Customer Reviews

Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are four full-length treatments of the Walker spy case> The first, by Jack Kneece is a well-done reporter's job, relying largely on trial transcripts, news clippings, and interviews with peripheral characters. The second, by intelligence expert John Barron, gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how the case was broken by the FBI, and an illuminating assessment of the damage done by the ring's treachery. The third, by Howard Blum, offers interviews with some of the participants, but suffers from a hard-to-read writing style, including the frequent - and excessive - use of the hyphenated aside.

Pete Earley has put it all together in a well-written book that offers all the needed details in a fast-paced narrative, which includes in-depth interviews with all the particpants except Whitworth. Most revealing are the interviews with Walker himself: He is shown to be a self-centered person with some bizarre personality conflicts. In candid and revealing rationalizations, Walker suggests that he was actually helping his family by involving them in espionage, indicates that he was annoyed that the FBI did not accept his suggestion that he become a "double-agent" after his arrest, and theorizes that he, himself, was the victim of some sort of set-up. Walker comes across as detached from reality.

This is the eighth true story spy book I have read in recent weeks, including two each about spies Robert Hanssen and Aldridge Ames.

The other reviews of this book on amazon.com give a very good sketch of the book as well as how it compares with other books on the Walker spy ring, so I won't repeat that information.

I just want to say that I found the book extremely riveting. More than any of the other books, when reading was interrupted by work or family, I could not wait to pick it up again and resume reading. The writer maintained my interest from start to finish. I loved it.

"Family of Spies" is an excellent account of the Walker family spy ring, perhaps the most devastating spy ring ever to operate in the USA, certainly within the US Navy. One is constantly amazed in this book by the extent of John Walker, Jr.'s treachery, deceitfulness and total psychpathology. There isn't a person he doesn't try to use, a life he doesn't try to destroy.

It also shows the utter incompetence of US military intelligence security. Walker, his son Michael, and his main accomplice, Jerry Whitworth, stole secrets with impunity and never came close to being caught until Walker's ex-wife turned them all in. Michael was working in secure areas with access to all sorts of classified materials and didn't even have a security clearance--no one bothered to check to see if he had one. Walker faked his way through a regular five-year security background check just by forging an "approved" stamp for under $3.00 and stamping his personnel file.

The book is well-written and fast-paced. Michael Walker served 15 yrs of a 25 yr sentence and is now free but his father deservedly remains in prison.

This book provides a detailed account of the Walker family history, based on public documents released during their various espionage trials and interviews with the leading players. The bulk of the book is on the Walker family's dysfunctional behavior, including physical and psychological abuse, adultery, alcholism, drug addiction, child endangerment, and spying. Spying is only a small part of their lives, and only a small part of this book. The book leaves many questions about their spying unanswered, and is contradictory in parts.

If you're interested in the life of a spy, I would recommend Earley's "Confessions of a spy: the real story of aldrich ames" as a much much better book.

[...]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While the subject is horrible and John Walker was a real pig, it was fascinating to see a person so motivated by greed and so consumed with himself that he was willing to sell his family and his country. I couldn't put it down even though at times it is a lot of crazy talk from John Walker trying to justify his actions. The author does a good job of incorporating other points of view and accounts of events from sources other than John Walker the egomaniac. There seems to be some contradictions but overall it is a very good telling of an interesting story. As a side note and additional information in the Walker Spy Saga, I have recently learned that John Walker is very ill with cancer and diabetes; he is literally rotting in prison as he should be.

This is a well written book about the Walker spy ring. While information gathered was from many hours of interviews of John Walker and others involved it does not show Walker in any good light as some of these books do. It shows him to be as evil and greedy as he was never thinking about anyone but himself. Overall this books seems to be an accurate account of one of the worst spy rings in the United States.