Rod Ramsay Links
Profile of a Spy: The Case of Rod Ramsay (Interview) April 16, 1997
"Three Minutes To Doomsday" Nonfiction book by Joe Navarro (About Rod Ramsay)
Howard Means: "This book still needs to be written," but....
coming in April 2017 from Scribner: THREE MINUTES TO DOOMSDAY, by Joe Navarro, with a little help from a friend. Movie maybe to follow!
from the April 13, 2015, VARIETY:
George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures has picked up the film rights to Joe Navarro’s [not yet written at that point] “Three Minutes to Doomsday.”
The Spy [Rod Ramsay] Who Served Me Salon July 16, 2011
Former Army Sergeant (Rod Ramsay) Sentenced for Espionage (AP) August 29, 1992 In one incident, in December 1985, Ramsay videotaped hundreds of documents for sale to Hungarian and Czechoslovakian agents.
Fourth Army Sergeant charged as part of spy ring —
South Florida Sun Sentinel (AP) April 30 1993(AP) April 30, 1993
Clyde Lee Conrad "was the spymaster," said Larry Curtin of the FBI's Tampa office. "He recruited [U.S. Army Sergeant Robert James] Ramsay, who recruited others.
FBI Arrests Army Sergeant In Major Spy Investigation — Winston-Salem Journal (Los Angeles Times) Oct 24, 1992
The FBI said the inquiry has been aided by the cooperation of confessed spy Roderick James Ramsay.
Two plead guilty for taking part in spy ring by J.D. Callaway The Tampa Tribune
Marcn 29, 1994
Rondeau told investigators he was lured into the spy business by Ramsay. Gregory told investigators he helped Ramsay one evening remove a bag of documents Ramsay called the "mother lode."
Man charged as spy 13 months after arrest By Bruce Vielmetti AP Sepember 7, 1991
Federal authorities waited 13 months before formally charging the 29-year-old former U.S. Army sergeant with espionage, and unsealed the indictment only Wednesday [Sepember 4, 1991,] without an announcement.
Though prosecutors and Navarro said Ramsay possessed critical knowledge of NATO defenses that could command a high price from unfriendly nations, they never explained why he was not arrested earlier.
FBI Special Agent Joe Navarro descirbed Ramsay as a trilingual career criminal with a near photographic memory.
Ex-sergeant pleads guilty to espionage By Bruce Vielmetti AP Sepember 18, 1991
A federal grand jury indicted Ramsay in July, and a plea agreement was signed in August,
but those development remained under seal until Sepember 4 [and then were not announced]. Authorities have given no explanation for the secrecy, or for the sudden unsealing of the case.
No date has been set for sentencing, pending Ramsay's further cooperation with authorities. As part of a plea agreement, government censors mus clear any of Ramsay's future writings about his espionage activity or the investigation of it. In additiona Ramsay gave the government any future profits from the telling of his spy story.
In June agents suddenly arrested him, searched his mother's home for classified documents, and argued that Ramsay was a danger to national security and should be held without bail.
Ex-sergeant admits peddling NATO information for $20,000 By Tom Brennan The Tampa Tribune September 18, 1991
"Ramsay faces up to life in imprisonment. No sentencing date was scheduled after prosecutors sought a delay for unspecified reasons."
"Ramsay has been held in solitary confement since his arrest [15 months earlier] in June 1990."
"Ramsay also agreed to undergo periodic lie detector tests."
Accused Spy Considered A ‘Nice Guy’ by Co-Workers Orland Sentinel June 10, 1990
A fellow cab driver who felt sorry for Ramsay had let him stay with him at one point. But he was incensed by news of the arrest and headed to the FBI with phone bills detailing Ramsay’s long-distance calls, drivers said Saturday.
FBI Agent: Security Breach ‘Unprecedented’
by James Martinez AP June 8, 1990
Note: A (heavily spiked version of the same James Martinez AP
story appeared the following day on the bottom of page four of the Boston Globe on Saturday, June 9, 1990)
The Boston Globe version does not include this: "Ramsay’s last known contact with Conrad came in January 1986 in Boston, when his former boss gave
him a small cow bell and told him that anyone displaying a similar bell was involved in the spy ring, the agent testified."
Boston Globe version: "FBI: Ex-soldier admits selling sellng NATO secrets"
Tampa man arrested in West German spy case by Victor Galvan UPI June 9, 1990
Ex-sergeant was a spy, FBI claims AP
June 9, 1990
A former U.S. Army sergeant — who at one time lived in the Orlando area received up to $5 million from East bloc countries for secret NATO plans.
FBI agents said the seven-year nationwide investigaiton into the alleged spy ring was continuing.
Spy [Roderick James Ramsay] Gets 36 Year Prison Term by Associated Press Aug. 29, 1992
Spies, Cowbells and Key Rings The San Francisco Examiner Jun 9, 1990 Page 1 June 9, 1990
Tale of 1980s spy ring broken in Tampa getting attention By Elaine Silvestrini | Tribune Staff Elaine Silvestrini May 2, 2015 "I frankly was always surprised that it never got as much notoriety as I thought it should," said Tampa attorney Greg Kehoe, who prosecuted Ramsay for the Justice Department, "because what these guys did so significantly compromised our NATO forces that I don't know of another case in Europe that so placed as many soldiers in jeopardy as this breach of security."
14 Paintings Found 2 Years After Theft On Upper East Side
By Michael Kimmelman
New York Times Page 11 June 9, 1990
Agent Provocateur By Hara Estroff Marano Psychology Today March 7, 2017 Joe Navarro was a young FBI agent with a special expertise. He managed to trap [Rod Ramsay] one of the cleverest spies of the Cold War.
The Sword AND The Stone (Part Ten) October 25, 2017 Was there a suspect, quickly known to federal authorities, but beyond their reach? Someone they would have been reluctant to identify publicly from the beginning?
Restraining the Media at the CIA Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff and Jeff McConnell, Special to the Globe, Boston Globe August 22, 1989" "WASHINGTON - A former public information officer for William H. Webster, the head of the CIA, told a Harvard University audience last month that improved relations between the press and the CIA had helped him to persuade three major newspapers or their reporters to kill, alter or delay articles concerning CIA operations. "About a year ago, when the story broke with the arrest in West Germany of retired Army Sgt. Clyde Lee Conrad, Baker said he informed the Times reporter, who was able to produce "a lengthy account of the espionage ring and the arrests." The reporter waited until March, however, to publish the account of Conrad's tricking of the CIA to pay him $50,000 [https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/10/world/ex-us-sergeant-s-spy-case-is-said-to-grow-in-seriousness.html] for useless information."
Clyde Conrad arrested for espionage, August 23, 1988 By Ruth Quinn August 19, 2013
Ex-G.I. accusd as spy-ring head by Kevin Costelloe and Conrad served 20 years by Norman Black Daily News (AP) August 26, 1988
Sven-Olof Hakansson, chief prosecutor of the Goteborg district, said the the two had traveled several times to West Germany and had been under surveillance for several years.
Barton [VT] Bank Robbed The Times Argus August 29, 1981
FBI is joining the hunt for four bandts Rutland Daily Herald September 1, 1981
4 Men Rob Howard Bank Branch in Barton, [VT] by Andrea Zentz The Burlington Free Press (Burlington, Vermont) Sat, Aug 29, 1981
No Suspects In Bank Theft Heist Amount Set At $10,000 The Times Argus August 30, 1981
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A man with dark glasse3s and a goatee, which could very well be artificial" entered the banks and two men wearing
yellow and black ski masks carrying rifles or shotguns rushed in behind him.
Same link: ‘Police Release Description Burlington Free Press 8/29/31