This brief union did not produce any children. After divorcing Robert, Darla was faced with a choice. Robert was born in 1939 in Iowa to Danish immigrants Christian and Edna Hansen. 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. 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. While not identifying himself, he was able to gain their trust by initially providing information which the Soviets found both credible and valuable. 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 complaint alleges that he received over $600,000. However, even though Hansen would go to church with his wife, nothing really changed. They have committed their lives to public service and to upholding the high standards of the FBI. 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. 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. 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. During his second round of dealing with Russian agents, Hanssen was much more cautious. https://www.thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832 (accessed January 18, 2023). Some promising suspects were cleared, and the mole hunt found other penetrations, such as CIA officer Harold James Nicholson. 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. In short, the trusted insider betrayed his trust without detection. [34], In 1994, Hanssen expressed interest in a transfer to the new National Counterintelligence Center, which coordinated counterintelligence activities. But in 1999, while assigned as an FBI liaison with the State Department, he once again began selling American secrets. [52], However, Hanssen's suspicions did not stop him from making one more dead drop. [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. 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. In 1979 he contacted the Soviet military intelligence, GRU, to offer his espionage. He is serving his sentence at the ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado, in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. 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. He managed to avoid a death penalty by negotiating a plea deal where he agreed to cooperate with government agents. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. The prolonged abuse that he endured not only made his childhood challenging, but also chased him throughout his life. During the early 1990s, KGB veterans began to approach western intelligence agencies and provide information. As Hanssen walked back to his car, the arrest team rushed up and took him into custody. 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.. 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. His wife was a teacher of theology at Oakcrest. Hanssen appeared to be a devoted anti-communist. Hanssen gave them the name of a Russian general, Dimitri Polyakov, who had been providing information to the Americans. This innocent looking house in Vienna used to belong to Russian spy Robert Hanssen before he was caught by the Feds. By February 2001, about 300 personnel were working the investigation and monitoring Hanssen. To be very clear on this issue, at no time was he authorized to communicate information to agents of the KGB/SVR. He became an agent in 1976, and spent two years working in the Indianapolis, Indiana, field office. 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. 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. 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. The first marriage lasted only for six months; his wife divorced him while he was serving a 3-year sentence for arson in Iowa. 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.. After being imprisoned, Hanssen claimed he periodically admitted his espionage to priests in confession. They created a list of all agents known to have access to cases that were compromised. The one thing the father and son would eventually have in common is their interest in hunting. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. [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. Children: Lisa, Greg, Mark, John "Jack," Sue and Jane Education: Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, A.B. Hanssen received payments of $1.4 million in cash and diamonds from the information he gave the Soviet Union and Russia. Hansen was first married in his native Iowa when he was in his early 20s (via The Cinemaholic). All Rights Reserved. FBI leadership decided Hanssen needed to be removed from his temporary position and brought back to FBI Headquarters. Two fingerprints collected from a trash bag in the file were analyzed and proved to be Hanssen's. 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 As Hanssen grew up, his father was reportedly verbally abusive to him, often ranting that he would never succeed in life. (Photo courtesy of FBI/Newsmakers). [63], According to USA Today, those who knew the Hanssens described them as a close family. While their exact whereabouts are unknown to the public, it's suspected that they still live in the Midwest. After her children endured relentless bullying at school, she decided that her best path led out of Alaska (via The Cinemaholic). In 1980, after his first interactions with the Soviets, Hanssen told his wife what he had done, and she suggested they meet with a Catholic priest. However, two cases- the Bloch investigation and the embassy tunnel- remained unsolved. At least three Russian agents he identified had been executed, and it was suspected that he compromised dozens of intelligence operations. 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. [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. While their exact whereabouts are unknown to the public, it's suspected that they still live in the Midwest. FBI agents remove evidence from Robert Hanssen's home in Vienna, Virginia on February 20, 2001. . 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. 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. Darla was an extremely religious woman, and she felt that faith could be his way out. He relayed secret information to Russia regarding US intelligence and counterintelligence operations. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. The following year he was shifted to counter-intelligence division where he was delegated the job of organising data of Soviet intelligence. In 1978, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI office in New York City and was assigned to a counterintelligence post. We dont know at this point what happened to that money, she said. He did well in his elective, Russian. Ames had been stationed in Rome at the time of the Bloch investigation and could not have known about that case or the tunnel under the embassy, as he did not work for the FBI.[39][40]. Born In: Chicago, Illinois, United States. 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. 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