Word: laura
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...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...
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...
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...
Gradually, the children moved away. Laura went into the Army, where, following the family's almost obsessive occupational interest, she became a communications specialist. Cynthia went to West Dennis, Mass., on Cape Cod, with her newborn son. Margaret moved to Virginia. Michael joined his father in 1980, completing his final two years of high school at Norfolk's private Ryan Upper School...
Presumably encouraged by her mother, Laura also implicated her father. She told the FBI that he had tried to enlist her in the spy ring in 1979, which would have given the undercover operatives an entry into Army as well as Navy communications...