Robert Philip Hanssen is a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, who became infamous as a notorious double agent of the intelligence services of Soviet Union and later Russia. After the transfer, while on a business visit back to Washington, D.C., he resumed his espionage career. Robert was born in 1939 in Iowa to Danish immigrants Christian and Edna Hansen. May 16, 2001 - Is indicted on 21 counts of spying for the Soviet Union/Russia and passing top secret material to the Soviet Union/Russia. The Hanssens are active members of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic group. 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. He married Bernadette Wauck in 1968 and, influenced by his devout Catholic wife, he converted to Catholicism. Two fingerprints collected from a trash bag in the file were analyzed and proved to be Hanssen's. https://www.thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832 (accessed January 18, 2023). It was not a very demanding job, said Sullivan. 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. Imagine finding out that your husband is a ruthless serial rapist and murderer. Both schools are associated with Opus Dei. He often steered conversations to talk of religion and his very conservative values, which were aligned with the very conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. Brookner said that the only time Bonnie Hanssen harbored any suspicions about her husbands activities came around 1979 or 1980, when they lived in Scarsdale, N.Y. She walked in on him and he covered up some papers, so she got suspicious, Brookner said. After one teenage victim was able to escape, authorities were able to learn her abductor's identity. They never lived the high life; they never even went out to dinner, she said. 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. She left her children, Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric well taken care of, but she didn't leave . He used encrypted communications, dead drops, and other clandestine methods to provide information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR. Christian owned a bakery and would make his son work for long hours as a kid. To closely oversee his activities, the FBI relocated him in its headquarters in January 2001. He continued to perform incriminating searches of FBI files for his name and address. During his sessions with investigators, Hanssen claimed his motivation had always been financial. Is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. He did well in his elective, Russian. Hanssen's jailers allowed him to watch this movie, but he was so angered by it that he turned it off. Pitts was the second FBI agent to mention Hanssen by name as a possible mole, but superiors were still unconvinced, and no action was taken. After executing a search warrant, authorities found items in Hansen's home that belonged to other missing women from the area. But money is. [25] 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. I am shamed by it," Hanssen told U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton. For a while he was in contact with Priscilla Sue Galey, a stripper in Washington, who received cash, jewelry and other benefits from Hanssen. 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. 2023 Cable News Network. [60] He refused to use the dead drop sites that his handler, Victor Cherkashin, suggested and instead chose his own. This included all the FBI activities related to wiretapping and electronic surveillance, which were Hanssen's responsibility. As Hanssen walked back to his car, the arrest team rushed up and took him into custody. (Serial Killer) Robert Christian Hansen was a convicted serial killer from America who abducted, raped, and murdered at least 17 women in and around Anchorage, Alaska, in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the early 1980s, Hanssen was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. To his colleagues in the bureau he seemed to be a model agent. In return, he received large sums of money and other remuneration. 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.. An FBI Agent who raised his right hand and spoke those words over 25 years ago has been charged today with violating that oath in the most egregious and reprehensible manner imaginable. Hansen even followed in his fathers footsteps and opened up his own bakery. He visited an office of the Russian government's trading company and offered to spy. Ames was officially blamed for giving Polyakov's name to the Soviets, while Hanssen's attempt was not revealed until after his 2001 capture. The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the Rule of Law. 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. On May 10, 2002, he was given sentence of fifteen life terms without a chance of parole. An official website of the United States government. 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.. It belongs to his wife . The FBI trusted him with some of the most sensitive secrets of the U.S. government, and instead of upholding that trust, he abused and betrayed it. A TV movie called Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story was released in 2002. We believe it was exceptionally grave. To the residents of the quiet suburb of Vienna, Virginia, Robert Hanssen was the perfect neighbor. Because of his sexual deviancy and espionage conviction, the organization's reputation was badly hurt. [4] The family moved to Richmond, California in 1942, but returned to Iowa in 1949, settling in Pocahontas. A Warner Bros. [6] Though both Hansen and his wife earned respectable incomes, it would . Robert Hansen was a reputed baker and a married man with two children living in Anchorage, Alaska. 1980 - Begins working for the counterintelligence unit, focusing on the Soviet Union. While this arrest represents a counterintelligence investigative success, the complaint alleges that Hanssen located and removed undetected from the FBI substantial quantities of information that he was able to access as a result of his assignments. Under Mr. Hanssen's plea bargain, she. The affidavit alleges that Hanssen voluntarily became an agent of the KGB in 1985 while assigned to the intelligence division at the FBI field office in New York City as supervisor of a foreign counterintelligence squad. In 1979 he contacted the Soviet military intelligence, GRU, to offer his espionage. For many years, the CIA and FBI have been aggressively engaged in a sustained analytical effort to identify foreign penetrations of the Intelligence Community. For more than a decade, Hansen had been luring sex workers into his vehicle or home with the promise of an easy transaction. The priest told Hanssen to stop his illegal activities and donate the money he had gotten from the Russians to charity. 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. 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. 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. On July 6, 2001, he was tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on fifteen counts for his espionage. 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. After a stint of three years he was shifted to the Soviet Analytical Unit that delved in probing, recognising and catching Soviet agents in the US. 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. 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. The Hanssens were associated with the Catholic fraternal order Opus Dei. Brian Blomquist. He also designated a code to be used when dates were exchanged. 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. Hanssen appeared to be a devoted anti-communist. [7][8] On May 10, 2002, Hanssen was sentenced to 15 consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He began providing the Soviets with highly valuable material. The FBI planned to use it for eavesdropping but never did for fear of being caught. Bonnie Hanssens first public statements on the case reveal both her anxiety over her husbands actions and her sense of relief over the fact that she and her six children will retain an estimated $39,000 a year from his government pension. All his six children went to schools linked with Opus Dei. Discovery Company. In January 2001, Hanssen moved into a small office in FBI Headquarters secretly outfitted with surveillance cameras and microphones. 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. He was paid handsomely by the Soviets. The Soviets, suspicious of being lured into a trap, demanded to meet him. Wikimedia Commons Robert Hanssen made over $1 million spying for the Soviets until he was caught in 2001. Hanssen's story is the subject of the 2021 documentary A Spy in the FBI. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. [21] In the letter, he gave the names of three KGB agents secretly working for the FBI: Boris Yuzhin, Valery Martynov, and Sergei Motorin. Robert was born in 1939 in Iowa to Danish immigrants Christian and Edna Hansen. 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. Hanssen allegedly began spying for the Soviets in 1985 when, in his first letter to the KGB, he volunteered information that compromised several sensitive techniques. Robert Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lutheran family who lived in the Norwood Park neighborhood. Hanssen was serving as a detailee to the Office of Foreign Missions at the Department of State at the time suspicions around him arose. Before Hanssen left the position, Sullivan went to learn his new role at the Department of State. Born In: Chicago, Illinois, United States. The news that he used to literally hunt women and kill them after sexually assaulting them sent shockwaves through the state of Alaska, and on occasion, even beyond its borders. January 12, 1976 - Joins the FBI as a special agent. The Hanssen case was regarded as a low point for the FBI, especially as Hanssen had been so trusted and had committed such betrayals for so many years. After her children endured relentless bullying at school, she decided that her best path led out of Alaska (via The Cinemaholic). O'Neill ascertained that Hanssen was using a Palm III PDA to store his information. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. After divorcing Robert, Darla was faced with a choice. 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. The investigation of Hanssen was conducted by the FBI in partnership with the CIA, the Department of State, and, of course, the Justice Department. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. I dont think there was anybody more shocked by all this, Brookner said. With the mole finally identified, locations, dates, and cases were matched with Hanssen's activities during the period. During the early 1990s, KGB veterans began to approach western intelligence agencies and provide information. May 10, 2002 - Is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. 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. They created a list of all agents known to have access to cases that were compromised. Darla earned a living for the household as well, teaching children with disabilities. For two children, that was devastating. In 1979, three years after joining the FBI, Hanss Hanssen claimed he was trying to connect a color printer to his computer but needed the password cracker to bypass the administrative password. 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. in Chemistry, 1966; Attended Northwestern University Dental School, 1966-1968;. At present he is serving his fifteen successive life terms at a federal supermax prison, the ADX Florence. 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. Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is an American former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) double agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. [77] David Wise wrote Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America. The FBI believed his story, and Hanssen was merely given a warning. [6] To avoid the death penalty, Hanssen pleaded guilty to 14 counts of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit espionage. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. The plea bargain spared Hanssen the death penalty. Literally, Hanssens colleagues and coworkers at the FBI conducted this investigation and did so quietly, securely and without hesitation. 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. Hanssen was detailed to the Office of Foreign Missions at the Department of State from 1995 to 2000. They have committed their lives to public service and to upholding the high standards of the FBI. In the last letter he wrote to the Russians, which was found 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". Hanssen sold thousands of classified documents to the KGB that detailed U.S. strategies in the event of nuclear war, developments in military weapons technologies, and aspects of the U.S. counterintelligence program. I intend to act swiftly on his recommendations. The couple married in 1968, and Hanssen converted from Lutheranism to his wife's Catholicism. [21][29] On two occasions, Hanssen gave the Soviets a complete list of American double agents. Although his name was not specifically mentioned, evidence in the file pointed to Hanssen, who was put under close surveillance. FBI and CIA personnel who debriefed Hanssen about his 21 years. Director Tenet and I have briefed the intelligence committees of Congress because of the clear national security implications. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." [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. Although Hanssen was unaware of it, Ames had already exposed all three agents earlier that year. For these reasons, the FBI learned of his true identity before the Russians; they are learning of it only now. [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. 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. 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