In 1978, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI office in New York City and was assigned to a counterintelligence post. But Thursday, Bonnie Hanssen issued a statement through her attorney revealing the torment that the case has caused. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. The Hanssens were associated with the Catholic fraternal order Opus Dei. 1980 - Begins working for the counterintelligence unit, focusing on the Soviet Union. The investigation of Hanssen was conducted by the FBI in partnership with the CIA, the Department of State, and, of course, the Justice Department. It would seem as though Hansen's children want their privacy respected, and who could blame them? Polyakov was carefully watched by the Russians from that point on, and was eventually arrested as a spy and executed in 1988. Robert was born in 1939 in Iowa to Danish immigrants Christian and Edna Hansen. Many of them were agents of the Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB, or its military counterpart, the GRU. The level of support and expertise from Acting Deputy Attorney General Robert Mueller, Counsel for Intelligence Policy Frances Fragos Townsend, U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey and Assistant United States Attorney Randy Bellows is superb. They attended Mass weekly and were very active in Opus Dei. 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 the spring of 2019. A Warner Bros. Christian owned a bakery and would make his son work for long hours as a kid. history. Breaking her five-month silence, the wife of FBI spy Robert Philip Hanssen said Thursday that she deeply regrets the damage her husband has caused the United States and believes it is appropriate that he spend the rest of his life in prison. The following year he was shifted to counter-intelligence division where he was delegated the job of organising data of Soviet intelligence. On January 12, 1976, Robert Philip Hanssen swore an oath to enforce the law and protect the nation as a newly minted FBI special agent. He then enrolled at the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, to study dentistry but after three years shifted to business studies. All his six children went to schools linked with Opus Dei. 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. Upon becoming a special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's Gary, Indiana, field office. Please be aware how deeply Mrs. Hanssen regrets the damage that her husband, Robert Hanssen, has caused to our country and to their family, the statement said. Did you encounter any technical issues? An official website of the United States government. I have asked Judge William H. Webster, and he has graciously agreed, to examine thoroughly the internal security functions and procedures of the FBI and recommend improvements. 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. Wanting to get a fresh start, the newlywed couple migrated to Alaska in 1967 (per the New YorkDaily News). [17][18], In 1981, Hanssen was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and he relocated to the suburb of Vienna, Virginia. [45] FBI analyst Bob King remembered Hanssen using that same quote. Hanssen ensured that he did not reveal himself with his study, but in addition, he gave the entire studyincluding the list of all Soviets who had contacted the FBI about FBI molesto the KGB in 1988. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. With the mole finally identified, locations, dates, and cases were matched with Hanssen's activities during the period. After graduating from a public high school, Hanssen attended Knox College in Illinois, studying chemistry and Russian. In the end, officials believed his claim that he was merely demonstrating flaws in the FBI's security system. Throughout his spying, Hanssen remained anonymous to the Russians. Biography of Vladimir Putin: From KGB Agent to Russian President, Biography of Mata Hari, Infamous World War I Spy, Haym Salomon, Spy and Financier of the American Revolution, Biography of Virginia Hall, WWII's Most Wanted Spy, Biography of Fred Hampton, Black Panther Party Leader, Biography of Robert Kennedy, US Attorney General, Presidential Candidate, John Dillinger's Life as Public Enemy Number 1, Biography of Nikita Khrushchev, Cold War Era Soviet Leader. Robert Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lutheran family who lived in the Norwood Park neighborhood. By. 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.[78]. In 1979, three years after joining the FBI, Hanssen approached the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) to offer his services, beginning his first espionage cycle, lasting until 1981. These reports went nowhere, however (via the New York Daily News). After working in the FBI division that developed secret listening devices, Hanssen was again placed in a position to track Russian agents operating in the United States. Darla earned a living for the household as well, teaching children with disabilities. The investigation that led to these charges is the direct result of the longstanding FBI/CIA efforts, ongoing since the Aldrich Ames case, to identify additional foreign penetrations of the United States Intelligence Community. Judge Webster is uniquely qualified as a former FBI Director, CIA Director and Director of Central Intelligence to undertake this review. He restarted his espionage activities in 1985 and continued until 1991, when he ended communications during the collapse of the Soviet Union, fearing he would be exposed. FBI agents remove evidence from Robert Hanssen's home in Vienna, Virginia on February 20, 2001. . [4], In 1989, Hanssen compromised the FBI investigation of Felix Bloch, a Department of State official who had become suspected of espionage. He became known in the FBI as an expert on computers.[19]. 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. Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Killer. Although Hanssen was unaware of it, Ames had already exposed all three agents earlier that year. She sold their house and bakery in Alaska and shifted closer to her family in Arkansas after the children were getting bullied massively at their school. To closely oversee his activities, the FBI relocated him in its headquarters in January 2001. [32] The following year, after the Russian Federation assumed control of the defunct Soviet spy agencies, Hanssen made a risky approach to the GRU, with whom he had not been in contact in ten months. Eric Michael O'Neill is an American former FBI counter-terrorism and counterintelligence operative. His twenty two years of espionage against the US began in 1979. He received $5,00,000 and jewellery for this work. They have committed their lives to public service and to upholding the high standards of the FBI. For instance, a piece of adhesive tape placed on a sign in a park in Virginia would indicate that a package had been placed in a "dead drop" location, which was usually under a small footbridge in the park. We believe it was exceptionally grave. The agencies initially focused primarilyand incorrectlyon a veteran CIA case officer, who was investigated for nearly two years. But money is tight, she said, and the former housewife has taken a teaching job at her daughters school in Virginia. They paid $7 million to KGB agent Alexandr Shcherbakov[43] who had access to a file on "B". Is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Robert Hanssen is a former FBI agent who sold highly classified material to Russian intelligence agents for decades before he was finally arrested in 2001. Their goal was to catch Hanssen red handed in espionage. When he pleaded guilty and received a 461-year prison sentence in 1984, Darla divorced him. , . On May 10, 2002, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Hanssen refused. "[3] Hanssen is currently serving 15 consecutive life sentences without parole at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado. Though the government alleges that Robert Hanssen, 56,. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much [64] His three daughters attended Oakcrest School for Girls in Vienna, Virginia, an independent Roman Catholic school. Updated While Darla suspected that he had been frequenting prostitutes, she had no idea of the literal manhunt he conducted. [68] 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. Bonnie had previously told her brother that Hanssen once talked about retiring in Poland, then part of the Eastern Bloc. Hanssenusing the alias Ramon Garcia with his Russian handlershad provided highly classified national security information to the Russians in exchange for more than $1.4 million in cash, bank funds, and diamonds. The FBI also obtains the complete original KGB dossier on Hanssen. He was eventually placed on administrative leave, where he remained falsely accused until after Hanssen was arrested. The complaint alleges that Hanssen, using the code name Ramon, engaged in espionage by providing highly classified information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR, using encrypted communications, dead drops, and other clandestine techniques. Ames was officially blamed for giving Polyakov's name to the Soviets, while Hanssen's attempt was not revealed until after his 2001 capture. His assistant, Eric ONeill, was tasked with keeping investigators apprised of Hanssens movements. After Bonnie Hanssen confronted her husband, he told her that he had been in contact with his Soviet intelligence counterparts only as a ploy to trick them with disinformation, the attorney said. Heres a look at the life of convicted spy Robert Hanssen. Instead, he ultimately became the most damaging spy in. In what is now considered the largest intelligence breach in FBI history, Robert Hanssen's scandal made him millions in diamonds and cash, but cost the FBI $7 million and the lives of three informants. He was delegated to probe police officers who were suspected of corruption. Hanssen also revealed a multimillion-dollar eavesdropping tunnel built by the FBI under the Soviet Embassy. In 1962 he completed his graduation from William Howard Taft High School. At work, he often spoke of his religious faith and conservative values, traits which helped him avoid any suspicion during the years that he was in secret communication with Russian spies. 2000 - The FBI identifies Hanssen from a fingerprint and from a tape recording supplied by a disgruntled Russian intelligence operative. In 1978, he and his growing family of three children (and eventually six) relocated to New York City when the FBI transferred him to its field office there. In November 1998, they had a man with a foreign accent come to Kelley's door, warn him that the FBI knew he was a spy, and tell him to show up at a Metro station the next day to escape. July 6, 2001 - Pleads guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy in exchange for the government not seeking the death penalty. His book written about this experience, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy, was published in spring 2019. He became an agent in 1976, and spent two years working in the Indianapolis, Indiana, field office. Later, he hid a video camera in the bedroom connected via a closed-circuit television line so that Hoschouer could observe the Hanssens from his guest bedroom. The FBI's codename for the suspected spy was "Graysuit". 2:02 PM EDT, Thu April 14, 2022, FBI Agent Robert Philip Hanssen is shown in this undated file photo, released by the FBI February 20, 2001. Hansen would force some of these women into the small plane that he owned and fly them to a remote location in the Alaskan wilderness. A turning point came in 2000, when the FBI and CIA were able to secure original Russian documentation of an American spy who appeared to be Hanssen. [34], In 1994, Hanssen expressed interest in a transfer to the new National Counterintelligence Center, which coordinated counterintelligence activities. The FBI paid $7 million to a KGB agent to obtain a file on an anonymous mole, whom the FBI later identified as Hanssen through fingerprint and voice analysis. Martynov and Motorin were condemned to death and executed via a gunshot to the back of the head. The FBI believes that the Russians never knew the name of their source. Yet some investigators believed anger about how his father treated him as a child triggered a need to rebel against authority. On February 18, 2001, he was arrested by the FBI when he was keeping a waste bag full of classified information in a pre-planned place from where his Russian handler could collect it. Later he would convert to Catholicism from Lutheranism. He was, after all, a trained counterintelligence specialist. "[55], Hanssen is Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoner #48551-083. In her statement, Bonnie Hanssen thanked government officials for allowing her to retain the pension and for recognizing that she and the children clearly are innocent victims.. [49][50][51], During his final days with the FBI, Hanssen began to suspect something was wrong. During the early 1990s, KGB veterans began to approach western intelligence agencies and provide information. For many years, the CIA and FBI have been aggressively engaged in a sustained analytical effort to identify foreign penetrations of the Intelligence Community. 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. 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. For more information:- Press Release - Veteran FBI Agent Arrested and Charged with Espionage- Affidavit- Statement ofFBI Director Louis J. Freeh on the Arrestof FBI Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen (see below), Statement of FBI Director Louis J. Freeh On the Arrestof FBI Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen, For Immediate ReleaseFebruary 20, 2001Washington D.C.FBI National Press Office. January 12, 1976 - Joins the FBI as a special agent. No one knew Hansen was abducting some of these women and killing them for sport. Though the Russians made an official protest, he managed to get away with it as FBIs probe in this matter did not make any progress. January 12, 2001 - Hanssen is reassigned from counterintelligence to an obscure office at FBI headquarters. Although his name was not specifically mentioned, evidence in the file pointed to Hanssen, who was put under close surveillance. [63], According to USA Today, those who knew the Hanssens described them as a close family. "I have opened the door for calumny against my totally innocent wife and children. The couple, however, did not have a great relationship. 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. But Brookner said Hanssens family was never the beneficiary of any spy money and that Bonnie Hanssen has no idea what happened to the proceeds from his spying, including $800,000 that authorities say the Russians deposited for him in a Moscow bank. Robert Hansen. Hanssen parked on a residential street and walked down a wooded path to a footbridge with the classified materials wrapped in a plastic bag. [4] The family moved to Richmond, California in 1942, but returned to Iowa in 1949, settling in Pocahontas. Two fingerprints collected from a trash bag in the file were analyzed and proved to be Hanssen's. He had opportunity. Authorities said they are convinced that Bonnie Hanssen--unlike the wives of several other notorious U.S. spies who helped their husbands--was not involved in Hanssens spying. A digital investigation found that an attempted hacking had occurred using a password cracking program installed by Hanssen, which caused a security alert and lockup. Robert Hansen died at the age of 75 in 2014, still safely behind bars (via theAnchorage Daily News). Hanssen met Bernadette "Bonnie" Wauck, a staunch Roman Catholic, while attending dental school at Northwestern. To get Hanssen back to FBI Headquarters where he could be closely monitored, Neil Gallagher, assistant director of the National Security Division at the time, called Hanssen to inform him of a bogus assignment to serve on his staff as a special assistant for a technology project. [37], During the same period, Hanssen searched the FBI's internal computer case record to see if he was being investigated. Because of his experience and training as a counterintelligence agent, Hanssen went undetected for years, although some of his unusual activities had aroused suspicion from time to time. In the 1990s, after the arrest of Aldrich Ames, the FBI and CIA realized that a mole within the intelligence community was still sharing classified information with the Russians. It wasnt money, thats for sure, she said, noting that the family lived in a modest home with three mortgages and drove older-model cars as they scrimped to send their children to private Catholic schools. Though both Hansen and his wife earned respectable incomes, it would . [72], 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. Wauck also knew that the FBI was hunting for a mole and spoke with his supervisor, who took no action. [16] CIA and FBI officials, including Deputy Director William Sullivan, believed that, at some point, Polyakov was made into a triple agent by the Soviets, who thereby deceived the West with misinformation. The fact that the KGB became aware of the probe triggered the FBI to look for the leak. [62] Hanssen took the risk of recommending to his handlers that they try to recruit his closest friend, a colonel in the United States Army. Agents find a bag nearby containing $50,000 that they believe is Hanssens payment for the documents. [4][42], FBI investigators later made progress during an operation where they paid disaffected Russian intelligence officers to deliver information on moles. However, even though Hansen would go to church with his wife, nothing really changed. He wrote to them anonymously. Hanssen received payments of $1.4 million in cash and diamonds from the information he gave the Soviet Union and Russia. For years, Hanssen stopped contacting the Russians. He also designated a code to be used when dates were exchanged. He continued to perform incriminating searches of FBI files for his name and address. in Chemistry, 1966; Attended Northwestern University Dental School, 1966-1968;. The Russian had obtained Hanssen's KGB file. appreciated. Hanssen subsequently was assigned to a variety of national security posts that legitimately provided him access to classified information relating to the former Soviet Union and Russia. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. They never lived the high life; they never even went out to dinner, she said. Asked what Bonnie Hanssen thinks may have motivated her husband, Brookner said: Who knows? A proficient hunter and tracker since childhood, Hansen chased down his victims in the Alaskan wilderness with a Ruger Mini-14 and a knife. Once when Bonnie caught his espionage, he made a confession to an Opus Dei priest, donated cash to Catholic charity and gave his word of never spying again. At the Heights, McPherson told the family that they would not have to worry. Therefore, after he was given a 461-year sentence for his crimes, she chose to divorce him. [60] He refused to use the dead drop sites that his handler, Victor Cherkashin, suggested and instead chose his own. For two children, that was devastating. She supports the plea agreement and agrees that the sentence of life in prison without parole, rather than the death penalty, is appropriate in these circumstances.. He went to the Russian embassy in person and physically approached a GRU officer in the parking garage. Sullivan noted that Hanssen spent a lot of time trolling ACS for information. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. Darla fled the state to Arkansas, where she had family. 2023 Cable News Network. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." (Photo courtesy of FBI/Newsmakers). He also paid visits to various sex workers, two of whom filed complaints to the police about Hansen and his strange and terrifying behaviors. In this article, Hansens dynamic with his own family is discussed to give you a better insight into the life of the now-deceased murderer. In 1993, he took a daring step by personally approaching a GRU official to offer his espionage, mentioning his codename Ramon Garcia, but the official turned him away. Troubled by the incident, Bonnie Hanssen made her husband speak with a Catholic priest, who directed him to contribute money to Mother Teresa, the Catholic nun who ran a Calcutta charitable organization, as a form of penance, Brookner said. 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. This would already be enough to charge him with murder. They gave him a new job supervising FBI computer security. . The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the Rule of Law. Finding nothing, Hanssen decided to resume his spy career after eight years without contact with the Russians. Hanssen, a former counterintelligence supervisor for the FBI, pleaded guilty last week to 15 espionage-related charges and admitted that he had sold the Russians thousands of pages of national security secrets in exchange for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. At least two movies have been made about Hanssen. 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". His most important leak was the betrayal of Dmitri Polyakov, a CIA informant who passed enormous amounts of information to U.S. intelligence while rising to the rank of general in the Soviet Army. Apparently, even though Hansen was naturally a left-handed person, he was always forced to use his right hand, making his speech problems worse. 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. To the residents of the quiet suburb of Vienna, Virginia, Robert Hanssen was the perfect neighbor. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. As Director of the FBI, I am proud of the courageous men and women of the FBI who each day make enormous sacrifices in serving their country. Robert Hansen Remains 'Person of Interest' in Mom's Disappearance As for the investigation back in the 1960s when Joan Hansen disappeared, Urquhart was obviously not working for the Sheriff's office. I intend to act swiftly on his recommendations. The CIA and FBI searched his house, tapped his telephone, and surveilled him, following him and his family everywhere. Hanssen's superiors were not amused and began an investigation. Judge Webster and anyone he selects to assist him will have complete access and whatever resources are necessary to complete this task. That effort is complemented by substantial FBI proactive investigation of foreign service intelligence officers here and by the critical work done by the CIA. I dont think there was anybody more shocked by all this, Brookner said. While their exact whereabouts are unknown to the public, it's suspected that they still live in the Midwest. 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. When told that he would have to take a lie detector test to join, Hanssen changed his mind. In one letter to his Russian handlers, Hanssen complains about lost opportunities to alert them that the FBI had discovered the microphone hidden at the State Department, known then by the FBI but apparently not by Hanssen as being monitored by a Russian intelligence officer. Born In: Chicago, Illinois, United States. The Russian officer, who evidently did not recognize the code name, drove away. His father served on the police force in Chicago and was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II when Hanssen was born. May 9, 2002 4:00am. The 2007 documentary Superspy: The Man Who Betrayed the West describes the hunt to trap Hanssen.
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