Biography
Civilian Navy intelligence analyst at the Naval Intelligence Support Center in Suitland, Maryland (1974-1984), specializing in Soviet amphibious vessels. The grandson of Pulitzer Prize-winning naval historian Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison. He moonlighted as the American editor of Jane's Fighting Ships and in July 1984 took three classified KH-11 satellite photographs of a Soviet aircraft-carrier shipyard from a coworker's desk and mailed them to Jane's Defence Weekly, which ran them on its August 11, 1984 cover. Convicted October 17, 1985 — the first U.S. official ever convicted under the Espionage Act for a leak to the press. Sentenced to 2 years federal prison; conviction affirmed at 844 F.2d 1057 (4th Cir. 1988). Pardoned by President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001 (Clinton's last day in office).
