Killer Spy: The Inside Story of the FBI's Pursuit and Capture of Aldrich Ames, America's Deadliest Spy

by Peter Maas

Peter Maas presents the true-life thriller about the greatest espionage case in American history - the pursuit, capture, and conviction of the CIA's murderous mole, Aldrich (Rick) Ames.
With the full cooperation of the FBI, Maas goes behind the headlines and provides us with an exclusive hour-by-hour, often minute-by-minute, account of how FBI counterintelligence agents, despite set-backs and mishaps, never gave up as they inexorably closed in on Ames and his Colombian-born wife.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Espionage, Crime, True Crime

Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Peter Maas was an American journalist and author. He was born in New York City and attended Duke University.

He was the biographer of Frank Serpico, a New York City Police officer who testified against police corruption. He is also the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, Underboss, about the life and times of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.

His other notable bestsellers include The Valachi Papers, Manhunt, and In a Child's Name, recipient of the 1991 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book. The Valachi Papers, which told the story of Mafia turncoat Joseph Valachi, is widely considered to be a seminal work, as it spawned an entire genre of books written by or about former Mafiosi.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Shera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit young when the Aldrich Ames arrest went down, and I've always been intrigued by the American spy who betrayed his nation (which led numerous people to their deaths). This book was informative, but in an easy-to-read way. The historical details of his betrayal were obviously well researched. I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't know much about the case.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aldrich Ames was a perfect example of inept our country's CIA was and probably is at policing their own. He was a constant screwup who just kept getting promoted. No one noticed when he suddenly cleaned himself up and spending money on fine suits and cars. What he did was terrible and he crippled the CIA's counterintelligence effort.

Was a good book.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

The journalist and true crime writer Peter Maas (1929-2001) here presents one important aspect of the Aldrich Ames spy scandal, the FBI’s involvement in the case. (The subtitle is crucial to understanding what Maas is about; he acknowledges “exceptional cooperation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”) Of course, Ames worked for the CIA, and that agency strove for many previous years—often clumsily to be sure—to discover the cause of one of the most disastrous security breeches in American intelligence history.

I think Maas writes well enough to keep most readers turning the pages, but I had the advantage of first having read the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the Ames case before coming to this book. Some readers without that background may find the narrative confusing in spots.

To my mind the most interesting parts of Killer Spy were the vignettes of some of the KGB “assets” betrayed by Ames’s treachery as well as the kind of debacles that can befall real-life police operations of a sort that never appear on TV crime shows.

Two weaknesses of the book are Maas’s attempt to play down Ames’s drinking (perhaps to emphasize his shrewdness and intelligence) and to minimize CIA acceptance of a “boys will be boys” ethos in its shop. Certainly an intelligence organization less tolerant of heavy drinking and adulterous relationships with big-spending foreign nationals would have sacked Ames before he ever got to the Russian Embassy.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting story, poorly written.

[Thrillers R Us · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Espionage Act of 1917 has been litigated almost since its day of creation and onward from the (subsequent) SCOTUS decision that, in the name of National Security, it doesn't violate the constitutional rights of freedom of speech. A mere thirty years later, the Cold War broke out and raged on until the late 1980s, early 1990s. Accelerated by glasnost, perestroika, fall of the Berlin Wall and the Yugoslav cookie crumbling, the Soviet Union went bust in late 1991 and opened the door to capitalism and democracy. How well things took hold is debatable, as the new country sprouting out of the red rubble showed no signs of slowing its old habits.

Taking the path of a legendary spy the likes of Ian Fleming could have dreamed up, Aldrich "Rick" Ames never intended to work in intelligence. Like most people with their careers, he just happened into it. Originally, Rick always wanted to be an actor, but couldn't manage the grades for it. Despite failing at acting, Rick was given the role of a lifetime by the CIA. It all starts out with an exotic woman, then money, and then just being valued. And in the blink of an eye, betrayal of his country. That is how one progresses from GS-7 in Virginia to Turkey, back to Langley, over to New York City, down to Mexico City, to Rome, back to Washington and hitting terminus in Terre Haute as permanent guest of the Bureau of Prisons wearing prisoner number #40087-083.

The Cold War had just been won, but in 1991, more than half of the FBI D.C. field office personnel was (still) working on foreign counterintelligence. Celebrations of victory and promises of democracy were still raging, almost masking that something's rotten in Denmark--or better yet, Langley. So much so, that for the first time since 1947, the FBI was asked to lend their investigative know-how to find the deadly compromise that was spilling secrets like the Exxon Valdez; to plug a leak. This called for a joint, no-holds barred investigation into the ongoing cancer of the most pernicious kind. Officially named Operation Playactor (FBI name) and Operation Skylight (CIA name), the most difficult hurdle to overcome from the get-go was the wide cultural gap between the bureau and the agency. And who'd be better to start and run an investigation of a sleeping bear than an agent named Bear Bryant? No humor intended, once the investigation was officially filed and a case opened, the FBI named it Operation Nightmover. Despite any perceived or real obstacles, the investigation got off to a bolstering start; the first gathering was in room 11610--which previously housed the special counterintelligence (CI) team that figured out the Libyan connection in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

Almost comical in his rise to a position of unbelievable access to extremely sensitive info about counter Russia efforts, Ames almost seems like a modern day version of Inspector Clouseau of PINK PANTHER fame. Knowing full well about the corruption, cynicism and cronyism in the Soviet Union, Ames nonetheless crossed the line for the siren song of cold, hard US currency. Assigned the KGB code name 'Kolokol', Rick could never escape the claws of the red menace and it was just a matter of time when either a Russian defector dropped dime on him or the Agency finally caught him in the act of passing secrets to his Russian handlers. Despite the mountain of cash that the Russians passed Rick's way, the investigation was slow to commence and gain traction. A plethora of SNAFUs--malfunctioning beacon, misplaced remote, poor scheduling, communication breakdown, uncharged radios, broken signal relay dish, and grounded surveillance plane--that would make the Keystone Cops jealous, obstructed building an airtight case for the longest of time until the impetus of evidence caused the FBI to pull the trigger.

A product of the US-USSR antagonism, Aldrich Ames is billed as one of America's deadliest spies, referring to the agents he probably caused to be killed but not being a trigger guy himself. The digitization of almost everything may or may not have completely changed the intelligence and spy game over the last thirty years that Rick's been housed on taxpayer dime, but the study of treason that is KILLER SPY is still a fascinating read. Lose yourself in the heated tension of the Cold War, dead drop spy craft, rivers of Rubels and Greenbacks, recruitment, deception, and mortal coils of international intrigue--KILLER SPY is must read espionage entertainment.

[Ella Igwe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly a drag. I was propelled through the first 2/3 of this book by two things:

1. Genuine interest in the subject
2. Knowledge that the subject was indeed interesting so it must get better at some point

My boyfriend makes fun of me because I’m the type of person who prefers reading a Wikipedia article to watching a biopic or even documentary on the same subject. I feel like Wikipedia articles *usually* give you just the facts and the facts on their own are spicy enough. The genres of the biopic and documentary are flooded with third rate retelling of the facts. For one to succeed imo, the writer needs to be able to say something interesting about these facts, some message or some link you wouldn’t have seen just by having the facts in front of you. Either that, or they need to present the facts in a way that’s entertaining.

Maas, failing the ability to do the first, relies on the second. The problem is, his approach is to try to write an overlong episode of Burn Notice, or NCIS, or Criminal Minds, except even worse because he hits you with boring backstory about his cast of cop characters at every introduction. As you can imagine, there are a lot of cops in this history which means lots of unfun backstory about how “tough and cool and badass” these guys are. His writing is just hokey. However, if you’re interested in the story of how one man who wasn’t even the world’s smartest double agent managed to fool the CIA for a while, read it. Or check Wikipedia 🤷🏾‍♀️

[Jeff Moffatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely written account of the FBI's investigation and capture of CIA case officer Aldrich Ames, perhaps the most infamous Soviet penetration of the CIA. Written by noted crime author Peter Maas, Killer Spy gives the FBI's side of the investigation, with Maas clearly having been given unprecedented access to the Ames case files and investigating agents. Reads like a page turner, albeit with a bit of sensationalism. Later books on the Ames case to a better job capturing the joint nature of the CIA/FBI investigation.

[SheMac · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read that tells the story of the capture of Aldrich Ames, who may have sent more than 20 Russians to their deaths after he unmasked them as CIA assets. The book contains great detail e.g. the transcripts of the his recorded phone calls. But there are no footnotes, no bibliography, no index. As a writer friend once told me, that's only half a book.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, a bit slow in the beginning, but glad I read it. Much was learned.

[Becca Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read full of detail. Made me search out related books to read.

[Piotr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Całkiem niezła. "Agent do specialnych poruczeń" mi nie pasowało przez całą książkę.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book on Ames that I've read. This one seemed to focus more on the influence of his wife, but it was still a very good read. Another angle of the story.

[Wika Skrobek · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5!!

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfectly cromulent spy tale. Kind of insane he was just doing it cause his wife loved shopping so much

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting and appalling look at Ames' various misdeeds. Curiously, this book doesn't really talk very much about the CIA's role in bringing Ames to justice. It's very FBI-centric, and I found that less interesting.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quick read. Not quite as compelling as the books about Robert Hanssen, the most damaging spy, but, nevertheless an fascinating book if you're interested in post Cold War spies and their undoing.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maas does it again. Must...have...more Maas!

[Duy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good summary about famous FBI and CIA campaign against a "mole".