He dropped this coin to the floor. [45] Escape was complicated because, if "MARK" had been compromised by Hyhnen, Fisher's other identities could have been compromised as well. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1936, as head of a school that trained radio operators destined for duty in illegal residences. [58], As Fisher was no longer considered an alleged illegal alien, but rather an alleged spy, he was flown from Texas to New York on 7 August 1957, to answer the indictment. Two hollow pennies were found in Washington, D.C. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. As the spies waited, negotiators talked in the center of the bridge where a white line divided East from West. On May 16, leaders of the United States, the USSR, Britain, and France met in Paris for a long-awaited summit meeting. 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. WE WISH YOU SUCCESS. [56][57] Also discovered were photographs of the Cohens and recognition phrases to establish contact between agents who had never met before. [20] That year he married Elena Lebedeva, a harp student at Moscow Conservatoire. In August, Powers pleaded guilty to espionage charges in Moscow and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonmentthree in prison and seven in a prison colony. On 28 May 1957, in a small park opposite Fulton Street, FBI agents spotted a man acting nervously. His real identity and country of birth were only revealed after his death. It had been hollowed out, and there was a small hole in the first a of the word Tasavalta which appeared on the tail side of this coin. This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 19:55. What happened to Rudolf Abel after the exchange? Fisher said nothing to the FBI and, after spending twenty-three minutes staring at Fisher, the FBI agents called in the waiting Immigration and Naturalization Service officers who arrested Fisher and detained him under section 242 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Abel returned to Moscow, where he was forced into retirement by the KGB, who feared that during his five years of captivity U.S. authorities had convinced him to become a double agent. In October 1948, using a Soviet passport, he travelled from Leningradsky Station to Warsaw. 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. EVERYTHING IS ALL RIGHT WITH THE FAMILY. IT IS TOO EARLY TO SEND YOU THE GAMMAS. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The hollow nickel found by the Brooklyn newspaper boy, The coded message contained in the hollow nickel. [51], Fisher was then flown to the Federal Alien Detention Facility in McAllen, Texas, and held there for six weeks. Upon returning to the United States, Powers was cleared by the CIA and the Senate of any personal blame for the U-2 incident. Hayhanen did not know where Mark was residing or the name which Mark was using; however, he was able to furnish many other details concerning him. FBI agents were convinced he fit the description of "MARK". She disappeared for a moment, then returned with a purse in her hand. Making contact with the KGB residency he received another $200 for his journey to Moscow. [27] Fisher, as Kayotis, then travelled aboard the RMSScythia from Le Havre, France, to North America, disembarking at Quebec. At Donovan's initial meeting with Fisher, the latter accepted Donovan as his defense counsel. [10] However, in 1938 he was dismissed from the NKVD, which the OGPU had been renamed to in 1934. During the Cold War, Soviet spies worked together in the United States without revealing their names or addresses to each other, a precaution in the event that one was caught or, like Hayhanen, defected. Why, weve never seen a hollow coinor, for that matter, even heard of one before.. He had returned to the Soviet Union in October 1956. On June 21, 1957, he was arrested in Manhattans Latham Hotel. Charged with espionage, he confessed to being a Soviet spy named "Rudolf Ivanovich Abel" -- believed to be a signal to his superiors that he had been captured. Operating as a Soviet spy in New York City, he was imprisoned for espionage following a high-profile trial in 1957. [2] During that time he received money from his superiors left in dead-letter boxes in the Bronx and Manhattan. [15][16] Though Fisher qualified for university, the costs prohibited him from attending. After the war, he began working for the KGB, which sent him to the United States where he worked as part of a spy ring based in New York City. This man was followed down Fulton Street to a nearby subway station. And, when Mikhail dropped from the scene in 1954, Hayhanen was turned over to another Russian spy, one known only as Mark. Hayhanen felt that Mark undoubtedly was still actively engaged in espionage within the United States! One of these dead drops was an iron picket fence at the end of 7th Avenue near Macombs bridge. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Abel, Federal Bureau of Investigation - Biography of Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, Rudolf Abel - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). One of these was Morton Sobell, whose wife had failed to receive the $5,000 embezzled by Hyhnen. The bolt was found on May 15, 1957. [71], Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel on a 1990 USSR commemorative stamp. In 1948, the KGB had called Hyhnen to Moscow where they issued him a new assignment. The detective had received his information from another police officer whose daughter was acquainted with the newsboy. 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. After five years in the United States, he dreaded the thought of going back to his communist-ruled homeland. What happened to Rudolf Abel? Although the FBI was convinced that it had finally identified the Soviet espionage apparatus which was responsible for the hollow Jefferson nickel, only one half of the mystery posed by this coin since its discovery in June 1953 had been solved. In examining the nickel, agents of the FBIs New York Office noted that the microphotograph appeared to portray nothing more then ten columns of typewritten numbers. From July 1949 to October 1952, Hayhanen resided in Finland and established his identity as the American-born Eugene Maki. However, prior to opening the coin Hyhnen had misplaced it, either buying a newspaper with it or using it as a subway token. At the end of his 1957 trial, Rudolf Abel escaped the death penalty when his lawyer, James Donovan, convinced the federal judge that Abel might one day be used either as a source of intelligence information or as a hostage to be traded with the Soviets for a captured U.S. agent. The money Hyhnen received from the KGB to support the network was instead spent on alcohol and prostitutes. For the past five years, I have been operating in the United States. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. NUMBER 1, 3RD OF DECEMBER.. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel ( Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 - 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. [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. Because he had served as a wartime counsel in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and had years of courtroom experience, the Bar Association believed Donovan was uniquely qualified to act as Fisher's defense lawyer. Who Is Suspected Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira? .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Pablo Escobar. Count Two (Conspiracy to obtain defense information), 10 years imprisonment and $2,000 fine. 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. Two months later, however, he was conscripted by the Communists secret police, the NKVD. [52] Upon opening the door, he was confronted by FBI agents who addressed him as "colonel" and stated that they had "information concerning [his] involvement in espionage." There were two ladies in the apartment across from the one occupied by Jimmys customer. In 1948, Fisher slipped into the United States illegally by way of Canada. The .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Steven Spielberg-helmed flick starred Tom Hanks as Donovan, with British actor Mark Rylance taking on the role of the mysterious Soviet spy. Fisher, however, was arrested before he could adopt his new identity and leave the United States. While in Finland, Hayhanen met and married Hanna Kurikka. 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. Early in May 1957, he telephoned the United States Embassy in Paris and subsequently arrived at the embassy to be interviewed. [28] Members of the network had stopped cooperating after postwar security was tightened at Los Alamos. According to Hayhanen, Mark was a colonel in the KGB and had been engaged in espionage work since approximately 1927. From Los Angeles came a peculiar-looking 1953 Lincoln penny. [8][6] Fisher's father, a revolutionary activist, taught and agitated with Vladimir Lenin at Saint Petersburg Technological Institute. READ MORE:The Spy Who Kept the Cold War From Boiling Over. The Mystery Novelist Who Committed a Real Murder, Boston Marathon Bombings Survivors, 10 Years Later, A Complete Timeline of Adnan Syeds Trial, Release, The Siege at Waco, In the Words of Who Was There, Ted Bundy Maybe Murdered Dozens More than We Knew, How Waco Inspired Timothy McVeighs OKC Bombing. Verified questions. 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. Now I need your help.. It is an absolute necessity. One of the coins seemed to have a peculiar ring. It was composed of copper-silver alloy, there being a shortage of nickel during World War II. However, at the first session, the summit collapsed after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to apologize to Khrushchev for the U-2 incident. Afterward, Fisher sent Donovan two rare manuscripts as a show of his appreciation. Letters that they wrote to their former neighbors showed that Mr. and Mrs. Maki were very unhappy and sorely missed America. The four powers were to discuss tensions in the two Germanys and negotiate new disarmament treaties. They contained shortwave radios, cipher pads, cameras and film for producing microdots, a hollow shaving brush, cuff links, and numerous other trick containers. Although he refused to discuss his intelligence activities, the photo studio and hotel room which he occupied were virtual museums of modern espionage equipment. The two ladies who had changed the newboys dollar on the evening of June 22 were located. Rudolf Abel was born William August Fisher on July 11, 1903, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Updates? 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. As identification symbols, Hayhanen wore a blue and red striped tie and smoked a pipe. Hyhnen, Fisher's former assistant, testified against him at the trial. 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. Answer (1 of 4): Rudolf Abel fell victim to poor selection of a helper, if it was not enemy conspiracy in Moscow. [41] Fisher sometimes related made-up stories of previous lives, as a Boston accountant and a lumberjack in the Pacific Northwest. In Warsaw, he discarded his Soviet passport and using a U.S. passport travelled via Czechoslovakia and Switzerland to Paris. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. In 1962, he was. In a jealous rage, Cain murdered Abel. [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. They were not convinced he might actually be a Russian spy until he produced a hollow Finnish 5-mark coin. The exchange took place on the Glienicke Bridge that linked West Berlin with Potsdam, which became famous during the Cold War as the "Bridge of Spies". After leaving the United States, the Maki family settled in Estonia. Since he was posing as an artist and photographer, nobody questioned his irregular working hours and frequent disappearances. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), The Spy Who Kept the Cold War From Boiling Over, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spies-swapped, Iconic child star Shirley Temple dies at 85, Laura Ingalls Wilder, chronicler of American frontier life, dies, World chess champion Garry Kasparov loses game to computer, Final episode of Arrested Development airs on Fox, Auto safety crusader Ralph Nader testifies before Congress. Why? The proprietors of novelty stores and related business establishments in the New York vicinity were contacted. Just before their transfer, Frederic Pryoran American student held by East German authorities since August 1961was released to American authorities at another border checkpoint. It fell apart! 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. [19] He then worked briefly in the radio research institute before being recruited by the OGPU, a predecessor of the KGB, in May 1927. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. Hayhanen had proved a poor spy during his five years in the United States and was being recalled to the USSR, where he feared he would be disciplined. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by the FBI in 1957. On February 10, 1962, Rudolf Invanovich Abel was exchanged for the American U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers, who was a prisoner of the Soviet Union. He is generally better known by the alias, Rudolf Abel, which he adopted on his arrest.His last name is sometimes given as Fischer; his patronymic is sometimes less exactly transliterated as Genrikovich. Abel returned to Moscow, where the KGB pushed him into retirement, fearing that he had been persuaded to become a double agent during his five years in captivity by American authorities. Its doctors orders, he explained. 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. He was, however, able to tell the FBI about Fisher's studio and its location. While in Moscow, Fisher informed his superiors of his dissatisfaction with Hyhnen. 2/9/2021, 7:27:06 PM. They immediately noted that it bore a great similarity to the Jefferson nickel which the Brooklyn newsboy had discovered in 1953. From the fall of 1952 until early in 1954, he said, Mikhail served as his espionage superior in New York. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! He was tried in a federal court in Brooklyn and in October was found guilty on three counts of espionage and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. 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. The agents long hours of patience were rewarded on the night of June 13, 1957. Nearly 10 years later, Mark was to admit that he had used Kayotis passport during the fall of 1948 in booking passage aboard an ocean liner from LeHavre, France, to Canada. 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