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

Mitchell, Marcia; Mitchell, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1931229228 ISBN 13: 9781931229227

Publisher: Invisible Cities Press LLC, 2002

Synopsis

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 specialized in bankruptcy, created a circus out of the courtroom. Utilizing 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.

About this title

From the Author:

Marcia Mitchell is the former secretary of labor for South Dakota and the associate director of the American Film Institute. She is the author of Cosmetics from the Kitchen, Raindance to Research, and Management Strategies for Women. Thomas Mitchell is a former FBI agent. During his 17-year tenure, he was directly involved in the Coplon case as well as a variety of anticommunist counterintelligence activities. They live in Hill City, South Dakota.

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Invisible Cities Press LLC
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1931229228
• ISBN 13: 9781931229227
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352