This story was originally published at ProPublica.org. [1]
Licensed under creative commons by-nc-nd/3.0 [2]


SPY FOR CHINA FOUND SUFFOCATED IN PRISON, APPARENTLY A SUICIDE
Author Name, ProPublica
Date: 07, 2021


Robert F. Muse, an attorney with the law firm that had handled the case, said he spoke with Larry Chin by telephone on Thursday. ''I certainly did not see anything that would have alerted me to despondency or any break from his normal circumstances,'' he said.

Homer Chin said, however, that his father had begun to talk about his hopes for an appeal of the conviction or a spy exchange that would allow him to be released to the Chinese. In November, when he was arrested, the Federal Bureau of Investigation quoted Mr. Chin as telling agents that he was looking forward to prison as a chance to write his memoirs. Talked of an Exchange

Just this week, in an appearance on the CBS News program ''Nightwatch,'' Mr. Chin said he was willing to plead with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping for an exchange. ''I didn't realize I was going to be in jail for the balance of my life,'' he said at one point. Later in the interview, though, he said that if he was not freed he would remain in prison ''because I can write my memoirs and continue to live.''

A Chinese-born translator and analyst at the C.I.A., Mr. Chin was different from the others arrested in recent spy cases. The tall, thin man with a gentle manner had been awarded a medal by the C.I.A. for distinguished service. His friends said he had a passion for gambling.

At the trial, prosecutors said Mr. Chin had led of a life of lies. They contended that he began spying for the Chinese in 1952, when he told them about American interviews of Chinese prisoners of war in Korea. Hopes for Warmer Relations

By giving the reports to the Chinese, Mr. Chin said he hoped to aid the elements in the Chinese Government who were eager for warmer relations with the United States. Among the documents he gave the Chinese, he said, was a secret 1970 communication from President Nixon to Congress indicating this country's hopes for new ties with Peking.

Prosecutors say Mr. Chin used the money he received to buy 29 rental properities that came to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[1] URL: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/22/us/spy-for-china-found-suffocated-in-prison-apparently-a-suicide.html
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
   URL: https://www.propublica.org/steal-our-stories

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