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KGB Officer in USA. Based in New York he was top Soviet Agent from 1948 to 1957. Reino Hayhanen, a lieutenant colonel in the KGB after defecting in the US, gave details of his superior known only as "Mark" who was tracked down as one Emil R. Goldfus, artist and photographer with a studio in Brooklyn Heights. Emil Goldfus turned out to be Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, and a key Soviet spy. Technical expert and fluent in several languages he had been decorated for his service as intelligence officer in WWII. He assumed a false identity and was placed in an East German refugee camp where he successfully applied to immigrate to Canada. In 1948, he slipped into the United States, where took charge and reorganized the Soviet spy network.
When he learned of Hayhanen's defection he fled to Florida and laid low until believing it was safe to return to New York. On 21 June 1957, he was arrested in Manhattan's Latham Hotel. Searching his studio, the FBI found a hollow pencil used for concealing messages, a shaving brush containing microfilm, a code book, and a radio transmitter. 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 at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. His Lawyer saved him from the death penalty by pleading that he could be useful to the CIA, which he wasn't, or as an exchange, which he was. |
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Exchanged for Francis Gary Powers (U2 Pilot) in Feb. 1962. Abel returned to Moscow and was retired with a modest pension. KGB believed he had been turned during 5 years of captivity and may be a double agent. In 1968 published "approved" memoirs.
The original 2000 and 2002 Workbooks for Spy School were based on the information in "Spy Book, The Encyclopedia of Espionage, by Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen." and "Espionage, An Encyclopedia of Spies and Secrets by Richard Bennett ". |
