The FBI forbade Mr. O'Neill to speak publicly until recently. Hanssen then began to secretly videotape his sexual encounters and shared the videotapes with Hoschouer. [4] He was spying at the same time as Aldrich Ames in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Who were Robert Hansen's wives and children? However, two cases—the Bloch investigation and the embassy tunnel—stood out and remained unsolved. WASHINGTON -- When Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested two weeks ago and charged with spying for Russia, his FBI colleagues were astonished that the alleged espionage had gone undetected for 15 years. When O'Neill was able to briefly obtain Hanssen's PDA and have agents download and decode its encrypted contents, the FBI had its "smoking gun. During his first stint in prison, his wife, who he married at 21, left him. Bonnie told him that he … [7] On July 6, 2001, he pleaded guilty to fourteen counts of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit espionage in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Galey claims that although she offered to sleep with him, Hanssen declined, saying that he was trying to convert her to Catholicism. He is a United States citizen. [16] CIA and FBI officials, including Deputy Director William Sullivan, believed that, at some point, Polyakov was turned by the Soviets and made into a triple agent who deceived the West with misinformation. [4][30], When the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, Hanssen, possibly worried that he could be exposed during the ensuing political upheaval, broke off communications with his handlers for a time. The FBI believes that the Russians never knew the name of their source. The Frozen Ground is now streaming on Netflix. [61] Hanssen took the risk of recommending to his handlers that they try to recruit his closest friend, a colonel in the United States Army. Rifling through the rest of the files, they found notes of the mole using a quote from General George S. Patton about "the purple-pissing Japanese. On October 1, 1985, Hanssen sent an anonymous letter to the KGB offering his services and asking for $100,000 in cash. Ames was officially blamed for giving Polyakov's name to the Soviets, while Hanssen's attempt was not revealed until after his 2001 capture. He also designated a code to be used when dates were exchanged. [37], The existence of two Russian moles working in the U.S. security and intelligence establishment simultaneously—Ames at the CIA and Hanssen at the FBI—complicated counterintelligence efforts in the 1990s. [36], During the same time period, Hanssen searched the FBI's internal computer case record to see if he was under investigation. [4], In 1989, Hanssen compromised the FBI investigation of Felix Bloch, a State Department official who had come under suspicion for espionage. He quit after one year and joined the Chicago Police Department as an internal affairs investigator, specializing in forensic accounting. I have hurt so many deeply. What Do the Families of Ted Bundy's Victims Think of the Netflix Documentary? [57] Going by the alias "Ramon" or "Ramon Garcia",[58] Hanssen exchanged intelligence and payments through an old-fashioned dead drop system in which he and his KGB handlers left packages in public, unobtrusive places. Two fingerprints collected from a trash bag in the file were analyzed and proved to be Hanssen's. [9] His father Howard, a Chicago police officer, was emotionally abusive to Hanssen during his childhood. The agents working beneath him reported this breach to a supervisor, but no action was taken. Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001, at Foxstone Park[5] near his home in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Vienna, Virginia, after leaving a package of classified materials at a dead drop site. [4][41], FBI investigators later made progress during an operation in which they paid off disaffected Russian intelligence officers to deliver information on moles. Upon becoming a special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's Gary, Indiana, field office. Later, he hid a video camera in the bedroom that was connected via closed-circuit television line so that Hoschouer could observe the Hanssens from his guest bedroom. In the end, officials believed his claim that he was merely demonstrating flaws in the FBI's security system. Bonnie Hanssen, wife of former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Hanssen who is serving life sentence for spying for Moscow on and off for 20 … Bonnie and Robert have six children. Hanssen disclosed this information to the Soviets in September 1989 and received a $55,000 payment the next month. Hanssen warned the KGB that Bloch was under investigation, causing the KGB to abruptly break off contact with him. All denied everything. The true crime film stars John Cusack and Nicolas Cage, and has many fans wondering about the real serial killer, Robert Hansen, who inspired the movie's events. [45][46][47], The FBI placed Hanssen under surveillance and soon discovered that he was again in contact with the Russians. Three years later, Hanssen transferred to the FBI's Soviet analytical unit, which was responsible for studying, identifying, and capturing Soviet spies and intelligence operatives in the United States. [43] FBI agent Michael Waguespack felt the voice was familiar, but could not remember who it was. "[54], Hanssen is Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoner #48551-083. "I apologize for my behavior. Hanssen's jailers allowed him to watch this movie, but he was so angered by it that he turned it off. [72], Eric O'Neill's role in the capture of Robert Hanssen was dramatized in the 2007 film Breach, in which Chris Cooper played the role of Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe played O'Neill.[73]. Desk: FBI and CIA Counterintelligence As Seen From My Cubicle Dog Ear Publishing 2010, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America, "USA v. Robert Philip Hanssen: Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint, Arrest Warrant and Search Warrant", "Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator", "A Review of FBI Security Programs (Webster Report)", "A Review of the FBI's Performance in Deterring, Detecting, and Investigating the Espionage Activities of Robert Philip Hanssen", Thompson Statement Regarding Hanssen Guilty Plea, "Spy's Wife Speaks, After Taking a Lie Test", "Riddle Resolved: Who Dimed Out American Traitor and Super-Spy, Robert Hanssen? Wauck also knew that the FBI was hunting for a mole and so spoke with his supervisor, who took no action. Lawyers arrive at courthouse3. The couple's relationship was fraught, and Darla, who had a master's degree in Education and taught children with learning disabilities, supported herself. The Most Notorious Crime in Every State in the U.S. '20/20' Dives Into the Murder of Sarah Stern by So-Called Friend Liam McAtasney. The FBI was unable to produce any hard evidence, and as a result, Bloch was never charged with a crime, although the State Department later terminated his employment and denied his pension. He became known in the Bureau as an expert on computers.[19]. I am shamed by it," Hanssen told U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton. "[51], However, Hanssen's suspicions did not stop him from making one more dead drop. The rest were either married or away at college. When told that he would have to take a lie detector test to join, Hanssen changed his mind. Darla also supported Hansen financially when he was incarcerated for theft, and later when he was charged with abducting and sexually abusing a housewife and a prostitute. The investigation is covered in O'Neill's memoir Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy, published by Penguin Random House in spring 2019. Robert Hansen, also called "The Butcher Baker" because he was a baker by profession, is known to have raped and assaulted over 30 Alaskan women, who he abducted and hunted down, and to have murdered at least 17 of them, ranging from ages 16 to 41. In 1968, he married Bernadette "Bonnie" Wauck, a Roman Catholic who managed to convert Robert from his Lutheranism, prompting him to become a fervent believer. ROBERT PHILIP HANSSEN was born on April 18, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois, where he was raised. history." Hanssen restored communications the next year and continued until his arrest. [4][10] He graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1962 and went on to attend Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1966. I read the true crime book on Robert Hansen, and I felt so sorry for his wife and children. When Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested last month and charged with spying for Russia, his FBI colleagues were astonished that the alleged espionage had gone undetected for … Hanssen is also mentioned in the fifth episode of Netflix series Spycraft. His case is considered one of America's greatest intelligence failures, as Hanssen operated as a mole within the bureau's counterintelligence division, the highly sensitive part of the FBI tasked with tracking foreign spies. FBI agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services incarcerated in a US federal prison, FBI career and first espionage activities (1976–1981), FBI counterintelligence unit, further espionage activities (1985–1991), Later FBI career, continued espionage activities (1992–2001), Lynch, Christopher, The C.I. [24] That same year, Hanssen, according to a government report, committed a "serious security breach" by revealing secret information to a Soviet defector during a debriefing. Hanssen embraced his conversion and went on to join the Catholic organization Opus Dei[13] with like-minded individuals. The FBI waited two more days to see if any of Hanssen's SVR handlers would show up at Foxstone Park. His credentials as a certified public accountant with a master’s degree in business administration complemented four years spent on the Chicago police force to make him a good fit for the agency’s Financial Crimes Division, and he was assigned to Gary, Indiana, right out of the FBI Academy. He then followed his usual routine, taking a package consisting of a sealed garbage bag of classified material and taping it to the bottom side of a wooden footbridge over a creek. He was indiscreet enough to type his own name into FBI search engines. Polyakov was arrested in 1986 and executed in 1988. The FBI's codename for the suspected spy was "Graysuit". Robert Hansen was a serial killer from America who murdered at least 17 women. Hanssen then walked through the cold park to a wooden footbridge and placed a sealed black garbage bag in a secret spot near the base of the bridge. She would use her money to run the household and support the couple's children, while Hansen would spend the money he made at the bakery on "his own needs," according to what she would later tell Sergeant Flothe, who played a pivotal role in his capture. Kelley instead reported the incident to the FBI. However, Hanssen escaped notice. A child learning their father was this person performing these acts is a very different absorbtion of feelings. Hanssen's three sons attended The Heights School in Potomac, Maryland, an all-boys preparatory school. Mislock has since theorized that Hanssen probably went onto his computer to see if his superiors were investigating him for espionage, and invented the document story to cover his tracks. They formed a list of all agents known to have access to cases that were compromised. The October 1 letter was the beginning of a long, active espionage period for Hanssen. He was given the task of making a study of all known and rumored penetrations of the FBI in order to find the man who had betrayed Martynov and Motorin; this meant that he was looking for himself. [59] He refused to use the dead drop sites that his handler, Victor Cherkashin, suggested and instead picked his own. Serial killer Robert Hansen confessed to killing 17 women in Alaska over a 12-year span, all while married with two children. It belongs to his wife now, and … [33], In 1994, Hanssen expressed interest in a transfer to the new National Counterintelligence Center, which coordinated counterintelligence activities. I just watched Breach, the movie based on the capture of the mole Robert Hanssen, whose passing of information to the Russians constituted perhaps the most serious damage to U.S. national security. The Bureau planned to use it for eavesdropping, but never did for fear of being caught. Finding nothing, Hanssen decided to resume his spy career after eight years without contact with the Russians. A very different thing for a adult to be a spouse learning about such unhuman acts. Robert Hanssen – FBI Double Agent While betraying his country as a spy, Hanssen seemed to become even more committed in his devotion to the Opus Dei organization, attending meetings and rallys fervently and sending his children to Opus Dei schools. In the last letter he wrote to the Russians, which was picked up by the FBI when he was arrested, Hanssen said that he had been promoted to a "do-nothing job ... outside of regular access to information," and that, "Something has aroused the sleeping tiger. ... By the time Robert Hanssen was assigned to Washington in 1981 he had begun to realize that any dreams he had of becoming part of the FBI's hierarchy were not going to be realized. When they failed to appear, the Justice Department announced the arrest on February 20. From star-studded movies like The Frozen Ground to amateur blogs, his legacy certainly lives on. In January 2001, Hanssen was given an office and an assistant, Eric O'Neill, who in reality was a young FBI surveillance specialist who had been assigned to watch Hanssen. [21] Yuzhin had returned to Moscow in 1982 and had been put under intensive investigation by the KGB there due to having lost a concealed camera in the Soviet consulate in San Francisco, but he was not arrested until being exposed by Ames and Hanssen. [71], Hanssen was the subject of a 2002 made-for-television movie, Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story, with the teleplay by Norman Mailer and starring William Hurt as Hanssen. He is serving his sentence at the ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado, in solitary confinement for twenty-three hours a day. [6] To avoid the death penalty, Hanssen pleaded guilty to fourteen counts of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit espionage. Six was to be added to the month, day, and time of a designated drop time, so that, for example, a drop scheduled for January 6 at 1 pm would be written as July 12 at 7 pm. But what about his wife, who stayed with him for so long despite his behavior? [22] Martynov and Motorin were recalled to Moscow, where they were arrested, charged, tried, and convicted of espionage against the USSR. Hanssen is also mentioned in the seventh episode of The History Channel series America's Book of Secrets. In the letter, he gave the names of three KGB agents secretly working for the FBI: Boris Yuzhin, Valery Martynov, and Sergei Motorin. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. In 1979, Hanssen approached the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and offered his services. After his first wife left him, Hansen was released from prison in late 1962. Ames had been stationed in Rome at the time of the Bloch investigation, and could not have had knowledge of that case or of the tunnel under the embassy, as he did not work for the FBI. [38][39], The FBI and CIA formed a joint mole-hunting team in 1994 to find the suspected second intelligence leak. As so many people are fascinated with serial killers, it's no surprise that the Butcher Baker has earned something of a following. He never indicated any political or ideological motive for his actions, telling the FBI after he was caught that his only motivation was financial. I hope their children (now adults) were able to bring some kind of peace, forgiveness, stability to their heart, mind and soul. In 1999, the FBI even interrogated Kelley, his ex-wife, two sisters and three children. Robert Hassen spent only three years as a clean FBI agent before beginning his 22 years of spying that would one day be described as “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history”. On February 18, 2001, after Robert Hanssen returned his visiting friend to the airport, he drove back toward home in Vienna, Virginia and stopped at Foxstone Park. [74], The American Court TV (now TruTV) television series Mugshots released an episode on the Robert Hanssen case titled "Robert Hanssen – Hanssen and the KGB".[75]. [70], The Hanssen spy case is told in Ronald Kessler's book The Secrets of the FBI in chapter 15, "Catching Hanssen," chapter 16, "Breach", and chapter 17, "Unexplained Cash", based in part on interviews with Michael Rochford, who headed the FBI team that eventually caught Hanssen after initially wrongly focusing on a CIA officer as the master spy. The 2007 documentary Superspy: The Man Who Betrayed the West describes the hunt to trap Hanssen. After dropping his friend off at the airport on February 18, 2001, Hanssen drove to Virginia's Foxstone Park. [66], However, at Hanssen's suggestion, and without the knowledge of his wife, a friend named Jack Hoschouer, a retired Army officer, would sometimes watch the Hanssens having sex through a bedroom window. The Russians then filed an official protest with the State Department, believing Hanssen to be a triple agent. [12] Hanssen received an MBA in accounting and information systems in 1971 and took a job with an accounting firm. Because of his sexual deviancy and espionage conviction, the organization's reputation was badly hurt. The Frozen Ground is captivating viewers on Netflix. Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is a former American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States for 22 years from 1979 to 2001. It was after the transfer, while on a business trip back to Washington, that he resumed his career in espionage. A few years later, he was also charged and sentenced to five years in prison for larceny after he was caught stealing a chainsaw. [67] He also explicitly described the sexual details of his marriage on Internet chat rooms, giving information sufficient for those who knew them to recognize the couple. He also became involved with the Opus Dei. The following year, he married Darla Henrichson, with whom he … They attended Mass weekly and were very active in Opus Dei. He once said in a letter to the KGB that it should emulate the management style of Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley—a comment that easily could have led an investigator to look at people from Chicago. Throughout his spying, Hanssen remained anonymous to the Russians. His new job in the FBI's budget office gave him access to information involving many different FBI operations. 23. Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) double agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. After going to prison, Hanssen claimed he periodically admitted his espionage to priests in Confession. His father, a policeman, was emotionally abusive towards him during his childhood. Yuzhin was imprisoned for six years before he was released under a general amnesty to political prisoners, and subsequently emigrated to the U.S.[23] Because the FBI blamed Ames for the leak, Hanssen was not suspected nor investigated. Similar to many wives of serial killers! This innocent looking house in Vienna used to belong to Russian spy Robert Hanssen before he was caught by the Feds. He also believed he was hearing noises on his car radio that indicated that it was bugged, although the FBI was later unable to reproduce the noises Hanssen claimed to have heard. NSD chief Johnnie Sullivan ordered the computer impounded after it appeared to have been tampered with. [17][18], In 1981, Hanssen was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and he moved to the suburb of Vienna, Virginia. Robert Christian Hansen (February 15, 1939 – August 21, 2014), known in the media as the "Butcher Baker," was an American serial killer.Between 1971 and 1983, Hansen abducted, raped, and murdered at least 17 women in and around Anchorage, Alaska; he hunted many of them down in the wilderness with a Ruger Mini-14 and a knife. FBI Agent Robert Philip Hanssen is shown in this undated file photo, ... (Wauck) Hanssen (August 10, 1968-present) Children: Lisa, Greg, Mark, John “Jack,” Sue and Jane [62], According to USA Today, those who knew the Hanssens described them as a close family. [29], In 1990, Hanssen's brother-in-law, Mark Wauck, who was also an FBI employee, recommended to the Bureau that Hanssen be investigated for espionage because his sister (Hanssen's wife) told him that her sister (Jeanne Beglis) had found a pile of cash on a dresser in the Hanssens' house. She went with Hanssen on a trip to Hong Kong and on a visit to the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia. Hanssen's story was featured in episode 4, under the name of "Perfect Traitor", of Smithsonian Channel's series Spy Wars, aired end of 2019 and narrated by Damian Lewis.[77]. Robert Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lutheran family who lived in the Norwood Park neighborhood. ", "Eric O'Neill and Billy Ray Discuss 'Breach, "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees: Uproar Over CIA Operative; Iraq Weapons Hunt: Congress to be Briefed", "FBI Spy Robert Hanssen Gets Life Sentence", Faculty and Staff Directory for Oakcrest School for Girls, Ex-stripper describes her time with accused spy, "MUGSHOTS: ROBERT HANSSEN – HANSSEN AND THE KGB", "Smithsonian Channel: It's Brighter Here", FBI application for arrest warrant for Hanssen, "The Movie Breach and Hollywood's Take on Espionage; Peter interviews Eric O'Neill, the FBI investigator who went undercover as Robert Hanssen's clerk during the final months before Hanssen was arrested for espionage", "This FBI Agent Sold Secrets to the KGB for Years", "Curator's Corner: Robert Hanssen - An Inside View with Eric O'Neill", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Hanssen&oldid=1007625794, American people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, American people convicted of spying for Russia, Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents convicted of crimes, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents convicted of espionage, Persons convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917, Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles having same image on Wikidata and Wikipedia, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Ramon Garcia, Jim Baker, G. Robertson, Graysuit, "B", This page was last edited on 19 February 2021, at 02:39. Working so hard to keep the Hansen's Bakery afloat in downtown Anchorage, she was clueless as to what her husband was up to. This is because only two of the Hanssen's children, Lisa and Gregg, were still living at home in 2001. Eric O'Neill talked about the Robert Hanssen spy case. Both Ames and Hanssen compromised the names of KGB agents working secretly for the U.S., some of whom were executed for their betrayal. While it did not contain Hanssen's name, among the information was an audiotape of a July 21, 1986, conversation between "B" and KGB agent Aleksander Fefelov.

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