John T. Downey

John Thomas "Jack" Downey (April 19, 1930 – November 17, 2014) was a Central Intelligence Agency operative who was held captive in China for twenty years. After release, he studied law and became a Connecticut Superior Court Judge. Judge Downey was appointed to the bench in 1987 by Governor William O'Neill, and he became Chief Administrative Judge for Juvenile Matters in 1990. He served in that capacity until 1997, when he elected to take senior status.

Early life

Originally from Wallingford, Connecticut, Downey graduated from the Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) and in 1951 Yale College.

CIA career

He joined the Central Intelligence Agency soon after Yale and became one of two CIA officers (the other was Richard Fecteau, a Boston University graduate) who survived the shoot-down of their mission over the People's Republic of China in November 1952. Both were captured and spent approximately the next two decades in Chinese prisons before release.

Capture

During the Korean War, China was an ally of North Korea against the U.S.-backed South Koreans. Fecteau, Downey and fellow aircraft crew were trying to pick up an anti-communist Chinese agent when they came under fire in the sky over Manchuria on November 29, 1952. Initially, all of those on the aircraft were presumed by the U.S. Government to be lost. Downey was 22 years old and Fecteau was 25 at the time of their capture. The pilots, Robert Snoddy and Norman Schwartz, were killed.