A Spy's Unhappy Household

By Ed Magnuson

The most damaging spy operation in the U.S. in nearly four decades was exposed, curiously, through a mundane child-custody fight. Barbara Walker, the ex-wife, and Laura Snyder, the daughter, of accused Spymaster John A. Walker Jr., disclosed last week that Laura's efforts to regain her five-year-old son led them to report Walker to the FBI. The two women provided new details of the family's past, revealing some oddly twisted values. Although Barbara knew her husband was selling secrets to the Soviets, she seemed equally concerned that he was using his espionage activities as an alibi for romantic travels with other women. After she finally turned Walker in to the FBI last November, Barbara admitted, she warned him she had done so, thereby giving him a chance to flee.

Some of these insights into the Walker family saga came to light on cable TV in an interview that Laura Walker Snyder, 25, gave to the Virginia-based Christian Broadcasting Network. In 1979, Laura said, she told her husband, Mark Snyder, 26, that her father had tried to enlist her as a spy while she was in the Army. After she and Mark separated in 1982, Mark kept their son Christopher, then 2, and, according to Laura, threatened to expose John Walker's espionage if she tried to win legal custody of the boy. "My husband was blackmailing me," Laura charged. "He told me that if I tried to get the baby, he would turn in my father or tell what he knew, and he would destroy the family." Earlier this month, Laura snatched Christopher from his father's Laurel, Md., neighborhood.

Mark Snyder insisted that Laura's story was "a bunch of garbage." He denied having known of her father's spying or having made any blackmail threats. He contended that Laura knew of Christopher's whereabouts and had been free to visit him.

Laura was also at odds with her mother. The two admitted they had not spoken to each other for 16 months prior to last November. The daughter claimed that they had quarreled over her mother's refusal to tell the FBI about John Walker's spying and thus break Mark's hold on Christopher. Laura considered going to the FBI alone, but her loyalties were divided. "I was torn between exposing my father and risking (his spending) his entire life in jail," she said. "I do love my father." At the same time, Laura claimed, her mother had warned, "If you do this, you're going to destroy the whole family. I could go to jail, and who knows what else could happen?"

Finally, after Laura broke the ice with a telephone call last Nov. 23, Barbara agreed to tell the FBI about John Walker's spying. Only afterward did the women learn that Laura's brother Michael, 22, had also been implicated in his father's espionage ring. Said Laura of her mother: "See the irony? She turns in my father so that I can fight for my son, and her own son is now a victim."

Barbara Walker told the New York Times that the FBI would not take her seriously at first because she drank heavily before deciding to take the fateful step. She said she had suspected her husband of spying since 1967 and had even told their four children about it. "All I tried to do was tell them their father was not a good person, but he was still their father," she said. After turning John in, she remained concerned about him. "I wanted to give John a chance to run. That bond goes a lot deeper than you think."

Barbara Walker estimated that John Walker may have been paid as much as $1 million by the Soviets. She could not be more precise, she said, because "the Russians don't write checks."

With reporting by Anne Constable/Washington and B. Russell Leavitt/Norfolk