The Spy Who Seduced America: Lies and Betrayal in the Heat of the Cold War: The Judith Coplon Story [Hardcover]

Marcia Mitchell (Author), Thomas Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2002

Judith Coplon was young and pretty, and possibly a spy for the Soviet Union when she was arrested in 1949 for espionage. Due to FBI bungling, Coplon was arrested twice, indicted twice, tried twice -- and set free both times. J Edgar Hoover never wanted to prosecute her, FBI agents perjured themselves on the stand, and Coplon's lawyer, who specialised in bankruptcy, created a circus out of the courtroom. Utilising recently declassified material, personal interviews with Coplon's husband and numerous FBI and KGB contacts, and Thomas Mitchell's firsthand account of the case as an FBI agent, the two authors started off on opposite ends -- one thinking she was innocent and the other believing she was guilty -- before discovering the truth about America's Mata Hari in bobby socks.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On March 4, 1949, Justice Department staffer Judith Coplon and her Russian lover were arrested. The charge: spying for the Soviets. Coplon's trials and appeals would mesmerize the nation ("her fan mail rivaled that of Bette Davis," the authors report). But even after a partial vindication by the Supreme Court, there were still questions about her guilt. The husband-and-wife authors-he is a former FBI agent involved in the Coplon case-attempt to answer those questions once and for all. They painstakingly flesh out and dramatize court transcripts, especially those from Coplon's first trial, and analyze the results. It's an odd approach: imagine Court TV in print. Much weight is given to the histrionics of Coplon's lawyer; the shocking (for the time) allegations about Coplon's sex life; and the revelations about FBI perjury and illegal wiretapping. Yet the theatrical presentation fails to breathe life into the enigma that was Coplon. Perhaps most interesting is the Mitchells' ongoing dispute about key aspects of the case, especially whether or not Coplon was framed by the FBI. Regardless, it's clear now-based on declassified Venona documents and statements from former KGB officials-that she had been a Soviet spy since 1944. This is a useful addition to Cold War scholarship that will appeal to students of espionage and the Cold War era. 8 pages of b&w photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

At the height of the Cold War in 1949, Judith Coplon was arrested and charged with spying for the Soviets. Despite having to endure two trials whose results were inconclusive, followed by two different appeals court rulings, and finally a decision by the Supreme Court in 1952 not to hear the case, Coplon remained under the shadow of further legal action until the government dropped its charges in 1967. This fascinating case, the first spying trial of the Cold War, is recounted in sprightly fashion by the husband-and-wife team of Marcia and Thomas Mitchell. At the outset, Marcia believed Coplon innocent, while her husband, who spent 17 years as an FBI agent, was equally certain of Coplon's guilt. The narrative records the day-to-day court proceedings as well as the general anti-Communist hysteria of the period. The FBI used questionable tactics, such as illegal wiretaps, to obtain its evidence, which ultimately led to difficulties in the courts. As it turns out, information that recently became available from the Venona Project (the National Security Agency's program to decrypt Soviet KGB and GRU messages) shows conclusively that Coplon was indeed a Soviet agent. Despite Coplon's guilt, her case revealed how the FBI exceeded its legal limitations in the search for spies. This is an important study that sheds light not only on Cold War spying but also on the FBI's counterespionage activities in the late 1940s. For most collections.DEd Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Invisible Cities Press Llc (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931229228
• ISBN-13: 978-1931229227
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,263,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Marred by Ms. Mitchell's bias in favor of her subject, September 11, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: The Spy Who Seduced America: Lies and Betrayal in the Heat of the Cold War: The Judith Coplon Story (Hardcover)

I gave this book to a Russian-born friend (he jumped from a Soviet ship to live in the West some thirty years ago), because his family name is the same as one of the spies named in the book. He gave them back because the author's bias in favor of Coplon had made him sick. He said: "For me, that woman help to kill my family". That was how I learnt that his grandfather had been the son of a small shopkeeper before the Russian Revolution and so, a member of an "enemy" class, and that was enough for him, his wife and several other relatives to perish in the Gulag, at the time when Judith Coplon was helping the regime who did it. I think he has a point. Just like Hitler's genocide was possible because "ordinary" germans were willing to perpetrate it, Stalin could kill more than thirty million people because "ordinary" Russians, and Americans like Judith Coplon, and other nationals were willing to ignore, condone or aprove it.

Marcia Mitchell cannot ignore the evidence that probes Coplon's guilt beyond any reasonable doubt, so she tells us that she was a spy, but she never tells us that she was a traitor to her country or that she was helping the murderous regime of Stalin. Her sympathy for Coplon makes her draw each nice aspect of her with the rosiest colours, to make her look like the sweet, innocent victim she pretend to be at the time of her trial, and she goes ever farther. It is laughable when she claims that Coplon was severely punished because she could not leave on holidays with her family for many years. I think that even if the FBI was not a saint, there was a failure of justice because she was not punished for her crime.

The book leaves you with a feeling that you want to learn more about the human side of the case, but you feel that it is always cut short when something may not be favourable to Coplon. For example: was her husband really so naive (if you can call him that way) to believe in her innocence for fifty years?, what does he says now that all the evidence has come to light?, does he still denies his wife actions like others deny the Holocaust?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Was the Real Judith Coplon?, October 4, 2002

By 

WTC "talkie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spy Who Seduced America: Lies and Betrayal in the Heat of the Cold War: The Judith Coplon Story (Hardcover)

The fascinating and true case of Judith Coplon, who was arrested and charged with spying for the Russians against the US right after World War II, is a story which continued to unfold over a long period of time. For 18 years, the case was on hold, then dropped by Ramsey Clark, but interesting revelations have come forth quite recently. The Mitchells have done a masterful job of detailing this saga of love and betrayal, of guilt and innocence--some of the facts of this case still have powerful implications for today. This dramatic tale would make a wonderful film.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reads like fiction!, September 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spy Who Seduced America: Lies and Betrayal in the Heat of the Cold War: The Judith Coplon Story (Hardcover)

This is an amazing story, well told. The fact that Judith Coplon managed to maintain her innocence through two trials (which were as much theater of the absurd as anything), remained out on bail for 17 years after the verdicts in both cases were thrown out, and then through the ensuing 33 years is simply amazing, when in truth, she WAS a spy for the Soviet Union. Perhaps not one of their big ones, and perhaps a spy who never passed along much information or even particularly secret or damaging information, but a spy nonetheless. Despite despicable behavior on the part of the U.S. gov't (arrest without a warrant, illegal wiretapping, practically double-indemnity, and a vicious prosecutor who displayed Judith's sex-life in public, etc.), they were right, but they couldn't prove it without revealing the most damning secret of all--that the U.S. had cracked the Soviet code. Not until the secret files of the Venona Project were opened up in the last couple of years could the truth be known, long after most participants in the case were dead. But Judith Coplon is still alive, and her husband, who all along believed in her innocence (and was the attorney who launched her successful appeals) was shocked upon hearing the information. It IS like a Hitchcock thriller. Highly recommended for anyone interested in spies, the Cold War, or the FBI. And strangely relevant to readers today, as well.