C.G.B. SPENDER a.k.a. CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN Former Spouse: Cassandra Spender Children: Jeffrey Spender (mother: Cassandra Spender); Fox William Mulder (mother: Teena Mulder) BACKGROUND: Spender, a.k.a. Cigarette-Smoking Man, Cancer Man and other, less savory sobriquets, has been the primary enforcer for The Syndicate — the covert network of supposed alien-colonization collaborators, who served as our unknowing cover group. In that capacity, he very skillfully guided FBI X-Files agents Mulder and Scully and their predecessors, and oversaw a wide variety of field operatives. While his record of success is not perfect, it is sterling. He suffered few setbacks in his pursuance of the Syndicate's project-goals. A master of covert activity, it is unclear even to us what is fact and what is disinformation about his life. When Melvin Frohike, one of the troublesome "conspiracy buff" trio calling themselves The Lone Gunmen, represented to Mulder he had uncovered the truth behind Spender, Spender personally took up a sniper position on Frohike while listening through electronic surveillance. He declined to terminate the subject when the preposterousness of the "revelations" became clear: The false story attributes to Spender not only the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., but also the "fixing" of Super Bowls, the Academy Awards, the Olympics and the Rodney King trial. What little that is certain includes his marriage to Cassandra Spender, who was abducted the same day as Samantha Mulder (Nov. 27, 1973) as part of a collateral contract with the alien colonizers. They have a son, Jeffrey Spender, who became an FBI agent and eventually, in a tragedy recalling King Lear and Oedipus Rex in reverse, was shot in the face and presumably killed by his own father. Fox Mulder is the illegitimate son of C.G.B. Spender and Teena Mulder, then-wife of fellow Syndicate conspirator William Mulder. Fox, raised believing William was his father, did not learn the truth until very recently. We also know Spender developed cancer, which was put into remission by the alien shapeshifter known as "Jeremiah Smith." Following the Syndicate's demise at the hands of other members of that alien race, Spender's cancer returned. He was wheelchair-bound and breathing through a shunt when thrown down a flight of stairs by rogue operative Alex Krycek. Reports of Spender's death at that time proved premature — just as they had when the Syndicate had attempted to terminate him by sniper fire in 1997. back to top