# Have any US Citizens been killed, disappeared, or kidnapped by foreign agents on US soil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2024, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632 "2024-09-02T16:12:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/1 "2024-09-02T16:12:57Z")
That’s basically it. Has a foreign government ever sent assassins or special ops or what have you onto US soil to deal with a troublesome American? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/2 "2024-09-02T16:30:14Z")
Setting aside terrorist attacks such as the September 11, 2001 hijacking and suicide crashes into the World Trade Center towers and Pentagon, and pre-20th Century wars with England and France, there have been no official assassinations of US citizens by foreign agents within the continental United States (CONUS), and arguably no killings of American citizens by identified foreign agents on US territory outside the context of warfare. If foreign agents were assassinating Americans as portrayed in, say, _The Americans_, and that came to light it wouldn’t just be a “diplomatic row” but likely a prelude to major conflict. However, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t trying: > **[Series of recent DOJ cases show foreign operatives plotting assassinations in...](https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/25/series-of-recent-doj-cases-show-foreign-operatives-plotting-assassinations-in-u-s/)** > > State-sponsored assassination plots on U.S. soil may sound like the stuff of movies, but the Department of Justice says it has foiled four such cases since 2022. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/3 "2024-09-02T16:55:04Z")
Just for context, is the OP asking about incidents like this? > **[Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Sergei_and_Yulia_Skripal)** > > The poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, also known as the Salisbury Poisonings, was a botched assassination attempt to poison Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent for the British intelligence agencies in the city of Salisbury, England on 4 March 2018. Sergei and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were poisoned by means of a Novichok nerve agent. Both spent several weeks in hospital in a critical condition, before being discharged. A police officer, Nick Bailey, The B... ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/4 "2024-09-02T17:07:05Z")
Or this: > **[Canada charges three Indian nationals for assassination of Sikh separatist | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/03/americas/canada-sikh-nijjar-assassination-suspects-intl-latam/index.html)** > > Three men have been arrested and charged in Canada for the alleged murder of a prominent Sikh separatist, according to Canadian police – a death Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously linked to the Indian government, drawing vehement... ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/5 "2024-09-02T17:08:55Z")
Yes to both @Cervaise and @Northern_Piper ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/6 "2024-09-02T17:11:50Z")
The KGB carried out a couple on US soil, though not as many as Hollywood would have you believe: > **[Walter Krivitsky](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Krivitsky)** > > Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet military intelligence spymaster who defected to the West and revealed plans for the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. > Walter Krivitsky was born on June 28, 1899, to Jewish parents as Samuel Ginsberg in Podwołoczyska, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Pidvolochysk, Ukraine). He adopted the name "Krivitsky," which was based on the Slavic root for "crooked, twisted". It was a revolutiona... ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/7 "2024-09-02T17:31:13Z")
Krivitsky was not a US citizen. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/8 "2024-09-02T17:38:54Z")
Henry Liu, a Taiwanese man who had become a naturalized U.S. citizen, was assassinated in California in 1984 by the Taiwanese KMT government. A movie was later based off of this, _[Formosa Betrayed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosa_Betrayed_(film))._ (Random note: I auditioned for a role in that movie when I was in college) > **[Henry Liu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Liu)** > > Henry Liu (Chinese: 劉宜良; pinyin: Liú Yíliáng; 7 December 1932 – 15 October 1984), often known by his pen name Chiang Nan (江南; Jiāng Nán), was a Taiwanese-American writer and journalist. He was a vocal critic of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), then the single ruling party of the Republic of China in Taiwan, and was most famous for writing an unauthorized biography of Chiang Ching-kuo, then president of the Republic of China. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States Li... ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/9 "2024-09-02T17:52:00Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Krivitsky was not a US citizen. Ah I didn’t see that prerequisite. I think that’s a no then. I’d say there are very few cases even if you expand to all the major western powers. There was a nuclear stand off going on and that’s the kind of action that while not an overt act of war, is definitely a step in that direction. This was a famous case but she was not the target: [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/world/europe/uk-dawn-sturgess-novichok-salisbury.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/world/europe/uk-dawn-sturgess-novichok-salisbury.html) There is this case though undertaking a dangerous diving operation hungover and out of shape is as likely as being killed by the Soviets: > **[Lionel Crabb](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Crabb)** > > Lieutenant-Commander Lionel Kenneth Phillip Crabb, OBE, GM (28 January 1909 – presumed dead 19 April 1956), known as Buster Crabb, was a Royal Navy frogman and diver who vanished during a reconnaissance mission for MI6 around a Soviet Union cruiser berthed at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1956. > Lionel Crabb was born in 1909 to Hugh Alexander Crabb and Beatrice (née Goodall) of Streatham, south-west London. They were a poor family; Hugh Crabb was a commercial traveller for a firm of photographic merch... ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/10 "2024-09-02T18:10:25Z")
Ronni Moffitt, an American citizen, was murdered in by the Pinochet government in Washington, DC. Her husband, also in the car survived. They were not the primary target of the assassination. > **[Assassination of Orlando Letelier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Orlando_Letelier)** > > On 21 September 1976, Orlando Letelier, a leading opponent of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, was assassinated by car bombing, in Washington, D.C. Letelier, who was living in exile in the United States, was killed along with his work colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt, who was in the car with her husband Michael. The assassination was carried out by agents of the Chilean secret police (DINA), and was one among many carried out as part of Operation Condor. Declassified U.S. intelligence document ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/11 "2024-09-02T21:45:36Z")
You’ll have to judge this yourself. (I have a very strong feeling about this.) In the early 90s Haiti was in turmoil with the coup against Aristide (who later returned to power). The Haitian ex-pat community in Miami had some people who were pro-Aristide. Shortly after the coup a hit list of such people was made. People were hired. Killings [ensued](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassinations_of_Little_Haiti_journalists). One of the murdered folks had joint Haitian-US citizenship. [Dona St. Plite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassinations_of_Little_Haiti_journalists#Dona_St._Plite), a radio-journalist. While some of the hired guns were found, the persons who ordered and paid for the hits are “officially” not known. But you don’t have to be Columbo to figure this one out. Given the nature and form of the hit list that was recovered. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/12 "2024-09-03T11:31:17Z")
There was a related plot against a Sikh activist & US citizen in New York around the same time (Gurpatwant Singh Pannun), but it was foiled by US authorities. > **[US prosecutors say plots to assassinate Sikh leaders were part of a campaign...](https://apnews.com/article/india-us-sikh-canada-assassination-separatist-leader-a178b912babc8d53d7c87c986623528a)** > > Law enforcement authorities say in court papers that the plot driven by a government official in India to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader in New York City was meant to precede another killing in California and more assassinations in... ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/13 "2024-09-03T20:26:10Z")
The guy who invented the Theremin, a fellow named - oddly enough - Theremin - came to the USA in 1929 and apparently disappeared back to Russia in 1938. Stories were he had been kidnapped by the KBG.Others claim he chose to go back for assorted reasons. Unclear if he became an US citizen in that time. I recall some story too about a Russian sailor who jumped ship in the USA; she married, had a child, then was kidnapped back to Russia by the KGB. Again, not sure if she became a US citizen. As we see with Trotsky, it seems Stalin had a limited patience for Russians who left the motherland. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/14 "2024-09-04T19:14:02Z")
I’d just like to comment that HeyHomie asks the best questions around - it’s like he’s keeping the Factual Questions spirit (& practice) alive, and I thank him for that! ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/15 "2024-09-04T22:27:56Z")
Thank you, you are too kind. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-us-citizens-been-killed-disappeared-or-kidnapped-by-foreign-agents-on-us-soil/1006632/16 "2024-09-04T23:08:11Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > I recall some story too about a Russian sailor who jumped ship in the USA; she married, had a child, then was kidnapped back to Russia by the KGB. [Simas Kudirka](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simas_Kudirka). Jumped off his trawler onto the deck of a US Coast Guard cutter. The Americans allowed the Soviets onboard to drag him back.