Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent who was one of the most damaging spies in American history, was discovered dead in his Jail cell Monday morning.
Hanssen, 79, was apprehended in 2001 and pled guilty to selling highly sensitive information to the Soviet Union and Russia. He was serving a life term at the Florence Federal Penitentiary in Colorado.
Hanssen was discovered unresponsive, and officials immediately began life-saving procedures.
“Staff requested emergency medical services, and life-saving efforts continued.” “The inmate was subsequently pronounced deαd by outside emergency medical personnel.” Hanssen d!ed of natural causes.
Hanssen approached the Soviets three years after being hired by the FBI and began spying for the KGB and its successor, the SVR, in 1979. He stopped once his wife confronted him a few years later.
In 1985, he continued spying, selling hundreds of confidential documents compromising human sources, counterintelligence procedures, and investigations for more than $1.4 million in cash, jewels, and foreign bank accounts.
Using the identity “Ramon Garcia,” he transmitted intelligence to the espionage agencies via encrypted chats and deαd drops, never seeing a Russian handler in person.
According to Eric O’Neill, who went undercover for the FBI during its investigation of Hanssen, Hanssen came from a complex family and had disagreements with his father, who wanted him to pursue a medical career. But Hanssen, who did attend dental school, aspired to work in law enforcement.
“He was determined to catch spies. “He was a huge James Bond fan, loved the movies,” O’Neill explained. “He could recite them from memory, chapter, and verse.” He aspired to be a spy. He was joining the FBI to do just that — not to spy on Americans, but to go in and hunt down spies.”
But he was irritated when he didn’t obtain the exact job he wanted at the FBI, and supporting his growing family while living in New York and, later, Washington, D.C., was costly.
“And that led him to decide he would get everything he wanted — become a spy,” O’Neill explained.
His position with the FBI provided him unrestricted access to classified material on the bureau’s counterintelligence operations. His revelations included information on US nuclear war preparations and a hidden listening tunnel beneath the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C.
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He also betrayed double spies, such as Soviet General Dmitri Polyakov, who was later hanged.
Hanssen was captured in 2001 after a dead drop in a Virginia park after the FBI had been secretly tracking him for months. After a Russian intelligence operative gave over a file containing a garbage bag with Hanssen’s fingerprints and a tape recording of his voice, his identity was determined.
Hanssen voiced fear to the KGB in letters that he would be caught, and he frequently examined FBI databases for any indication that it was investigating him.
“At some point, I’d like to have an escape plan.” According to the FBI affidavit, he wrote in 1986, “(Nothing lasts forever.)”
Hanssen never explained why he was spying. However, O’Neill, who published a book about the inquiry for nab Hanssen, has some ideas.
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“He truly didn’t respect Russia very much, at least not in his conversations with me,” O’Neill claimed. “However, he was able to use them to solve his other problems very effectively.”
One was his rage at the FBI for not putting him in a position of authority, gravitas, and respect that he felt he deserved. Second, he needed money. He was having financial troubles and needed money, and you solved both of those concerns by becoming a spy.”
“At some point, spying and being the top spy for the Soviet Union while within the FBI became the thing that made him belong to something much bigger than himself,” he added. “I think that at some point, even more than the money, that became important to him.”
Hanssen’s existence in prison was “absolutely horrible,” O’Neill told. He was alone in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day.
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