robert hanssen children

"Once he got caught, the only thing he cared about was trying to provide for his wife and his children," who visit him regularly in prison, Brookner said. 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. At the Heights, McPherson told the family that they would not have to worry. 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. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. 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. 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. What we wanted to do was get enough evidence to convict him, and the ultimate aim was to catch him in the act, said Debra Evans Smith, a former deputy assistant director of the Counterintelligence Division. Hansen opened a bakery and learned how to fly the small plane that he purchased. Hansen even followed in his fathers footsteps and opened up his own bakery. The FBI could not produce any good evidence, and as a result, Bloch was never charged with a crime, although the State Department later terminated his employment and denied his pension. 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. [45] FBI analyst Bob King remembered Hanssen using that same quote. While their exact whereabouts are unknown to the public, it's suspected that they still live in the Midwest. They never lived the high life; they never even went out to dinner, she said. [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. Robert Hanssen's business cards, chalk and thumb tacks, which he used to communicate with his Russian contacts, according to the FBI. 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. Ames was arrested in 1994. In his office, Hanssen had full access to the FBIs Automated Case Support (ACS) system and the State Departments computer systems. [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. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/robert-hanssen-6997.php. Though she named Hansen as the man who held her captive and sexually assaulted her, it wasn't until a more thorough investigation was completed that Hansen was formally charged with crimes. The Hanssens were associated with the Catholic fraternal order Opus Dei. However, two cases- the Bloch investigation and the embassy tunnel- remained unsolved. During the early 1990s, KGB veterans began to approach western intelligence agencies and provide information. [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. https://www.thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832 (accessed January 18, 2023). The FBI entrusted him with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States Government and instead of being humbled by this honor, Hanssen has allegedly abused and betrayed that trust. 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. Robert Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lutheran family who lived in the Norwood Park neighborhood. After his release 20 months later, Hansen worked at putting his life back in order. 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. 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. Sullivan noted that Hanssen spent a lot of time trolling ACS for information. [64] His three daughters attended Oakcrest School for Girls in Vienna, Virginia, an independent Roman Catholic school. "Butcher, Baker" was adapted into the 2013 film "The Frozen Ground," starring Nicholas Cage, John Cusack, and Vanessa Hudgens (per IMDb). 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. 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. 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. "[3] Hanssen is currently serving 15 consecutive life sentences without parole at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado. [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. The complaint alleges that Hanssen conspired to and did commit espionage for Russia and the former Soviet Union. He was paid handsomely by the Soviets. His bride left him after six months when Hansen was put in prison for setting fire to the local school district's bus barns. This is particularly timely as we move to the next generation of automation to support the FBIs information infrastructure. That effort is complemented by substantial FBI proactive investigation of foreign service intelligence officers here and by the critical work done by the CIA. As Hanssen grew up, his father was reportedly verbally abusive to him, often ranting that he would never succeed in life. Aside from a few brushes with the law, Hansen led a fairly ordinary life. Hanssen is a Special Agent of the FBI with a long career in counterintelligence. No one knew Hansen was abducting some of these women and killing them for sport. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. In 1991, he discontinued selling classified information to KGB after the collapse of Soviet Union and also probably because the FBI was on the lookout for a probable defector. (Photo courtesy of FBI/Newsmakers). 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. 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. In the face of worldwide publicity about one of the most damaging espionage breaches in U.S. history, Bonnie Hanssen, 54, has maintained a steadfast silence since her husband of nearly 30 years was arrested in February near their home in suburban Washington. 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. 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. The FBI's codename for the suspected spy was "Graysuit". 1972 - Joins the Chicago Police Department. To the residents of the quiet suburb of Vienna, Virginia, Robert Hanssen was the perfect neighbor. Their actions represent counterintelligence at its very best and under the most difficult and sensitive of circumstances. 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. Brian Blomquist. 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. On February 18, 2001, Hanssen was arrested at a park in northern Virginia after he had placed a package at a dead drop location. Hansen was first married in his native Iowa when he was in his early 20s (via The Cinemaholic). The information he is alleged to have provided compromised numerous human sources, technical operations, counterintelligence techniques, sources and methods, and investigations, including the Felix Bloch investigation. I dont think there was anybody more shocked by all this, Brookner said. December 2000 - The FBI begins surveillance of Hanssen. After executing a search warrant, authorities found items in Hansen's home that belonged to other missing women from the area. We particularly appreciate the unhesitating leadership and support of Attorney General Ashcroft from the moment he took office. Since becoming Director over seven years ago, I have administered the FBI oath to each graduating class of Special Agents at the FBI Academy. Its amazing to live with a man for all those years and not know him.. 2023 Cable News Network. Although Robert Hanssen forfeited all the money he received from Moscow, his wife and six children get to keep their Vienna, Va., home and three cars, under the plea agreement. It was not a very demanding job, said Sullivan. Born In: Chicago, Illinois, United States. For these reasons, the FBI learned of his true identity before the Russians; they are learning of it only now. As alleged in the complaint, computer forensic analysis, substantial covert surveillance, court authorized searches and other sensitive techniques revealed that Hanssen has routinely accessed FBI records and clandestinely provided those records and other classified information to Russian intelligence officers. Hanssen disclosed this information to the Soviets in September 1989 and received a $55,000 payment the next month, equivalent to $120,232 in 2021. 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. Realizing the importance of the material, the United States paid $7 million for it. The first time around, his wife divorced him after a mere half-year because of his incarceration for arson in Iowa. A feature film called Breach was released in 2007. They created a list of all agents known to have access to cases that were compromised. A Warner Bros. 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. At one point Hanssen spoke to a Russian agent over a pay phone, but they generally relied on placing signals in public places. 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 2007 documentary Superspy: The Man Who Betrayed the West describes the hunt to trap Hanssen. But Thursday, Bonnie Hanssen issued a statement through her attorney revealing the torment that the case has caused. His twenty two years of espionage against the US began in 1979. In January 1976, he left the police department to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).[4]. Hanssen received payments of $1.4 million in cash and diamonds from the information he gave the Soviet Union and Russia. A reader replied to the blog, claiming to have been roommates with Hansen's daughter in the early 1990s, but this has yet to be substantiated. News reports at the time of his sentencing said American intelligence agencies were not entirely satisfied with the extent of his cooperation and believed he was holding back information. Kelley instead reported the incident to the FBI. Darla earned a living for the household as well, teaching children with disabilities. 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. Once there, he would turn them loose and begin a human hunting expedition. [49][50][51], During his final days with the FBI, Hanssen began to suspect something was wrong. He was sentenced to life in prison. His active and long stint as a Soviet spy began on October 1, 1985, when he sent an unsigned letter to KGB, where he mentioned the names of at least three agents of KGB who were covertly serving FBI. Sunday night the FBI arrested Robert Philip Hanssen who has been charged with committing espionage. She went with Hanssen on visits to Hong Kong and the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia. 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. [14] The next year, Hanssen was transferred to counterintelligence and given the task of compiling a database of Soviet intelligence for the FBI. in Chemistry, 1966; Attended Northwestern University Dental School, 1966-1968; Northwestern University, M.B.A. in Accounting and Information Systems, 1971. Upon becoming a special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's Gary, Indiana, field office. 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. In 1985 he approached the Soviets again and offered valuable secrets. Hanssen was finally discovered when a former KGB agent contacted American intelligence agents. Darla earned a living for the household as well, teaching children with disabilities. Hanssen wanted to be posted to Allenwood in hopes that he might be visited frequently by his wife Bonnie and their six children. 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. Hanssen's three sons attended The Heights School in Potomac, Maryland, an all-boys preparatory school. He received $5,00,000 and jewellery for this work. Literally, Hanssens colleagues and coworkers at the FBI conducted this investigation and did so quietly, securely and without hesitation. Hanssen became alarmed that a Russian with knowledge of his activities would tip off the Americans that a highly placed mole was operating within the FBI and the resultant investigation would lead to him. 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. The investigation was not fruitful and the FBI was unable to charge Bloch on any account. Hanssen's story is the subject of the 2021 documentary A Spy in the FBI. Hanssen warned the KGB that Bloch was being investigated, causing the KGB to end contact with him abruptly. O'Neill ascertained that Hanssen was using a Palm III PDA to store his information. There he served as an investigator of internal affairs with specialisation in forensic accounting. Hansen and Darla set down roots. This included all the FBI activities related to wiretapping and electronic surveillance, which were Hanssen's responsibility. He is serving his sentence at the ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado, in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. 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. Hanssen was recalled yet again to Washington, D.C., in 1987. For years, Hanssen stopped contacting the Russians. He was arrested while in the process of using a dead drop to clandestinely provide numerous classified documents to his Russian handler. He is a public speaker and security During his sessions with investigators, Hanssen claimed his motivation had always been financial. He married Bernadette Wauck in 1968 and, influenced by his devout Catholic wife, he converted to Catholicism. [9] He is of Norwegian descent. Asked what Bonnie Hanssen thinks may have motivated her husband, Brookner said: Who knows? Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Polyakov was carefully watched by the Russians from that point on, and was eventually arrested as a spy and executed in 1988. In 1979, Hanssen approached the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and offered his services. When in 1989 a State Department official, Felix Bloch came under the scrutiny of the FBI, Hanssen soon informed the KGB, who immediately snapped all ties with Bloch. Some promising suspects were cleared, and the mole hunt found other penetrations, such as CIA officer Harold James Nicholson. What makes Hansen seem even more grisly than other serial killers was the way that many of his victims were murdered. Though both Hansen and his wife earned respectable incomes, it would . After Ames's arrest in 1994, some of these intelligence breaches remained unsolved. Wauck also knew that the FBI was hunting for a mole and spoke with his supervisor, who took no action. [17][18], In 1981, Hanssen was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and he relocated to the suburb of Vienna, Virginia. Robert Hansen died at the age of 75 in 2014, still safely behind bars (via the Anchorage Daily News). They gave him a new job supervising FBI computer security. An FBI arrest team moved into position at Foxstone Park, a location where Hanssen had been spotted before by FBI surveillance. 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. [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. None of the internal information or personnel security measures in place alerted those charged with internal security to his activities. Once he got caught, the only thing he cared about was trying to provide for his wife and his children, who visit him regularly in prison, Brookner said. 1991 - Breaks off relations with the KGB. He worked in an accounting firm for a year after which he was selected in the Chicago Police Department. But money is tight, she said, and the former housewife has taken a teaching job at her daughters school in Virginia. His book written about this experience, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy, was published in spring 2019. 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 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. Discovery Company. Apparently, even though Hansen was naturally a left-handed person, he was always forced to use his right hand, making his speech problems worse. After graduating from a public high school, Hanssen attended Knox College in Illinois, studying chemistry and Russian. He established contact with the SVR (the successor to the Soviet-era KGB) during the autumn of 1999. I have hurt so many deeply. 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. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. In court proceedings the government stated that Hanssen had been paid more than $1.4 million during his spying career, most of which he never actually received, as it was held for him in a Russian bank. 2. [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." Investigators learned that Hanssen was set to make a dead drop on February 18, 2001. The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the Rule of Law. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. [4] The family moved to Richmond, California in 1942, but returned to Iowa in 1949, settling in Pocahontas. 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. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. [35] Three years later, convicted FBI mole Earl Edwin Pitts told the FBI that he suspected Hanssen due to the Mislock incident. The first marriage lasted only for six months; his wife divorced him while he was serving a 3-year sentence for arson in Iowa. He had been married twice, and fathered children. The FBI believes that the Russians never knew the name of their source. He used encrypted communications, dead drops, and other clandestine methods to provide information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR. The FBI believed his story, and Hanssen was merely given a warning. 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. 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]. Yuzhin was imprisoned for six years before he was released by a general amnesty to political prisoners, and subsequently emigrated to the U.S..[24] Because the FBI blamed Ames for the leak, Hanssen was neither suspected nor investigated. 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. FBI agents remove evidence from Robert Hanssen's home in Vienna, Virginia on February 20, 2001. . The Hanssens are active members of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic group. In 1962 he completed his graduation from William Howard Taft High School. Through Attorney General John Ashcroft, I would like to thank the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. When FBI agents observed this incriminating act, they rushed in to arrest Hanssen. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. 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. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." All denied everything. [69], Hanssen frequently visited D.C. strip clubs and spent a great deal of time with a Washington stripper named Priscilla Sue Galey. All his six children went to schools linked with Opus Dei. Without the current unprecedented level of trust and cooperation between the CIA and FBI, making this case would not have been possible. 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. Children: Lisa, Greg, Mark, John "Jack," Sue and Jane Education: Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, A.B. [4][42], FBI investigators later made progress during an operation where they paid disaffected Russian intelligence officers to deliver information on moles. 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. Unlike Cold War spies of an earlier era, Hanssen claimed to have no political motivation for selling out his country. After divorcing Robert, Darla was faced with a choice. 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. The couple went on to have two children. Instead, he ultimately became the most damaging spy in Bureau history. He was delegated to probe police officers who were suspected of corruption. 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. The FBI planned to use it for eavesdropping but never did for fear of being caught. 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.

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