Walker Son Says He Became Spy ‘to Please My Father’

Michael Walker, son of confessed Soviet spy John A. Walker Jr., said he joined the family spy ring for money and “to please my father” by demonstrating that he had the “guts” to do it.

Walker, a slight man of 22 who also pleaded guilty to espionage last October, portrayed his father as a domineering and manipulative man who prevailed upon him to join the Navy rather than attend college.

“That’s the way it was all my life. . . . He was persistent,” Walker said, dressed in beige prison garb. “It was subtle. He was good with words,” said the former naval yeoman who is serving a 25-year prison term at Terminal Island.

Walker, testifying in the espionage trial of Jerry A. Whitworth, said his mother, Barbara, told him when he was 13 that his father was a Soviet spy. But he said he did not believe his mother because she had been drinking that night.

Michael Walker did suspect, however, that his father was involved in illicit activities. He recalled his father would take him out to bars when he was in high school. He said his father would promise to some day explain how he made his money.

Still, it came as shock when his father tried in 1983--months after he enlisted in the Navy--to recruit him into the spy ring, with promises that Michael would make $1,000 a week and up to $5,000 a month.

Initially, Michael was noncommittal about joining, but finally showed up at his father’s house with a classified Navy document, which he had lifted from a bag of documents that were supposed to be burned.

“My father was pleased I actually had the guts to do it,” Michael Walker said.

In all, Michael made 15 deliveries of classified documents. He had stowed 15 pounds of undelivered documents under his bunk when he was arrested last May 22 aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz, where he was stationed.

He was paid a total of $1,000. He said that when his father gave him the money, he advised his son “not to blow it.”

Whitworth’s trial is expected to continue this week with testimony about his financial dealings. In addition to espionage charges, Whitworth, 46, faces income-tax evasion charges for failing to report $332,000, which he allegedly received from Walker for stealing classified documents during a nine-year period ending in 1983 when he quit the Navy.

Michael’s testimony follows that of his father, John, the leader of the ring; his uncle, Arthur, who said he reluctantly joined the ring to pay off business debts and now is serving life in prison; his mother Barbara, who turned John in to the FBI; and his sister, Laura, who said she refused to join the ring and now is having an author write her “life story.”