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s Mrs. DowneyContinued From Page l.They were informed that John was on a plane that disappeared on a flight from Seoul, Korea to Japan. A year later, she was (old John was presumed dead, and the Korean War ended. His death certificate followed.Then, like a latter day Lazarus, Downey rose from the dead in an announcement by the people’s Republic of China sayinghe had been sentenced to life as a spy. Mary Downey on that day, Nov. 23, 1954, began an untiring quest to free her son.Four years later, when the United States relaxed its cold war policy, Mrs. Downey made her first trip to China at its invitation and her first plea to Chou En-Lai. He said freedom was out of the question then.She made her last trek in 1971 after a Yale classmate of Downey's, Prof. Jerome Cohen of Harvard Law School, pleaded publicly with the government to finally admit that Downey was an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency so the Chinese would free him.President Nixon did this in February when he referred in a news conference to Downey as a CIA agent and so when Mrs. Downey suffered her stroke onMarch 8, the Chinese were agreeable to her son’s release.
Newspaper Details
Naugatuck Daily News
Naugatuck, Connecticut, US
Fri, Mar 16, 1973
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Jane H.
USA 24 Oct 2018
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Naugatuck Daily News
