7. Richard Welch: The CIA station chief gunned down on the street of Athens by revolutionaries
It was like something out of a Hollywood movie: a CIA station chief stationed in Europe is identified and then assassinated. Indeed, the killing of Richard Welch has featured in several novels, while also inspiring the plot lines of many more. But this was a real assassination, and one that, though it caused shockwaves at the time, has largely been forgotten.
Welch, a Connecticut native who was born in 1929, went straight into the CIA fresh from Harvard University. Since he studied classics, he had an excellent working knowledge of Greek. So, in 1952, he was sent to Athens. After a few years finding his feet as a spy, he was moved to Cyprus, the Central America and then onto Peru. In the summer of 1975, he moved back to Greece. His return coincided with the end of a military dictatorship in the country. Tensions were high, with activists on both sides of the political spectrum having turned to violence.
It was when Welch was returning from an office Christmas party, on the evening of December 23, 1975, that the assassins struck. A man and a woman held his wife and driver up, while a third shot him at point-blank range. He was the first CIA officer to be assassinated in a targeted attack. The crime went unsolved for more than 20 years. Then, in 2002, a hospital porter admitted he was one of the three assassins. He also named his accomplices. Due to the Statute of Limitations in Greece, just one of the three culprits faced justice, and even he was sent to prison for other atrocities.
Welch’s assassination led had an impact both at home and abroad. An investigation found that he had been named as a CIA agent, and his Athens address had even been made publicly available. After his death, the US government passed the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, making it a crime to name or identify an undercover agent of the United States.