The State - News from Oct. 13, 1985

A third indictment against Jerry A. Whitworth, the 46-year-old former Navy radioman accused of spying for the Soviet Union, deletes a charge that he sold secret information about a massive Defense Department communication system called “Autodin,” which is used to transmit messages between all branches of the military. The new indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury in San Francisco, alleges that Whitworth confined his spying to Navy communication lines. The U.S. attorney in San Francisco, Joseph P. Russoniello, said the altered charges “will have no effect, in my judgment, on the strength of our case or the evidence to be introduced” in Whitworth’s trial, set to begin Nov. 12. Whitworth is accused of selling classified Navy communication documents to John A. Walker Jr., alleged ringleader of a major Soviet spy ring.