Press Release - Veteran FBI Agent Arrested and Charged with Espionage, FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. He continued to perform incriminating searches of FBI files for his name and address. Robert Hanssen's business cards, chalk and thumb tacks, which he used to communicate with his Russian contacts, according to the FBI. She would then use this money to run her house and support her children. children: Greg Hanssen, Jane Hanssen, John Hanssen, Lisa Hanssen, Mark Hanssen, Sue Hanssen, education: Kellogg School Of Management, Knox College (Illinois), See the events in life of Robert Hanssen in Chronological Order, (Former FBI Double Agent Who Spied for Russian Intelligence Services Against the United States from 1979 to 2001), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Hanssen.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert-Philip-Hanssen.jpg. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. They never lived the high life; they never even went out to dinner, she said. Marriage: Bernadette Bonnie (Wauck) Hanssen (August 10, 1968-present), Children: Lisa, Greg, Mark, John Jack, Sue and Jane, Education: Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, A.B. [58] Going by the alias "Ramon" or "Ramon Garcia",[59] 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. [15] During his first espionage cycle, Hanssen provided a significant amount of information to the GRU, including details of the FBI's bugging activities and lists of suspected Soviet intelligence agents. Darla earned a living for the household as well, teaching children with disabilities. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history." Hanssen is currently serving 15 consecutive life sentences without parole at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado. He was paid handsomely by the Soviets. [69], Hanssen frequently visited D.C. strip clubs and spent a great deal of time with a Washington stripper named Priscilla Sue Galey. Sunday night the FBI arrested Robert Philip Hanssen who has been charged with committing espionage. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." Yet some investigators believed anger about how his father treated him as a child triggered a need to rebel against authority. As alleged, he did so using a variety of sophisticated means of communication, encryption, and dead drops. "Butcher, Baker" was adapted into the 2013 film "The Frozen Ground," starring Nicholas Cage, John Cusack, and Vanessa Hudgens (per IMDb). But money is. [7] On July 6, 2001, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of espionage, one count of attempted espionage, and one of conspiracy to commit espionage in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Hanssen would later claim that his goal was simply to make some extra money, as living in New York City was putting a financial squeeze on his growing family. After a few years working as an accountant, he decided to enter law enforcement. His espionage of more than two decades had earned him cash of over 1.4 million USD and diamonds. [7][8] On May 10, 2002, Hanssen was sentenced to 15 consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Throughout his spying, Hanssen remained anonymous to the Russians. Hanssen's jailers allowed him to watch this movie, but he was so angered by it that he turned it off. As a devout Catholic, Bonnie Hanssen feels that he needs time [in prison] to pray for forgiveness and be redeemed in some way, the wifes attorney, Janine Brookner, said in an interview. [63], According to USA Today, those who knew the Hanssens described them as a close family. Updated He also independently disclosed the identity of two KGB officials who, first compromised by Aldrich Ames, had been recruited by the U.S. Government to serve as agents in place at the Soviet Embassy in Washington. His assistant, Eric ONeill, was tasked with keeping investigators apprised of Hanssens movements. Judge Webster is uniquely qualified as a former FBI Director, CIA Director and Director of Central Intelligence to undertake this review. Hansen was convicted in 1984 after confessing to killing 17 women, mostly dancers and prostitutes, during a 12-year span. 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". This included all the FBI activities related to wiretapping and electronic surveillance, which were Hanssen's responsibility. Further, the complaint alleges that Hanssen, using his training and experience to protect himself from discovery by the FBI, never met face-to-face with his Russian handlers, never revealed to them his true identity or where he worked, constantly checked FBI records for signs he and the drop sites he was using were being investigated, refused any foreign travel to meet with the Russians, and even declined to accept any trade craft. Hanssen never displayed outward signs that he was receiving large amounts of unexplained cash. Both schools are associated with Opus Dei. Despite having shown his face, disclosed his code name, and revealed his FBI affiliation, Hanssen escaped arrest when the FBI's investigation into the incident did not advance. Polyakov was arrested in 1986 and executed in 1988. Robert Hansen was actually married twice. [20] In 1985, Hanssen was again transferred to the FBI's field office in New York, where he continued to work in counterintelligence against the Soviets. Friends of Hanssen later came forward and told journalists that Hanssen had exhibited eccentric behavior, which included an obsession with pornography. Ames was arrested in 1994. With two children already out of school, the pension money will help Bonnie Hanssen support two children who are in college and two more still in high school, Brookner said. [22] Yuzhin had returned to Moscow in 1982 and had been subject to an 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. Imagine finding out that your husband is a ruthless serial rapist and murderer. 1981 - Is assigned to the Intelligence Division at FBI headquarters in DC. "I have opened the door for calumny against my totally innocent wife and children. 2023 Cable News Network. He went to the Russian embassy in person and physically approached a GRU officer in the parking garage. The Soviets, suspicious of being lured into a trap, demanded to meet him. Wanting to get a fresh start, the newlywed couple migrated to Alaska in 1967 (per the New YorkDaily News). Martynov and Motorin were condemned to death and executed via a gunshot to the back of the head. [71], 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 directed the FBI team that eventually caught Hanssen after initially wrongly assuming a CIA officer was the master spy. After Ames's arrest in 1994, some of these intelligence breaches remained unsolved. His job was to help assemble a database of foreign officials posted in New York who, while posing as diplomats, were actually intelligence officers spying on the United States. Gallagher also told Hanssen that then-Director Louis Freeh had approved a two-year extension on his service and a promotion to the Senior Executive Service. The FBI waited two more days to see if any of Hanssen's SVR handlers would show up at Foxstone Park. For more than a decade, Hansen had been luring sex workers into his vehicle or home with the promise of an easy transaction. [26], Later that year, Hanssen gave extensive information about American planning for measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT), a general term for intelligence collected by a variety of electronic means, such as radar, spy satellites, and signal intercepts. At present he is serving his fifteen successive life terms as prisoner #48551-083 at a federal supermax prison, the ADX Florence. The plea bargain spared Hanssen the death penalty. Darla earned a living for the household as well, teaching children with disabilities. 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 will report directly to the Attorney General and me and we will share his report with the National Security Council and Congress. At one point Hanssen spoke to a Russian agent over a pay phone, but they generally relied on placing signals in public places. 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. Mark Wauck, an FBI employee and brother-in-law of Hanssen, prompted his superior in 1990 to investigate Hanssen after a heap of cash was found in Hanssens house, but no action was taken. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. Robert Philip Hanssen is an American former Federal Bureau of Investigation double agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. The ensuing investigation confirmed this suspicion. However, two cases- the Bloch investigation and the embassy tunnel- remained unsolved. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. Hanssen warned the KGB that Bloch was being investigated, causing the KGB to end contact with him abruptly. Finding nothing, Hanssen decided to resume his spy career after eight years without contact with the Russians. He worked as a policeman in Chicago for three years and was placed on an elite unit that investigated corruption. On October 1, 1985, Hanssen sent an anonymous letter to the KGB offering his services and asking for $100,000 in cash, equivalent to $251,949 in 2021. Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Killer. Hanssen was set to retire, so investigators had to move fast. The one thing the father and son would eventually have in common is their interest in hunting. Although Hanssen was unaware of it, Ames had already exposed all three agents earlier that year. Children: Lisa, Greg, Mark, John "Jack," Sue and Jane Education: Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, A.B. This California farm kingdom holds a key, These are the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles, New Bay Area maps show hidden flood risk from sea level rise and groundwater. He established contact with the SVR (the successor to the Soviet-era KGB) during the autumn of 1999. In 1981 he was assigned to the Budget Unit in the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. His job in the suburb of Vienna included electronic surveillance and wiretapping, which gave him more access to different FBI activities. [54], With the representation of Washington lawyer Plato Cacheris, Hanssen negotiated a plea bargain that enabled him to avoid the death penalty in exchange for cooperating with authorities. During the early 1990s, KGB veterans began to approach western intelligence agencies and provide information. But even as her life regains some sense of normalcy, Bonnie Hanssen struggles to understand the havoc that the last few months have wrought, Brookner said. Two fingerprints collected from a trash bag in the file were analyzed and proved to be Hanssen's. End contact with the SVR ( the successor to the Attorney General and and... Had exhibited eccentric behavior, which were Hanssen 's responsibility two more days to see if of. 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