Born to Greek parents, Kampiles grew up in Hegewisch, on the far south side of Chicago. Kampiles' family was poor and lived in a small rental apartment. His father died in 1964, when Kampiles was nine. He attended college with a state grant from his father's social security benefit, by working at the college cafeteria, and his mother's salary from working at the south side Ford factory in the cafeteria.
Career
Kampiles was not performing his job well and was disappointed with his low pay and low-ranking status as a CIA clerk, and he decided to steal a top-secret KH-11spy satellite manual from CIA headquarters in 1977 for monetary gain. In November 1977, Kampiles was fired from his job from CIA in Langley, Virginia.
Espionage and prison
In January of 1978, Kampiles surprised his friends by flying unexpectedly to Athens, Greece, in the middle of winter which was highly uncommon. He walked into the Russian Embassy there, asking to speak to an agent to sell the top secret KH-11 manual. He was given $3,000., by a Russian KGB agent named Michael, given a camera, and instructions to gather bring back more secrets. When Kampiles returned home, to hide where the money came from, he took his mother Nikoletta and his brother Mychael to the neighborhood bank where the three opened a new savings account, depositing the money. Kampiles told his mother he had received the money from a woman there for sexual services. Afterwards, Kampiles contacted a Greek American CIA agent about his contact with a Russian agent, in the hope of being rewarded with a position as a CIA spy. The Greek American asked him to send a letter writing his version of the encounter on paper and mail it to him. Bill felt his version would get him reinstated to the CIA after he had already lost his clerical job there. Instead, the case was passed off to another Greek American, experienced senior research analyst Vivian E. Psachos, who realized the story Kampiles gave was not true. He was asked to fly to Washington where inside a hotel room with a double mirror he confessed the truth. He was told his version was not possible, and they coerced him by informing him he had made his mother and brother accomplices when he adding their names to the savings account to avoid suspicion. Kampiles was allowed to return to Indiana. He had moved there after losing his job at the CIA, asking a police officer, the son of one of his mother's best longtime friends, if he could be his roommate. One day the FBI showed up to search the apartment. Kampiles explained to the police officer it was a background check for a better job in Washington, D.C. When the officer observed the FBI carefully looking inside the sheath of a real Japanese sword used as decoration on the apartment wall, he realized it was not a background check. When Kampiles understood he was being followed, he moved into his mother's Chicago apartment. He told his mother he had bought tickets for the two of them to go to Greece. According to Greek laws, extradition is not allowed if he took Greek citenship. He boasted to friends he planned to buy a restaurant/bar in the elite Kolonaki district of central, Athens. FBI agents waited for Kampiles to cross the border to arrest him in Indiana on August 18. At the trial, his defense team unsuccessfully argued that the manual was not a highly guarded secret, and that Kampiles never stole it. They flew in an older sister of his mother to testify she saw no manual when he unpacked at her home that January. They said he convinced the KGB agent with lies he fabricated to win his trust to use that as leverage with the CIA to be made an instant double agent. On November 17, 1978, a jury found Kampiles guilty of 6 counts of espionage, 40 years each,totaling 240 years. On December 22, one day after his birthday, Kampiles was sentenced to a total of 40 years imprisonment, and later sent to a federal prison in Wisconsin. It was there that he met Jimmy Baker who was serving his federal sentence, and another inmate, a judge from New York who befriended him and referred his case to a Loyola UniversityLaw professor who helped reduce his prison sentence to 18 years. Kampiles was released on December 16, 1996, after serving 18 years.
