John Downey, POW in China for 20 years and later a judge, dies
Young American CIA agent was on his first overseas job when his plane was shot down. He later became a judge and raised a family
John Downey
1930-2014
John Downey, a former CIA agent who survived more than 20 years in Chinese prisons during the cold war before becoming a Connecticut judge, has died. He was 84.
Downey was diagnosed with cancer a month ago and died at a hospice, according to his son, Jack Downey, of Philadelphia.
Downey graduated from Yale University and joined the Central Intelligence Agency a year before his plane was shot down during a botched cloak-and-dagger flight into China in November 1952 during the Korean war.
He spent the next 20 years, three months and 14 days in Chinese prisons. He was released in March 1973, and was walked across the border into Hong Kong.
Downey had become the longest-held prisoner of war in US history.
After returning to the United States, he graduated from Harvard Law School just three years later and was appointed to the Connecticut bench in 1987.