King of Spies Read online

  “attempted assassination of President Rhee”: Donald Nichols, “Concerning the Attempted Assassination of Rhee,” Air Intelligence Report, October 19, 1955, AF703568, RG 342, box 1102, NACP.

  “further disillusion popular hopes”: “The Arrest of Cho Bong-am,” memorandum from Parsons to Jones, Washington, DC, February 3, 1958, FRUS, Korea, 1958–60, vol. XVII, 444, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v18/pg_433.

  “unofficially bring serious concern”: Editorial note 226, FRUS, Korea, 1958–60, vol. XVIII, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v18/pg_461.

  execution was called: “Cho Bong-am Unjustly Executed: Supreme Court,” JoongAng Daily, January 21, 2011; “Cho Bang-am’s Name Cleared 52 Years After His Execution,” Kyunghyang Shinmun, January 21, 2011.

  Things were “disintegrating”: “Memorandum of Conversation,” Dugald Malcolm, British chargé d’affaires, and T. Eliot Neil, deputy chief of mission, U.S. Embassy, Seoul, January 5, 1957, RG 59, 795B.00/7-257, NACP.

  “ticking time bomb Nichols was”: Author phone and e-mail interviews with Haas, August 2, 2016. Haas’s books and document research were commissioned by the air force.

  CHAPTER 10: Shocked

  “corrective influences concerning myself”: Nichols’s military service record, part 3, 9.

  spy outfit known as NICK: “History of 6002nd Air Intelligence Service Group,” July 1–December 31, 1957, K-GP-Intell-6002-HI, 12-180, AFHRA.

  ate alone in his quarters: Letter to author from Bierek, February 2, 2016.

  “spirited off the base”: Author phone interview with Bierek, January 4, 2016.

  “unusual behavior while on duty”: Nichols’s military record, part 6, 17.

  pounding his fist: Clinical and descriptive details comes from Nichols’s military record, part 6, 16–20.

  he was seething: Ibid.

  asked his former boss: The letter was not found but its content can be inferred from the response it elicited from Partridge.

  “Please let me know”: Partridge to Nichols, October 28, 1957, Partridge personal correspondence, op. cit.

  he was “quite evasive”: Nichols’s military service record, part 6, 19.

  “intelligence is probably”: Ibid.

  “I am now in a spot”: Nichols to Partridge. This letter is undated but appears to have been sent soon after Nichols arrived at Eglin AFB hospital in late October or early November 1957. It acknowledges receipt of Partridge’s letter of October 28. Partridge personal correspondence, op. cit.

  A normal dosage: Author phone interview with Dr. Max Fink, a psychiatrist and expert on electroshock therapy and psychoactive drugs who treated military patients in the 1950s, August 1, 2016, St. James, NY.

  rebooting a computer: Katherine Q. Seelye, “Kitty Dukakis, a Beneficiary of Electroshock Therapy, Emerges as Evangelist,” New York Times, December 31, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/us/kitty-dukakis-electroshock-therapy-evangelist.html.

  electroshock treatments to nearly: Alan A. Stone, “Electroconvulsive Rx: A Memoir and Essay (Part 1),” Psychiatric Times, September 14, 2010.

  “ECT stands practically alone”: Sandra G. Boodman, “Shock Therapy: It’s Back,” Washington Post, September 24, 1996.

  brain regions associated with mood: Owes Tirmizi, “Electroconvulsive Therapy: How Modern Techniques Improve Patient Outcomes,” Current Psychiatry 11, no. 10 (October 1, 2012).

  “his treatment was about right”: Author phone interview with Edward Shorter, Toronto, August 1, 2016.

  “bastard orphan of the intelligence”: Nichols, 144–45.

  positive responses in about: American Psychiatric Association, “What Is ECT,” https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ect.

  “much more at ease”: Nichols’s military service record, part 6, 20.

  “serious doubts as to”: Partridge letter quoted in hospital records at Eglin, Nichols’s military service record, part 6, 20.

  “God alone knows”: Nichols, 163.

  CHAPTER 11: Adrift and Accused

  He had always worried: Author interview with Diana Carlin.

  “he loved to show it off”: Author interview with Donald H. Nichols.

  rides that were often disturbing: These accounts come from author interviews with Donald H. Nichols and Diana Carlin; phone interview with nephew Paul W. Nichols, Tellico Plains, TN, November 17, 2015.

  “fun for kids”: Author interview with Donald H. Nichols.

  “prepared for the exit of my sons”: Nichols, 185.

  After several bumpy weeks: Author interviews with Donald H. Nichols, Diana Carlin, and Paul W. Nichols.

  “a damn about anyone”: Nichols, 165.

  “howl my melancholy song”: Ibid., 166, 168.

  “started showing me these”: Deposition given by a boy on May 10, 1968, in Fort Lauderdale, related to a felony charge against Nichols for indecent assault on a child. Case no. 66-7298, Broward County Courthouse, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Name is not included for privacy reasons.

  “what was going on”: Deposition given by the father of the boy on May 7, 1968. Name is not included for privacy reasons.

  “indecent assault upon a child”: “Man Charged with Assault,” Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, May 7, 1966, B1.

  described himself only as “retired”: Broward County Sheriff’s Department arrest record, 66-12245, May 6, 1966.

  weight had ballooned: Ibid.

  he sold four parcels: Warranty deeds, 66-88618, 19, 20, Broward County property records, Fort Lauderdale, FL, August 1, 1966.

  rape of a fifteen-year-old: Warrant, State of Florida v. Donald Nichols, August 4, 1966, IC no. 67-8-4665, docket no. 3, 4519.

  “I felt healing in myself”: Nichols, 169.

  “deserted their brother”: Nichols’s will, op. cit., 5.

  “wasn’t doing too good”: Nichols, 169.

  permanently soured when he fled: Nichols’s will, op. cit.

  he never again wanted: Author interview with Diana Carlin.

  “Memories are more than enough”: Nichols’s will, op. cit.

  on the counter of Colleen’s: “$25,000 in Sack Leads to Jail,” Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1967.

  warrants for statutory rape: AP, “Lot of Loose Cash Brings Arrest of Floridian,” Panama City (FL) News Herald, January 5, 1967, 5.

  cashier’s check for fifteen thousand: “Man Who Left $25,000 in Cafe Faces Charge,” San Diego Union, January 6, 1967, D4.

  wire services picked up: UPI, “Broward Fugitive Held in California,” Miami Herald, January 6, 1967, A22.

  posted cash bail: San Diego Union, op. cit.

  apparently forfeiting his bail: San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said records of the arrest have been destroyed.

  Judson told the agents: In response to a Freedom of Information inquiry about the FBI’s effort to find Nichols, the bureau said that “records that may have been responsive to your request were destroyed on Nov. 1, 1992, and August 1976.”

  if Judson came down: Judson Nichols died in 1981. This account comes from his children Diana and Donald H.

  legendary South Florida defense attorney: Jacqueline Charles and Carli Teproff, “South Florida Defense Attorney Irwin Block, Who Helped Get Innocent Pitts and Lee off Death Row, Dies at 87,” Miami Herald, February 15, 2015.

  his relentless pretrial preparation: Tributes to Block, who died in 2015 at age eighty-seven, said he won cases “because of the damage he had done in depositions and pretrial motions.” See Florida court of appeals judge Kevin Emas in a tribute to Block in Justice Building Blog, http://justicebuilding.blogspot.com/2015/02/irwin-block-has-died.html.

  Nichols surrendered at: Broward County Sheriff’s Department arrest record, 67-8-4665, December 8, 1967.

  weighed 325 pounds: The weight is on his
arrest record.

  blamed another man for assaulting: Author interview with Diana Carlin. There are no court records on this charge other than the initial arrest warrant from August 4, 1966.

  a jury found Nichols: State of Florida v. Donald Nichols, felony order of acquittal, Broward County, May 16, 1968, case no. 66-7298. There is no transcript of the trial in county records.

  No one in Judson Nichols’s family: Author interviews with Diana Carlin and Donald H. Nichols. I told them in 2016 about sealed depositions I had been allowed to open in Broward County court archives.

  left Mexico due to: Nichols, 180.

  “Behind those baby green eyes”: Ibid., 181.

  CHAPTER 12: Nolo Contendere

  the nation’s highest lynching rate: Dan DeWitt, “Hernando’s 100-Year-Old Courthouse Part of Long, Slow Journey to Justice,” Tampa Bay Times, October 3, 2013, http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/hernandos-100-year-old-courthouse-part-of-long-slow-journey-to-justice/2145517.

  “the most amazing and unusual”: Partridge to Nichols, sent from Colorado Springs, CO, October 30, 1968. Letter was reprinted verbatim as the foreword to Nichols’s book. Copy of letter from Torres.

  “he finally went crazy”: Partridge, AF oral history interview, April 25, 1974.

  “fell apart mentally”: Partridge, AF oral history interview, 1977, 63–64.

  “I expect a lot”: Nichols to Torres, January 2, 1969.

  “The Unknown Lawrence of Korea”: Nichols, 146–61.

  “‘Put out your damn cigarette’”: Author interview with Steve Wyatt, Brooksville, FL, 2015–16.

  bought a chicken farm: Sun Bank and Trust Co. v. Jones, Fifth District Court of Appeal of Florida, no. 93-1861, December 14, 1994, http://bit.ly/2ctnOeO.

  gave him power of attorney: “Durable Power of Attorney,” Hernando County, FL, clerk’s office, no. 82-13682, November 20, 1981.

  “eating my watermelons”: Author phone interview with J. O. Batten, commander of VFW Post 8713, Brooksville, FL, September 26, 2016.

  not getting the respect: Author phone interview and e-mails with Edward C. Mishler, Sanford, NC, January 19, 2016.

  “I would not welcome her”: Nichols, 12.

  “documentation was necessarily abbreviated”: Ibid., 191.

  aroused international attention: See articles, cited above, by AP journalists Charles J. Hanley and Jae-Soon Chang, and AP Web site project.

  “The years in Brooksville”: Nichols, 180.

  Donnie was thrown: Karen Datko, “Father of 2 Killed by Propeller of Airboat,” St. Petersburg Times, June 25, 1985, Hernando section, B1.

  “The light went out”: Author interview with Nichols’s granddaughter, Lindsay Morgan, in Brooksville, FL, January 31, 2016.

  “or given away to anyone”: Nichols’s will, 4.

  “MR. NICHOLS, HERO OF KOREAN WAR”: Coverage of Nichols’s visit to Seoul appeared over two weeks in March 1987 in a number of South Korean media outlets. The detail about the bed comes from Yoon Il-gyun, who worked with Nichols in the 1950s and welcomed him back to Seoul. He was interviewed on October 29, 2015, by researcher Yoonjung Seo.

  a flattering article: Mike Copeland, “Retired Air Force Officer Gets a Hero’s Welcome on Korean Trip,” St. Petersburg Times, July 10, 1987, Hernando section, 1.

  the biggest splash: The newspaper is now called the Tampa Times and is the largest daily in Florida.

  threatened to hurt them: David Cox, “Lewd Act Charged Against Decorated Vet,” Daily Sun-Journal, Brooksville, FL, July 28, 1978, 1; Alicia Caldwell, “Retired Officer Faces Lewd Behavior Charges,” St. Petersburg Times, July 28, 1987, Hernando section, 1.

  “There had been talk”: Author interview with Batten.

  “in fear of their lives”: Daily Sun-Journal, op. cit.

  “I was teaching him something”: Caldwell, “Retired Officer Tells About Sex Incident,” St. Petersburg Times, July 30, 1987, Hernando section, 1.

  It banned him from any contact: Caldwell, “Sentence Imposed in Case of Fondling,” St. Petersburg Times, December 24, 1987, Hernando section, 1.

  Nichols was arrested: Caldwell, “Sex Offender Arrested Again,” St. Petersburg Times, May 31, 1988, Hernando section, 1.

  he must be locked up: These details are in the judgment of Sun Bank and Trust Co. v. Jones, op. cit. John G. Jones was Nichols’s guardian.

  he was pronounced dead: Ibid.

  EPILOGUE: A Spy’s Grave

  “a funeral to which”: Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie (New York: Random House, 1988), 3, 4.

  “source of information”: Nichols, 119–20.

  “a great Democrat”: Ibid., 113.

  “received absolutely no training”: Ibid., 136.

  “I was a small cog”: Ibid., 132.

  enough space for six coffins: Brooksville Cemetery records, shared by Mike Hughes, cemetery administrator, in phone interview, e-mails, and copied documents during 2015–16.

  where he served as chairman: Caldwell, St. Petersburg Times, July 28, 1987, op. cit.

  Veterans Administration paperwork: Nichols’s military service record, part 6, 1.

  photo appears on the final: Nichols, 199.

  an affront to Confucian values: Douglas J. Davies and Lewis H. Mates, Encyclopedia of Cremation (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2005).

  his body transported: Walter I. Nichols’s death certificate, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Florida, issued to author on October 11, 2016. Walter died on November 27, 1940, at the age of fifty-three. A family photograph shows Walter’s name, along with the dates of his birth and death, on a large Nichols headstone in Maple Grove Cemetery in Hackensack, NJ.

  cremated in nearby Delray Beach: Myra Wolf’s death certificate, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Florida, issued to author on October 11, 2016. Myra died on May 29, 1978, at the age of eighty-seven.

  “How does one de-train”: Nichols, 132.

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