MARCIA MITCHELL is a former associate director of the American Film Institute, and a former senior executive for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She was the first female member of the South Dakota Governor’s Cabinet, serving as Secretary of Labor. She began her career as a journalist and won both state and national press awards for writing and editing. She has received critical acclaim for her non-fiction books. Her recent work in mystery fiction is an exciting new literary adventure for her. She has served on numerous boards and commissions concerned with women’s issues, the arts, and the humanities.
TOM MITCHELL served as a Special Agent of the FBI for seventeen years, during which time he supervised counterintelligence investigations in New York. During his later years in the Bureau, he worked closely with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Throughout his career in intelligence, Tom was associated with some of the country’s most famous espionage and criminal cases. He transitioned from the world of intrigue to the world of commerce and retired as a vice president of Georgia-Pacific Corporation. Tom died on 15 March 2010.
Tom’s extensive background in intelligence and Marcia’s background in writing and research led to the Mitchells’ first book together, The Spy Who Seduced America: Lies and Betrayal in the Heat of the Cold War. Through Tom’s contacts, the Mitchells twice travelled to Moscow to meet with KGB (now FSB) contacts. From there, the couple travelled to the United Kingdom in search of the truth surrounding the Katharine Gun story. Over the years, the Mitchells addressed audiences throughout the United States and were honoured to speak at an intelligence seminar at Cambridge University. Their work in the area of intelligence has resulted in continuing relationships with former and present members of US, UK, Canadian, and Russian intelligence services, as well as with other intelligence ‘insiders’.