Ft. Bliss Spy: Suicide or Murder?

October 17, 1976

John Stark
El Paso Times

Double Agent’s Life, Death a Mystery, You’ll never read that autobiography of a Ft. Bliss soldier who worked for the U.S. Army as double agent. He died.

  They found Ralph Sigler lying face down on the cheap green shag carpet in a room at the Holiday Inn in Waterloo, Md. Attached to each arm was a stripped electrical cord pulled from the motel room lamps. The plug end of the cord has been inserted in the wall socket attached to the light switch.

Military investigators and Maryland State Police came to the same conclusion: suicide by electrocution. But Sigler’s wife said she “never believed it was suicide. He was murdered.”

Strange as Sigler’s death might seem, it was no stranger than his life. Ralph Sigler, formerly of El Paso, was a spy. Starting in 1968, and continuing until the time of his death on April 13, 1976, Sigler was used by the U.S. Army Intelligence Agency’s Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) as a double agent.

During the course of his career, Sigler developed a network of contacts in the KGB, the Russian equivalent of the CIA. Those contacts, apparently operating in such places as Juarez, Mexico City, Zurich and Vienna, thought Sigler was a traitor selling them military secrets concerning U.S. radar and missile systems. Sigler had access to secrets through his regular assignments as an electronics expert at White Sands Missile Range and Fort Bliss.

In reality, Sigler was turning over the Russian money to his superiors. And the “secrets” the Russians were getting already had been cleared for release by the Army. Some of the “secrets” were fabrications to mislead the Russians.

Besides feeding the Soviets phony information. Sigler also aided U.S. Army Intelligence in locating KGB operatives in this country. After Sigler’s death, Army authorities told his wife Ilse that her husband’s efforts had led to the identification of 14 previous unknown KGB operatives here.

Army authorities, as well as Sigler’s contacts in the FBI, have refused to comment to The Times on Sigler’s case. The Times learned of Sigler’s strange career through conversations with his wife. Shortly after her husband’s death, Mrs. Sigler went to Fort Meade, Md., where she spoke to a colonel assigned to the U.S. Army Intelligence Agency. The colonel told Mrs. Sigler about her husband’s life and death. Mrs. Sigler’s account of Army statements confirmed by attorney Thomas Jennings of Philadelphia who accompanied her and by documents Mrs. Sigler received from the Army.

Ralph Sigler never intended a career in counterespionage. But that role was determined for him, in a way, at his birth.

Sigler was born May 24, 1928, in Hertnik, Czechoslovakia. When Ralph was eight, his father divorced his mother and took Ralph and his eleven-year-old sister Anne to America. Sigler’s mother stayed in Czechoslovakia. Years later, when Sigler was an electronics expert in the Army, his Czechoslovakian birth and his mother’s residence behind the Iron Curtain would stimulate a computer to select him as a likely candidate for “double agent” status.

Sigler joined the Army in 1947. In 1955, while stationed in Germany, he met and married Ilse, a German citizen. After several more years’ service in Germany and a year in Panama, Sigler was transferred to Ft. Bliss.

The Siglers and their young daughter Karen were living in a house on Fairfax Street near Northgate Shopping Center when Sigler first learned about his new job. Mrs. Sigler remembers that sometime in 1966 two Army intelligence officers named Carlos Zapata and John Schaafstahl came to the Sigler home in civilian clothes. They were accompanied by FBI agent Joe Pracek.

The three men told Mrs. Sigler that Ralph was going to become a “special courier” for the Army. They got her signature on a document containing a pledge not to take any action against the Army is anything should happen to Ralph.

Later, after Ralph was dead, Mrs. Sigler learned that her husband had been selected for counterespionage work by computer. His background made him attractive “bait” to the Russians. Somehow, the Army planned to put Sigler in a position where he would be approached by Russian agents. The Russians would promise Sigler two things: money for his own use, and special treatment for his mother in Russian-controlled Czechoslovakia. Old Mrs. Sigler would get a house, a special cash allowance, and other things considered luxuries in a Communist regime.

The Sigler’s life continued uninterrupted for more than a year after the 1966 meeting. During that time, Mrs. Sigler believes her husband was on some kind of probationary period before beginning his counterespionage duties. Then in May 1968, Sigler was honorably discharged from the regular army at the rank of Sgt. 1C and was commissioned as a reserve Warrant Officer.

Two months later, Sigler was transferred to Germany. Mrs. Sigler believes her husband made his first contact with the Russians while in Europe. The contact came in Zurich. Mr. and Mrs. Sigler and daughter Karen used a three-day leave to go there, for what was ostensibly a family outing.

In fact, Mrs. Sigler and Karen saw little of Ralph during that three-day period. When the leave was over, and the family headed back to Germany, Sigler had $3,000 which Mrs. Sigler believed came from the Russians. “I know it was $3,000, because I carried it in my purse,” Mrs. Sigler said.

Mrs. Sigler doesn’t know exactly what happened in Zurich, because she and her husband almost never discussed his espionage work. But she knows that her husband received “tremendous money” from the Russians during his year as an agent. She estimates the amount at about $100,000. All of it was turned over to the Army. “Ralph said civilian agents got to keep half of what they made,” Mrs. Sigler said.

For the next two years, while he was stationed in Germany, Mrs. Sigler said her husband made trips to Zurich every three months. Then he was ordered to Vietnam. But at the last minute, his contact man in military intelligence intervened and has his assignment changed to Ft. Bliss. In October 1970, the Siglers were back in El Paso.

More articles:

Anonymous Phone Call Started Times Probe

Sigler Told His Wife It Was Getting Too Deep

Things Were Far From Alright For Sigler

Calls To Ft. Bliss Trigger Reaction

'They're Killing Your Father,' Mrs. Sigler Told Her Daughter

'If It Wasn't His Twin, It Was His Ghost, - Maid

No One Is Likely To Read Sigler's Book

Loose ends

TV reopens case of Fort Bliss officer's death  

 
 
 

Comments

[John Stark]

I still think and wonder about this story on a regular basis, more than 32 years after I wrote it.

John Stark

[Wondering]

Mr. Stark,

First of all Trish I think you are doing a wonderful job. I thought these articles were awesome. there were only two things that left me wondering. One, how much was the settlement Mrs. Sigler recieved? and Two, what became of Mrs. Sigler?

[Miller Girl]

Suicide by electrocution? Why not just hand yourself with the electrical cord?

[WR Colbert]

I guess there was never any divulgance of
the box contents? Radio schedule? trigraph
code material and instructions on the use, how to go/escape notes?
There was one mention back then that the
MI people were not trustworthy and the
FBI did their own counter-surveillance
work.

[Vasili]

Ralph Joseph Sigler was born in where is now in Slovakia.

[Vasili]

Sigler's real family name is Ciglar. His real name is possibly Ralph Joseph Ciglar.

[stock baby dress shoes]

interesting article.i think he is murdered.