The Falcon and the Fallout

March 1, 2003 10:36 AM

Freebird. Christopher Boyce (the Falcon from Falcon and the Snowman) on spying, prison, breaking out of prison, and the cruelty of denying parole to federal inmates. (LA Times reg.)
posted by xowie (8 comments total)

Interesting article, thanks xowie.
posted by biscotti at 10:53 AM on March 1, 2003

What a good article. Wow, has he been in prison that long? It was interesting reading this, while also thinking about the release of Kevin Mitnick and the stories he recently told. Their lives paralleled in a few instances.
posted by mkelley at 11:06 AM on March 1, 2003

I always wondered what had become of Boyce and Lee. I was surprised to learn that in the hypersensitive, get tough on crime mentality, that he actually had a couple of Senators lobby for his parole.
Nice link, thanks.
posted by keithl at 11:58 AM on March 1, 2003

The matter of the article was interesting, I remember reading the book and seeing Tim Hutton as Boyce. But the writer did a really amazing job with his language, phrasing, and such. Thanks Mr. X!
posted by billsaysthis at 12:33 PM on March 1, 2003

this is not america.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 2:51 PM on March 1, 2003

Hmm... Mitnick stole computer software and cloned cell phones. Boyce sold secrets to the Russians thereby derailing the SALT treaty, got caught, broke out of prison, conducted a string of armed bank robberies, went back into prison, and is finally out on parole.

I suppose that it's all a matter of opinion, but it seems to me that Boyce got off pretty lightly for what he did, whereas it seems that Mitnick got a bit of a raw deal.

That said, the article was interesting, and now I'm semi-motivated to go track down the book.
posted by jaek at 4:25 PM on March 1, 2003

Very interesting. Thank you for the link, xowie.

I'm surprised there's no mention of the incident which destroyed his faith, that is, the alleged plot by the CIA to destabilise the Whitlam government in Australia.
posted by emf at 2:26 AM on March 2, 2003

Great link xowie. I am going to re-visit this later today before commenting. Thanks.
posted by lampshade at 5:13 AM on March 2, 2003