Hanssen is mentioned in chapter 5 of Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code as the most noted Opus Dei member to non-members. Polyakov was carefully watched by the Russians from that point on, and was eventually arrested as a spy and executed in 1988. January 12, 1976 - Joins the FBI as a special agent. "[3] Hanssen is currently serving 15 consecutive life sentences without parole at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado. Brian Blomquist. The priest told Hanssen to stop his illegal activities and donate the money he had gotten from the Russians to charity. Once there, he would turn them loose and begin a human hunting expedition. All Rights Reserved. Darla earned a living for the household as well, teaching children with disabilities. There he served as an investigator of internal affairs with specialisation in forensic accounting. John Cusack plays the villain in the movie, and if youre curious to know, let me tell you that the story is inspired by the serial killer Robert Hansen. He visited an office of the Russian government's trading company and offered to spy. 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. As soon as they let their guard down, Hansen would attack, brutally sexually assaulting them before finally killing them (per Anchorage Daily News). 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 finally arrested in early 2001 from Foxstone Park for trading classified information of the US to the Soviet Union and later to the Russian Federation. 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. history. Without the current unprecedented level of trust and cooperation between the CIA and FBI, making this case would not have been possible. Unlike Cold War spies of an earlier era, Hanssen claimed to have no political motivation for selling out his country. Eric Michael O'Neill is an American former FBI counter-terrorism and counterintelligence operative. [30], In 1990, Hanssen's brother-in-law, Mark Wauck, who was also an FBI employee, recommended to the FBI 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. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. 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. Hanssen's superiors were not amused and began an investigation. [70] Hanssen gave her money, jewels, and a used Mercedes-Benz but ended contact with her before his arrest when she began abusing drugs and doing sex work. But money is. 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. When Robert Hansen was arrested in 1983, it would soon be revealed that this mild-mannered Alaskan baker was responsible for the deaths of as many as 17 young women in the Last Frontier. For a time he planned to become a dentist, but eventually wound up obtaining an MBA and becoming an accountant. We believe it was exceptionally grave. On August 10, 1968, he married Bernadette "Bonnie" Wauck, a dedicated catholic. Robert Hansen. 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. [41] The idea that an FBI agent was the second mole was not considered early enough. children: Greg Hanssen, Jane Hanssen, John Hanssen, Lisa Hanssen, Mark Hanssen, Sue Hanssen Born Country: United States Spies American Men City: Chicago, Illinois Notable Alumni: Knox College (Illinois) U.S. State: Illinois More Facts Recommended Lists: American People Kellogg School Of Management Male Spies American Spies Aries Men He was sentenced to life in prison. Much of what these men and women did remains undisclosed but their success and that of their CIA counterparts represents unparalleled expertise and dedication to both principle and mission. [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. The premise of The Frozen Ground is that a state trooper, played by Nicolas Cage, teams up with a surviving victim of a serial killerto bring him down. [33], Hanssen continued to take risks in 1993 when he hacked into the computer of a fellow FBI agent, Ray Mislock, printed out a classified document from Mislock's computer and took the document to Mislock, saying, "You didn't believe me that the system was insecure." For unknown reasons[dubious discuss], the Soviets did not act against Polyakov until he was betrayed a second time by CIA mole Aldrich Ames in 1985. Sunday night the FBI arrested Robert Philip Hanssen who has been charged with committing espionage. The CIA and FBI searched his house, tapped his telephone, and surveilled him, following him and his family everywhere. 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. [5] His mother was Edna Margret Petersen. appreciated. In school, he was bullied for his acne, girls would not talk to him, and he also developed a stutter. The 2007 documentary Superspy: The Man Who Betrayed the West describes the hunt to trap Hanssen. After his release 20 months later, Hansen worked at putting his life back in order. In 1962 he completed his graduation from William Howard Taft High School. Their actions represent counterintelligence at its very best and under the most difficult and sensitive of circumstances. Hansen was convicted in 1984 after confessing to killing 17 women, mostly dancers and prostitutes, during a 12-year span. He also paid visits to various sex workers, two of whom filed complaints to the police about Hansen and his strange and terrifying behaviors. The FBI's codename for the suspected spy was "Graysuit". In his communications with the Russians (some of which were eventually made public after his arrest) he insisted on setting the terms of how he would communicate, pass information, and pick up money. He married Bernadette Wauck in 1968 and, influenced by his devout Catholic wife, he converted to Catholicism. [7][8] He was sentenced to 15 life terms without the possibility of parole. Darla fled the state to Arkansas, where she had family. The failure of the Bloch investigation and the FBI's investigation of how the KGB learned that they were investigating Bloch caused the mole hunt that eventually resulted in the arrest of Hanssen. When FBI agents observed this incriminating act, they rushed in to arrest Hanssen. [44] FBI agent Michael Waguespack thought the voice was familiar, but could not remember who it was. , . [4][10] He graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1962 and then attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1966. Judge Webster is uniquely qualified as a former FBI Director, CIA Director and Director of Central Intelligence to undertake this review. 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. He will report directly to the Attorney General and me and we will share his report with the National Security Council and Congress. It was not a very demanding job, said Sullivan. [4], In 1989, Hanssen compromised the FBI investigation of Felix Bloch, a Department of State official who had become suspected of espionage. Heres a look at the life of convicted spy Robert Hanssen. The plea bargain spared Hanssen the death penalty. The FBI also obtains the complete original KGB dossier on Hanssen. For many years, the CIA and FBI have been aggressively engaged in a sustained analytical effort to identify foreign penetrations of the Intelligence Community. Wanting to get a fresh start, the newlywed couple migrated to Alaska in 1967 (per the New YorkDaily News). The pension was an important consideration for Hanssen in his plea negotiations, Brookner said. [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. [53] Upon being arrested, Hanssen asked, "What took you so long?" https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/robert-hanssen-6997.php. [60] He refused to use the dead drop sites that his handler, Victor Cherkashin, suggested and instead chose his own. Both schools are associated with Opus Dei. January 12, 2001 - Hanssen is reassigned from counterintelligence to an obscure office at FBI headquarters. Literally, Hanssens colleagues and coworkers at the FBI conducted this investigation and did so quietly, securely and without hesitation. Robert Hanssen moments after being arrested. 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". 1991 - Breaks off relations with the KGB. The evidence against him was overwhelming, and to avoid the death penalty, Hanssen confessed and agreed to be debriefed by American intelligence officials. McNamara, Robert. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." We dont know at this point what happened to that money, she said. 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. She left her children, Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric well taken care of, but she didn't leave . In 1979, Hanssen approached the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and offered his services. Each time, I share the pride and sanctity of those words when new agents swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same.. Hanssen, carrying a package of documents, identified himself by his Soviet code name, "Ramon Garcia", and described himself as a "disaffected FBI agent" who was offering his services as a spy. He once said in a letter to the KGB that it should emulate the management style of Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daleya comment that easily could have led an investigator to look at people from Chicago. Furthermore, she supported her husband when he was first incarcerated for theft, and then for abducting and sexually abusing a housewife and a prostitute (although the rape charge concerning the latter was dropped when he pleaded guilty.) [75], The American Court TV (now TruTV) television series Mugshots released an episode on the Robert Hanssen case titled "Robert Hanssen Hanssen and the KGB".[76]. His espionage of more than two decades had earned him cash of over 1.4 million USD and diamonds. To closely oversee his activities, the FBI relocated him in its headquarters in January 2001. One notable example was the information that the Americans had dug a tunnel under the Russian embassy in Washington to install sophisticated listening devices. He was eventually placed on administrative leave, where he remained falsely accused until after Hanssen was arrested. [37], During the same period, Hanssen searched the FBI's internal computer case record to see if he was being investigated. Updated 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. The first time around, his wife divorced him after a mere half-year because of his incarceration for arson in Iowa. 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 have committed their lives to public service and to upholding the high standards of the FBI. Darla earned a living for the household as well, teaching children with disabilities. [65], A priest at Oakcrest said Hanssen had regularly attended a 6:30a.m. daily Mass for over a decade. Upon becoming a special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's Gary, Indiana, field office. 1972 - Joins the Chicago Police Department. Since he held key counterintelligence positions, he had authorized access to classified information. I intend to act swiftly on his recommendations. The FBI and CIA formed a joint mole-hunting team in 1994 to find the suspected second intelligence leak. None of the internal information or personnel security measures in place alerted those charged with internal security to his activities. After around five years he joined the FBI in January 1976. 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. He worked as a policeman in Chicago for three years and was placed on an elite unit that investigated corruption. He then applied and was accepted into the FBI. This would already be enough to charge him with murder. After her children endured relentless bullying at school, she decided that her best path led out of Alaska (via The Cinemaholic). He was also tasked with observing and learning as much as he could about Hanssens information technology setup in his office and with keeping an eye out on who Hanssen was meeting and talking with. Yet some investigators believed anger about how his father treated him as a child triggered a need to rebel against authority. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. He later wrote to his KGB handler, speaking about the severity with which U.S. laws punishes his alleged actions, and acknowledging I know far better than most what minefields are laid and the risks.. She is also challenging some of her husbands credit card bills. Finding nothing, Hanssen decided to resume his spy career after eight years without contact with the Russians. The information he delivered compromised numerous human sources, counterintelligence techniques, investigations, dozens of classified U.S. government documents, and technical operations of extraordinary importance and value. The first marriage lasted only for six months; his wife divorced him while he was serving a 3-year sentence for arson in Iowa. Hanssen's wife, Bonnie, retired from teaching theology at Oakcrest in 2020. 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. That effort is complemented by substantial FBI proactive investigation of foreign service intelligence officers here and by the critical work done by the CIA. After confirmation by the FBI CART Unit, Sullivan filed a report with the Office of Professional Responsibility requesting the further investigation of Hanssen's attempted hack. Is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. 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. He also believed he heard noises on his car radio that indicated it was bugged, although the FBI was later unable to reproduce the noises Hanssen claimed to have heard. Waguespack listened to the tape again and recognized the voice as belonging to Hanssen. In 1979, three years after joining the FBI, Hanss He also designated a code to be used when dates were exchanged. Since becoming Director over seven years ago, I have administered the FBI oath to each graduating class of Special Agents at the FBI Academy. [34], In 1994, Hanssen expressed interest in a transfer to the new National Counterintelligence Center, which coordinated counterintelligence activities. Hanssen's jailers allowed him to watch this movie, but he was so angered by it that he turned it off. He was tasked with studying all known and rumored penetrations of the FBI to find the man who had betrayed Martynov and Motorin; this meant, in effect, that he was charged with searching for himself. Hanssen gave them the name of a Russian general, Dimitri Polyakov, who had been providing information to the Americans. As an agency, we lived up to our responsibility, regardless of how painful it might be. The October 1 letter began a long, active espionage period for Hanssen. 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. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. 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. He was born on April 18, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois, to Howard and Vivian Hanssen. Even without knowing who he was or where he worked, Hanssens value to the Russians was clear both by the substantial sums of money paid and the prestigious awards given to their own agents for Hanssens operation. This wedded bliss was short-lived, however. 2. He worked as an Investigative Specialist with the Special Surveillance Group and played a major role in the arrest, conviction, and imprisonment of FBI agent Robert Hanssen for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia. He emerged as one of the most damaging spies to have infiltrated the FBI resulting in probably the worst intelligence disaster in the history of the US. In May 2002, Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison. While the risk that an employee of the United States Government will betray his country can never be eliminated, there must be more that the FBI can do to protect itself from such an occurrence. He was arrested while in the process of using a dead drop to clandestinely provide numerous classified documents to his Russian handler. in Chemistry, 1966; Attended Northwestern University Dental School, 1966-1968; Northwestern University, M.B.A. in Accounting and Information Systems, 1971. 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. Three years later, Hanssen transferred to the FBI's Soviet analytical unit, responsible for studying, identifying, and capturing Soviet spies and intelligence operatives in the United States. 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. 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