Firsthand Stories From People Who Went Undercover

Walter Francis White was born in Atlanta in 1893. He often placed himself in dangerous spots for the sake of progress.White pursued progress.As a young boy, White learned his biracial background offered no protection from bigotry.

I knew who I was then. I was a Negro, a human being whose skin marked me as someone to be hunted, hanged, abused, discriminated against, kept poor and ignorant so white people could easily see their superiority. Still, as a boy in that fear, I knew something strange: my skin was as white as the skin of those coming at me.

White used that experience to push for racial justice across the US, especially in the South. He started a local NAACP chapter in Atlanta. NAACP Field Secretary James Weldon Johnson hired White as his assistant at the New York headquarters.

From New York, White started several investigations heading to the deep South. There, he pretended to be white to gather facts for the NAACP. When White went undercover to check lynchings in Tennessee and Georgia, he found local people bragging about the crimes in his presence, assuming he was white and thus supported their actions.

White's work was dangerous. In 1919, White went undercover investigating the government's massacre and imprisonment of Black sharecroppers in Elaine, Arkansas. His plan involved using fake press papers and posing as a reporter from Chicago's Daily News. He planned to meet the Sheriff one afternoon when a Black man approached him on the street.Chicago. Daily News.White was set to meet the Sheriff one afternoon when a Black man approached him on the street.White's autobiography.A Man Called White.

He muttered, “Mister… I don’t know why you are here, but I just heard them talking about you—I mean the white folks—and they say they are going to get you…”

There were only two trains daily; one left in minutes. I ran down the tracks, staying hidden as much as possible. Just as the train arrived, I got on. The conductor looked at me with a question when I paid my fare in cash. I told him I had urgent business in Memphis that night and had not bought a ticket. “But you’re leaving, mister, just as the fun is about to start…”

The conductor told White a Black man was pretending to be white and that “the boys are going to get him.” White recalled, “No matter the distance, I will never take a train ride as long as that one seemed to be.”

The NAACP sent White's investigative reports to media. These reports showed the violence against Black people. After investigating, White headed the NAACP. He served as executive secretary from 1929 to 1955. White died ten years before the 1965 Civil Rights Act. His work for racial justice matters greatly.

Jay Dobyns worked as an undercover agent for the ATF for twenty years. His most famous case ended his undercover career. That case involved the Hells Angels motorcycle club. Dobyns played a debt-collecting biker named Bird who wanted tojoin the notorious group. Dobyns said,

The Hells Angels are misunderstood losers held together by hate and money. We hated every other motorcycle club, the public, the police. We hated work, our wives, our girlfriends, our kids. Sometimes we hated ourselves. We hated anyone who wasn't a Hells Angel, and even then, we often hated each other. I use “we” because these were the people and things I hated too.

Operation Black Biscuit made Dobyns fully commit to the Bird role:

Dobyns worked undercover for twenty-one months straight. He performed this work daily without stopping. The worst part of the case—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually—was playing that role every day. There was no second chance.

Dobyns knew the club was extremely violent. Still, he was surprised by the VIP treatment the American public gave the Hells Angels. He admitted it is easy to get caught up in the group's story.

Some guys were good; they drank beer and played pool with me. But never forget these guys might lack college degrees, yet they hold PhDs in violence and intimidation. Insulting them, their club, or the death-head patch gets you a brutal, lethal, violent price. Cynthia Garcia proved this; she insulted them in their home, and they acted as her judge, jury, and executioner.

Six weeks later, those same guys rode a Hells Angels toy ride with teddy bears on their bikes to deliver them to hospital kids. The public does not see Cynthia Garcia being killed; they just see Hells Angels giving gifts to sick children at Christmas. They are great at propaganda.

Garcia associated with the bikers and was murdered by the group after she spoke out about their treatment. During his undercover time, Dobyns also said he almost faced execution after a member from another chapter, Chico, suspected him. Dobyns staged a taped 'execution' of a rival gang member to make people believe he was legitimate.

Chico confronted me. I thought they would execute me. I felt so tired and frustrated that I wanted them to. I said, “I will never quit, but if you put a bullet in my head, all this could stop.” I lost perspective. This was illogical, but my personal life was ruined. I was exhausted. I ate diet pills constantly. I felt overwhelmed and helpless.

His investigation ended.Dobyns earned a patch from the club, even though they deny it is official.Most Hells Angels arrested pleaded down their sentences. Dobyns and his family moved several times after death threats, including their house burning down. Dobyns said he would do it again, but “I would do it better.”

In 1978, Ron StallworthRon Stallworth wrote a letter replying to an ad in the paper from Ken O'Dell, a Ku Klux Klan member seeking new recruits. O'Dell called Stallworth, and the two started a relationship. O'Dell did not know Stallworth was an undercover police officer—the only Black officer at the Colorado Springs department.

Stallworth used letters and phone calls to gain O'Dell's trust and infiltrate the local KKK chapter. Stallworth recalls,

The people I dealt with were not the smartest. This was hilariously funny. But it was an investigation we took seriously because the Klan’s intent was very serious.

For in-person meetings, a colleague named Chuck posed as him, earning him the nickname “White Ron.” The real Stallworth followed with another colleague and listened through a wire Chuck wore. Stallworth says the double Rons almost got caught once:

Chuck went to a meeting with Klan members. I wanted to follow up, so a couple of hours after Chuck left, I called Ken. Ken asked, “What’s wrong with your voice?” I coughed a bit and said I had a sinus infection. Ken prescribed a remedy. He said, “I get those all the time.”

Stallworth's work led him to talk on the phone with the Klan's new Grand Wizard (leader), David Duke. Talking about Duke, Stallworth toldThe Guardian,

Duke acted as a con artist. He looked like an all-American boy every mother wanted for her daughter’s prom. He was a very pleasant talker.

I laugh about our investigation constantly, especially mocking David Duke, who thinks I lack intelligence because he believes I am genetically inferior. How I tricked the Grand Wizard, David Duke, and his followers has shaped me in ways I never imagined.

The investigation finished in 1979. Stallworth received an unexpected nomination for a local leadership role. He uncovered many violent KKK plots. These plots included a bomb attempt targeting a gay bar. Chuck and Stallworth also exposed army members who were Klan members and revealed where the group stored its money.

Stallworth shared his story in 2006 after retiring. This caused his name to appear on supremacist websites. Despite the risks, Stallworth said he enjoyed telling his story. The story appeared in the 2018 Spike Lee film, "BlacKkKlansman."BlacKkKlansman.

After traveling in the '60s and seeing friends' experiences during America's cult era, David Sullivan focused on how charismatic leaders could make seemingly smart people disconnect from their normal lives.David Sullivan investigated how charismatic leaders made people disconnect from their normal lives.

Sullivan saw how these leaders changed people. They persuaded many smart young people to drop out of college. They ruined their careers. They ended relationships. They went to retreats. Soon, they lost contact with family. They scrubbed toilets with toothbrushes and spent their savings.

Sullivan became a cult private investigator. Outside groups often hired him to get information on cult activities. Sometimes, the goal was to get a follower or find evidence in lawsuits. Sullivan also became an expert on how cult leaders operate.

Some people believe their own nonsense. They almost must believe it to seem convincing. But deep down, they know they are full of garbage. The guru's teachings always match his wants. For instance, if a young convert is pretty, the Holy Spirits always decide she should lead the leader's partners. The plain, hardworking woman always gets set aside for one of his followers. Money works the same way—the richest follower is always seen as the most devoted.

Some leaders make errors. They gather a small group of flatterers and start believing too much in their own power. David Koresh and Jim Jones fit this. These leaders are most likely to drag everyone down with them through their narcissism. However, major cults like Scientology or Earth Spirit do not believe their own nonsense at the top levels. Those in charge know it is a game of money and power.

David Sullivan went undercover in cults. He investigated a Salt Lake City group called Impact Trainings, which held "Harmony" seminars in windowless warehouses. Participants faced public humiliation leading to total psychological submission. A defense attorney hired Sullivan to get a defendant to testify against others, needing proof of brainwashing. This is described in an article forHarper's MagazineSullivan risked being found out at the seminar when another member asked him for help:

She whispered, “I chose you because I don’t think you’re like the others. I think you’re a spy. Or maybe the police..."

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “You got me all wrong—”

“You have to get me out of here.”

“What?”

“Please. You’re the only hope I have left…

The woman continued, “I was forced to come here. I had cancer. My fiancé left me. My boss took over my life. He told me I had to attend the training. But I can’t take it anymore.”

Sullivan created a distraction, letting the woman escape. However, he faced a “Humiliation Box” and more suspicion from the group's enforcers. Sullivan left in 2013, but he helped many former cult members and their families escape danger.

Joe Pistone began his FBI undercover work asJewel thief “Donnie Brasco”in 1976. He lived as Brasco until 1981, infiltrating the top level of the New York Mafia. About his Donnie Brasco act, Pistone said,

I wanted him to be a guy that was street-smart, street-wise. The wiseguys would take him and not question too much about his background or his skills.

Pistone'smain contact was Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero. He called “Lefty” the “ultimate wiseguy.”

After getting to know Lefty well, he trusted Pistone. Lefty shared Mafia business details and who was who. Lefty got the impression Pistone could make him a lot of money.

Ruggiero introduced Pistone to the Bonanno crime family in 1977. Over four years, Pistone gathered intel on organized crime from Milwaukee to Florida. He even convinced Ruggiero to buy a Florida nightclub called Knights Court where the FBI had set up listening devices.

Pistone wanted to stay undercover until he became a made man. The Bonanno family endured a civil war. The FBI saw Pistone's position as too risky. Ultimately, over 120 Mafia members faced arrest and sentencing. Pistone wrote a book that became a film.Donnie Brasco, starring Johnny Depp. About his experience, Pistone said,

I had no sense of guilt. During the whole operation, I knew it was a job.

Nellie Bly began in 1887. Her editor suggested she investigate. Investigative journalist Nellie Bly went undercover.Bly committed to Blackwell's Island asylum in New York City.Nellie Bly went undercover as Nellie Brown in an asylum in New York City. She used the name because the initials matched personalized items, and it felt close enough to her own name that she remembered it.

Bly worked hard for her role. She secured a room in a boarding house and acted strangely. Police eventually took her to court. She claimed to be a Cuban immigrant with amnesia.She was a Cuban immigrant with amnesia.She first went to Bellevue Hospital. Bly recalls her first night:

She eventually reached Blackwell's Island, but her situation did not improve.

She eventually reached Blackwell's Island, but her situation did not get better.

Every door is locked separately. Windows have heavy bars; escape is impossible. Dr. Ingram told me that in that one building, there were about three hundred women locked, one to ten per room. You cannot get out unless those doors open. Fire is possible, but it is likely. If the building burns, jailers or nurses will not release their patients. Not a dozen women could escape; they would all be left to burn. Unless things change, some day a story of horror will surpass everything.

Take a sane, healthy woman. Lock her up. Make her sit on straight-back benches from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Do not let her talk or move during these hours. Give her bad food and harsh treatment. See how long it takes to make her insane. Two months would wreck her mind and body.After ten days in the asylum, lawyers asked New York for her release. Her first article appeared two days after she returned home. Her work launched an investigation. The asylum's budget increased by $1 million. Bly became known more as a journalistic "stunt girl."Bly concluded that nurses administering treatment would make anyone question their sanity.

Keep a sane, healthy woman locked up. Make her sit on straight-back benches from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Do not let her talk or move during those hours. Give her bad food and harsh treatment. See how long it takes to make her insane. Two months would wreck her mind and body.

After ten days in the asylum, lawyers asked New York for her release. Her first article appeared two days after she returned home. Her work started an investigation and raised the asylum's budget by $1 million. Bly later became a known journalistic 'stunt girl.'

The Silk Road was a cybersecurity problem. It was an online place where people bought anything, from plastic skulls to hitmen. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan helped take down the site administrator during an undercover operation.on the dark web.

After finding drugs at the Chicago airport, Der-Yeghiayan tracked offenders on the digital world. This led him to the philosophies of the site leader, the Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR).Princess Bridecharacter

If we knew what inspired [DPR], we could talk to him. We could even engage him undercover. Maybe he misspells a word or says something else about himself.

The investigation followed a couple of low-level leads involving small drug deals. Der-Yeghiayan eventually took over an account for someone in DPR's inner circle named “Nomad.”

If you used a username or someone in the inner circle didn't know it, they wouldn't reply. You couldn't get much information. But I saw something: using the Nomad account, I got a lot of info from these admins. One admin, Scout, stood out.

Der-Yeghiayan later took over.He flipped “Scout” to his side and took over her admin account. He had to perfectly copy her “writer's voice, syntax, diction, punctuations, sentence structure, slang, curse words, acronyms.” Investigators then used the admin account to find the Silk Road's servers and an internet cafe in San Francisco where the site's suspected leader logged in.Jared Der-Yeghiayan took over her admin account, perfectly mimicking her writer's voice, syntax, diction, punctuations, sentence structure, slang, curse words, and acronyms. Investigators used the admin account to track Silk Road servers and an internet cafe in San Francisco where the site's suspected leader logged in.

Der-Yeghiayan convinced the FBI against using a helicopter to raid Ross Ulbricht's apartment. They followed him to a San Francisco library, seized him, and took his laptop.

The laptop held tons of evidence. Detailed notes and journals showed everything he did: ransoms, spreadsheets tracking every server, location, and admin logins.

Ulbricht received a life without parole sentence.

Ken Croke began his career with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 1990. His major job arrived in 2008 when he became the first federalLiving with those guys daily was stressful, especially as a prospect. Each morning, I wondered what kind of trouble awaited. Would I face a bar fight? Would I see a pile of coke and a choice? What dumb tasks would they assign? I always had to expect the unexpected and never let my guard down.in the Pagans Motorcycle Club:

In the book, he describes that he never knew his daily routine or how to handle a situation while keeping his cover.

There are things I cannot do. There are things I cannot be part of. There are things I must stop. One night, we went to kill someone. We planned to stab this person and throw them off a roof. That cannot happen, so how do I get out of that?Riding with Evil.He writes that he never knew his daily routine or how he would handle a situation while keeping his cover.

There are things I cannot do. There are things I cannot join. There are things I must stop. One night, we went to kill someone; we planned to stab this person and throw them off a roof. That cannot happen, so how do I get out of that?

You must follow these things. Know that any moment, the situation could go too far. There are legal limits; I could not do certain things and I would stop. There are also moral limits: this group is white supremacist, and I would not join their white supremacy actions.

After the operation finished, Croke met a psychiatrist. This checked if he had accepted the gang's view. Croke's work brought more than 20 Pagans to court. Charges included racketeering, murder conspiracy, extortion, drug trafficking, assault, and weapons violations. These led to combined prison sentences exceeding 100 years.

A 2020 source states this.This is a FRONTLINE PBS documentary., millions of Chinese Muslims are imprisoned in detention camps in China's Xinjiang region. Human rights groups and other nations accuse China ofThey committed genocide., the imprisonment happens in large numbers for Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group in China. The Chinese government calls the camps “vocational education and training centers.”

Documentary producers made this.Robin Barnwell and Gesbeen Mohammed worked with an informant named “Li.” They went undercover to expose human rights abuses at the camps. They also exposed the surveillance methods tracking Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang. Li, a Han Chinese man (the majority ethnicity in China), moved more freely and drew less suspicion. But once the investigation started, they could not contact their undercover operative. Mohammed explained,

For any undercover work, your main goal is keeping them safe while getting usable material to make a film. Otherwise, the risk is pointless. Once he was in Xinjiang, we had no control. Without risking him being found, we could not reach him about the film-making.

When they finally reviewed the footage, they saw how much Li had captured.

Two pieces of footage stood out. One showed his meeting with a security official, a local government figure in Xinjiang. This meeting was very telling because the official stated, for the first time on camera, that Uyghurs have no human rights. The official claimed the policy was excessive.

Even more revealing was footage from a company, a key player helping authorities in Xinjiang build the surveillance system, the Integrated Joint Operations Platform. “Li” visited the company, Leon Technology. Being a Han Chinese businessman, people were relaxed around him, and they wanted to brag about their skills. He asked simple questions, and they gave bold answers.

Filmmakers showed an alarming use of technology to control Uyghurs and Chinese Muslims.

Every Uyghur and Muslim in Xinjiang must install a special app on their phone. This app monitors cell phone use. Bar codes on houses tell authorities who lives there. Travel restrictions exist for Uyghurs and other Muslims moving in Xinjiang. If you lack authorization for a city or move from the countryside to the city, you face stops and questioning. These checkpoints let authorities track you.

Surveillance police states watch for specific behaviors. Actions considered normal, like having WhatsApp or practicing religion, become suspicious and flag you. Turning off your phone is suspicious because it stops monitoring. You cannot avoid surveillance radar at night; you risk detention. This place offers no space for natural behavior.

Producers hope their work spreads information globally.

Two million people are locked up in the 21st century. A part of the world keeps 13 million Muslims cut off from the outside world.

People view the 21st century as China’s century; it remains a major global economic power. Huge worries exist about the Communist regime’s human rights abuses.

Journalist Thomas Kuban says the best place to find neo-Nazis is at a.fascist punk rock concertKuban spent 15 years undercover at these concerts. He used a pseudonym out of fear. “If caught, the neo-Nazis would have beaten and kicked me—they might have killed me.”

After learning about the concerts in the 1990s, Kuban worked to join the punk rock scene. He publicly exposed the active hate group.

Mass crimes happen at every event. No one acts. I see how weakly German security services handle the neo-Nazis, giving them a legal space to operate.

Despite decades undercover, German media seemed uninterested in publishing Kuban’s findings. When he released footage on several German news sites, SpiegelandStern, in 2003, concert-goers were outraged. Kuban said, “This bastion where neo-Nazis felt completely safe at these secret concerts had been broken down.” They began tightening security and hunting the infiltrator, threatening him with death.

The camera needed to hide well. My fake identity had to be so detailed that no one would suspect anything. Otherwise, the fear would overwhelm me, and I could not enter.

People always searched for that camera. A metal detector caught me once in Italy in 2006. There was a body search first. Then they let me walk a few meters onto the site. After that, a metal detector appeared. I was scared. I did not know a metal detector was there, and then suddenly, I faced one.

After a documentary and a book on his work kept showing poor results, Kuban stopped using his camera. "It was the hardest choice I ever made." "I see now there is much more to look into."

At age 22, Amaryllis Fox becameone of the youngestCIA recruits ever. She spent most of the next ten years pretending to be an art dealer overseas. She recruited possible CIA sources and assets. She tried to stop dangerous weapons from falling into terrorist hands. Fox said September 11, 2001, influenced her job.that influenced her job line.:

[I]t completely broke my world. I wanted to know what caused it and how it happened. So I wrote a program that took old data and processed it to guess the next attack. The CIA noticed. I worked with them for nearly ten years as a field agent. I kept weapons of mass destruction away from groups like Al-Qaeda and its allies around the world.

Inher book, Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA, Fox shares her spy experience. She recalls feeling watched while undercover with her husband in Shanghai. Her live-in housekeeper was a source for the Chinese government:

The only way to handle being watched is to give watchers nothing to see. We do not talk about work. We do not talk about anything important. We were told our house is watched. Even our housekeeper, a ghostly presence named Ayi, works for Beijing. We should have sex often, but not too often. Keep it hot, but not too hot.

Fox also shared real spy tips and tricks thatyou won't find in movies, like using "Rolaids to mark bricks with signals because it is less suspicious than chalk in case of capture and search," or a method a colleague used with Starbucks gift cards to signal a meeting:

He gives one gift card to each asset. He tells them, "If you need to see me, buy a coffee." Then he checks the card numbers on a computer at a cybercafe every day. If one balance is gone, he knows a meeting is needed.

While Fox reported movie scenes of rooftop chases are fake because they would expose her, she said meeting up at restaurants is real, and important:

Restaurants and cafés fuel espionage. These places let people meet the contacts we need—those with access to government or terror groups who might help stop or predict the next attack. Sometimes these meetings happen by chance. Often, they are set up to look accidental.

[B]Back-to-the-wall instinct helps you stay aware and keeps your conversation partner away from onlookers. Depending on your goal, multiple entrances, exits, or private seating like booths or hidden corners help. Check opening hours too; many operations happen at odd times. Security cameras and who frequents the place matter most.

Fox does not work for the CIA now. She talks globally about peacekeeping. She often discusses building links and bonds with potential sources.This is a key partof the job—avoiding fights or an “us versus them” attitude.

Sharing these moments is one of the most human, vulnerable things two people can do. These are the relationships that last decades, that end wars, that stop attacks, that change history. Everyone thinks they are the good guy.

Robert Mazur worked for the IRS and the DEA. His story is becoming a Hollywood movie. For two years in the 1980s, he acted as a money laundering businessman to infiltrate.Pablo Escobar's drug cartel

I played the role of a credible money launderer for the cartel. To do this, I needed to be inside real businesses. Over eighteen months, we built the undercover operation. I used informants and interested businessmen to enter real businesses.

The agencies named Mazur's operation C-Chase for currency chase. Mazur said, “You can launder money many ways. It’s as unique as snowflakes.” Money moved through many countries and banks—a move called “layering.”

These were off-book loans so you could not directly link them to the capital in Luxembourg. The money moved through two or three other offshore areas, finally ending up in Panama. We put it in an account there, and then we paid the cartel. They put those funds into other Panamanian accounts at different banks using fake names.

Mazur's investigation brought down over 100 drug operatives and bankers through arrest and conviction. C-Chase resulted in the seizure of more than 3,100 pounds of cocaine and over $600 million in fines and forfeitures.

Two journalists in Afghanistan, Luke Mogelson and Joel van Houdt,went undercoverMogelson and van Houdt traveled from Indonesia to Christmas Island, an Australian territory. They arrived as asylum seekers in 2013. This route, from Indonesia to Christmas Island, was popular but dangerous for many refugees from the Middle East. Mogelson'sMogelson wrote about the experience.He writes over 1,000 asylum seekers likely drowned on the journey in the last ten years.

Despite the journey's danger, Mogelson and van Houdt boarded a 30-foot timber boat in Jakarta. The boat was "clearly not designed for passengers." They paid $8,000 total and traveled with two Indonesian crew members and 55 other passengers, including nine children and a seven-month pregnant woman. Mogelson stated this.

Australian authorities want to catch smugglers from Kabul. The issue was that every Afghan I spoke to in Indonesia insisted no Western journalist would board a boat. Paranoia about agents was too strong.

Mogelson and van Houdt hid their real identities. They pretended to be Georgian refugees fleeing with secret government information. The trip was hard and uncomfortable.

Sometimes, the strong south-easterly trade winds stalled their progress. These winds created white caps and stinging spray, keeping everyone alert. There was no toilet or railing. Going over the side meant too much risk. Men urinated on the hull; women urinated in their pants.

Near the destination, a crew member used a satellite phone to call Australian authorities for help. He told the refugees to throw away their IDs and phones to avoid deportation. Australian sailors escorted the boat to shore.

Upon arrival, Mogelson and van Houdt showed who they were and went to a hotel. However, the asylum seekers faced a long, unsure future. Mogelson said they were likely sent to detention centers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea while their refugee claims waited for processing—many claims fail.