Hayhanen became a respected expert in Finnish intelligence matters and in May 1943 was accepted into membership in the Soviet Communist Party. What happened to Gary Powers in 1977? In a jealous rage, Cain murdered Abel. While the surveillance continued at 252 Fulton Street, other FBI agents made daily checks on the dead drops that Hayhanen stated he and Mark had used. For the past five years, I have been operating in the United States. He was given a modest pension and in 1968 published KGB-approved memoirs. Two months later, however, he was conscripted by the Communists secret police, the NKVD. The CIA turned Hayhanen over to the FBI to investigate the claims. However, prior to opening the coin Hyhnen had misplaced it, either buying a newspaper with it or using it as a subway token. [59] The Brooklyn Bar Association approached several prominent trial lawyers with political ambitions, all of whom declined the case. [45], When Hyhnen announced himself at the embassy on 4 May, he appeared drunk. In 1949, Hyhnen freely obtained Maki's birth certificate. For the next seven months the hollow nickel travelled around the New York City economy, unopened. He was awarded a little pension and released KGB -approved memoirs in 1968. Svirin was beyond reach of American justice. They sold their belongings and left their Idaho farm for New York to book passage on a ship to Europe. After he collected for the newspaper, Jimmy left the apartment house jingling several coins in his left hand. After learning of Hayhanens defection, Abel fled to Florida, where he remained underground until June, when he felt it was safe to return to New York. According to Genesis, Abel, a shepherd, offered the Lord the firstborn of his flock. The agents long hours of patience were rewarded on the night of June 13, 1957. Donovan traveled to the Soviet embassy in East Berlin to negotiate the exchange, and on February 10, 1962, the two prisoners crossed paths as they were released on the Glienicke Bridge between East and West Germany. There was five digits in each number and 21 numbers in most columns. The Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel, has written a note to James B. Donovan, his courtappointed defender in a 1957 espionage trial . Rudolf Abel, was convicted of espionage in the United States in 1957 and later exchanged for imprisoned American Francis Gary Powers. By a five-to-four decision which was handed down on March 28, 1960, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of this Russian spy. The painter in question is Rudolf Abel (brilliantly played by Mark Rylance with wry, mournful soul), first seen serenely composing a self-portrait in his Brooklyn apartment in 1957, at the height of Cold War dread and paranoia. To exchange messages and intelligence data, they used dead dropsinconspicuous hiding placesin the New York area. Roughly halfway through his journey, he was shot down over Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains. This was the first time, however, that the FBI had ever encountered a nickel quite like this one. Despite his modest background, Hayhanen was an honor student and, in 1939, obtained the equivalent of a certificate to teach high school. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The surveillance continued on "MARK" and, on the night of 13 June, a light was seen to go on in Fisher's studio at 10:00 pm. [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. 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. WE CONFIRM THE RECEIPT OF YOUR LETTER TO THE ADDRESS `V REPEAT V AND THE READING OF LETTER NUMBER 1.2. The proprietors of novelty stores and related business establishments in the New York vicinity were contacted. He served as a case officer for the "Volunteer" spy network, which was tasked with relaying atomic secrets, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1949. READ MORE:The Spy Who Kept the Cold War From Boiling Over. [37], In 1955, Fisher, exhausted by the constant pressure, returned to Moscow for six months of rest and recuperation, leaving Hyhnen in charge. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel . The lights went out at 11:52 p.m., and a man who appeared to generally fit the description of Mark stepped into the darkness outside the building. In 1962, he was released to the Soviet Union in exchange for captured U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers. [27] Grigulevich gave Fisher a genuine birth certificate, a forged draft card and a forged tax certificate, all under the name of Emil Robert Goldfus, along with $1,000. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Try again This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 19:55. For the first time Abel showed himself to the general public in 1968, when he addressed his compatriots with an introductory speech to the film. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Rudolf Abel, Birth Year: 1903, Birth date: July 11, 1903, Birth City: Newcastle Upon Tyne, Birth Country: England. [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. The Cohens were quickly spirited to Mexico before moving on to Moscow. The Lord respected Abel's sacrifice but did not respect that offered by Cain. The Hollow Nickel Case (or the Hollow Coin) was the FBI investigation that grew out of the discovery of a container disguised as a U.S. coin and containing a coded message, eventually found to concern espionage activities of William August Fisher ( a.k.a. [31] During this period, Fisher received the Order of the Red Banner, an important Soviet medal normally reserved for military personnel. As the search for the source of the hollow nickel expanded across the United States, hollow subway tokens, trick coins, and similar objects were submitted to the FBI Laboratory by agents in various parts of the country. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials at the Paris embassy did not find Hyhnen's story credible. At the time he related this information to FBI agents in May 1957, Hayhanen could not remember the Army sergeants name. The lawyer even appealed Fishers 45-year prison sentence on the grounds that the search of his studio had been unconstitutional, though the Supreme Court upheld the original ruling in 1960. Near the tavern, he was told, he would find a signpost marked Horse Carts, You will let Mikhail know of your arrival by placing a red thumb tack in this signpost, a Soviet official told him. Supreme Court of the United States. After completing a two-year stint with a radio battalion of the Red Army, he joined the OGPU security agency in 1927. I dont have any change. Powers returned to the United States and wrote of his view of Francis Gary Powers, (born August 17, 1929, Jenkins, Kentucky, U.S.died August 1, 1977, Encino, California), pilot who was captured on May 1, 1960, while on a reconnaissance flight deep inside the Soviet . The money Hyhnen received from the KGB to support the network was instead spent on alcohol and prostitutes. Abel v. United States. [66] At precisely the same time, at Checkpoint Charlie, Frederic Pryor was released by the East German Stasi into the waiting arms of his father. [15][16] Though Fisher qualified for university, the costs prohibited him from attending. There could be no question of its accuracy. Is time wrong? Letters subsequently received from him indicated that he was in a Lithuanian hospital. At 6:50 p.m., this man departed on footthe agents, certain their presence had not been detected, chose to wait rather than take a chance of trailing the wrong man. In Washington, each effort to decipher the microphotograph met with failure. The trail of the hollow nickel ended when a thirteen-year-old newsboy was collecting for his weekly deliveries. Was Rudolf Abel actually a spy? The moment his eyes fell upon a picture of Mikhail Nikolaevich Svirin, Hayhanen straightened up in his chair and announced, Thats the one. One of the coins seemed to have a peculiar ring. There he found a hollowed-out nickel. CONSULT WITH US PRIOR TO INVESTING IT IN ANY KIND OF BUSINESS, ADVISING THE CHARACTER OF THIS BUSINESS.3. [33][34][35] The thumbtack signaled to Fisher that Hyhnen, his new assistant, had arrived. Abel, a colonel in the KGB, ha. They then contacted James B. Donovan. Fisher could not leave the country as Martin Collins, Emil Goldfus, or even the long-forgotten Andrew Kayotis. [43] Fisher checked his drop points only to find messages several months old, while Hyhnen's radio transmissions had routinely been sent from the same location using incorrect radio frequencies. Two days later, on June 24, 1953, during a discussion of another investigation, a detective of the New York City Police Department told an FBI agent about the strange hollow nickel which, he had heard, was discovered by a Brooklyn youth. Hollow Nickel/Rudolf Abel One of the nation's most fascinatingand ultimately significantspy cases began in the summer of 1953, when a Brooklyn newspaper boy dropped a nickel he had just. THE PACKAGE WAS DELIVERED TO YOUR WIFE PERSONALLY. I do recall, however, that we used the code name `Quebec in referring to him and that he was recruited for Soviet intelligence work while in Moscow., (An intensive investigation was launched to identify and locate Quebec. It quickly produced results when, in examining a hollow piece of steel from Hayhanens home, the FBI Laboratory discovered a piece of microfilm less than one-inch square. Thats Mark.. The reverse side had been made from another nickelone minted sometime during the period of 1942 to 1945. Want to read all 2 pages? [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]. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. Why? 39. The FBI first became aware of Abel's activities in 1953, when Abel's incompetent junior colleague Reino Hayhanen carelessly spent a hollow nickel that ended up in the hands of a paperboy. The latter must have "felt it" - . NUMBER 1, 3RD OF DECEMBER.. The U.S. government then used Abel to secure the release of Powers, whose Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft had been forced down near Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), in the central Soviet Union, on May 1, 1960. Svirin, however, had returned to Moscow two years previously. Neither of these pennies, nor the assortment of other coins which the Laboratory examined, was found to have tool markings or other distinguishing features to identify it with the newsboys 1948 Jefferson nickel. I have a sinus condition.. The detective had received his information from another police officer whose daughter was acquainted with the newsboy. [28] Members of the network had stopped cooperating after postwar security was tightened at Los Alamos. He received the acclaimed Order of Lenin in 1966, and published his KGB-approved memoirs in 1968. 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. He occasionally met with Reino Hyhnen, another Soviet agent residing in New York. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Early in May 1957, he telephoned the United States Embassy in Paris and subsequently arrived at the embassy to be interviewed. [63] In Abel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court upheld his conviction by a vote of 54. Thanks to information offered by Hyhnen, Fisher was tracked down and arrested at the Latham Hotel in Manhattan. [27], On 26 November, Fisher met with Soviet "illegal" Josef Romvoldovich Grigulevich (codenamed "MAKS" or "ARTUR"). Wait a moment and try again. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. 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. According to Hayhanen, Mark was a colonel in the KGB and had been engaged in espionage work since approximately 1927. Emil Goldfus was Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a brilliant Soviet spy who was fluent in at least five languages and an expert at the technical requirements of espionage. He mingled with New York artists, who were surprised by his admiration for the Russian painter Isaak Levitan, although Fisher was careful not to discuss Stalinist "socialist realism". At 10:00 p.m., they saw the lights go on in Goldfus studio, and a man was observed moving in the room. Hayhanen was born near Leningrad on May 14, 1920. Count One (Conspiracy to transmit defense information to the Soviet Union), 30 years imprisonment. Thus, Hayhanen initially provided the FBI with little useful information. Please check.. Rudolf Abel was arrested while undercover in the U.S. The information which Hayhanen furnished to U.S. officials in Paris, France, in May 1957, was immediately checked. The action remained secret until it was successfully completed. [65], Fisher served just over four years of his sentence. Fisher was publicly feted a hero upon his return to the Soviet Union. Using the alias Emil Goldfus, he set up an artist's studio. One of the nations most fascinatingand ultimately significantspy cases began in the summer of 1953, when a Brooklyn newspaper boy dropped a nickel he had just earned. During this period, Fisher posed as a photographer and painter named Emil R. Goldfus and immersed himself in a Brooklyn artistic community. Frederic LeRoy Pryor (April 23, 1933 - September 2, 2019) was an American economist. [27] Fisher, as Kayotis, then travelled aboard the RMSScythia from Le Havre, France, to North America, disembarking at Quebec. 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