William Kampiles | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 21, 1954 |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Vasili, Billy |
| Occupation | CIA Clerk |
| Known for | Cold War - Stole a top-secret American KH-11 spy satellite manual and sold it to the Soviets. |
William Peter Kampiles (born December 21, 1954) is a former United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee during the Cold War known for selling a top secret KH-11 spy satellite manual in 1977.
Born to Greek parents, Kampiles grew up in Hegewisch, on the far south side of Chicago.[1] Kampiles' family was poor and lived in a small rental apartment. His father died in 1964, when Kampiles was nine.[1] He attended college with a state grant from his father's social security benefit, by working at the college cafeteria, and his mother's salary from working at the south side Ford factory in the cafeteria.[1]
While attending Indiana University, he was recruited by the CIA in 1977.[2] He found his job, routing message traffic, to be boring, and quit after a year when a transfer failed. His friend George Joannides later testified that Kampiles had wanted to work in the covert section of the CIA, but would need to undertake the necessary training.[3] Upon quitting, he stole a top-secret KH-11 spy satellite manual from CIA headquarters in 1977 for monetary gain,[2] with the intention of becoming a double agent.[4]
In January 1978, Kampiles surprised his friends by flying unexpectedly to Athens, Greece,[4] in the middle of winter which was highly uncommon, instead of summer as most Greek-Americans did. He walked into the Soviet Embassy there, asking to speak to an agent to sell the top secret KH-11 manual. He was given $3,000 by a Soviet KGB agent named Michael,[2] given a camera, and instructions to gather and bring back more secrets.[3] Afterwards, Kampiles contacted a Greek-American CIA agent about his contact with a Soviet agent and told him what he had done, in the hope of being rewarded with a position as a CIA spy.[4] The case was passed off to another Greek-American, experienced senior research analyst Vivian Psachos, who realized the story Kampiles gave was not true.[5] FBI agents arrested Kampiles at home in Munster, Indiana on August 18.[3][4]
On November 17, 1978, a jury found Kampiles guilty of six counts of espionage, 40 years each, totalling 240 years. On December 22, one day after his birthday, Kampiles was sentenced to a total of 40 years imprisonment, and later sent to a federal prison in Wisconsin. It was there that he met Jimmy Baker who was serving his federal sentence, and another inmate, a judge from New York who befriended him and referred his case to a Loyola University Law professor who helped reduce his prison sentence to 18 years. Kampiles was released on December 16, 1996, after serving 18 years.[6]