Spy Suspect Reportedly Sought Meeting With FBI

FBI agents tried to arrange meetings in San Francisco and Mexico in the summer of 1984 with a man they identified as Jerry A. Whitworth, accused of being part of a major Navy spy ring that sold top-secret military documents to the Soviet Union, government sources said Tuesday.

During the period of the attempted rendezvous--May 21 through Aug. 13, 1984--Whitworth, using the code name “RUS,” was attempting to blow the whistle on the spy system and its alleged mastermind, John A. Walker Jr., the FBI has said.

Whitworth and Walker have pleaded not guilty to espionage charges. Whitworth’s attorney has denied that the former Navy radioman was “RUS.”

Government sources said that at Whitworth’s suggestion, the FBI placed classified advertisements in the personal columns of The Times to try to arrange the meetings. Three brief messages addressed to RUS appeared in the May 21, June 11 and Aug. 13 editions of The Times seeking to first establish telephone contact, then a pair of face-to-face meetings on a San Francisco street corner and in Ensenada, Mexico.

Government sources say no meetings took place.

The May 21 message read: “RUS: Considering your offer. Call weekdays 9 a.m.-11a.m. 415/626-2793. (signed) ME, SF.”

A person answering that telephone number Tuesday said, in a strong Slavic accent, that he was not affiliated with the FBI and that he “would appreciate if you do not bother me.”

The June 11 personal ad urged RUS to meet with an agent “at 10 AM June 21st at intersection of the street of my office and Hyde in my city (San Francisco).” The advertisement added that “I’ll carry a newspaper in my left hand. We will only discuss your situation . . . no action will be taken against you whatsoever at this meeting. . . .”

On Aug. 13, agents again sought to meet with RUS: “Propose meeting in Esenada, Mexico, a neutral site. If you need travel funds, will furnish same at your choice of location in Silicon Valley or anywhere else.”

The ads were placed in response to a series of letters to the FBI’s San Francisco bureau signed by “RUS, Somewhere, U.S.A.” The letters, included in an FBI affidavit filed in San Francisco, began with one dated May 8, 1984, less than six months after Whitworth, 46, had retired to Davis after 23 years in the Navy.

During most of those years, Whitworth had top-secret clearances.

In his first letter, RUS offered to cooperate in return for immunity and said that the spy ring he sought to uncover--a “significant espionage” network passing “top-secret cryptographic key lists for military communications” to the Soviets--involved at least three other people, according to the affidavit. The letter was postmarked from Sacramento.

Arrested along with Whitworth and John Walker in the case was Walker’s son, Michael, who also has pleaded not guilty. A fourth member of the alleged ring, John Walker’s brother, Arthur, was convicted of espionage last week in Norfolk, Va.

In a letter dated May 21, the same day the first classified advertisement ran in The Times, RUS again asked for immunity and said the spy ring had been in operation for “more than 20 years.”

On Aug. 13, the day the FBI began pressing for its Mexico meeting, RUS suddenly backed off from his offer to cooperate. “It would be best to give up on the idea of aiding in the termination of the espionage ring previously discussed,” RUS wrote in his final letter to the FBI.