ESPIONAGE: Caught in the Act

It was a pleasantly cool afternoon. In a Manhattan office two FBI agents waited nervously.

The lens of a small movie camera, hand-operated for secrecy, projected through a concealed hole into the next office.

The agents had reason to be nervous. For some two years the FBI had been working on this case; in three more days it would be ready to round up 33 individuals for its biggest spy trial so far. The tenant of that next office was glum-looking William Sebold, an FBI decoy (TIME, Sept. 22). Its walls were painted a bright white—to make the movies clearer. The...

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