Christopher John Boyce (born February 16, 1953) is a former American defense industry

employee Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

who alleged CIA involvement in the Whitlam dismissal in Australia. After this, he attempted to sell United States spy satellite secrets to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in Mexico City in the 1970s.

Early life

Boyce is the son of Charles Eugene Boyce, former Director of Security for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation, and Noreen, née Hollenbeck. Along with his three brothers and five sisters, Boyce was reared in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

, in the affluent community of Rancho Palos Verdes, a suburb southwest of Los Angeles. In 1974, Boyce was hired at TRW, an aerospace firm in

Redondo Beach, California Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent Beach Cities, beach c ...

Espionage

Within months, Boyce was promoted to a highly sensitive position in TRW's "Black Vault" (classified communications center) with a top secret

security clearance A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is ...

, where he worked with National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) transmissions. Boyce said that he began getting misrouted cables from the CIA discussing the agency's desire to depose the government of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in Australia. Boyce said the CIA wanted Whitlam removed from office because he wanted to close US military bases in Australia, including the vital Pine Gap secure communications facility, and withdraw Australian troops from

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. For these reasons, John Pilger, Australian journalist and author, has written that US government pressure was a major factor in the dismissal of Whitlam as Prime Minister by the Governor General,

Sir John Kerr Sir John Robert Kerr, (24 September 1914 – 24 March 1991) was an Australian barrister and judge who served as the 18th governor-general of Australia, in office from 1974 to 1977. He is primarily known for his involvement in the 1975 Austral ...

, who, according to Boyce, was referred to as "our man Kerr" by CIA officers. Through the cable traffic, Boyce saw that the CIA was involving itself in such a manner not just with Australia but with other democratic, industrialized allies as well. Boyce considered going to the press, but believed the media's earlier disclosure of CIA involvement in the

1973 Chilean coup d'état The 1973 Chilean coup d'état () was a military overthrow of the democratic socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity (Chile), Popular Unity coalition government. Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist ...

had not changed anything for the better. Instead, he gathered a quantity of classified documents concerning secure US communications

cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

s and spy satellite development and had his friend Andrew Daulton Lee, a

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and heroin dealer since his high school days (hence his nickname, "The Snowman"), deliver them to Soviet embassy officials in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, returning with large sums of cash for Boyce (nicknamed "The Falcon" because of his longtime interest in

falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...

) and himself. According to a book that Boyce and his wife co-authored, the information was not valuable to the

Exposure

Boyce, then 23, was exposed after Lee was arrested by Mexican police in front of the Soviet embassy on January 6, 1977. His arrest was "almost by accident": Lee was arrested for littering. During his harsh interrogation, Lee, who had a top secret microfilm in his possession when arrested, confessed to being a Soviet spy and implicated Boyce. Boyce was arrested ten days later on January 16, when the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

found him hiding out at the shack he was renting near

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...

. He was convicted on eight counts of espionage on April 28 1977, and sentenced by

federal district A federal district is a specific administrative division in one of various federations. These districts may be under the direct jurisdiction of a federation's national government, as in the case of federal territory (e.g., India, Malaysia), or the ...

judge Robert Kelleher on September 12 to forty years in prison, initially at Terminal Island, then the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego. On July 10, 1979, he was transferred to the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, California.

Escape

On January 21, 1980, Boyce escaped from Lompoc. Boyce managed to evade the authorities and ended up in northern Idaho, where he found refuge in a cabin outside Bonners Ferry. While a fugitive, Boyce carried out 17 bank robberies in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

and Washington, hoping to pay for passage to the Soviet Union, and adopted the alias of "Anthony Edward Lester". According to Boyce, he studied aviation, not to flee to the Soviet Union as some suspected, but to rescue Daulton Lee from Lompoc. On August 21, 1981, Boyce was arrested by U.S. Marshals while eating in his car outside "The Pit Stop", a drive-in restaurant in

Port Angeles, Washington Port Angeles ( ) is a city and county seat of Clallam County, Washington, Clallam County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population was 19,960 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most populous city in t ...

. Authorities had received a tip about Boyce's whereabouts from his former bank robbery confederates.

Return to prison

On January 26, 1982, in Los Angeles, Boyce was convicted of escape from federal prison in a nonjury trial before U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Lydick, a proceeding which lasted three minutes. The following week he was flown to

and was arraigned in Boise, where he pleaded not guilty to charges related to multiple bank robberies. That spring, Boyce appeared before Judge Harold Ryan in U.S. District Court in Boise and was sentenced to three years for his escape and 25 years for bank robbery, conspiracy, and breaking federal gun laws. Given an aggregate total sentence of 68 years, he was transferred to United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth in northeastern

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. Later that year, Boyce gave a television interview to Ray Martin for Australia's ''60 Minutes'' about the dismissal of Whitlam. After this he was assaulted by fellow inmates, an attack he believed was orchestrated by prison guards. After the attack, he was transferred to USP Marion in southern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, where he was held in isolation. In April 1985, Boyce gave testimony on how to prevent insider spy threats to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations as part of its Government Personnel Security Program. With support from senators, he was transferred out of solitary confinement in 1988 to the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights near the Twin Cities. At this prison in January 1993, Boyce was almost killed by Earl Steven Karr, a mentally ill fellow inmate and convicted pipe bomber. Karr had planned to blind Boyce with a mace-like concoction after luring him into his cell, then electrocute him using a homemade electric shock prod fashioned out of a rod and newspaper. The plot failed when Karr slipped on a puddle of mace, allowing Boyce time to escape. Boyce was transferred in 1998 to ADX Florence, the supermax facility in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

west of

Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

; he believed this was punishment for a newspaper article he had written. In 2000, he was transferred to FCI Sheridan in Oregon, northwest of Salem.

Release and subsequent life

Boyce was released from prison on parole on September 16, 2002, after serving a little more than 25 years, accounting for his time spent outside from the escape. Shortly thereafter he married Kathleen Mills, whom he had met when she was working as a paralegal spearheading efforts to obtain parole for Lee. After her success with Lee, she turned her attention to securing parole for Boyce as well, and the two developed a personal relationship. Boyce is on good terms with his father and eight siblings, and was with his mother as well until her death in 2017. In 2013, Boyce published a book titled ''American Sons: The Untold Story of the Falcon and the Snowman'', which mainly discusses his time in prison and relationship with his wife, Kathleen, and writer Vince Font. At that time, he was living a relatively quiet life where he has resumed his participation in

as a frequent pastime. When interviewed at the time his book was released, Boyce expressed support for the actions of

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

in exposing information about the United States government's surveillance programs.

In popular culture

The story of their case was told in Robert Lindsey's best-selling 1979 book ''The Falcon and the Snowman''. This book was turned into a film of the same title in 1985 by director John Schlesinger starring Timothy Hutton as Boyce and

Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. List of awards and nominations received by Sean Penn, His accolades include two Academy Awards, a Golden Gl ...

as Lee. Lindsey's initial book was followed by ''The Flight of the Falcon: The True Story of the Escape and Manhunt for America's Most Wanted Spy'' (1983), an account of Boyce's escape from prison and subsequent bank robbing spree.

References

External links

''American Sons: The Untold Story of the Falcon and The Snowman'' book and blog websiteCodenameFalcon on Twitter''Chris "The Falcon" Boyce'' episode on The Dollop Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyce, Christopher 1953 births American bank robbers American escapees American people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union Escapees from United States federal government detention Fugitives Living people People convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 Place of birth missing (living people) Inmates of ADX Florence