Partner Bernon Mitchell

William Hamilton Martin (May 27, 1931 – January 17, 1987) was born in Columbus, Georgia. His family soon moved to Washington state where his father was president of the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce. He graduated from Ellensburg High School after two years. After studies at Central Washington College of Education (now Central Washington University), he earned a degree in mathematics from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1947. He enlisted in the United States Navy and served from 1951 to 1954, working as a cryptologist with the Naval Security Group in Japan. As hobbies, Martin played chess and collected Japanese sword handles (tsuka).

The item on ‘Homosexuality’ in Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen’s generally reliable Encyclopedia of Espionage (1998) names just nine homosexual men and one bisexual: Alfred Redl, Guy Burgess, the bisexual Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt, Alan Turing, James A. Mintkenbaugh, William Martin, Bernon Mitchell, John Vassall and Maurice Oldfield. The lovers William Martin and Bernon Mitchell defected to the USSR in 1960 because they disapproved of the intelligence-gathering methods of the US National Security Agency, by which they were employed.

Bill Martin And Bernon Mitchell by Bettmann
Bill Martin And Bernon Mitchell


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