Claire Phillips

Claire Phillips died of meningitis in 1960 at the age of 52.

Many of Phillips' statements and claims about spying were later determined to be "without foundation," although in 1957 she was awarded $1,349.21 by the United States Court of Claims in compensation for assistance she had provided to American prisoners of war and Filipino resistance movements.

Upon the recommendation of General Douglas MacArthur, she received the Medal of Freedom in 1951.

After the war, Phillips returned with her daughter, Diane, to the United States, where she wrote Manila Espionage, a book about her experiences. Her story was made into the Hollywood movie I Was An American Spy (1951), starring Ann Dvorak as Phillips. Phillips was a guest on an episode of the television series This Is Your Life that aired March 15, 1950.

On May 23, 1944, Phillips was apprehended by the Kenpeitai (the Japanese military police) after one of the messengers she used to contact the POWs at Cabanatuan was captured, interrogated and killed. She was taken to Bilibid Prison, the infamous Japanese prison in Manila (two miles from the American prison camp), where she was tortured for information. She was held in solitary confinement for six months and was to be executed for espionage. This sentence was commuted to twelve years' confinement at hard labor. In January 1945, when she was liberated from the prison by American forces, she was near death from starvation.

During the invasion of the Philippines by Japanese forces in 1941 and early 1942, her husband was captured. He later died in a prison camp, though she did not learn this until later. After the surrender of the American forces in the Philippines on April 9, 1942, she was persuaded by an American soldier turned insurgent named Cpl. John Boone (also from the 31st Infantry) to help the resistance.

Before the beginning of the war, Claire, now Claire Fuentes returned to the Philippines and was singing in a night club in Manila where she met her future second husband, Sgt. John V. Phillips of the 31st Infantry Regiment. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the couple retreated with the army away from Manila. On December 24, 1941, they were married in the jungle.

In the 1930s, she worked in night clubs in the northwest U.S. and later joined a musical stock company that toured east Asia including Hong Kong and Manila. While on tour in the Philippines, she met Filipino sailor Manuel Fuentes at a night club where she was performing. They married and had a daughter, Dian (later Americanized to Diane) Claire. The marriage did not last long and soon the couple divorced. She briefly returned to Portland.

Claire Maybelle Snyder (December 2, 1907 – May 22, 1960), also known as Clara Fuentes, Clara Phillips, Dorothy Fuentes as well as High Pockets, was an American spy, entertainer, club owner, and author most noted for her exploits in the Japanese-occupied Philippines. She was portrayed by Ann Dvorak in the 1951 movie I Was an American Spy. She was also the author of Manila Espionage, a book about her wartime experiences. In 1951, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom.