>The Missing CIA Man https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/07/archives/the-missing-cia...

marymkearney · on April 29, 2023

That's a really freaky story. Merits a thread of its own.

--He was a senior CIA analyst of Russian nuclear capacity during the Cold War.

--Ruled a suicide, but shot in back of head.

--Not positively ID'd as him. Bunch of funny business with the fingerprints.

--Cremated, but the FBI kept his hands. Grisly.

--Had a high-powered CIA radio rig on his sailboat, and "documents."

--Good friends with a senior KGB defector.

--Live 9mm shells scattered about. No big deal nowadays, but it was back then.

bookofjoe · on April 29, 2023

I agree. I kept reading and felt like I was truly entering a wilderness of mirrors. The writer of that Times piece, Tad Szulc, was sui generis. He was connected to deep black sources.

>Tad Szulc, 74, Dies; Times Correspondent Who Uncovered Bay of Pigs Imbroglio

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/22/world/tad-szulc-74-dies-t...

https://archive.ph/szwTb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tad_Szulc

marymkearney · on April 29, 2023

Those guys must have known each other. They were contemporaries. Paisley b. 1923, Szulc b. 1927. They traveled in the same circles. They were both really good at their jobs. The Paisley article had some deep CIA sourcing, and Szulc's sources trusted him enough to share.