The shocking true story of international intrigue –“a highly detailed, engrossing work” (Kirkus Reviews)–involving the 1993 murder of CIA officer Freddie Woodruff by KGB agents and the extensive cover-up that followed in Washington and in Moscow. “In a post-truth era, we need a lot more fearless writers like Michael Pullara” (Robert Baer, author of See No Evil). On August 8, 1993, a single … Evil).
On August 8, 1993, a single bullet to the head killed Freddie Woodruff, the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Within hours, police had a suspect–a vodka-soaked village bumpkin named Anzor Sharmaidze. A tidy explanation quickly followed: It was a tragic accident. US diplomats hailed Georgia’s swift work, and both countries breathed a sigh of relief.
Yet the bullet that killed Woodruff was never found and key witnesses have since retracted their testimony, saying they were beaten and forced to identify Sharmaidze. But if he didn’t do it, who did? Those who don’t buy the official explanation think the answer lies in the spy games that played out on Russia’s frontier following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Woodruff was an early actor in a dangerous drama. American spies were moving into newborn nations previously dominated by Soviet intelligence. Russia’s security apparatus, resentful and demoralized, was in turmoil, its nominal loyalty to a pro-Western course set by President Boris Yeltsin, shredded by hardline spooks and generals who viewed the Americans as a menace.
At the time when Woodruff was stationed there, Georgia was a den of intrigue. It had a big Russian military base and was awash with former and not-so-former Soviet agents. Shortly before Woodruff was shot, veteran CIA officer Aldrich Ames–who would soon be unmasked as a KGB mole–visited him on agency business. In short order, Woodruff would be dead and Ames, in prison for life. Buckle up, because The Spy Who Was Left Behind reveals the full-throttle, little-known thrilling tale.
more
This book shines light where the U.S. government has maintained darkness. Freddie Woodruff was my boss in the CIA. After his murder, it didn’t take very long for me and the FBI agents investigating to figure out there’d been a cover-up, with the key evidence stolen. In a post-truth era, we need a lot more fearless writers like Michael Pullara.
A true spy story told by a brave and honest man.
This nonfiction book is the fruit of the author Michael Pullara’s fifteen-year obsession with the murder of CIA officer Freddie Woodruff, who was CIA station chief in Tbilisi, Georgia, at the time of his murder in 1993.
Woodruff was shot and killed while riding in the countryside outside Tbilisi with people he thought were his friends. A hasty official investigation pinned the murder on a hapless nineteen-year old Georgian conscript who was coerced into a confession. The U.S. government, despite its vaunted claims of leaving no fallen man behind, declined to look behind the Georgian government’s flimsy claims to find the actual killer and thus condoned the cover-up.
At the time, author, Michael Pullara was a Texas trial attorney specializing in complex commercial litigation. He had grown up in the same town as Freddy Woodruff and, after learning of Freddy’s death, volunteered to help Woodruff’s sister (coincidentally named Georgia) get to the bottom of her brother’s mysterious death. When Pullara informed her that the man imprisoned for the murder was almost certainly innocent, the sister challenged Pullara to go further and find the real killer in order to do justice and free an innocent man.
There began Pullara’s long and painstaking investigation, funded out of his own pocket, that took him to Georgia many times, as well as to Moscow and other far-flung locales. The story also intersects with that of convicted CIA traitor Aldrich Ames, who visited Tbilisi not long before Woodruff’s murder. Pullara gathers evidence, interviews witnesses and experts, and risks deadly retribution at every step. Along the way, he gives the reader valuable background on Georgian history and culture, Georgia’s relations with Russia, and U.S. policy toward Georgia at a time when Washington was exploiting Moscow’s temporary weakness to foster close relations with former Soviet republics and satellites.
Pullara unpacks the story of Woodruff’s murder step by painful step, taking the reader down the road to truth with its many twists and turns. When the story ends, the reader will arrive as close to the truth as anyone will likely ever get. There’s no happy ending, and the injustices that Pullara reveals are enough to make even a jaded trial lawyer into a cynic. Yet Pullara never loses his honesty, his sense of fairness, his patriotism, or his compassion for the people affected by the case and cover-up.
Caveat: This is no light read. It is a long book that requires an investment in mastering the tongue-twisting Georgian names, absorbing relevant details of Georgian history and culture, and shedding common American biases and misconceptions about U.S.-Russian relations during the post-Soviet period. Readers who persevere will find themselves sad when the long journey comes to an end.
Readers who value painstaking honesty and accuracy in a real-life spy story can do no better than to accept the challenge of reading THE SPY WHO WAS LEFT BEHIND.
If you like real-life espionage, this is the true story of a CIA operative who was murdered in the Republic of Georgia and the American attorney who risked his life to get the accused killer exonerated. Why? Because what really happened was covered up by corrupt politicians and others. This peek into the Georgian cultural and political landscape may offer insight into similar situations in neighboring countries. An interesting, and at times, gripping account.