Criminal Masterminds

by Anne Williams

  When Daulton left high school, his occupation was primarily a drug dealer. It was a life he enjoyed, which reaped large rewards and meant he had a lot more spare time than a regular job. His speciality became cocaine, which earned him the nickname ‘The Snowman’.

  Boyce struggled when he left school, dropping out of one college after another, unsure of what he wanted to do. Eventually, in desperation, his father called a friend who worked for TRW Defence and Space Systems Group. It was a private company that had a contract to design US spy satellites. By the age of twenty-one, Boyce was hired as a $140 per week general clerk.

  a high-security risk

  Boyce was issued with a security badge and was forced to sign a Secrecy Act document, saying that he would not pass on any classified information to any unauthorised person or agency. He was employed in the Classified Material Control, which, as the name suggests, gave him access to a lot of classified information.

  During his first months at TRW, Boyce did not have the authority to enter the Black Vault, a special room that required high security clearance from the FBI, the CIA and the National Security Agency. Boyce was flattered when he was offered this clearance within his first few months of joining the company. The atmosphere within the Black Vault was light-hearted and jovial and the workers talked freely. One of his co-workers was a Vietnam War veteran, and he talked in detail about his experiences, little realising that he was fuelling Boyce’s growing dislike of US superpowers. Added to this, Boyce had access to highly secret telex documents that passed between the US government and TRW, the contents of which made him hate the country in which he lived, even more.

  Boyce’s protests against US policy were not open and public, like many protesters. He chose to express his dislike for the USA in a far more secretive and illegal manner. He started to betray his country and he enlisted his close friend, Daulton, to help him.

  Boyce knew that his friend loved money, and so he approached him and told him he could make far more profit by dealing with the USA’s chief enemy, the Soviet Union. He told Daulton that he would smuggle information out of the Black Vault and that his friend could act as the courier, taking it to a Russian embassy in a different country. At first Daulton laughed, not believing his friend. However, when he realised that Boyce was serious, he jumped at the chance, aware that this was an opportunity to make big bucks.

  dodgy dealings

  In April 1975, Daulton travelled to Mexico City and headed for the Russian embassy. When he reached the reception he told the man standing behind the desk that he had some important information regarding spy satellites that he thought might be of interest. Daulton was introduced to a Soviet official by the name of Vasily Okana.

  At first Okana was suspicious of the American with the unkempt hairdo and moustache, but he thought he would listen to what he had to say. He was invited to sit down and was offered a glass of Vodka and some caviar. Daulton told Okana that before he would release any classified information, he would need to know how much he was going to get paid, bearing in mind that his associate had access to top-secret material on a daily basis. Okana remained doubtful, so Daulton passed him an envelope. Inside this envelope was a brief note saying:

  Enclosed is a computer card from a National Security Agency crypto system. If you want do do business, please advise the courier.

  As the note said, inside the envelope were some computer programming cards and a 30 cm (12 in) piece of paper tape used in the KG-13 and KW-7 crypto machines at TRW.

  Okana left the room, taking the envelope with him. He returned a short while later carrying an envelope, which contained $250 and handed it over to Daulton. Okana said that under no circumstances was Daulton to return to the embassy and that from now on they should use code names. Okana said he should call him ‘John’ while Daulton was given the name ‘Luis’. Okana also told him that in future they would meet at a designated location and would use coded messages and passwords to recognise one another.

  As Boyce continued to take photographs and steal vital information, Daulton made more and more visits to Mexico. Each time he went, Okana kept pushing him for details of his informant and where he worked. Although the Soviets paid for every piece of information that the two men supplied, sometimes there were complaints that the photographs were too fuzzy and asked for more details. However, when Daulton phoned his friend to ask for these details, very often Boyce could not give him the information he needed and this led to squabbles between the two men. Tension mounted and Boyce was nervous because of his friend’s addiction to heroin. He felt that this might make him careless and let information slip. He also doubted that Daulton was being honest about the money he received, and worried that he was not getting his fair share.

  In almost two years of passing information to the Soviet Union, Boyce only earned himself around $20,000. His motive was never really the money. It was the excitement of the danger and the fact that he was pulling one over on US intelligence.

  Eventually, Boyce told Daulton that he had had enough and that he wanted to get out of the spying game before they were caught. Daulton, on the other hand, said there was still a lot of money to be made and urged his friend to reconsider.

  Meanwhile, the Russians were still eager to meet the man who was giving them so much information. Daulton was not keen on them meeting Boyce, because he felt his friend might double-cross him. After all if they had the main man, then they would have no need of a courier. Eventually, the pressure was too great and a meeting was set up, with Boyce accompanying Daulton to Mexico City.

  The meeting did not go well. The Russians demanded code room transmission frequencies, but when Boyce told them he did not have access to that kind of information, it reflected badly on Daulton who had said it was only a matter of time.

  disastrous dealings

  At the time Boyce decided to tender his resignation from TRW in 1973, the company had just received a contract to design the ‘Pyramider’. It was a top secret project for a huge communication satellite that resembled an open umbrella. Before he left Boyce managed to take several photographs of the prototype, which he intended to pass on to his friends in the Soviet Union. Boyce had decided to leave work and go back to college full time, but in the meantime he would continue with his espionage work. Daulton, armed with his photos of the Pyramider, had returned to Mexico. He had become rather blasé about his missions and when he arrived at the embassy, finding it shut, he simply threw a message inside the gates. Little did he realise that he was being watched and within seconds he was surrounded by police officers.

  The police wanted to know what he had thrown and Daulton answered casually that it was just a packet of cigarettes. The Mexican police did not believe his story, because a member of an anti-government terrorist group had recently been arrested for doing a similar thing. As Daulton argued with the police, they were overheard by Eileen Heaphy, who was an officer working at the US embassy. Daulton hoped that because he was a US citizen, he would get her support. When he was asked to go with the police for questioning, the Mexicans said it would be all right for members of the US embassy to be present. Daulton was therefore accompanied by both a vice-consul and a CIA agent.

  Back at the station, Daulton was asked to empty his pockets and put everything he was holding on the desk in front of him. The first thing that intrigued the investigating officer was a fake postcard, which Daulton had been given to show his designated meeting place. The officer then opened the plain, brown envelope that Daulton had been carrying, and found some photographic film inside marked ‘Top Secret’. Daulton tried to explain that it was just a photograph that was to be used in an advertising campaign, but his story did not wash with the official. The officer said he would have the film developed and that the US officials should come back after one hour.

  When the investigating officer told Daulton that he was being charged with aesisinato, he asked them to explain exactly what it meant. When they said the word ‘murder’, Daulton’s face
turned white and he felt as if he had been hit by a bolt of lightning. He panicked and started planning what he was going to say.

  Over the next few days he was interrogated for hours on end, but still he denied any knowledge of a murder and that he was simply a tourist. At one point in the proceedings, Daulton changed his story and said that he and an associate, Christopher Boyce, worked for the CIA. Once again the police said he was guilty of killing a policeman. The reason they believed he was the murderer was because the fake postcard showed a picture of the junction where the policeman had been killed. Daulton continued to plead innocence and eventually the Mexican police lost their patience. They ordered him to take off all his clothes and an officer threatened to cut off his genitals. They also held his head over a filthy toilet bowl and dunked his head in it three times. In between questioning Daulton was made to lie blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back. He was given nothing to drink except tap water which upset his stomach, and he was left lying in his own faeces.

  Eventually, the Mexican police allowed the FBI to talk to their prisoner. He told them the same story that he had fed to the Mexicans, saying that he worked for the CIA but that he had fed false information to confuse the Russians. The FBI contacted the CIA, the Pentagon and the White House, and they were ordered to bring Daulton back to the USA to stand trial.

  Christopher Boyce was arrested in January 1977. It only took him a couple of days of interrogation before he confessed to spying and selling secrets to the Soviet Union. The two men were tried separately and eventually they were both convincted of espionage and sent to Lompoc Federal Prison in California. Boyce was sentenced to forty years, but he escaped in January 1980 by hiding in a drainage hole for over three hours. While on the run he carried out several bank robberies in Idaho and Washington. He was arrested in Idaho in August 1981 after the authorities received a tip-off about his whereabouts. He was eventually released from prison on May 15, 2003, but he will remain on parole until his original release date of 2046.

  Andrew Daulton was given a life sentence. He received a heavier sentence than Boyce because of his prior criminal record. He was released on parole in 1998 and, apparently, at some point after his release, Daulton was hired by the actor Sean Penn to be his personal assistant.

  PART FIVE: Murderers, Outlaws and Thieves

  Jack Sheppard

  Jack Sheppard, one of England’s most notorious historical criminals, was a non-violent legend in his own time. During his two-year crime career he mixed with the criminal elite of the day and was known as a thorn in the side of the infamous Jonathan Wild. He was hailed by the people and hated and pursued by the law.

  Jack Sheppard, née John, was born into a poor London family on March 4, 1702. The area in which he was born was famous for the presence of highwaymen, but Sheppard managed to start his life out on the right track. Sheppard’s father died when he was very young, and when he was six years old his mother decided that she could no longer care for her sons and sent them to a boarding school to learn carpentry. He started to work for and apprentice with various carpenters before he started working for the man with whom he would stay with the longest, William Kneebone.

  By the time Sheppard was in his late teens he showed great promise in his chosen career. The young criminal mastermind in the making was known to frequent a pub near his place of work. Despite his slight stutter he was considered to be quite witty. It was only when Sheppard looked to expand his social horizons by going to a different tavern than his usual haunt, that he began to realise that there was more in the world than carpentry. Sheppard started to frequent another pub near his work called The Black Lion. He met some of the day’s most notorious criminals including his future arch-enemy, Jonathan Wild and future partner in crime Joseph ‘Blueskin’ Blake. It was while drinking at the same establishment that Sheppard became attracted to Elizabeth Lyon, a prostitute who went by the nickname of Edgeworth Bess.

  Because of Sheppard’s growing interest in drink and his love interest, his work life suffered. Elizabeth was not only Sheppard’s love interest she also served to advise him. It was partly due to her mis-guided advice that Sheppard started his career, albeit a short one, in crime. His first crime is believed to be the theft of a pair of silver spoons from a local tavern while making a delivery for his boss. Sheppard’s crimes went unnoticed and his youthful overconfidence construed this as a sign of his criminal prowess. He began to steal on a regular basis, pilfering from homes and businesses in which he was doing carpentry work. It was not long before Sheppard began to work with the gang of master criminal, Jonathan Wild. It was also around this time that Sheppard decided to hand in his resignation, with just two years left of his apprenticeship.

  Meanwhile the relationship between Sheppard and Lyon was blossoming and they decided to move away and live together and found a home in Fulham, London. A short time later they moved to Piccadilly and within a very brief period Lyon was arrested and jailed for a petty crime. When Sheppard was told he could not visit her he defied the guards’ instructions, broke Elizabeth from her cell and they made their escape. This was to be the beginning of several journeys to and from jail for Sheppard, only next time it would be him who was behind bars.

  On February 5, 1724, Sheppard, along with his girlfriend and his brother Tom, plundered ‘Clare’s Market’, a meat shop in greater London. Sheppard’s brother already had a criminal record and had the scars to prove it. Tom was arrested for this crime and leaked the details of who was involved in attempt to ease his sentence. Because of this information, the police started looking for Jack and Elizabeth. Sheppard was arrested after another criminal, who was also associated with Jonathan Wild, called James Sykes, informed the police as to his whereabouts. His interest was limited to the cash reward. Jack was sent to St. Giles Roadhouse and imprisoned on the top floor.

  Sheppard had not been in prison for more than three hours, before he escaped with a makeshift rope fashioned from bed clothes. His ingenuity did not end there. Sheppard joined the crowd who had gathered at the commotion of his escape and pointed to the roof exclaiming that he could see himself escaping. With this distraction in place and the crowd fooled, Sheppard fled the scene.

  It was not long before Jack was re-arrested. He was caught red-handed picking pockets on the city streets. He was sent back to the same prison that he had recently escaped from. Because of primitive law enforcement methods he was simply placed back in a cell, something he had proved he could easily circumvent. On the second day of his latest incarceration Elizabeth came to visit him. The guards recognised her and put her in the cell with Jack. They went to court and were sent to New Prison in Clerkenwell by Judge Walters. It was a short-lived prison stay, however, because the two seasoned outlaws scaled the near twenty-foot prison perimeter wall to their freedom.

  Jack Sheppard’s reputation circulated throughout the criminal underworld and soon caught the attention of Jonathan Wild. Wild was a clever man, holding the position of number one gangster in England, while appearing to be England’s number one policeman. This of course gave him enormous power and influence and he used it when he ordered the arrest of Sheppard. Wild had a group of his men spy on Sheppard in an effort to learn more about his movements. The appointed group informed on Sheppard to Wild just as he was getting ready to pull off yet any another robbery. Sheppard started working with Joseph ‘Blueskin’ Blake and the two robbed Sheppard’s previous employer, William Kneebone.

  Wild was becoming irritated with this criminal, because he could not get him under his direct control. He doubled his efforts to get him arrested. Wild used Lyon to get to Sheppard by getting her drunk and asking her questions, until she gave vital information about Sheppard’s whereabouts. After a short time, on July 23, 1724, Sheppard was arrested at his partner’s mother’s liquor shop. Wild had got what he wanted, although the seemingly invincible Sheppard was not going to stay locked up for long!

  Sheppard once again found himself at Newgate Prison awaiting tria
l. When he eventually faced the jury he was charged with three crimes but the first two were dismissed for lack of evidence. Sheppard was, however, convicted of the burglary at the Kneebones. William Kneebone, Jonathan Wild and one of Wild’s henchmen, testified at Sheppard’s trial and the sentence was passed on August 12, 1724. Sheppard was sentenced to death but before the death warrant could be issued, less than six days after the conviction, Sheppard escaped and fled to nearby Blackfriars Stairs. The news of his latest escape delighted the public who saw him as a folk hero. Sheppard quickly went into deeper hiding but Jonathan Wild was in pursuit. By the beginning of September 1724 Wild had assembled a posse and they started to hunt for Sheppard. On September 9, Wild’s gang was hot on Sheppard’s heels and he was arrested and dragged back to his cell at Newgate Prison. For the next few weeks Sheppard tried to escape a few more times but his attempts were prevented by the watchful eye of the prison guards. They found cutting and grinding implements in his cell and decided that, after repeated threats that he would escape easily, to lock Sheppard in metal arm and leg irons. When Sheppard bragged even more about how easily he could escape and how it was useless to try and hold him, the guards only tightened his bindings. It was during this time that Sheppard’s co-hort Blake was arrested. On October 15, 1724, Sheppard used the distraction created during the trial by none other than his ex-partner Blake to escape the confines of the prison.

  Sheppard worked himself free from the bindings and, still wearing leg irons, made his way through the prison towards freedom. He got past one barred door after another and climbed multiple floors with makeshift ropes made of blankets, as he had done many times before. Once he was outside of the prison Sheppard took to hiding in a barn. When he was discovered by the farmer Sheppard told him a completely concocted story about why he was wearing the irons. A few days later, Sheppard bribed a blacksmith to cut him free of the bindings. Sheppard did not have long before he was recaptured but he made the best he could of the time. He disguised himself as a beggar and broke into a pawn shop and stole many valuable items including a new suit. He wore the suit and for a few days lived the highlife in London, enjoying everything the city had to offer.