Linn Farrish
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's rugby union | ||
Competitor for the  United States
| ||
| Gold | 1924 Paris | Team competition |
Linn Markley Farrish (October 3, 1901 – September 11, 1944) was an American rugby union player and spy.
Rugby
Farrish competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics. He was a member of the American rugby union team, which won the gold medal.[1]
Espionage
Farrish was a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. While acting as the OSS liaison officer to Josip Tito's Yugoslav Partisans he was also allegedly serving Soviet intelligence. Fitzroy Maclean jocularly referred to him in his memoir Eastern Approaches as "my American chief of staff". Farish died in an aircraft crash in the Balkans in September 1944. Farish's code name in Soviet intelligence, and as deciphered in the Venona project is "Attila". He was also referred to as "Lawrene of Yugoslavia" (as was William M. Jones).
Farish is referenced in the following Venona project decryption:
- 1397 KGB New York to Moscow, 4 October 1944
Sources
- John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, Yale University Press (1999), pgs. 194, 195.