Tinker, Tailor, Stoner, Spy episode artwork

EPISODE · Oct 28, 2025 · 27 MIN

Tinker, Tailor, Stoner, Spy

from Crimes of the Times · host L.A. Times Studios

When 21-year old college dropout Christopher Boyce got a job as a clerk at the TRW Defense and Space Systems complex in Redondo Beach, he was given access to some of the country’s biggest government secrets. And under a Robin Hood-like ethos, he and his childhood pal Andrew Daulton Lee began sharing those secrets with the Soviet Union. Their story lived on in the 1985 film “The Falcon and the Snowman,” but their friendship had a much shorter shelf life.

When 21-year old college dropout Christopher Boyce got a job as a clerk at the TRW Defense and Space Systems complex in Redondo Beach, he was given access to some of the country’s biggest government secrets. And under a Robin Hood-like ethos, he and his childhood pal Andrew Daulton Lee began sharing those secrets with the Soviet Union. Their story lived on in the 1985 film “The Falcon and the Snowman,” but their friendship had a much shorter shelf life.

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Tinker, Tailor, Stoner, Spy

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This episode was published on October 28, 2025.

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When 21-year old college dropout Christopher Boyce got a job as a clerk at the TRW Defense and Space Systems complex in Redondo Beach, he was given access to some of the country’s biggest government secrets. And under a Robin Hood-like ethos, he and...

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