True Life Spy Stories

dead drop #8 | The Death of Notorius Soviet Spy Aldrich Ames

Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠ [https://bmc.link/philipthompson] Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠ [paypal.me/PhilipT284] Notorious Soviet and Russian spy and former CIA officer Aldrich Ames has died in a US prison on 5 January 2026, aged 84. This is my report. #philipthompson #truelifespystories #aldrichames

Fang Fang | The Chinese Honeytrap Who Infiltrated Congress

Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠ [https://bmc.link/philipthompson] Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠ [paypal.me/PhilipT284] In 2014, at a mayors' conference in Washington DC, an older Midwestern mayor introduced a young Chinese woman on his arm as his girlfriend. He seemed genuinely smitten. She was beautiful, attentive, and at least two decades younger than him. What none of them knew was that the FBI already had eyes on the glamorous young lady. She had been photographed meeting repeatedly with a suspected Chinese intelligence officer at the San Francisco consulate. Her name was Christine Fang, and she was sent to build relationships with up-and-coming American politicians as part of a long-term Chinese influence campaign. This she did for 5 years, penetrating the heart of Silicon Valley. While FBI investigators waited for concrete evidence before moving in, they allowed Christine Fang to slip through their fingers This is the story of Fang Fang, the Chinese honeytrap who seduced America. #philipthompson #truelifespystories #fangfang

Anna Chapman | The Russian Doll Spy

Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ https://bmc.link/philipthompson Donate via PayPal: 💸 paypal.me/PhilipT284 The afternoon of 26 June 2010 was sweltering in Manhattan. Inside a coffee shop in lower Manhattan, a young woman with distinctive red hair sat across from a man she'd never met. Anna Chapman was nervous. The man claimed to be from the Russian consulate, using coded phrases that only someone from Moscow Center would know. He told her that her laptop needed to go back to Russia for repairs. She hesitated, feeling dubious. What she didn't know was that the man across from her was an FBI agent. The laptop she'd handed over would never see Moscow. And within 36 hours, her life as a Russian intelligence operative in America would be over. This is the story of Anna Chapman, the red-headed socialite spy who infiltrated London and New York's elite circles. Born in Volgograd to a KGB officer, she acquired British citizenship through marriage, moved through Mayfair's high society, and eventually landed in Manhattan where she transmitted encrypted data to Russian handlers using covert wireless networks. Her arrest in June 2010, alongside nine other Russian illegals, marked the end of Operation Ghost Stories and the largest US-Russia spy swap since the Cold War. But Anna's story didn't end with her capture. It had only just begun. From coffee shops in Manhattan to the Kremlin's halls of power, from FBI surveillance to magazine covers and television shows, this is the true story of the spy who came in from the cold and found the spotlight warmer than she'd ever imagined. #philipthompson #truelifespystories #annachapman

Kim Philby | Britain's Most Infamous Cold War Spy and Traitor

Ways to support the podcast: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠ [https://bmc.link/philipthompson] Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠ [paypal.me/PhilipT284] Harold Adrian Russell Philby was known to everyone as Kim. Four years after the infamous defection to the Soviet Union of British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, Kim was preparing to hold a press conference at his mother's Kensington flat. Ever since the disappearance of the two defectors behind the Iron Curtain, whispers of another betrayal - a so-called "Third Man" started to hang like a dark cloud over Kim Philby’s head. And so there he sat, ready to set the record straight. When asked point-blank whether he was the "third man" who had tipped off Burgess and Maclean, he met the question with measured calm, denial. This infamous proclamation of his innocence was delivered with such sincerity that he was able momentarily to silence his accusers. The press conference in many ways served its purpose, allowing Kim Philby to continue on for the next 8 years. He had, of course, been lying through his teeth. It was only after he disappeared in 1963 that questions started to be asked. How could this have happened? Did British intelligence know about it all along and did they allow him to flee to avoid an even greater scandal? Even today, in 2025 newly declassified documents are shedding fresh light on this most extraordinary case of intrigue and betrayal. This is the story of Kim Philby, the Cold War's most notorious spy and traitor. #philipthompson #truelifespystories #kimphilby

dead drop #7 | New Zealand convicts its first ever spy

Ways to support the channel: Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ https://bmc.link/philipthompson Donate via PayPal: 💸 paypal.me/PhilipT284 New Zealand convicts its first ever spy Over in the UK, spy trials don't get out the starting gates. Not so in New Zealand, where in August 2025, the New Zealand courts convicted its first spy, sending a thus-far unnamed soldier in its defence forces to detention in a military camp for 2 years. In this episode I detail the sting operation that went into apprehending and prosecuting the would-be spy who tried to pass classified New Zealand materials to a foreign power. #PhilipThompson #deaddrop #TrueLifeSpyStories Video made in: https://vizzy.io