The coded message which the nickel contained still had to be deciphered. Fisher, or "Rudolf Ivanovich Abel", was to serve his sentence (as prisoner 80016-A) at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Georgia. He eventually became fluent in several languages and developed a love for radio communications. Four days later, instead of continuing his journey to the Soviet Union he entered the American embassy in Paris, announcing that he was a KGB officer and asking for asylum. Count Two (Conspiracy to obtain defense information), 10 years imprisonment and $2,000 fine. Several former intelligence agents who had defected to the free world from communist-bloc nations were contacted. FBI agents were convinced he fit the description of "MARK". Operating as a Soviet spy in New York City, he was imprisoned for espionage following a high-profile trial in 1957. They then contacted James B. Donovan. Rudolf Abel was arrested while undercover in the U.S. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Two months later, however, he was conscripted by the Communists secret police, the NKVD. [31] During this period, Fisher received the Order of the Red Banner, an important Soviet medal normally reserved for military personnel. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. It felt lighter than an ordinary nickel. He betrayed parts of the American nuclear program and was exposed for a banal mistake. The agents immediately suspected that they had found a coded espionage message. Frederic LeRoy Pryor (April 23, 1933 - September 2, 2019) was an American economist. In October 1948, using a Soviet passport, he travelled from Leningradsky Station to Warsaw. If thats `Mark, hell return, they correctly surmised. 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. Codenamed "VIK", Hyhnen arrived in New York on the RMS Queen Mary, under the alias Eugene Nikolai Maki. Accordingly, passage was secured for Hayhanen on an airliner, and he was permitted to return to the United States. THE PACKAGE WAS DELIVERED TO YOUR WIFE PERSONALLY. 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. They were to resurface in the United Kingdom using the identities of Peter and Helen Kroger. On 10 February 1962, he was exchanged for the shot-down American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. It was collecting time again. Among the government witnesses to testify against him was his former trusted espionage assistant, Lieutenant Colonel Reino Hayhanen. Following World War II, he rose to the rank of senior operative authorized representative of the Segozerski district section of the NKGB and, with headquarters in the Village of Padani, set about the task of identifying dissident elements among the local citizens. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! [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." From the latter part of August 1952 until April 1954, he had served as the first secretary to the Soviet United Nations Delegation in New York. [53] During this period Fisher stated that his "real" name was Rudolf Ivanovich Abel and that he was a Soviet citizen, although he refused to discuss his intelligence activities. Mark also sent Hayhanen on trips alone. To exchange messages and intelligence data, they used dead dropsinconspicuous hiding placesin the New York area. Thus, 1957 agents confront Rudolf Abel and He intends to shred the note. [59] The Brooklyn Bar Association approached several prominent trial lawyers with political ambitions, all of whom declined the case. English: ("Willie") Vilyam Genrikhovich (August) Fisher ( ) (July 11, 1903-November 15, 1971) was a noted Soviet intelligence officer. [32][69], After his return to Moscow, Fisher was employed by the Illegals Directorate of the KGB's First Chief Directorate, giving speeches and lecturing school children on intelligence work, but became increasingly disillusioned. [37] For six months Hyhnen checked the thumbtack and no one had made contact. According to the second one, he was Martin Collins, born June 2, 1897, also in New York. He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by the FBI in 1957. display. In Abel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court upheld his conviction by a vote of 5-4. Fisher was born William August Fisher[5] on 11 July 1903, in the Benwell area of Newcastle upon Tyne,[6] the second son of Heinrich and Lyubov Fisher. 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. The court sentenced Abel to 30 years imprisonment. 26. As a precaution, Fisher was ordered to leave the United States. 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. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. As identification symbols, Hayhanen wore a blue and red striped tie and smoked a pipe. His real identity and country of birth were only revealed after his death. On July 3, 1951, Hayhanenthen living in Turku, Finlandvisited the United States Legation in Helsinki. Goldfus disappeared about April 26, 1957. Yes, they remembered Jimmy; but, if either had given him a hollow nickel, it was entirely unintentional. Count Three (Conspiracy to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notification to the Secretary of State), five years imprisonment and $1,000 fine. Please check.. [26] His new passport bore the name Andrew Kayotis, the first of Fisher's false identities. He died in 1971 at the age of 68. 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. 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. Encouraging their son's love of music, Fisher's parents gave him piano lessons; he also learned to play the guitar. On June 15, a photograph of Goldfus which the FBI took with a hidden camera was shown to Hayhanen. Should he be inside or outside? That happened, and five years later, Rudolf Abel walked across the Glienicke Bridge between Potsdam and East Berlin, where he was met by Soviet intelligence. 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. 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. We strive for accuracy and fairness. GREETINGS FROM THE COMRADES. He became friends with two other convicted Soviet spies. Omissions? This description was matched against the descriptions of Soviet representatives who had been in the United States between 1952 and 1954. 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. He was dismissed from the agency during the Great Purge of the late 1930s, but he returned to its service after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Fisher was aware of the "tail" but, as he had no passport to leave the country, he devised a plan to be used upon his capture. He had then spent three years in Finland taking over Maki's identity. From July 1949 to October 1952, Hayhanen resided in Finland and established his identity as the American-born Eugene Maki. [46] On 11 May, the CIA returned him to the United States and handed him over to the FBI. While in Finland, Hayhanen met and married Hanna Kurikka. This man was followed down Fulton Street to a nearby subway station. He occupied himself with painting, learning silk-screening, playing chess, and writing logarithmic tables for the sheer enjoyment of it. Following his arrest, Mark was found to possess many false papers, including two American birth certificates. [45], When Hyhnen announced himself at the embassy on 4 May, he appeared drunk. Two hollow pennies were found in Washington, D.C. In 1957, Reino Hayhanen, a lieutenant colonel in the KGB, walked into the American embassy in Paris and announced his intention to defect to the West. From the fall of 1952 until early in 1954, he said, Mikhail served as his espionage superior in New York. 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. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. 39. [2][4] On 15 November 1957, Judge Mortimer W. Byers imposed on Fisher a total sentence of thirty years and fines of $3,000. By June 3, 1957, the full text of the microphotograph was known. Upon his return to New York in 1956, he found that his carefully constructed network had been left to disintegrate in his absence. [27][29] The Volunteer network grew to include "Aden" and "Serb", nuclear physicists contacted by Hall, and "Silver". On July 15, 1947, Andrew Kayotis, then residing in Detroit, was issued a passport so that he could visit relatives in Europe. 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. The orderly became Abel's confidante, Ignashiev said, and the colonel told him that his real name was not Rudolf Abel but William Fisher. 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. 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. Is time wrong? 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. The agents long hours of patience were rewarded on the night of June 13, 1957. >> have to thank mark palermo for bringing this to us and the brooklyn historical society. He later served in an instructional role before taking part in intelligence operations against the Germans during World War II. economics. However the report never arrived. Argued February 24-25, 1959. . of american history tv, the brooklyn historical society host several experts on the trial. In the R of the word TRUST, there was a tiny holeobviously drilled there so that a fine needle or other small instrument could be inserted to force the nickel open. The hollowed-out area is too small to hide anything aside from a tiny piece of paper. 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. He did, however, remember being taken to a storage room in Brooklyn by his superior, whom he knew as Mark. The FBI tracked down the storage room and found it was rented by one Emil R. Goldfus, an artist and photographer who had a studio in Brooklyn Heights. The detective, in turn, gave the coin to the FBI. 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. While efforts were being made to decode the message on the microphotograph, FBI agents in New York launched an investigation to find the source of the hollow coin. After he collected for the newspaper, Jimmy left the apartment house jingling several coins in his left hand. The newsboy rested this coin, a nickel, on the middle finger of his hand. Hayhanen was born near Leningrad on May 14, 1920. In the intelligence and counterintelligence field, patience is more than a virtue. Verified answer. In 1990 the USSR released a stamp depicting Rudolf Abel as part of series: Damaskin, Igor with Elliott, Geoffrey. 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! Wait a moment and try again. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. spies," is based on the story of rudolf abel, arrested in new york city, convicted, and exchanged for u.s. biplane pilot. [37], After arriving in New York, Hyhnen spent the next two years establishing his identity. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel . For example, in 1954, Mark instructed him to locate an American Army sergeant, one formerly assigned to the United States Embassy in Moscow. Fisher was subsequently indicted to stand trial as a Russian spy. 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. He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by the FBI in 1957. [27] The only visitors to Fisher's studio were artist friends with whom he felt safe from suspicion. Verified questions. The real Andrew Kayotis was Lithuanian born and had become an American citizen after migrating to the United States. "That Russian spy" was Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, who less than two weeks earlier had been indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury. Since he had studied the Finnish language and was very proficient in its use, Hayhanen was assigned as an interpreter to an NKVD group and sent to the combat zone to translate captured documents and interrogate prisoners during the Finnish-Soviet war. Rudolf Abel, in full Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, original name William August Fisher, (born July 11, 1903, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, Englanddied November 15, 1971, Moscow, Russia), Soviet intelligence officer, convicted in the United States in 1957 for conspiring to transmit military secrets to the Soviet Union. 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. [65], Fisher served just over four years of his sentence. Letters subsequently received from him indicated that he was in a Lithuanian hospital. His son, born in England and going to Russia with his father, joined the Soviet intelligence and security agency GPU (the predecessor of the KGB) in 1927 and operated in western European countries and the Soviet Union in the next two decades. Abel v. United States. According to Hayhanen, Mark was a colonel in the KGB and had been engaged in espionage work since approximately 1927. Updates? [4] The other prisoner was Kurt Ponger, an Austrian who had been sentenced for conspiracy to commit espionage. Donovan had played an important role in the negotiations that led to the swap. They sold their belongings and left their Idaho farm for New York to book passage on a ship to Europe. On May 5, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the American spy aircraft had been shot down and two days later revealed that Powers was alive and well and had confessed to being on an intelligence mission for the CIA. For the next seven months the hollow nickel travelled around the New York City economy, unopened. He dropped this coin to the floor. On February 10, 1962 it was exchanged in Berlin. During the FBIs extensive interviews with him, in May 1957 Hayhanen was carefully questioned regarding the codes and cryptosystems which he had used in the various Soviet intelligence agencies he had served since 1939. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. .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. Inside was a tiny photograph, showing a series of numbers too small to read. [27], On 26 November, Fisher met with Soviet "illegal" Josef Romvoldovich Grigulevich (codenamed "MAKS" or "ARTUR"). All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. In the mid-1920s, Eugene Makis parents became deeply impressed by glowing reports of conditions in the new Russia. Investigation in Detroit disclosed that several persons there considered Kayotis to be in poor physical condition at the time of his departure from the United States. 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. It is known he occasionally drew attention to himself by indulging in heavy drinking sessions and heated arguments with his Finnish wife Hannah. On May 16, 1957, FBI agents showed a group of photographs to Hayhanen. ) (n. 11 iulie 1903, Newcastle Marea Britanie - d. 15 noiembrie 1971, Moscova ), nsc. While studying in Berlin during the partition of the city in 1961, he was imprisoned in East Germany for six months, then released in a Cold War "spy swap" that also involved downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.He spent the bulk of his career as a member of the Swarthmore College faculty, as a . An official website of the United States government. WE WISH YOU SUCCESS. None could recall seeing a nickel or other coin quite like this one. WE CONGRATULATE YOU ON A SAFE ARRIVAL. This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 19:55. Inside was a tiny photographapparently a picture of a series of numbers. Kitty Harris, a former pupil of Fisher's, had spent a year in Santa Fe during the war, where she passed secrets from physicists to couriers. TRANSMIT INSERTIONS SEPARATELY.5. A lady answered the door. Try again Sorry, Jimmy, she said. 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. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel ( Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 - 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. Click to read about one of the pieces of espionage equipment found in Abels apartment. [62] The jury retired for three and a half hours and returned on the afternoon of October 25, 1957, finding Fisher guilty on all three counts. The real Eugene Nicolai Maki was born in Enaville, Idaho on May 30, 1919. [5] Trained as a radio operator, he served in a Red Army radio battalion in 1925 and 1926. 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. [43] In January 1957, Hyhnen received a message from Moscow promoting him to Lieutenant Colonel and granting him leave in the Soviet Union. On February 10, 1962, American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is released by the Soviets in exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in the United States five. [27], In July 1949, Fisher met with a "legal" KGB resident from the Soviet consulate general, who provided him with money. After handing back Kayotis's passport and documents, Fisher assumed the name Goldfus. On the evening of Monday, June 22, 1953, a delivery boy for the Brooklyn Eagle knocked on the door of one of his customers in the apartment building at 3403 Foster Avenue in Brooklyn. He appeared before Judge Mortimer W. Byers on November 15, 1957 and was sentenced as follows (the three sentences to be served concurrently): Colonel Abel appealed his convictions, claiming that rights guaranteed to him under the Constitution and laws of the United States had been violated. At the time he related this information to FBI agents in May 1957, Hayhanen could not remember the Army sergeants name. By pooling the coins in their pocketbooks, they were able to give the newsboy change for a dollar. 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 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. 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. Hayhanen became a respected expert in Finnish intelligence matters and in May 1943 was accepted into membership in the Soviet Communist Party. 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. Hyhnen confirmed that it was "MARK" in the photograph. ENCIPHER SHORT LETTERS, BUT THE LONGER ONES MAKE WITH INSERTIONS. this is just under two hours. Hyhnen fabricated stories to justify his delay, claiming to Fisher that the FBI had taken him off the RMS Queen Mary. [63] In Abel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court upheld his conviction by a vote of 54. In September 1939, Hayhanen was appointed to the primary school faculty in the Village of Lipitzi. In 1970, he published a book, Operation Overflight, about the incident and in 1977 was killed in the crash of a helicopter that he flew as a reporter for a Los Angeles television station. However, private treatment by the agency he had served for decades was not as warm. 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. As the years passed, memories of the Maki family gradually began to fade, and all but possibly two or three old time residents of Enaville, Idaho, forgot that there has ever been a Maki family in that area. The hollow nickel found by the Brooklyn newspaper boy, The coded message contained in the hollow nickel. Who Is Suspected Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira? Hyhnen, Fisher's former assistant, testified against him at the trial. Roughly halfway through his journey, he was shot down over Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains. FBI scientists determined that it had been coated with nickel. Among the items he had been supplied by the Soviets were hollow pens, pencils, screws, batteries, and coinsin some instances magnetized so they would adhere to metal objects. In keeping with instructions contained in a message he received from Soviet officials, Hayhanen was met by Mark at a movie theater in Flushing, Long Island, during the late summer of 1954. He was given a modest pension and in 1968 published KGB-approved memoirs. [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]. The Irish American New York lawyer who defended a Russian spy, and negotiated on behalf of the thousands of prisoners captured after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, is remembered by his daughter Jan. It can often appear that the lives of individuals depicted on the silver screen are too fantastic to be real. 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