This article by Kevin Lange ran in Salon.com from July 11, 2011 until April 1, 2015.
No longer active cached link from 4/5/2015
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Nobody Waits Tables Better (The Spy Who Served Me) - Salon
Every so often I like to check on old friends and acquaintances... and people who, for whatever reason, good or bad, make an impression on our lives.
Facebook is often a good first step, if not a search engine. Once these are exhausted, I like to visit more exotic places... like http://florida.arrests.org. Their basic search algorithm is a little weak, requiring you type the name just right… but occasionally, with patience, you find someone you know.
A number of weeks ago, I found one such individual.
While I was wrapping up my undergraduate education, he was still a relative freshman at his own institution. Mine was Southern Illinois University. His would have been a supermax prison (Marion Federal Penitentiary) less than 25 miles to the east. Mine was a party school which happened to have a fantastic college of communications. His would have been the replacement for Alcatraz. I may have seen Jenny McCarthy frequenting the nearby bars. He may have seen Manuel Noriega walk the halls nearby while he was behind bars.
You see, he was a spy. A very bad spy. Very bad for what he did… and very bad at what he did.
Staff Sergeant Roderick James Ramsay was convicted in 1990 of spying for the Warsaw Pact. Ramsay, while stationed in Europe, had access to documents at the highest level of classification (that of “Cosmic Top Secret”), documents which essentially outlined how NATO would react to a Warsaw Pact invasion of Germany. In the wrong hands, the strategies outlined in these documents could be countered in such a way as to cause a NATO defense to fold like a house of cards. Best case scenario: German Reunification would have taken place a little earlier than history eventually revealed... and as the result of a swift defeat of West Germany. A more likely outcome: limited (or perhaps not-so-limited) defensive engagement on the part of NATO through the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
A less notorious military footnote reveals Ramsay had the second highest IQ of anyone who ever served in the military. IQ is a measure of only one kind of intelligence, so his IQ score of 180 (or any high IQ) does not necessarily correlate to great success or even common sense. While his superior, Clyde Lee Conrad, would mastermind the effort and ultimately earned millions of dollars for providing the sensitive documents to Hungarian agents, Ramsay’s efforts to capture those documents on film and videotape netted him only $20,000.
$20,000 to effectively sell out the futures of millions of Europeans, with ripples which would impact the entire world. $20,000.
So how did I meet this notorious spy?
He served me breakfast.
It isn’t résumé filler for which I exude any particular kind of pride... but for five months of the patchwork quilt that is my working history, I collected a paycheck from a company which refers to itself as "Steak 'n Shake".
Their regional vice president recruited me with the promise of managing my own district ("people with Masters Degrees manage districts, not restaurants"). Sometimes I wonder if this was a bait-and-switch effort, since a fifth district in southwest Florida never evolved (only two new restaurants have opened in the area in the past seven years)... but shortly before I left their employ, they wanted to send me directly to corporate. This, I declined. I had already lived in Indiana earlier in the year. Who moves back to Indiana mere months after they've loaded all their crap into a moving truck and hauled it all the way to Florida?
Regardless of the career path they truly intended for me, all new employees (even the new CEO) must spend months in management training...which means months of hands-on experience in one of their restaurants... first at each individual "station", then managing the employees
and the customer experience.
With my particular path, I started at their training restaurant in Fort Myers but then spent time at several others, eventually completing the circuit in one of the three Tampa districts. I think when they realized the fifth district would not be formed they wanted to keep me in queue near the local corporate office in Tampa. It was at the training restaurant in Fort Myers, which I entered at 9am sharp on 16-July 2004, where I approached and was greeted by the spy.
Of course, I did not know he was a spy. I wouldn't suspect this for weeks, or know with 100% certainty for months.
Without emotion he motioned me to one of the back tables and asked if I was hungry. Handing me a menu, I told him I would try their "cheddar scrambler". Within minutes, he presented me with breakfast. cheddar scrambler
It is entirely possible he made it himself as well. He was always more comfortable managing "the line" where he was out of sight from the public... not that many people in Fort Myers remember him or could acknowledge his notoriety. He lived in Tampa during the time of his arrest for espionage, obviously becoming well-known as a result of local and national media coverage. Upon leaving Marion Federal Penitentiary, family or friends likely would have driven him north to the closest restaurant at which he could enjoy his first meal as a newly free man. Upon making the eastern turn onto State Route 13, the most prominent and closest restaurant before the Interstate would have been... Steak 'n Shake. Perhaps this influenced him to join the chain and quickly ascend to management upon returning to Tampa.
Unfortunately for him, people in Tampa have very vivid memories of him.
Misspelling his last name with an "e" to spell "Ramsey" on various key documents only delayed his eventual discovery. When it occurred, the smart thing for regional management to do would have been to quietly dismiss Ramsay and send him on his way.
Instead, they opted to send him to Fort Myers where he wouldn't be discovered. At least, he wouldn't be discovered if he kept a low profile.
Ramsay's departure from the Steak 'n Shake organization came one day after I reported his demeanor issues to the district manager... not that I personally observed any of the specific incidents I mentioned above. He simply was not a nice person. To anyone. Not encouraging whatsoever to any of his trainees, management or otherwise... unless they were female and under the age of 18. In later research I learned Ramsay had a problem keeping his patience with individuals who he deemed were not as "smart" as him... which, given his IQ of 180 and near-eidetic memory, must have included just about everyone. I initially thought his departure was a result of what I had reported... though the investigation of the missing $5700 was still fresh in my mind.
Weeks later, we received a call from his parole officer, who had apparently lost contact with Ramsay and also had not been informed of his recent departure from employment.
I recall how I had been contacted by no less than three independent agencies conducting my pre-hire background checks as they inquired for additional information from me... so imagine my surprise at hearing Ramsay had a parole officer... and had been hired.
This was the point at which I decided to perform a little research. Typing his name into a search engine, a series of links appeared regarding "someone" with his exact first name ("Roderick"... not "Rod"), last name "Ramsay"... not "Ramsey"), and middle initial... and how they were convicted of spying and subsequently thrown into the slammer for 36 years.
I figured "Nah. Couldn't be him..." and moved on.
Learning he had listed, among his prior work experience, his "manufacture of furniture for the government", I deduced the Ramsay I was researching had spent a significant amount of time in prison.
Upon starting my work in Tampa, I was approached by former employees of his wanting to warn me about "something... but we don't know if you're ready to know".
I asked if they could give me a general idea.
They mentioned it was about one of the managers in Fort Myers.
I bluntly asked "Does this have anything to do with Rod Ramsay being a spy for Hungary?"
They exclaimed "You KNOW about this?"
I mentioned I did, and that "he was allowed to resign from his position months ago".
After making the mistake of not performing a sufficient background check on him, and then covering up the mistake by sending him to another district, and then losing $5700, corporate wanted to dispose of Ramsay quietly. No media attention, please. So they offered to let him resign his position and opted not to press criminal charges.
The testimonial from former employees made me nearly 100% certain the Ramsay I had met was Ramsay the "espion". Still, I needed first-hand proof. Early in my broadcast career I was a reporter. Twice I ascended to the position of News Director. Both times I was known for withholding stories from air because sources could not be independently verified... and both times I was rewarded upon learning the sole source was not reliable, allowing us to air the correct story first while our competitors were airing retractions and/or apologies.
So on my last day before returning to my "base" in Fort Myers, I stopped by the Hillsborough County Library. No branches. I visited the main library.
I started looking through every microfiche for the Tampa Tribune which made even the slightest reference to Roderick J. Ramsay. Lots of stories... but no photo. None. I needed to have a photo. I needed to be able to make the comparison with my own eyes. Dejected, I began to leave... but then returned on the off-chance I might find a photo within the archives of the St. Petersburg times.
Jackpot. It was him.
Making photocopies, I drove south to Fort Myers, walked into the restaurant, gathered management, and asked if they were interested in learning some interesting information about our buddy Rod.
Many don’t believe me when I mention this story. I don’t blame them. You don’t see news reports revealing "Roderick J. Ramsay was released early for good behavior". The Federal Bureau of Prisons doesn’t send press releases to local or national media regarding these things. It seems unfathomable someone who sold out central Europe for pennies per person would serve less than their "mere" 36 years, an unusually short sentence which was granted based upon his cooperation with authorities (which essentially means his testimony led to the identification, arrest, and conviction of his co-conspirators).
Roderick’s release has gone unnoticed by most and he has almost managed to blend in with society... except, of course, for his occasional arrests. The best proof I can provide of his early release would be a synopsis of his most recent criminal activities... because, simply put, you cannot commit a crime sending you back to jail or prison if you are already in prison.
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Roderick_Ramsay_2026581/
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Roderick_Ramsay_3077759/
The first mug shot was taken prior to his being picked up at a Tampa police station by the U.S. Marshal, probably as the result of a probation violation. The latter mug shot preceded a robbery conviction (no weapon used, so perhaps another employer-related theft) and subsequent incarceration. He was given 14 months but released in less than a year, another example of early release for good behavior.
This morning marked the seven year anniversary of that fateful day in which I met the spy. This morning, I made the long drive to Fort Myers... to a specific address: 10600 Fowler Street, across from Page Field, the municipal airport in Fort Myers.
No longer active cached link from 4/5/2015
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:GdKCgc38BlwJ:open.salon.com/blog/ellipses/2011/07/16/nobody_waits_tables_better_the_spy_who_served_me+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Every so often I like to check on old friends and acquaintances... and people who, for whatever reason, good or bad, make an impression on our lives.
Facebook is often a good first step, if not a search engine. Once these are exhausted, I like to visit more exotic places... like http://florida.arrests.org. Their basic search algorithm is a little weak, requiring you type the name just right… but occasionally, with patience, you find someone you know.
A number of weeks ago, I found one such individual.
While I was wrapping up my undergraduate education, he was still a relative freshman at his own institution. Mine was Southern Illinois University. His would have been a supermax prison (Marion Federal Penitentiary) less than 25 miles to the east. Mine was a party school which happened to have a fantastic college of communications. His would have been the replacement for Alcatraz. I may have seen Jenny McCarthy frequenting the nearby bars. He may have seen Manuel Noriega walk the halls nearby while he was behind bars.
You see, he was a spy. A very bad spy. Very bad for what he did… and very bad at what he did.
Staff Sergeant Roderick James Ramsay was convicted in 1990 of spying for the Warsaw Pact. Ramsay, while stationed in Europe, had access to documents at the highest level of classification (that of “Cosmic Top Secret”), documents which essentially outlined how NATO would react to a Warsaw Pact invasion of Germany. In the wrong hands, the strategies outlined in these documents could be countered in such a way as to cause a NATO defense to fold like a house of cards. Best case scenario: German Reunification would have taken place a little earlier than history eventually revealed... and as the result of a swift defeat of West Germany. A more likely outcome: limited (or perhaps not-so-limited) defensive engagement on the part of NATO through the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
A less notorious military footnote reveals Ramsay had the second highest IQ of anyone who ever served in the military. IQ is a measure of only one kind of intelligence, so his IQ score of 180 (or any high IQ) does not necessarily correlate to great success or even common sense. While his superior, Clyde Lee Conrad, would mastermind the effort and ultimately earned millions of dollars for providing the sensitive documents to Hungarian agents, Ramsay’s efforts to capture those documents on film and videotape netted him only $20,000.
$20,000 to effectively sell out the futures of millions of Europeans, with ripples which would impact the entire world. $20,000.
So how did I meet this notorious spy?
He served me breakfast.
It isn’t résumé filler for which I exude any particular kind of pride... but for five months of the patchwork quilt that is my working history, I collected a paycheck from a company which refers to itself as "Steak 'n Shake".
Their regional vice president recruited me with the promise of managing my own district ("people with Masters Degrees manage districts, not restaurants"). Sometimes I wonder if this was a bait-and-switch effort, since a fifth district in southwest Florida never evolved (only two new restaurants have opened in the area in the past seven years)... but shortly before I left their employ, they wanted to send me directly to corporate. This, I declined. I had already lived in Indiana earlier in the year. Who moves back to Indiana mere months after they've loaded all their crap into a moving truck and hauled it all the way to Florida?
Regardless of the career path they truly intended for me, all new employees (even the new CEO) must spend months in management training...which means months of hands-on experience in one of their restaurants... first at each individual "station", then managing the employees
and the customer experience.
With my particular path, I started at their training restaurant in Fort Myers but then spent time at several others, eventually completing the circuit in one of the three Tampa districts. I think when they realized the fifth district would not be formed they wanted to keep me in queue near the local corporate office in Tampa. It was at the training restaurant in Fort Myers, which I entered at 9am sharp on 16-July 2004, where I approached and was greeted by the spy.
Of course, I did not know he was a spy. I wouldn't suspect this for weeks, or know with 100% certainty for months.
Without emotion he motioned me to one of the back tables and asked if I was hungry. Handing me a menu, I told him I would try their "cheddar scrambler". Within minutes, he presented me with breakfast. cheddar scrambler
It is entirely possible he made it himself as well. He was always more comfortable managing "the line" where he was out of sight from the public... not that many people in Fort Myers remember him or could acknowledge his notoriety. He lived in Tampa during the time of his arrest for espionage, obviously becoming well-known as a result of local and national media coverage. Upon leaving Marion Federal Penitentiary, family or friends likely would have driven him north to the closest restaurant at which he could enjoy his first meal as a newly free man. Upon making the eastern turn onto State Route 13, the most prominent and closest restaurant before the Interstate would have been... Steak 'n Shake. Perhaps this influenced him to join the chain and quickly ascend to management upon returning to Tampa.
Unfortunately for him, people in Tampa have very vivid memories of him.
Misspelling his last name with an "e" to spell "Ramsey" on various key documents only delayed his eventual discovery. When it occurred, the smart thing for regional management to do would have been to quietly dismiss Ramsay and send him on his way.
Instead, they opted to send him to Fort Myers where he wouldn't be discovered. At least, he wouldn't be discovered if he kept a low profile.
Ramsay's departure from the Steak 'n Shake organization came one day after I reported his demeanor issues to the district manager... not that I personally observed any of the specific incidents I mentioned above. He simply was not a nice person. To anyone. Not encouraging whatsoever to any of his trainees, management or otherwise... unless they were female and under the age of 18. In later research I learned Ramsay had a problem keeping his patience with individuals who he deemed were not as "smart" as him... which, given his IQ of 180 and near-eidetic memory, must have included just about everyone. I initially thought his departure was a result of what I had reported... though the investigation of the missing $5700 was still fresh in my mind.
Weeks later, we received a call from his parole officer, who had apparently lost contact with Ramsay and also had not been informed of his recent departure from employment.
I recall how I had been contacted by no less than three independent agencies conducting my pre-hire background checks as they inquired for additional information from me... so imagine my surprise at hearing Ramsay had a parole officer... and had been hired.
This was the point at which I decided to perform a little research. Typing his name into a search engine, a series of links appeared regarding "someone" with his exact first name ("Roderick"... not "Rod"), last name "Ramsay"... not "Ramsey"), and middle initial... and how they were convicted of spying and subsequently thrown into the slammer for 36 years.
I figured "Nah. Couldn't be him..." and moved on.
Learning he had listed, among his prior work experience, his "manufacture of furniture for the government", I deduced the Ramsay I was researching had spent a significant amount of time in prison.
Upon starting my work in Tampa, I was approached by former employees of his wanting to warn me about "something... but we don't know if you're ready to know".
I asked if they could give me a general idea.
They mentioned it was about one of the managers in Fort Myers.
I bluntly asked "Does this have anything to do with Rod Ramsay being a spy for Hungary?"
They exclaimed "You KNOW about this?"
I mentioned I did, and that "he was allowed to resign from his position months ago".
After making the mistake of not performing a sufficient background check on him, and then covering up the mistake by sending him to another district, and then losing $5700, corporate wanted to dispose of Ramsay quietly. No media attention, please. So they offered to let him resign his position and opted not to press criminal charges.
The testimonial from former employees made me nearly 100% certain the Ramsay I had met was Ramsay the "espion". Still, I needed first-hand proof. Early in my broadcast career I was a reporter. Twice I ascended to the position of News Director. Both times I was known for withholding stories from air because sources could not be independently verified... and both times I was rewarded upon learning the sole source was not reliable, allowing us to air the correct story first while our competitors were airing retractions and/or apologies.
So on my last day before returning to my "base" in Fort Myers, I stopped by the Hillsborough County Library. No branches. I visited the main library.
I started looking through every microfiche for the Tampa Tribune which made even the slightest reference to Roderick J. Ramsay. Lots of stories... but no photo. None. I needed to have a photo. I needed to be able to make the comparison with my own eyes. Dejected, I began to leave... but then returned on the off-chance I might find a photo within the archives of the St. Petersburg times.
Jackpot. It was him.
Making photocopies, I drove south to Fort Myers, walked into the restaurant, gathered management, and asked if they were interested in learning some interesting information about our buddy Rod.
Many don’t believe me when I mention this story. I don’t blame them. You don’t see news reports revealing "Roderick J. Ramsay was released early for good behavior". The Federal Bureau of Prisons doesn’t send press releases to local or national media regarding these things. It seems unfathomable someone who sold out central Europe for pennies per person would serve less than their "mere" 36 years, an unusually short sentence which was granted based upon his cooperation with authorities (which essentially means his testimony led to the identification, arrest, and conviction of his co-conspirators).
Roderick’s release has gone unnoticed by most and he has almost managed to blend in with society... except, of course, for his occasional arrests. The best proof I can provide of his early release would be a synopsis of his most recent criminal activities... because, simply put, you cannot commit a crime sending you back to jail or prison if you are already in prison.
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Roderick_Ramsay_2026581/
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Roderick_Ramsay_3077759/
The first mug shot was taken prior to his being picked up at a Tampa police station by the U.S. Marshal, probably as the result of a probation violation. The latter mug shot preceded a robbery conviction (no weapon used, so perhaps another employer-related theft) and subsequent incarceration. He was given 14 months but released in less than a year, another example of early release for good behavior.
This morning marked the seven year anniversary of that fateful day in which I met the spy. This morning, I made the long drive to Fort Myers... to a specific address: 10600 Fowler Street, across from Page Field, the municipal airport in Fort Myers.
At 9am sharp I walked inside. I wanted to take that fateful table in the “corral” (the seating area behind the chrome bars at most locations) but was directed to another table: Table 41, the weird three-person table you'll find in nearly every Steak 'n Shake. No matter. The menu had many new menu items I had not seen before. The “Portabello and sausage skillet” looked particularly enticing, but instead I opted for that fateful first meal, the cheddar scrambler, delivered seven years to the day earlier by the spy who served me.
