Philbrick, Herbert Arthur

▪ 1994

      U.S. advertising salesman, writer, and spy (b. May 11, 1915?—d. Aug. 16, 1993, North Hampton, N.H.), infiltrated the Communist Party for the FBI while posing as a loyal member of the party and holding a job in advertising; he chronicled this deception in his best-selling 1952 autobiography, I Led Three Lives, which was adapted into a popular television series in 1953. Philbrick joined the Massachusetts Youth Council in the 1940s and later realized that the organization was a front for the Communist Party. After he informed the FBI of his suspicions, he was asked to remain with that group and supply information to the agency. Philbrick rose through party ranks, describing himself as "one of the most hardworking Communists in New England." Because of his inside information, Philbrick was called as a surprise witness at the 1949 conspiracy trial of 11 Communist leaders. After his testimony ensured their conviction, he recounted his spy activities in 17 serialized installments in the New York Herald Tribune. Philbrick then returned to advertising before working for federal nuclear regulators and finally as president of a not-for-profit educational organization.

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▪ United States spy

born May 11, 1915, Rye Beach, N.H., U.S.

died Aug. 16, 1993, North Hampton, N.H.

      U.S. counterintelligence agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who spied on the Communist Party of the United States during the 1940s.

      Philbrick studied engineering at Lincoln Technical Institute of Northeastern University in Boston, and in 1938 he became an advertising salesman. Through a sales call, he became interested in the Massachusetts Youth Council and later helped to set up a subsidiary organization in Cambridge. Gradually he came to realize that the organization was controlled and used for propaganda by the Communist Party. He took his suspicions to the FBI and was asked by them to act as an undercover agent. He did so for nine years, reporting on activities that violated the Smith Act and other laws. On April 6, 1949, he broke cover to testify against 11 Communist leaders who had been indicted in part on evidence he had provided. All 11 were found guilty, and Philbrick became a public figure. In 1952 he published a record of his undercover work called I Led Three Lives, which became a best-seller.

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