Are Howard’s sterling archival accomplishments fictitious? How could this poster boy of American values, years down the road betray everything he believed in? Perhaps the old adage - Nothing is never as it appears to be - sums up Howard and strange Santa Fe.
In 1972 Howard graduated Cum Laude from the University of Texas, whereupon he joined the Peace Corps and worked for two years in Coast Rica, Dominican Republic and Columbia. While in South America the future Santa Fean became fluent in Spanish.
In Bucaramanga, Columbia, Howard met fellow Peace Corp worker Mary Cedarleaf, who came from a wealthy upper class Barrett, Minnesota family.
Howard finished his Peace Corp commitment in 1974, went back to school and gained a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from American University in Washington D.C. During this time Howard courted Mary and the duo were married in 1976, in St. Paul Minnesota in a Lutheran ceremony.
Howard then went to work for USAID (United States Agency for International Development) as a loan officer, his duty post was Lima, Peru. Conspiracy buffs infer that the USAID, (sometimes referred to as AID) is a CIA front organization. If the assertion is correct, was Howard being groomed for the CIA, years before he officially volunteered for the organization?
In 1979 Howard resigned from AID, he and Mary moved to Chicago. By 1980 Howard was working as an executive for Ecology & Environment (E&E), a firm that managed toxic waste sites and disposal. Unhappy with his business career and his marriage, Howard applied to the CIA in 1980. The Federal agency accepted him into their ranks in 1981.
Howard’s resume sparkled; he was a businessman, former government employee, world traveler and was fluent in German, Spanish and English. More importantly Howard had grown up in a family environment that stressed duty and honor. The New Mexican would fit in perfectly with the CIA’s sophisticated honorable cadre.
Upon Howard’s admittance to the CIA, he was sent to their school at Camp Perry, Virginia, known as “The Farm.” At this top-secret facility the novice agent learned Russian and the tricks of the spy trade. For fifteen months Howard learned the “Holy of Holies” of undercover-espionage work.
The CIA listed Howard as being five foot eleven and weighing anywhere from one hundred and sixty five to one hundred and eighty pounds.
Howard projected himself as being a great tennis player, an expert in hand to hand combat and a lady’s man. Federal identification photos released after Howard’s defection show an arrogant, smirking, egotist, who radiates little humanity.
Amateur profilers thought the CIA fledgling had watched too many “I Spy” television episodes and Howard had patterned his lifestyle after the show’s two leads, Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. “I Spy” was a popular 1960s television series that concerned itself with two American espionage agents who traveled the globe masquerading as tennis pro and trainer. When not saving the western world, the spies were dandies with the ladies.
Howard’s wife, Mary was recruited by the CIA to help her husband with his work. Mary became a quasi-CIA auxiliary member nine months after her husband’s induction. Mary was seen as a self-important Yuppie 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