
Scott gave me a check for $2,020.85 ($10,912 in
2023 dollars). This included $261.47 for the flight
to West Palm Beach, electronics expenses, and
$500 a week for 3½ weeks of work. The following
morning, I took a walk along the beach to reflect
on the events of the previous two days and
washed it all away with a swim in the Atlantic.
Eight weeks later, Hughes would be dead.
LASER EAVESDROPPING REDUX
Later I wrote several articles about laser
spying, including “Surreptitious Interception
of Conversations with Lasers,” the November
1985 cover story for Optics & Photonics News
(doi.org/10.1364/ON.11.11.000006). The cover
photo showed a miniatur ...