Episode Details

Ways to support the podcast:

Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In 1982, an American signals intelligence sergeant walked past the Soviet consulate in West Berlin and dropped a letter through its mail slot, offering his services to the KGB. Within weeks he had opened a second channel to the East German Stasi, selling the same secrets to both.

For six years, James W. Hall III operated out of Field Station Berlin — one of the most sensitive NSA listening posts in Cold War Europe — passing material an NSA official later estimated cost three billion dollars in damage. He was paid roughly three hundred thousand dollars for it.

This episode tells the story of how he did it, what he sold, and how an unrelated shoplifting arrest in West Berlin set the chain of events in motion that would end his career in a motel room outside Savannah, Georgia.

📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link):

📕 Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catchers World by Stuart A. Herrington - https://amzn.to/4uVZXac