John Anthony Walker

Arrest and imprisonment John and Barbara Walker divorced in 1976. Their marriage was marked by physical abuse and alcohol. By 1980, Barbara had begun regularly abusing alcohol and was very fearful for her children. She wanted the children not to become involved in the spy ring; that led to constant disagreement with John. Barbara tried several times to contact the Boston office of the FBI, but she either hung up or was too drunk to speak. In November 1984 she again contacted the Boston office and in a drunken confession reported that her ex-husband spied for the Soviet Union. She did not then know that their son Michael had meanwhile become an active participant in espionage; she later admitted she would not have reported the spy ring had she known her son was involved. Martynov was a Line X (Technical & Scientific Intelligence) officer at the Washington rezidentura. Working for the U.S., he revealed the identities of fifty Soviet intelligence officers operating from the embassy and technical and scientific targets that the KGB had penetrated.

Michael Walker was arrested aboard Nimitz, where investigators found a footlocker full of copies of classified matter. He had to be taken off his ship under guard to avoid getting beaten by sailors and Marines. Arthur Walker and Jerry Whitworth were arrested by the FBI in Norfolk, Virginia, and Sacramento, California, respectively. Arthur Walker was the first member of the espionage ring to go to trial. During the arrest of Arthur Walker, he was read his rights and repeatedly told he needed to stay silent until he could retain a lawyer, but kept admitting complicity in an effort to "show remorse". He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to three life sentences in a federal district court in Norfolk.

Walker cooperated somewhat with authorities, enough to form a plea bargain that reduced the sentence for his son. He agreed to submit to an unchallenged conviction and life sentence, to provide a full disclosure of the details of his spying and to testify against Whitworth, in exchange for a pledge from the prosecutors that the maximum sentence requested for Michael was 25 years imprisonment, which was later Michael's sentence.

All the members of the spy ring besides Michael Walker received life sentences for their role in the espionage. Whitworth was sentenced to 365 years in prison and fined $410,000 for his involvement. Whitworth was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Atwater, a high-security federal prison in California. Walker's older brother Arthur received three life sentences plus 40 years and died in the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina on July 5, 2014, six weeks before the death of his younger brother.

Walker's son, Michael, who had a relatively minor role in the ring and agreed to testify in exchange for a reduced sentence, was released from prison on parole in February 2000. He was said to suffer from diabetes mellitus and stage 4 throat cancer.

FBI Lead Case Agent, Robert ’Bob’ Hunter and his team investigated, surveilled, and accomplished what had never before been done in the history of the FBI, and caught Walker in the act of espionage itself. On May 20 at 3:30 a.m. in front of a hotel elevator, Hunter and Jimmy Kaluch confronted Walker with guns drawn. Walker also drew his gun, resulting in a stand-off which Hunter explains was resolved when we ‘talked [Walker] into dropping his gun.’

Death Walker died while he was suffering from cancer and diabetes on August 28, 2014, while still in prison. He would have become eligible for parole in 2015.

In popular culture In 1990, Walker's life from his navy career just before his recruitment as a spy to his and his son's arrest by the FBI was dramatized in a two-part TV movie called Family of Spies on CBS. Walker was portrayed by Powers Boothe. The book Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, published in 1998, includes a description of the Walker spy ring role in its dangerous compromise of technical secrets of some of the vital tactical capabilities of U.S. Navy nuclear submarines and critical covert intelligence gathering operations during the Cold War.