I've always contended it's difficult to make up something that's as odd and convoluted as a person is going to find in real life. The Cuban Spy case which has been breaking in the news and it's strong South Dakota connection would be one of those.

A retired State Department worker and his wife have been arrested on charges of spying for Cuba for three decades, using grocery carts among their array of tools to pass U.S. secrets to the communist government in a security breach one official described as “incredibly serious.”

An indictment unsealed Friday said Walter Kendall Myers worked his way into higher and higher U.S. security clearances while secretly partnering with his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, as clandestine agents so valued by the Cuban government that they once had a private four-hour meeting with President Fidel Castro.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said that the arrest culminated a three-year investigation and that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has ordered a “comprehensive damage assessment” to determine what he may have passed to the Cubans.

and…

The indictment says Kendall Myers disclosed to the State Department that he traveled to Cuba for two weeks in 1978, saying the trip was for personal and academic purposes. The next year, a Cuban government official visited the couple while they were living in South Dakota and recruited them to be spies, the indictment says. At Cuba’s direction, authorities say, Kendall Myers attempted to get jobs that would give him access to classified information.

Read it all here.

How strong of a connection is it? Amazingly, this Washington post article seems to indicate that one of the traitors to our country was recruited straight off of US Senator Jim Abourezk’s staff after he left office!

The following year, Myers moved to South Dakota, apparently to teach, friends said. He lived with a woman who would soon become his second wife, Gwendolyn Trebilcock, a legislative aide for then-Sen. John Abourezk (D) in her home town of Aberdeen.

Abourezk said in an interview yesterday that he liked both of them. “She is a very good woman,” he said. “And I always thought he was a decent human being.”

An official from the Cuban mission visited the couple in South Dakota and recruited them, officials say. He asked Myers to join the State Department or the CIA, authorities said. Gwendolyn Myers would later tell an undercover FBI agent, posing as a Cuban operative, that her husband chose State because he was not “a very good liar.” The CIA required regular polygraph tests, Myers said.

Read it all here.

Wow. Not exactly the Bourne identity, but a fascinating tale nonetheless. It might bear a review of the Senator’s papers just to research more of the back story.  This will continue to be an interesting case to watch, expecially as the political connection continues.

Now, for those of you interested, here’s the FBI affidavit - reading through it, there is a mention (page 17) that they met with the co-conspirator in South Dakota in 1978, which would be during the time it appears she would have been on Abourezk’s staff.

walter_kendall_myers_complaint

If you’re interested as to whom else was in this office, this would have been at the time Tom Daschle was the person in charge of foreign policy issues for the Senator.

One website notes that there might be more South Dakota weirdness with this Couple. Word is that there’s also a Supreme Court case involving them:  The article at the American Thinker on the spy case is the most authoritative one I’ve read yet on the topic, and makes a good and in depth examination - especially many of the South Dakota connections.

Speaking of the case - South Dakota v. Gwendolyn Steingraber (a previous maiden name -pp) and Walter Kendal Myers (No. 13017)296 N.W.2d543; 1980 S.D. LEXIS 385.

Here’s a Blurb from the court case:

STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. GWENDOLYN STEIN-GRABER AND WALTER KENDAL MYERS, Defendants and Appellees
No. 13017
Supreme Court of South Dakota
296 N.W.2d 543; 1980 S.D. LEXIS 385

May 23, 1980, Argued
September 17, 1980, Opinion Filed

PRIOR HISTORY: [**1] APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SIXTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, HUGHES COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA. THE HONORABLE PATRICK J. MC KEEVER Judge.

CASE SUMMARY:

PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Defendants in a criminal case filed a motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant. The Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Hughes County, South Dakota, granted the order on the grounds that the deputy sheriff executing the warrant had not complied with S.D. Consolidated Laws § 23A-35-8, the “knock-and-announce” statute. The State filed an intermediate appeal.

OVERVIEW: The residence to be searched had an en-closed porch attached to the front. Entry to the porch was obtained through a screen door. The deputy sheriff who was serving the warrant opened the screen door without first knocking, entered the porch, and approached the front door to the living quarters. This door was open. The deputy saw two people in the living room. The deputy entered the living room and announced his purpose to execute the search warrant almost simultaneously with his entry, although he could not recall whether the an-nouncement was made before or after he stepped into the living room. The court stated that because the deputy complied or clearly intended to comply with the statute at the front door to the living area, it was not necessary that he comply with the statute before entering the porch through the screen door. The porch here did not appear to be an integral portion of the living area of the residence, but more in the nature of a foyer or natural entranceway for the general public. Next, in announcing his intention to execute the search warrant nearly simultaneously with his entry into the living room, the deputy had substan-tially complied with the statute.

OUTCOME: The court reversed the order. It remanded the case to the circuit court for further proceedings.

and…

OPINION BY: WOLLMAN

OPINION
[*544] This is an intermediate appeal from an order suppressing certain evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant. We reverse and remand.

Acting pursuant to an informant’s tip regarding drug-related activity, a search warrant was obtained authoriz-ing a search of a residence at 328 North Grand in Pierre. At approximately 7:30 on the evening of September 17, 1979, several law enforcement officers, led by Hughes County Deputy Sheriff Charles Vollmer, undertook to serve the warrant. The officers positioned themselves at various places around the house. Deputy Sheriff Vollmer and two other officers approached the front door of the residence.

The residence is a brick structure with an enclosed [**2] porch attached to the front. Entry to the porch is obtained through a screen door. Deputy Sheriff Vollmer opened the screen door without first knocking, where-upon he and the other two officers entered the porch and approached the front door to the living quarters. Finding this door open and observing two occupants in the living room, one in possession of a marijuana pipe and a tray of what appeared to be marijuana, Deputy Vollmer entered the living room, announcing his purpose to execute the search warrant almost simultaneously with his entry, although he could not recall whether the announcement was made before or after he stepped into the living room. Immediately after entering the living room and ordering the two occupants to be seated on the [*545] couch, Deputy Vollmer handed a copy of the search warrant to defendant Myers, one of the occupants.

INTERESTING, as I was living a couple blocks down the street at the time.

Who would have known that as I passed it on the way to School, I was passing a treasonous den of iniquity.

South Dakota's spy story still has another chapter yet to be written. And that would be what happens when you commit treason by passing on state secrets to a nation hostile to our own interests.