The U.S. National Archives has recently posted online a redacted Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file dated 1973-74 related to an investigation of the original Washington Area Spark newspaper.
The timing of its publication is curious given the Trump administration’s abandonment of investigations into right wing groups and its focus on surveying left wing groups.
The file contains a mixture of facts, incorrect information, speculation and an astounding lapse in collecting publicly available information. It also spends considerable time trying to understand the political viewpoints of the individuals they are investigating, but without success.
Among the individuals named are Robert “Bob” Simpson (RIP), Craig Simpson, Sue Reading and Barbara Myers.
One of the things the FBI failed to understand was that the inhabitants of a group house in Takoma Park were not synonymous with the Washington Area Spark collective. The house at 201 Lincoln Avenue was a collection of people associated with the University of Maryland who shared a house to cut expenses. The Simpson brothers and Reading were all regular contributors to Spark whereas Myers was not.
The FBI also struggles to understand the politics of the group and mixes up the political leanings and orientations of different individuals. For example, attending a demonstration sponsored by the group Youth Against War and Fascism is not the same as being close to or joining that organization.
Another example is alleging that Craig Simpson published an underground newspaper at the University of Maryland College Park. Simpson said recently, “I’d very much like to take credit for it, but it’s something I never did.”
The FBI was interested in learning if Spark contributors had a “propensity for violence,” but found little evidence. However, it is astounding that they failed to note Bob Simpson’s 1972 arrest at a George Wallace rally at Capital Plaza for inciting to riot. They also failed to note that Craig Simpson had been arrested in 1970 for assault on a police officer in one incident and carrying a deadly weapon and destruction of government property in another 1970 incident. Nor did they note Meyer’s 1970 arrests at the University of Maryland for occupying Skinner Hall or her arrest as one of the Donut Shop 10. All that was public information that they failed to uncover.
Likewise, they had had an interest in foreign contacts. They noted Meyers’ trip with the Venceremos Brigade to Cuba, but failed to note Bob Simpson’s membership in the Irish Republican Clubs or his application to join a Venceremos Brigade trip to Cuba.
The agents were unable to determine where the newspaper was published. The mystery could have been solved by contacting the Carroll County Times
Two of the redacted informants’ names mentioned in the FBI files are believed to be “Ted Falk,” a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War who was believed to be an undercover Maryland State Police officer and Sheila O’Connor, a National Lawyers Guild activist believed to be an FBI informant.
Other information was obtained by the FBI calling or visiting people like the landlord at 201 Lincoln Avenue, postal officials and others that could verify details on the investigation.
Falk was denounced by two separate campus activists who swore they saw Falk enter the campus police station on separate occasions. They alleged that Falk had no explanation for his visit to the police there.
With suspicions aroused, activists called a meeting and asked Falk if they could use his apartment for the meeting. Falk agreed and the meeting was held at an apartment off of Knox Road in College Park, MD.
The apartment was sterile—no personal items or clutter—only dated furniture and wall hangings--apparently a furnished apartment. Under the pretext of using the restroom, one meeting attendant checked Falk’s closet and found there were no clothes in it.
When the meeting convened, the agenda unknown to Falk was to denounce violence in no uncertain terms so that Falk would simply lose interest and leave the group. The ruse worked as Falk never came to another meeting.
O’Connor’s career was much longer. She began cozying up to left wing political activists around the time of the 1971 Mayday demonstrations. Her sordid activities are covered in a Counterspy article on her dated Spring 1976 entitled, “Congressional Aide Spies on Left.”
For at least seven years she and her husband published a newsletter that was mailed to law enforcement and intelligence agencies entitled, “Information Digest.” The two were S. Louise Rees and John Rees, better known to the Washington, D.C, left-wing community as Sheila O'Conner [sometimes O’Donnell] and John Seeley. They had a number of informant sources that provided unsubstantiated information for their newsletter.
She later ingratiated herself to the National Lawyers Guild where she rose to a leadership position.
It was during her time at the National Lawyers Guild that she reported on the Washington Area Spark and On The Move newspapers.
O’Connor worked for a time for U.S. Rep. Larry McDonald (D-GA) during the mid-1970s, one of the most right-wing members of the House of Representatives at the time.
O’Connor would later move to the West Coast and acted as a private investigator under the name O’Donnell for many left-wing organizations, including former University of Maryland activist Judy Bari. Bari was then a prominent environmental activist on the West Coast and was the victim of an attempted assassination by car bomb.
It is not known whether O’Connor/O’Donnell continued to be a double agent, but it seems likely.
However, the left-wing on the West Coast was apparently unaware of her past duplicitous activity and an obituary written by David Helvarg and published January 5, 2023 on the LAProgressive site is effusive in its praise.
O’Connor/O’Donnell ingratiated herself to those on the left by providing factual details using her investigative skills that they were unaware of. This was the method O’Connor/O’Donnell used to gain the trust of activists while she acted as a double-agent.
The publication of Information Digest was a predecessor of the right-wing sleuths who attempt to infiltrate left-wing circles in contemporary times.
CounterSpy wrote in 1976, “Experts consulted by CounterSpy including Frank Donner, of the ACLU Political Surveillance Project and Wes McCune, veteran analyst of America’s right wing, were astounded by the sophistication and depth of Information Digest. Donner believes Information Digest demonstrates that the private, abundantly financed right-wing elements have better information on liberals and radicals than that normally processed by the government.”
The current version of Washington Area Spark is reposting these FBI notes as a matter of historical interest.
For a PDF of this 19-page, 8 ½ x 11 document, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Spark-...
For a PDF of the CounterSpy article on Rees/O’Donnell/O’Connor, see page 16: washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/1976-S...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHBqjCaLpD
Original posted by the U.S. National Archives.
