The Falcon And His Falcons
Every spy needs a cool nickname, and for Christopher Boyce, it was “The Falcon.” The KGB chose it for him not because his keen eyes let him see far or because he struck his targets like a bird of prey. They picked it because Boyce liked falcons — actual falcons, through the sport of falconry. They nicknamed his partner Andrew Lee “The Snowman” because Lee liked cocaine — actual cocaine, through the sport of cocaine. This pair and their codenames became common knowledge thanks to the bestselling book
The Falcon and the Snowman, and the film of the same name starring Sean Penn.
Orion Pictures
In 1974, Boyce worked for an aerospace company with top-secret clearance, and through a series of wacky 1970s misunderstandings, the firm began receiving CIA cables they were never supposed to see. Boyce ended up shuttling these to the Soviets, and the way he describes it, he read stuff so terrible, he figured it was time to switch allegiances. That terrible stuff included the CIA plotting regime change … in Australia. The CIA ended up going through with this plan.
Boyce and Lee spent the next three years traveling to Mexico City and dropping documents at the Soviet embassy there. Then in 1977, Lee made the bad choice of dropping some microfilm off while a policeman was watching him. That officer arrested him … for littering. Under interrogation, Lee revealed that he and Boyce had actually been engaged in the slightly more serious crime of treason, and he wound up sentenced to jail for life.
Orion Pictures
Boyce was sentenced to jail too (for 40 years — same espionage charge, but with less cocaine). And while that’s where the book and movie ended, that wasn’t the end of his story. In January 1980, he escaped prison, using a makeshift ladder to get over the fence. His prison was 100 miles outside of Los Angeles, so maybe he was going to flee to Mexico. But investigators looked for clues in the man’s profile, which said he ate lots of vitamins, liked jogging, and of course was obsessed with falcons.
He was obsessed with one subspecies of peregrine falcons, specifically. So they narrowed their search to the areas this rare bird calls home, which meant the Olympic peninsula in Washington state. And by following up leads there, they managed to get their hands back on Boyce. Even as he became a fugitive, living in the wilderness with a mule, he hadn’t been able to give up his love of falcons.
Orion Pictures
Boyce had been five days away from getting a pilot’s license, which he said he would have used to flee the area for somewhere far away. So, they caught up with him just in time. Though, he’d certainly made the job of finding him easier by robbing 16 banks and getting caught on the security camera.
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