True Life Spy Stories

Philip Thompson

Step into the shadow realm of spies, secrets, and subterfuge with the True Life Spy Stories Podcast. Join Philip Thompson as he meticulously deconstructs real-life espionage stories bringing history's most intriguing spies and covert operations to life. Philip delivers compelling narratives that blend historical accuracy with engaging storytelling. Whether you're a history buff, a spy fiction enthusiast, or simply curious about the hidden forces shaping world events, this podcast offers a fascinating glimpse into the secret real world of espionage.

Play

Open in

22 episodes
weekly
Avg 23 min
English

Episodes 22

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

August 20 · 15 min
Project GENETRIX | The CIA's Army of Spy Balloons Over the Soviet Union
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284 ⁠⁠In January 1956, the U.S. Air Force and CIA launched more than 500 unmanned balloons across the Soviet Union and China, each one carrying a camera, betting the jet stream could see what a spy plane couldn't. Project GENETRIX lasted 27 days before Soviet fighters, a public wreckage display in Moscow, and a furious Eisenhower shut it down. Only a fraction of the balloons ever produced usable photographs. But the wind data, a radar-detection accident, and a recovery technique it left behind fed directly into the U-2 and, later, the CORONA spy satellite. This is the story of the Cold War's strangest reconnaissance gamble, and the one that, in February 2023, came back around with the roles reversed.
August 13 · 33 min
Odette Sansom | The Unbreakable Spy of WW2
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Captured by the Gestapo. Tortured with a hot iron and steel pincers. Sentenced to death, twice. Odette Sansom gave her interrogators nothing, and became the most highly decorated woman spy of World War 2. A courier for the SOE's SPINDLE network in occupied France, betrayed, imprisoned, and sent to Ravensbrück, she survived to testify against the men who tried to break her. 📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link): 📕 Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became World War II's Most Highly Decorated Spy by Larry Loftis 📘Odette: World War Two's Darling Spy by Penny Starns 📕Odette by Jerrard Tickell
August 6 · 17 min
William Mackinnon Gray | The Spy Turned Wife Killer
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In April 1941, MI6 station chief William Mackinnon Gray shot his wife dead in a British Army officers' mess, then turned the gun on himself. He survived. When Britain's Secret Intelligence Service learned who he really was, they moved to make sure the world never found out, and the truth stayed buried for over eighty years. Original John Lucas article: 🌐Crime Files: The Spy Who Killed: Investigating MI6's wartime wife killer
#26
July 30 · 26 min
Lionel 'Buster' Crabb | The Mysterious Disappearance of a British Navy Frogman
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ On 19 April 1956, Royal Navy frogman Buster Crabb slipped into Portsmouth Harbour to examine the hull of a Soviet warship carrying Khrushchev and Bulganin on a state visit. He surfaced once, dived again, and was never seen alive again. What followed was a cover-up that reached the Prime Minister, a hotel register stripped of evidence, a Commons debate, and a headless body pulled from Chichester Harbour fourteen months later. The full government files on his disappearance stay sealed until 2057. 📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link): 📕 ⁠The Final Dive: The Life And Death of 'Buster' Crabb by Don Hale 📕Undersea Warrior: Commander Crabbs' Story by Marshall Pugh
July 23 · 26 min
Pyotr Popov | The Brutal End of the CIA's First Soviet Spy
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In November 1952, a Soviet army officer in Vienna slipped an envelope through the window of a parked American diplomat's car. Inside was an offer to sell military secrets. Within weeks, the CIA had their first ever source inside Soviet military intelligence. For seven years, Pyotr Popov gave the CIA a picture of the Soviet military it had never had: weapons systems, nuclear doctrine, and the identities of hundreds of GRU officers operating across the West. Then the KGB closed in. What followed was one of the most contested exposure cases in Cold War history. Decades later, a document found in a Lithuanian KGB archive suggested Popov had been identified as a CIA source before he ever returned to Moscow. 📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link): 📕 Mole: True Story of the First Russian Spy to Become an American Counterspy by William Hood
July 17 · 18 min
Gareth Williams | The Mystery of The Spy In The Bag
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In August 2010, MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams was found dead in his London flat, locked inside a padlocked holdall with no sign of how he got there. A coroner ruled it unlawful killing. The police ruled it an accident. This episode traces the case from discovery to the 2024 forensic review, and the questions that still haven't been answered.
July 10 · 1 hr
Espionage A-Z Vol. 1 | Secrets of Espionage They Don't Want You To Know
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ From A to Z, the secret world has a story for every letter. The spy chief who ran Nazi intelligence while sabotaging it from within. The corpse that fooled Hitler. The tunnel the KGB already knew about before the first shovel hit dirt. The family that sold America's naval codes for eighteen years. The criminal who became Britain's most celebrated double agent. This is volume 1 in the Encyclopaedia of Espionage. Twenty-six letters, twenty-six entries from the history of intelligence. Some of these names you'll know. Most you won't. All of them are real.
July 1 · 28 min
Viktor Belenko | The Soviet Pilot Who Stole A MiG-25 Interceptor Jet
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ On 6 September 1976, Soviet Air Force Lieutenant Viktor Belenko defected to the West in a MiG-25 interceptor, landing at a civilian airport in Japan and handing American intelligence the most secret aircraft in the Soviet arsenal. The MiG-25 was studied for 67 days before being returned to the Soviet Union in pieces. What the West found overturned a decade of assumptions about Soviet air power. This is the story of how Belenko did it, what the analysis revealed, and what became of the man who pulled it off. 📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link): 📕 MiG Pilot by John Barron
June 19 · 24 min
James W Hall | The Spy From Devil's Mountain
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In 1982, an American signals intelligence sergeant walked past the Soviet consulate in West Berlin and dropped a letter through its mail slot, offering his services to the KGB. Within weeks he had opened a second channel to the East German Stasi, selling the same secrets to both. For six years, James W. Hall III operated out of Field Station Berlin — one of the most sensitive NSA listening posts in Cold War Europe — passing material an NSA official later estimated cost three billion dollars in damage. He was paid roughly three hundred thousand dollars for it. This episode tells the story of how he did it, what he sold, and how an unrelated shoplifting arrest in West Berlin set the chain of events in motion that would end his career in a motel room outside Savannah, Georgia. 📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link): 📕 Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catchers World by Stuart A. Herrington - https://amzn.to/4uVZXac
#24
June 16 · 12 min
Intel Dossier | A Russian Illegal Spy Goes to Jail
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Welcome to Dead Drop. In this week's dossier: FSB operative Zarubina jailed 14 months in New York; the Pentagon raises Israel's espionage threat rating to critical; Tulsi Gabbard resigns as US Director of National Intelligence; and China arrests US Myanmar scholar on suspicion of espionage.
June 12 · 41 min
John Walker | The Worst Spy Ring In US History
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠ John Anthony Walker Jnr. ran the largest and most damaging espionage ring in Cold War history. For nearly 18 years he and his co-conspirators sold US Navy secrets to the Soviets. Yet things inevitably got too big and too messy. John Walker’s contempt for his wife and those around him meant that it was only a matter of time before his house of cards went tumbling down. In the year of the spy, John Anthony Walker Jnr. was the spy of the decade. #philipthompson #truelifespystories #johnwalker Primary sources and further reading (afiiliate links): 📕 Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring, Pete Earley - Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring - https://amzn.to/4v0Sgjw 📘 Spy Hunter: Inside the FBI Investigation of the Walker Espionage Case, Robert W. Hunter - https://amzn.to/4ekCCYq 📕 Breaking the Ring, John Baron - https://amzn.to/3VgiKgo Media shown in this video (affiliate links): 🎞️ On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - https://amzn.to/4b4L9vQ 🎞️ The Vietnam War (2017) - https://amzn.to/3VqClux
#23
June 9 · 14 min
Intel Dossier | CIA Officer Found With $40m Stash of Gold Bars
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Welcome to Dead Drop. In this week's dossier: A former CIA officer steals gold bars worth more than 40 million dollars; Former MI6 chief, Sir Alex Younger, dies at the age of 62; IRA spy asks a judge if she can take off her ankle tag to go wedding dress shopping; and Former MI6 chief reveals how his cover was blown by a Christmas card.
June 2 · 12 min
Monica Witt | The Most Wanted Woman in America
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠ On 28 August 2013, a woman named Monica Witt sent an email from Dubai. She was about to board a flight to Tehran. The message went to a contact in Iran who had been managing her movement for months. "I'm signing off and heading out!" she wrote. "Coming home." She included a smiley-face emoji. Witt was a former U.S. Air Force cryptologic language analyst who had held a Top Secret clearance and access to some of America’s most sensitive counterintelligence programmes. In February 2019, a federal grand jury indicted Monica Witt on charges of conspiracy to deliver national defence information to a foreign government and two substantive counts of delivering that information. Each count carries a potential life sentence. An arrest warrant was issued, but only on 14 May 2026 was a $200,000 bounty placed on her head. But who is she, and why does the FBI now, 13 years later, want her back so badly?
#22
May 29 · 10 min
Intel Dossier | Verdict In On Austrian Spy Trial Of The Century
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠ Welcome to Dead Drop. In this week's dossier: 1. CIA conducts covert operations Mexican cartel; 2. Russia hijacks 18,000 home routers across 120 countries to silently steal credentials; 3. Austria hands down a unanimous guilty verdict in its spy trial of the century; and 4. the FBI posts a 200,000-dollar bounty for a defector to Iran.
May 23 · 32 min
Clyde Conrad | The Ice Cold Spy Who Sold Out America
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠ In 1990, a German court made a finding that sent shockwaves through the Western intelligence community. If the Cold War had turned hot, NATO would have been forced to choose between capitulation and launching nuclear weapons on German soil. The man responsible was not a senior official, a diplomat, or a career intelligence officer. He was a U.S. Army sergeant from Ohio named Clyde Conrad. For thirteen years, Conrad walked into one of the most sensitive offices in NATO's European command and sold its most secret war plans to the other side. By the time investigators found him, the damage was done. A German judge would describe him as standing at the top of the worldwide list of all known spies. This is the full story of Clyde Conrad — his recruitment by a Hungarian-American mole inside his own unit, the thirteen-year operation that followed, the decade-long hunt to find him, and the undercover sting that finally brought him down. 📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link): 📕 Damian and Mongoose: How a U.S. Army Counterespionage Agent Infiltrated an International Spy Ring by Danny L Williams - Danny L Williams 📕 Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catchers World by Stuart A. Herrington - https://amzn.to/4uVZXac
#21
May 14 · 13 min
Intel Dossier | Iran Purges Alleged CIA & Mossad Spies
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠ Welcome to Dead Drop. In this week's dossier: 1. Iran hangs three men for alleged Mossad and CIA espionage as the post-war ceasefire teeters on the edge; 2. Britain records its first-ever convictions for Chinese espionage; 3. Norway seizes a 22-ton satellite receiver in a suspected Chinese plot to intercept NATO intelligence from the Arctic; 4. a leaked investigation exposes the GRU's secret hacker school embedded inside Russia's most prestigious university; and 5. two Americans are sentenced for running North Korean IT workers inside US companies.
May 9 · 24 min
Project Azorian | The CIA's Deep-Sea Submarine Heist
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠ In 1968 a Soviet nuclear submarine sank in the North Pacific with 98 men aboard. The Soviets never found it. The Americans did — and they spent six years and half a billion dollars trying to secretly raise it from three miles down. This is the story of Project Azorian: the CIA's deep-sea submarine heist. 📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate links): 📕 Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129 by Norman C. Polmar - https://amzn.to/4u7ovxg 📕 Project Azorian: The History of the CIA Operation to Recover a Sunken Soviet Submarine by Charles River Editors, KC Wayman - https://amzn.to/3ORHbSj
#20
May 3 · 11 min
Intel Dossier | Russia's Secret Hit Squad Unmasked
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠ Welcome to Dead Drop. In this week's dossier: Russia's secret unit for assassinations and sabotage finally unmasked — after one of its operatives used Google Translate to arrange a murder and was arrested in Colombia; A former Google engineer becomes the first person convicted in the US on AI-related economic espionage charges, after stealing thousands of pages of proprietary AI technology for China; and A FOIA lawsuit extracts internal emails revealing how America's top intelligence office quietly wiped hundreds of its own public records from the internet.
April 30 · 25 min
Bogdan Stashinsky | Diary Of A KGB Assassin
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠ In October 1957, a young Ukrainian man walked into a Munich office building, passed a stranger on a stairwell, and killed him with a weapon that left no trace. Two years later, he did it again. Both deaths were recorded as heart attacks.On 13 August 1961, as the Berlin Wall was being erected, Bogdan Stashinsky walked into a West Berlin police station and confessed to both murders.This is the story of a KGB assassin recruited and trained to kill with a Soviet poison gun concealed in a rolled newspaper, and ultimately broken by the weight of what he had done. It is also the story of the two men he killed, Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera, leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement in exile, hunted by Moscow across Western Europe throughout the 1950s.Stashinsky's trial in Karlsruhe in 1962 exposed the Soviet Union's use of state-sponsored assassination to the world. His memoirs, written before the trial and lost in an archive for sixty years, were published in 2024.His whereabouts today, should he still be alive, are unknown. 📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link): 📕 The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story by Serhii Plokhy - https://amzn.to/4cHLecS 📕 Erinnerungen eines KGB-Agenten: Kontexte des Mordes an Stepan Bandera und Lew Rebet by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe
April 25 · 35 min
Lily Sergueiew | The D-Day Spy That History Forgot
Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠ She walked 1,400 kilometres across Europe. Cycled through Nazi Germany as Hitler rose to power. And then, in the middle of the most elaborate deception operation in history, she made a decision that would cost her everything.Nathalie Sergueiew, known to everyone as Lily, was one of just five double agents entrusted with feeding Adolf Hitler's high command the lie that saved D-Day. The Germans trusted her completely. MI5 codenamed her Treasure. She had one condition. She wanted her dog.What followed threatened to unravel Operation Fortitude and erase Lily from the history books entirely. This is her story.📖 This video is based on Codename TREASURE: The Life of D-Day Spy, Lily Sergeiev by Peter Winnington, published by Pen & Sword Books. A superb read, highly recommended (affiliate links): 📖 Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3KBK5VR📖 Pen & Sword Books: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Codename-TREASURE-Hardback/p/23441/aid/1237Peter Winnington's website: https://gpeterwinnington.com/

Showing 1–20 of 22 episodes