type, who was a loyal camp follower. If needed Mary would bandage her man’s wounds as she basked in her spouse’s importance.
A new plan was now formulated at CIA headquarters in how to use the two spies, for maximum effect. It was decided that Howard and his wife would be sent to the Moscow station around the third week of June, 1983. The duo would veil themselves as State Department officials with diplomatic immunity.
Howard had lucked out. The Moscow station was the crown jewel of CIA assignments. The intricacies of the Moscow bureau, such as contact information, misinformation and operation strategies were memorized by Howard.
In March 19, 1983 Howard’s son Lee was born.
What has not been found in the dockets and is puzzling, was the infant going to be cared for by Howard’s parents or was Mary going to take the baby with her to Moscow?
I would think, infant Lee would have been left behind? It is documented that after the baby’s birth, Howard’s mother stayed at the Howard’s house and helped Mary with the infant.
In April, Howard was instructed to take a standard pre-departure polygraph test.
The results of this polygraph test revealed that Howard had hidden some serious problems from his CIA handlers. The Howard’s Moscow mission was put on ice and an investigation followed, along with more polygraph tests.
It was discovered that Howard was a cryptic abuser of alcohol, hallucinogens and cocaine. The CIA agent also had a history of petty thievery. Wife Mary had covered for her husband during his schooling and profiling.
Somehow Howard was able to dupe his CIA captains and pass the agency’s initial polygraph test and background checks.
As one punster put it, “Howard had the right stuff to be a master spy, he had thought up more lies by noon, even though he only woke up at 2 p.m., than the rest of the wide awake CIA staff combined.”
Without a concern for what Howard knew and the many lives he held in his hands, on May 2,1983, the CIA gave their future Moscow operative a resignation paper and told him to sign it. If Howard signed the paper he would be able to put down on his resume that he had resigned from the State Department, his job was that of a economic specialist. If Howard did not voluntarily resign, he would be fired. Not wanting to be cashiered and all that went with it, Howard signed the paper, his bright future with the CIA had been scrubbed.
Previous to this firing, whatever Howard wrangled for, he got. The young man had never experienced a major defeat in his life.
The sacked humiliated spy who had envisioned himself as being a suave Ian Fleming type character, was now forced to start a new career.
In August of 1983, Howard moved to Santa Fe with his wife and child. The couple set up residence in Eldorado at 108 Verano Loop. Their imitation adobe house was situated on a one-acre plot.
Howard’s resume line, of being a former U.S. State Department employee got him a job at the State Capital’s Roundhouse in the Revenue Department.
Fatherhood did not slow down fast living Howard. The ex-espionage agent was a mess, his identity had been stripped from him. Howard was drinking heavily, ingesting drugs and having affairs with female state employees. Mary unhealthily tolerated her husband’s swinging lifestyle.
While living in Santa Fe, Howard joined a target shooting gun club, enjoyed violent movies, jogged the dirt roads near his house and flew motorized model airplanes. Howard was not well liked by his state of New Mexico (Legislative Finance Committee) male co-workers. Howard was seen as a lazy, self-entitled, whimpering, feeling sorry for himself type person.
On the evening of February 26, 1984, Howard was at Peppers Restaurant & Cantina, which was located at 2329 Old Pecos Trail. Seasoned Santa Feans, identify the restaurant and bar by its old name, “The Town House.”
High on cocaine and alcohol, Howard followed a group of young adults into the nightspot’s parking lot. Different sources have the group being made up of many couples or of three young men and one young woman.
Brazenly, Howard engaged the woman in the group and then tried to force her into his car. The young lady’s friend Peter Hughes, age twenty-four, and her escort checked Howard’s advances.
After a brief confrontation, the group left cursing curled lip Howard in the cantina’s car lot and drove to Hughes’ Santa Fe Avenue house.
As the group of pals were in Hughes’ driveway, Howard drove up to the gathering and became belligerent.
The spurned Lothario had tailed the Santa Feans. Through slurs and yells, the young men were told they had no right interfering in Howard’s personal business.
Howard’s ego had been deflated by the young woman’s rejection of his passes; he blamed her male friends for his lack of success. Tension escalated. Losing the battle of intimidation with the young men, Howard palmed a silver-plaited .44 Magnum pistol and got out of his car. Weapon pointed, the foul mouthed inebriated man marched on Hughes who was told to get back into his his jeep.
In a alcohol/cocaine fuddle but with deadly intentions, Howard pointed the gun at Hughes’ head. A struggle ensued a shot rang out. Hughes’ jeep now had a bullet hole it its roof. Howard, the want-to-be James Bond, was overpowered, punched and disarmed.
While Hughes was inside his flat calling the police, Howard broke loose from his young captors, Conrad Hayas and Bob Martinez. The snarling man jumped into his vehicle and sped off. Minutes later police officers John Martinez and Ray Rael arrived at Hughes’ residence.
As the young Santa Feans were explaining to the police officers what had transpired, Howard unbelievably drove back to the scene of the crime and parked his car.
Full of bravado Howard demanded from Hughes his captured pistol. The cosmopolitan man then ordered the police officers to help him retrieve his gun. Howard was arrested on the spot.
In the court of Judge Bruce E. Kaufman, Howard was only charged with felonious aggravated assault. Howard’s bluffs, self-importance, egotistical ways, and perhaps CIA connections, ran roughshod over District Attorney Eloy F. Martinez.
When a person pulls a gun on another person, then aims the weapon at that person’s head and the gun goes off, but the bullet misses the victim, is that scenario not attempted murder?
Howard was convicted of a felony and fined $7,500
If the roles were reversed, Hughes, the son of a Vietnam P.O.W. James Lindburg Hughes, would have been likely charged with a slew of felonies. In a court of law, the young Santa Fean would have probably been found guilty and sentenced to a long stay in prison.
All Hughes can be thankful for is that the Santa Fe judicial system did not indict him on convoluted charges that he had instigated Howard’s attack. Or in the deadly struggle with Howard, the young man had defended himself with too much unwarranted violence.
Howard was released from jail and went to a clinic to get dried out. Prior to this incident, the ex-CIA man had been arrested in Santa Fe for fighting with his wife. How Howard was able to avoid jail time or serious charges is up to debate?
Incredibly, Howard’s history of drug abuse, thefts and murder attempt in Santa Fe, did not register with the watchdogs of the CIA.
Apologists for the CIA rightfully claim that murder charges
