Forced into retirement in 1971, he died of lung cancer on November 15 of that year. On February 10, 1962 at around 8:50 a . Arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service on an alien warrant based upon his illegal entry into the United States and failure to register as an alien, Mark displayed a defiant attitude. Prior to his departure, Hyhnen returned to Bear Mountain Park and retrieved the buried $5,000 for his own use. With the end of this war in 1940, Hayhanen was assigned to check the loyalty and reliability of Soviet workers in Finland and to develop informants and sources of information in their midst. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. [20] That year he married Elena Lebedeva, a harp student at Moscow Conservatoire. Rudolf Abel was arrested while undercover in the U.S. In the summer of 1948, Hayhanen was called to Moscow by the KGB. Mark also sent Hayhanen on trips alone. On October 25, 1957, the jury announced its verdictAbel was guilty of all counts. They sold their belongings and left their Idaho farm for New York to book passage on a ship to Europe. Fisher, however, was arrested before he could adopt his new identity and leave the United States. Thanks to information offered by Hyhnen, Fisher was tracked down and arrested at the Latham Hotel in Manhattan. The information which he provided was applied by FBI Laboratory experts to the microphotograph from the Jefferson nickel. This man occasionally walked about the park; he appeared to be nervous; and he created the impression that he was looking for someonepossibly attempting to determine any unusual activity in the neighborhood. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. [60] Donovan subsequently brought in attorney Thomas M. Debevoise to assist him;[61] Fisher was tried in Federal Court at New York City during October 1957, on three counts:[59]. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel ( Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 - 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. Why does the Government what James Donovan to negotiate the Trade? He also checked a dead-drop location he had memorized. On 28 May 1957, in a small park opposite Fulton Street, FBI agents spotted a man acting nervously. [2][39][40] Over time his artistic technique improved and he became a competent painter, though he disliked abstract painting, preferring more conventional styles. [12] Though Fisher was not as hard-working as Henry, he showed aptitude for science, mathematics, languages, art and music, inherited in part from his father's abilities. It was the archetypal Cold War tale - an undercover operative arrested after his. The newsboy rested this coin, a nickel, on the middle finger of his hand. Best Known For: Soviet spy William Fisher, a.k.a. [15][16] Though Fisher qualified for university, the costs prohibited him from attending. He had then spent three years in Finland taking over Maki's identity. ALL THE DATA ABOUT YOURSELF, PLACE OF WORK, ADDRESS, ETC., MUST NOT BE TRANSMITTED IN ONE CIPHER MESSAGE. [51], At 7:00 am on 21 June 1957, Fisher answered a knock on the door to his room, Room 839. He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by the FBI in 1957. The information which Hayhanen furnished to U.S. officials in Paris, France, in May 1957, was immediately checked. Using the alias Emil Goldfus, he set up an artist's studio. He died in 1971. Fisher, or "Rudolf Ivanovich Abel", was to serve his sentence (as prisoner 80016-A) at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Georgia. ENCIPHER SHORT LETTERS, BUT THE LONGER ONES MAKE WITH INSERTIONS. FBI scientists determined that it had been coated with nickel. The hollow nickel found by the Brooklyn newspaper boy, The coded message contained in the hollow nickel. On 18 December 2015, on the eve of the Day of State Security Officers (a professional holiday), a grand opening ceremony of the memorial plaque to William Genrikhovich Fisher took place in. The two ladies who had changed the newboys dollar on the evening of June 22 were located. He died in 1971 at the age of 68. This spy, Reino Hayhanen, stated that he had just been ordered to return to Moscow. President John F. Kennedy commuted Abels sentence, and, on February 10, 1962, in a ceremony on a bridge between West Berlin and East Germany (Potsdam), Abel was exchanged for Powers and Frederic L. Pryor, an American student who had been held without charge in East Germany since August 1961. He admitted his first Soviet contact in New York had been "MIKHAIL" and upon being shown a series of photographs of Soviet officials identified "MIKHAIL" as Mikhail Svirin. He described Mikhail as probably between 40 and 50 years old; medium build; long, thin nose; dark hair; and about five feet, nine inches tall. [37] For six months Hyhnen checked the thumbtack and no one had made contact. This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 19:55. However, the Soviets retained his passport, which Fisher eventually used. FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was given a modest pension and in 1968 published KGB-approved memoirs. Why, weve never seen a hollow coinor, for that matter, even heard of one before.. When he picked it up, almost like magic, the coinsplit in half. Less than three weeks later, acting on Hyhnen's information, surveillance was established near Fisher's photo studio. Donovan is widely known for negotiating the 1960-1962 exchange of captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and American student Frederic Pryor for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, and for negotiating the 1962 release and return of 9,703 prisoners held by Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. The detective had received his information from another police officer whose daughter was acquainted with the newsboy. Hollow coins, though rarely seen by the ordinary citizen, are occasionally used in magic acts and come to the attention of federal law enforcement agencies from time to time. On June 21, 1957, he was arrested in Manhattans Latham Hotel. [46] On 11 May, the CIA returned him to the United States and handed him over to the FBI. It had been placed in the dead drop about two years previously, but, by a trick of fate, a repair crew had filled the hole in the stairs with cement, entombing the bolt and the message it contained. Donovan had read the newspaper accounts, which, he wrote, "described Abel in a sinister way as a 'master spy' heading all illegal Soviet espionage in the United States." None could recall seeing a nickel or other coin quite like this one. After serving four years of a 30-year sentence in an Atlanta, Georgia, prison, Rudolf Abel was traded to the Soviet Union for American pilot Francis Gary Powers, who had been shot down in a U-2 spy plane over Russia. Place seems right. On May 16, 1957, FBI agents showed a group of photographs to Hayhanen. He was exchanged in 1962 for the American aviator Francis Gary Powers, who had been imprisoned as a spy in the Soviet Union since 1960. [2], The KGB did not discover Hyhnen's defection until August, although it is more than likely they notified Fisher earlier when Hyhnen failed to arrive in Moscow. Was Rudolf Abel found guilty? Verified answer. 39. As identification symbols, Hayhanen wore a blue and red striped tie and smoked a pipe. Moments later, FBI agents saw him take a subway to 28th Street, and they stood by unnoticed as he emerged from the subway and walked to the Hotel Latham on East 28th Street. He later served in an instructional role before taking part in intelligence operations against the Germans during World War II. Back in the Soviet Union, he lectured on his experiences. Goldfus's birth certificate was obtained by the NKVD at the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the Centre would collect identity documents from International Brigades members for use in espionage operations. Powers, a CIA-employed pilot, was to fly over some 2,000 miles of Soviet territory to Bodo military airfield in Norway, collecting intelligence information en route. "That Russian spy" was Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, who less than two weeks earlier had been indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury. [2] In Fisher's New York hotel room the FBI found $4,000,[54][55] a hollow ebony block containing a 250-page Russian codebook, a hollow pencil containing encrypted messages on microfilm and a key to a safe-deposit box containing another $15,000 in cash. [56][57] Also discovered were photographs of the Cohens and recognition phrases to establish contact between agents who had never met before. While it is not known for certain where Fisher went or what he did, it is believed he travelled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the collection point for stolen diagrams from the Manhattan Project. The unidentified Soviet agent was an accomplished photographer, and Hayhanen recalled that on one occasion in 1955, Mark took him to a storage room where he kept photo supplies on the fourth or fifth floor of a building located near Clark and Fulton Streets in Brooklyn. One of these was Morton Sobell, whose wife had failed to receive the $5,000 embezzled by Hyhnen. Count One (Conspiracy to transmit defense information to the Soviet Union), 30 years imprisonment. The name "Rudolf Ivanovich Abel" was that of a deceased friend and a KGB colonel; Fisher knew as soon as The Centre saw the name Abel on the front pages of American newspapers they would realize he had been captured. Inside was a tiny photographapparently a picture of a series of numbers. However, prior to opening the coin Hyhnen had misplaced it, either buying a newspaper with it or using it as a subway token. The agents immediately suspected that they had found a coded espionage message. On June 21, 1957, he was arrested by the FBI, and on October 25, 1957, a federal district court in Brooklyn found him guilty of espionage, relying in part on testimony by Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Reino Hayhanen, who had defected to the West and who stated that he had been Abel's chief coconspirator in the United States. There were not enough. [46], Upon his arrival in the United States, Hyhnen was interrogated by the FBI and proved very cooperative. The KGB Center, with the help of KGB's Ottawa resident, set about procuring two new passports for Fisher in the names of Robert Callan and Vasili Dzogol, but this process would take time. In 2008, Yuri Linkevich shot the documentary "Unknown Abel". Following his return to Russia what happened to Rudolf Abel? this is just under two hours. [17], Fluent in English, Russian, German, Polish and Yiddish,[18] Fisher worked for the Comintern as a translator following his family's return to the Soviet Union. On November 15, 1957, Brooklyn judge Mortimer W. Byers sentenced Soviet spy Rudolf Abel to consecutive terms of 30, 10, and 5 years in prison and fined him $3,000. She disappeared for a moment, then returned with a purse in her hand. In exchange for asylum, he promised CIA agents he could help expose a major Soviet spy network in the United States and identify its director. Among the tenants was one Emil R. Goldfus, a photographer who had operated a studio on the fifth floor since January, 1954and who also had formerly rented a fifth-floor storage room there. (2001). If thats `Mark, hell return, they correctly surmised. To exchange messages and intelligence data, they used dead dropsinconspicuous hiding placesin the New York area. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials at the Paris embassy did not find Hyhnen's story credible. [45], During Fisher's detainment the FBI had been searching his hotel room and photo studio, where they discovered espionage equipment including shortwave radios, cipher pads, cameras and film for producing microdots, a hollow shaving brush, and numerous "trick" containers including hollowed-out bolts. Who Is Suspected Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira? [23], Despite his foreign birth and the accusation that his brother-in-law was a Trotskyist, Fisher narrowly escaped the Great Purge. All Rights Reserved. Sorry, Jimmy, she said. What happened to Gary Powers in 1977? According to Hayhanen, Mark was a colonel in the KGB and had been engaged in espionage work since approximately 1927. He passed America's atomic secrets to the KGB. EVERYTHING IS ALL RIGHT WITH THE FAMILY. He displayed a birth certificate from the state of Idaho which showed that he was born in Enaville on May 30, 1919, and, in the presence of a Vice Consul, he executed an affidavit in which he explained that his family had left the United States in 1928: I accompanied my mother to Estonia when I was eight years of age and resided with her until her death in 1941. He refused to cooperate at all. When Kayotis friends in Michigan heard no more from him, they assumed that he had passed away. Sudoplatov later described this operation as "the most successful radio deception game of the war". While his KGB training continued, Hayhanen worked as a mechanic in the City of Valga, Estonia. Several weeks before he departed for America, Hayhanen was recalled to Moscow and introduced to a Soviet agent, Mikhail, who was to serve as his espionage superior in this country. Rudolf Abel was born William Fisher in England in 1903. What happened to Rudolf Abel after the exchange? A search of his Brooklyn studio uncovered a hollow pencil used for concealing messages, a code book, radio transmitting equipment and phony identifications. Rudolf Abel was born William Fisher in England in 1903. Now I need your help.. During this period, FBI agents discreetly tied together the loose ends of the investigation, matters which had to be resolved before this Russian intelligence officer could be taken into custody. Genrich Fischer (or Fisher), Abels father and a friend of Lenins, emigrated to Britain around 1901, where he spent 20 years attempting to organize and indoctrinate his fellow factory workers before returning to Russia. 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