belligerent.

The spurned Lothario had tailed the Santa Feans. Through slurs and yells, the young men were told they had no right interfering in Howard’s personal business.

Howard’s ego had been deflated by the young woman’s rejection of his passes; he blamed her male friends for his lack of success. Tension escalated. Losing the battle of intimidation with the young men, Howard palmed a silver-plaited .44 Magnum pistol and got out of his car. Weapon pointed, the foul mouthed inebriated man marched on Hughes who was told to get back into his his jeep.

In a alcohol/cocaine fuddle but with deadly intentions, Howard pointed the gun at Hughes’ head. A struggle ensued a shot rang out. Hughes’ jeep now had a bullet hole it its roof. Howard, the want-to-be James Bond, was overpowered, punched and disarmed.

While Hughes was inside his flat calling the police, Howard broke loose from his young captors, Conrad Hayas and Bob Martinez. The snarling man jumped into his vehicle and sped off. Minutes later police officers John Martinez and Ray Rael arrived at Hughes’ residence.

As the young Santa Feans were explaining to the police officers what had transpired, Howard unbelievably drove back to the scene of the crime and parked his car.

Full of bravado Howard demanded from Hughes his captured pistol. The cosmopolitan man then ordered the police officers to help him retrieve his gun. Howard was arrested on the spot.

In the court of Judge Bruce E. Kaufman, Howard was only charged with felonious aggravated assault. Howard’s bluffs, self-importance, egotistical ways, and perhaps CIA connections, ran roughshod over District Attorney Eloy F. Martinez.

When a person pulls a gun on another person, then aims the weapon at that person’s head and the gun goes off, but the bullet misses the victim, is that scenario not attempted murder?

Howard was convicted of a felony and fined $7,500

If the roles were reversed, Hughes, the son of a Vietnam P.O.W. James Lindburg Hughes, would have been likely charged with a slew of felonies. In a court of law, the young Santa Fean would have probably been found guilty and sentenced to a long stay in prison.

All Hughes can be thankful for is that the Santa Fe judicial system did not indict him on convoluted charges that he had instigated Howard’s attack. Or in the deadly struggle with Howard, the young man had defended himself with too much unwarranted violence.

Howard was released from jail and went to a clinic to get dried out. Prior to this incident, the ex-CIA man had been arrested in Santa Fe for fighting with his wife. How Howard was able to avoid jail time or serious charges is up to debate?

Incredibly, Howard’s history of drug abuse, thefts and murder attempt in Santa Fe, did not register with the watchdogs of the CIA.

Apologists for the CIA rightfully claim that murder charges were not filed against Howard. By this logic, nobody was asleep at the switch, when it came to the CIA watching over possible security leaks. However, the Federal honchos knew that Howard lacked principals, he was a heavy-duty drug abuser and more importantly they failed to reason that addicts will-do whatever it takes to gain money to feed their high.

After the Hughes incident, Howard began entertaining friends at his house in Eldorado in lavish splendor. At these gatherings Howard would impress his pals by showing off his massive gun collection and his thousands of dollars in South African gold Krugerands.

On September 18, 1984, Howard went on vacation to Switzerland and Austria. More trips followed, international and domestic. The suspicious thing about Howard’s vacations, gun collection, and Krugerands, is that the newly arrived Santa Fean only made $33,012 a year.

Where was the Santa Fean getting the money to live like a jet setter? How was Howard able to buy his cocaine, which was a premium drug in the 1980s?

Vitaly Kurchenko, a ranking KGB official defected to the United States on August 1, 1985. His debriefing by the Federal authorities resulted in the CIA being tipped off that Howard was selling secrets to the Soviets. The American intelligence network now knew why their operations in the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries were being compromised.

The CIA notified the FBI and Howard was put under surveillance. The Santa Fean’s telephone line was tapped.

The FBI caught a break in where Howard lived. The turncoat’s house at 108 Verano Loop was at the end of a one-exit road loop. The FBI posted an agent in a car at the mouth of the loop. There would be no way Howard would be able to drive away undetected.

The FBI’s task was simple: Do not let Howard escape no matter what. Federal reinforcements were called in, the FBI surveillance teams were billeted at Santa Fe’s Hilton Hotel on Sandoval Street.

On paper Howard was a marked man. There was no way the collaborator could evade the G-Men’s pickets, Howard was checkmated.

Unfortunately when the FBI’s paper tigers met reality, good things happened for bad guy Howard. The Washington authorities decided to sweat Howard. CIA high sheriffs Tom Mills and Barney Malloy informed the traitor he had been found out. Howard was given a choice; he would be treated with a high degree of leniency if he divulged all of his information on the Soviet’s spy network.

If Howard did not cooperate with the Federal agents he would face the full rigors of the law. The penalties would be similar to what the Rosenberg spies of the Manhattan Project faced. The Rosenbergs were put to death in June of 1953, by way of the electric chair.

The CIA brainwaves gave their “Judas” time to think about his future. It was reasoned that the fast living, out of control man would see the hopelessness of his position and become an informer.

In retrospect the CIA should have ordered the FBI to arrest Howard and sequester him in a military stockade. Then again, the agents who ran this case proved themselves not to be the sharpest tools in the shed.

In his house, Howard went over his options with his wife Mary. Howard decided to do what his CIA bosses thought he was incapable of; he formulated an escape plan and acted upon it.

FUMBLE DELUXE

In order to make a successful escape, Howard would have to deceive the agent who was parked in his car at the exit of Verano Loop and the other FBI teams in Santa Fe.

In the parlance of the military, Howard’s escape gambit was considered a “MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.” Due to FBI ineptness, the no-hope endeavor became a “PIECE OF CAKE.”

Between 5:00-6:30 p.m., (records are not precise) on Saturday, September 21, 1985, Howard and wife-Mary, left their house in Eldorado by car. The duo’s destination was Alfonso’s, a fashionable restaurant at 7244 Canyon Road. As of 2011, the property is known as Geronimo’s. Santa Fe oldsters would have known the restaurant as the Gonzalez/Borego House.

Previous to there dinner date, Mary hired sixteen-year old babysitter, Gina Jackson to care for her son Lee. With the infant being watched, the spy’s loyal wife was free to help her husband evade the FBI’s man hunters.

Incredibly, the agent who was posted in his car at the mouth of the loop, did not see the marked-couple in there dark red 1979 Oldsmobile, drive by. Was the G-Man who was trained in surveillance, taking forty winks?

After howard’s escape, the FBI’s honchos told the press that the agent at the Verano Loop checkpoint was a rookie. This explanation was never been expanded upon, as in how Howard and wife were able to motor by undetected?

Why didn’t the FBI have two of their men on sentry duty? Or did they and both sentries failed in their assignment?

Supposedly, the FBI had back-up teams farther down the road and out of sight, but no pursuit order was given by radio, to these teams.

Did these secondary units have a visual on the Howards as they drove by in their 1979 Oldsmobile, or were the agents dependent on the first sentry’s observations?

At the Canyon Road restaurant, Howard and Mary shared a romantic supper together. Near the end of their meal which consisted of sandwiches and mushroom entrees, Mary called her Verano Loop house to check on the babysitter and son. Before Mary and Howard left for the restaurant, infant Lee had begun to throw a tantrum. Perhaps the baby sensed something?

The father and mother spoke to their son over a phone. The twosome thought they were under surveillance inside the restaurant and were not blowing their cover by talking on a public phone, not cell.

El Wrongo! The traitor and his female accomplice were foot loose and fancy free.

One gets the idea; Howard and Mary were lucky bunglers, playing out scenes from the 1960s television comedy series, “Get Smart.” Agents listening to the tapped Verano Loop telephone line, realized that Howard was now beyond their reach at parts unknown.

The FBI had fumbled and more mistakes were on their way.

BANANA PEELS AND SLIPS

One must beg the question, “Why did the Federal agents fail in putting a homing device on the Howard’s car?” Did the idea even cross the G-Men’s mind?

Could Howard have walked away from his Eldorado house, rented a car in downtown Santa Fe, and driven himself to Mexico? The Santa Fe eccentrics who have studied this epic tale of mayhem think yes, and I am kind of in their camp.

It has not been documented if the phone tap team was able to target where Howard’s and Mary’s call was coming from? According to the pundits, the conversation was long enough for a tracer to pinpoint the Canyon Road restaurant.

Even more interesting, according to fact and lore, as Howard talked to his babysitter Gina Jackson, he told her that he was at Alfonso’s-Restaurant. Years later Howard claimed, that he did this on purpose, because he could not identify who at the eatery was his shadow and this action would somehow identify who the spook was.

I doubt that explanation, it does no make sense. I think Howard bungled, he made up a story to cover his verbal fumble. But Howard’s mistake was inconsequential because the FBI’s next fumble was a snafu deluxe.

Why didn’t the FBI captains who ran this operation, order their agents or local police to arrest Howard at Alfonso’s after they were tipped off as to where there hunted man was at?

Post escape reports have the agent or agents who listened to the tapped telephone line conversation, misinterpreting what was said.

I am of the opinion that the G-Men were clueless as to where “Agent 86 and Agent 99“ were calling from. It is probable that the Federal agents did not have any vectoring device on the tapped line and the conversation was not recorded.

As the news spread that Howard was out of his house, the FBI brain trust fumbled yet again. The G-Men failed to move on the babysitter and find out where her employers had gone to? Did the FBI agents decide to bet everything on the idea that the Howards would return to their home and everything would be okay? Or did the shocked G-Men not have a contingency plan?

What were the G-Men thinking? Their quarry had information that was critical to the United States’ security. Nothing was done in trying to find out where the turncoat was, or ascertain that Howard’s restaurant call was not a ruse? As one Conspiracy Buff told me, and there may be some truth to his idea, “The FBI teams were more concerned about their pensions and possible terminations, rather than trying to rectify their goofs.”

Upon exiting the restaurant, Mary drove Howard up Canyon Road then down Garcia Street. This long scenic route would lead to roads that would get the duo onto the highway that went to Eldorado.

The husband and wife still thought they were under surveillance of Big Brother. As Mary drove, Howard set up a dummy with a wig in the front seat of the vehicle. The dummy stratagem is an old CIA trick that is used in masking one’s escape attempt.

In a Moscow interview with investigative author David Wise, Howard claims that before exiting the Canyon Road’s restaurant’s parking lot, Howard disabled his brake lights, in order that his car would not be seen by his tailing pursuers. Is this confession from Howard to be believed? If he did, then Howard lucked out again, in that Mary’s car with a dummy passenger was not pulled over by a cruising police officer.

At the corner of Camino Corrales and Garcia Street, at 7:20 PM, on Saturday night September 21, 1985, Howard, age thirty three, jumped out of the moving car and hid in some Chamisa bushes as Mary drove towards their home. The corner has changed a lot since that 1985 night, but vestiges of Howard’s lair can still be seen. Howard’s thicket hideout is two driveways up, from the Amelia White mansion.

As Howard crouched in the tall shrubs, a quarter moon was in the sky, coyotes howled, owls hooted and the sounds of a nearby backyard cocktail party were heard. Howard gathered in the acoustics and confidence began to pulse through him as he lay amongst the high bushes.

After a few minutes it dawned on prostrate Howard that no car filled with FBI agents was following his wife’s vehicle. Composing himself, Howard for some egotistical reason walked back to the State Capital’s Roundhouse Building, where he worked. This large government building is located in downtown Santa Fe at the crossroads of Paseo De Peralta and Old Santa Fe Trail.

This act is totally illogical. Why would a hunted man lessen his chances of escape by purposely placing himself in the public’s eye? Perhaps Howard fortified his courage with a snort of cocaine, and the drug scrambled his survival instincts? Or hedonist Howard decided to play out a scene from a James Bond film that he had viewed?

With his work keys Howard entered into the Roundhouse and went to his old office, room 247. Howard then walked down a long hallway, and placed a resignation letter on his superior’s desk. It is disputed if Howard’s note was typed in his office or on his boss’ typewriter?

Mission accomplished, the callow spy then exited the capital building and Santa Fe, leaving behind his son, wife, lovers, and friends.

If the FBI had notified the local authorities to look for audacious Howard, once they had learned he was loose in Santa Fe, Agent 86 may have been caught.

According to the authorities, after Howard’s theatrics at the Roundhouse, the mutineer went straight to the Inn of Loretto, (Located at the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and East Alameda).

Howard left Santa Fe by catching the Shuttle Jack (transport to Albuquerque airport) at the Inn.

I have my doubts about this scenario. After all, the FBI was wrong about Howard on almost every count.

Novice profilers surmise that Howard probably hung around Santa Fe after leaving the Roundhouse. The spy visited a downtown bar, had a few drinks, chuckled over his escape, and then hit the road by way of the Shuttle Jack, a rental car or taxi? Maybe this speculation is spot on? Howard’s ego on the night of his escape was as big as the state of New Mexico. The traitor seemed to care little about keeping a low profile.

Mary and her dummy passenger drove back to their Verano Loop house. The spy’s wife opened up the garage door, drove the car onto its cement stand and then closed the metal sliding door.

The FBI agent on surveillance duty reported to his chief that Howard and Mary were back at their home. The FBI and CIA sheriffs were completely hoodwinked and believed that their bird had returned to its cage.

Once inside her house, and seeing to it that the babysitter Gina Jackson, who had no part in the intrigue was on her way out, Mata Hari-Mary once again aided her husband in his escape.

Before the Howards left their house for dinner at Alfonso’s, the duo knew or did think that the FBI might or had tapped their telephone line, and acted on that idea.

To fool the G-Men and buy time for her now missing husband, Mary called a doctor’s office and got an answering service.

It was the weekend and Mary knew that Dr. Dudelczyk’s office would be closed. Mary then turned on her tape recorder and played Howard‘s previously recorded message, asking the psychiatrist for an appointment. There were no hitches; Dr. Dudelcyzk’s answering machine went on and Howard’s message was heard and recorded. More importantly, the FBI agents listening in, fell for the trick, Howard was back at his Eldorado residence.

According to local accounts, on Sunday morning Howard’s Accounting Department boss Phil Baca went to his Roundhouse office to pick-up some papers and noticed Howard’s resignation letter on his desk.

Another version of this episode, (The Spy Who Got Away by David Wise) which is the official version of how things transpired, has Baca going to his Roundhouse office late Sunday afternoon and seeing Howard’s note on his deck. The FBI was notified at 7;15 p.m. by Baca, and at 8 p.m. the FBI moved on Howard’s house.

Santa Fe lore alleges that the Roundhouse note consisted of resignation sentences, a small confession and a smug paragraph of, “Ha-ha, I tricked you CIA and have escaped.” Next to Baca’s letter or inside the resignation envelope, depending on the source, was a note for wife, Mary.

When the FBI field agents were notified of the Roundhouse letter, it was thought that Howard was possibly playing a prank on them; or Howard was in the process of leaving the country, but was still ensconced in his south of Santa Fe home.

Wanting to know what this Roundhouse note meant, the Santa Fe G-Men were ordered by their superiors in Washington D.C. to search the house on Verano Loop and arrest Howard.

As the manner was searched, it dawned on the FBI’s high sheriffs that Howard had made good his escape. Depending on the source, the double agent had a thirteen to twenty-five hour head start over his pursuers; never the less, airports were put on alert

According to FBI post escape reports, Howard hop-scotched from airport to airport during his escape. From Albuquerque Howard flew to Tuscon, then to, St.Louis, New York, London, Copenhagen and then Helsinki. From Finland Howard somehow went to Hungary and then nine months later the ex-CIA agent arrived in the Soviet Union.

Oddly, a Federal arrest warrant was not issued for Howard’s capture until Monday morning.

Other sources have Howard flying from Albuquerque to Dallas and then to Austin, hours after his Canyon Road getaway by way of American Airlines. How Howard left to Finland from Texas in this scenario is hazy?

What is Federal cannon: The spy wizard defected and claimed sanctuary in the Soviet Union. It was later found out that Howard had $150,000 in a Swiss bank account.

During a sweep of the Verano Loop property, Howard’s wife Mary showed the G-Men where a large amount of money, silver bars, and gold coins; had been buried in the nearby scrubland. One wonders what else Howard buried in the fields and gullies that dot the Eldorado landscape and was never discovered? Did Howard share all his secrets with wife Mary? I think not.

It seems Santa Fe’s dirt is honeycombed with bodies, money, and clandestine information? When it comes to Santa Fe mayhem, one never knows what secrets a vacant lot, arroyo cliff, or backyard contains.

Before Howard got into trouble and was put under surveillance, the crazy as a fox Santa Fean did a lot of solitary jogging and flew his model airplane in the wilds near Arroyo Hondo, which is close to Eldorado or south of Santa Fe.

Was Howard meeting his Soviet contact while jogging or while flying his plane?

According to Santa Fe lore, before getting his hobby plane airborne, Howard would mark the trees he stood by with either red, yellow, or blue ducting tape. Was Howard marking his take off areas for references points, in case his plane went down amongst some trees?

I dare say, the Santa Fe spy was up to his ears in espionage and drug deals. The colored tape was a signal.

KID SHELEEN’S WORDS

Actor Lee Marvin, who played Kid Sheleen a drunken gunfighter in the movie Cat Ballou (1965), repeatedly claimed that Howard sat next to him on a passenger jet, as the spy fled from Tuscon to New York. The authorities and public believed this yarn; but is it possible the Oscar winning thespian was telling a very tall tale?

Marvin’s alcoholism had turned the fine actor into a real-life Kid Sheleen, a drunken, no-limits liar at the end of his life. How brazen were Marvin’s whoppers? On national television, Marvin attested that he saw combat on Iwo Jima in 1945, and was wounded. For his actions in eliminating an enemy hot spot he was awarded the Navy Cross. Fighting alongside Marvin was the bravest Marine he had ever seen. That man was Bob Keeshan who later went on to play television’s Captain Kangaroo.

Military records show Marvin was a Marine during World War II, but he was never on Iwo Jima, and was not awarded the Navy Cross. As for Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan did not know Marvin in or out of the service.

If the FBI based their conclusions about Howard’s escape on Marvin’s testimony, then they fumbled again. Lets hope legitimate evidence linked Howard to a jet flight to Finland.

Santa Fe sleuths thought Howard exited the United States by crossing the border at El Paso, Texas. Escape by way of Mexico would make more sense than Howard catching flights at major American airports and risk being caught due to flight delays.

From Mexico, Howard could head for points unknown. Furthermore, Mexico was in a tizzy during Howard’s escape. On the 19th of September, Mexico City suffered a 8.1 richter scale quake, the loss of life was estimated to be around 10,000 people. Mexican authorities were focused on getting aid to their capital city, the apprehension of an American spy would rate a low priority.

I disagree with this well thought out idea, because on the night of his escape Howard was rolling in vanity. I think the authorities are correct in that Howard exited the United States by way of international flights, even though Mexico was only a few hours away.

After Howard’s defection, the KGB began rounding up the CIA’s undercover operatives that the “Judas” had not previously named. The captured agents were tortured for information and executed. The Moscow station, along with many other posts, were wrecked or wiped out.

Weapons engineer Adolf Tolkachex, who was the CIA’s key spy inside the Soviet Union, was arrested and killed by a bullet to the temple.

How could the FBI’s and CIA’s highly trained sentinels, be tricked by a man that is high on drugs and alcohol? Howard’s missteps and escape reads like a Peter Seller’s movie script.

WHY NOT?

Howard’s treasonous wife Mary was not prosecuted by the Federal authorities. What were the CIA and FBI potentates thinking? Mary was an accomplice in the collaborator’s escape and in the deaths of many spies. The Femme Fatale Yupster should have been held accountable for her actions.

On May 31, 1988, Mary moved from Santa Fe, to live with her family in Barrett, Minnesota. Years later the State Department let Mary and her son Lee, visit Howard in Moscow. How can this be? Mary’s partisans claim, the lady from Minnesota, did not know that her husband was selling secrets to the Soviet Union.

It seems the wives of criminals always claim, they never knew that their spouse was evil, and they never bothered to think how their lavish lifestyles were being financed. Hench-wenches never have a clue that there are bodies under the floorboards or can never smell the odor of their rotting souls.

WHO DID IT?

On July 12, 2002, it was reported that ex-CIA agent Howard had died at his house in Moscow. The reports out of Russia had Howard falling down a flight of stairs. The Santa Fean died of a broken neck; he was fifty years old.

Did Howard fall by accident? Was the blundering spy pushed? Did he commit suicide? Or was the Santa Fean killed by some other means and the stair story was a red herring?

I wonder who killed Howard and how did he really die, don’t you? Had Howard outlived his usefulness; did the bad guys liquidate him? Or did a deep undercover CIA hitman avenge his fellow comrades?

Howard’s advocates think the CIA man was a hero. The Santa Fean was not a traitor but a mole that masqueraded as a turncoat. Inside the Soviet Union, Howard gathered information for Uncle Sam.

What is not speculation, after his defection Howard lived in a two-story brick dacha on the outskirts of Moscow. The spy did not lack for comforts or money and was always guarded by KGB men. But no amount of pampering could bring peace to Howard’s tortured soul.

Photos of Howard taken before he died, showed a tired, stooped, overweight man, with a pudgy alcoholic face. The strain of his deeds, weighed heavily upon the spymaster’s shoulders.

No matter how the stars lined up; I doubt that vain Howard was one of the good guys. The spy from Santa Fe was a hedonistic sociopath, who had moneyed ambitions. In attaining his pleasures, Howard would work for anybody that would pay his high price.

Howard was more than a flawed man, he bargained away his life, family, friends and comrades, so that he could live a life of leisure. In the end Howard found himself in a living Hell, the price that he paid far exceeded in what he got in return. (5)