Whats in question is the headline on the front of the paper that Silverman saw: TOP SPY. The microfilm bore a typewritten message which identified Quebec as Army sergeant Roy Rhodes and stated the Soviet agents had recruited him in January 1952. As I said before, however, Im sometimes pretty stubborn. In Moscow, however, plans were being made for a new Eugene Maki, one thoroughly grounded in Soviet intelligence techniques, to enter the scene. 1285 Elmwood Avenue At the bar, we met a British businessman and we talked about why we were there., We were put in touch with a man called Viktor Louis, a leaker of unofficial Soviet information (a standard part of all diplomacy) that went back and forth to Great Britain constantly, Silverman explains. Letters that they wrote to their former neighbors showed that Mr. and Mrs. Maki were very unhappy and sorely missed America. Your email address will not be published. When the New York detective contacted him, Jimmy handed over the hollow nickel and the photograph it contained. Rudolf Abel was born William Fisher in England in 1903. It felt permanent and impenetrable in a way that still sticks in my mind.. The reverse side had been made from another nickelone minted sometime during the period of 1942 to 1945. If so, wasnt that the greatest betrayal of all; that their entire friendship had been part of a cover story? 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. Was Goldfus working for the F.B.I, the KGB, or both? Browse our public art projects or explore them on a map. You can see a gallery of 20 Rudolf Abel Paintings To Celebrate The Season below. For the past five years, I have been operating in the United States. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The Extremely F*#!ing Chaotic Saga of the Worlds Most Notorious Police Impersonator, The Photographer Documenting Joy in the Undocumented Community, The One-Eyed African Queen Who Defeated the Roman Empire, I Woke Up From a Coma and Couldnt Escape the Guy Pretending to Be My Boyfriend, The Bank Robbers Who Couldnt Shoot Straight (Or Do Anything Right, Really), These Forgotten Essays Reveal the Secrets and Dreams of Jewish Teens As Hitler Drew Near. They were all interviewed by the F.B.I., and they inevitably went back over all the details of their time with Goldfus. In order to establish contact with Mikhail in the United States, Hayhanen was instructed that after arriving in New York he should go to the Tavern on the Green in Central Park. The Day My Therapist Dared Me to Have Sex With Her. The FBI Story. Please check.. Thats Mark.. Its certainly possible that his true sensibilities were kept under wraps so as not to arouse suspicion amongst the group. Mark made another admissionthat he was a Russian citizen, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, born July 2, 1902 in the Soviet Union. Donovan takes his job as an advocate far more seriously and does it far better than the CIA and most other Americans, some of whom threaten and harass him, hoped he would. On the other hand, if Goldfus was a spy, and if he had been ordered to embed himself amongst a group of artists, wouldnt that make them somehow complicit? But for Spielberg decency always trumps ideology. 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. In April 1957, Goldfus once again told his friends that hed be leaving for a while, again crafting a false story as cover. They were petrified that they too were suspects. When Kayotis friends in Michigan heard no more from him, they assumed that he had passed away. We were stonewalled, dead in the water, no hope, says Silverman. Two separate coins obviously had been used in making this trick 50 Markka piece. For example, during the fall of 1948, while en route to the United States from the Soviet Union, he had adopted the identity of Andrew Kayotis. 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. To Silverman, Jules Feiffer said, You know, Emil gives me the feeling of a guy whos been on the bum. In fact, it was the opposite. Abel heeds Donovan, ignoring a CIA functionarys command, and stays put until Pryor is freed. Messages in the dead drop spots had never been retrieved, radio transmissions had been sent on the wrong frequency, and the money hed left with Hayhanen had been frittered away on prostitutes and his dependence on alcohol. How could that man be the enemy? Metaphorically, Spielberg suggests that art connects people more strongly than ideology separates them. The coded message which the nickel contained still had to be deciphered. Silvermans time on the stand was brief. WebSoviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel was convicted in the United States in 1957 for conspiring to transmit military secrets to the Soviet Union. Another was the base of a lamp post in Fort Tryon Park. 2. They contained shortwave radios, cipher pads, cameras and film for producing microdots, a hollow shaving brush, cuff links, and numerous other trick containers. He then sees that he may be defending an incongruously estimable man, and it triggers a new zealousness in his professional endeavor. WebEnglish: ("Willie") Vilyam Genrikhovich (August) Fisher ( ) (July 11, 1903November 15, 1971) was a noted Soviet intelligence officer. On July 15, 1947, Andrew Kayotis, then residing in Detroit, was issued a passport so that he could visit relatives in Europe. It wasnt exploitative. He also must be identified. It was a job, like any other, filled with repetitive, often mindless tasks, and frustrations with co-workers and bosses alike. Heres a translation of microdotted messages that were left for Hayhanen by Goldfus, according to the F.B.I.s file on the case. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. In 1962, he was released to the Soviet Union in exchange for The Amateur: The Cold War Life of Rudolf Abel, Artist & KGB Spy - Kindle edition by Ward, Nathan. This is Bing. 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. On October 25, 1957, the jury announced its verdictAbel was guilty of all counts. He appeared before Judge Mortimer W. Byers on November 15, 1957 and was sentenced as follows (the three sentences to be served concurrently): Count One (Conspiracy to transmit defense information to the Soviet Union), 30 years imprisonment. In the summer of 1954, going by the alias MARK, Goldfus had his first meeting with his new assistant, Reyno Hayhanen, code name VIK, living under the alias Eugene Nikolai Maki. From July 1949 to October 1952, Hayhanen resided in Finland and established his identity as the American-born Eugene Maki. An investigation which had started with a newsboys hollow nickel ultimately resulted in the smashing of a Soviet spy ring. I wrote in Bernikows book (and I still believe this) that he was the enemy, but he was my friend, says Silverman. Its the kind of incident that, under normal circumstances, wouldnt be memorable. So, consciously or otherwise, he did the thing he really lovedpainting pictures. The proprietors of novelty stores and related business establishments in the New York vicinity were contacted. I got a space in the possibly last artist-only studio in the city, and I often slept there because I still couldnt afford my own place and was commuting from my childhood home.. If you are looking for an alternative to surgery after trying the many traditional approaches to chronic pain, The Lamb Clinic offers a spinal solution to move you toward mobility and wellness again. He displayed a birth certificate from the state of Idaho which showed that he was born in Enaville on May 30, 1919, and, in the presence of a Vice Consul, he executed an affidavit in which he explained that his family had left the United States in 1928: I accompanied my mother to Estonia when I was eight years of age and resided with her until her death in 1941. The information contained on this site is the opinion of G. Blair Lamb MD, FCFP and should not be used as personal medical advice. They struck up a conversation, the older gentleman admiring the artwork he saw and referring to a nineteenth-century Russian landscape painterSilverman had never heard of named Isaac Levitan. Although he refused to discuss his intelligence activities, the photo studio and hotel room which he occupied were virtual museums of modern espionage equipment. Image via Awesome Stories]. Hayhanen was a miserable, incompetent drunk, living with an angry, equally drunk young wife in Peekskill, N.Y. Goldfus would receive coded messages from Moscow via his shortwave radio transmitter. There were other odd moments as well: nagging details and incidents that just didnt make sense. To an embassy official, the Russian espionage agent explained, Im an officer in the Soviet intelligence service. Theres no right answer. Entitled A Realist View, they wanted to make a statement that was both political and aesthetic: that representational work was just as valid as abstract imagery. Some other time perhapswhen the two of us can meet simply as old friends. This was the first time, however, that the FBI had ever encountered a nickel quite like this one. As Abel proceeds, he tells Donovan he earlier sent the lawyer a gift a painting, which turns out to be a portrait of Donovan in the courtroom. He was an electronics engineer, and one day, while visiting Silvermans studio, he got into a conversation about physics with Goldfus, finding that he possessed a degree of expertise that was surprising for someone that wasnt a professional. It didnt deter him.. The real Andrew Kayotis, believed to have died in a Lithuanian hospital, was born in Lithuania on October 10, 1895. Please read this section carefully. If thats so, we have never learned the identity of these co-conspirators. In Brooklyn. I left Estonia for Finland in June 1943, and have resided here for the reason that I have no funds with which to pay my transportation to the United States.. Certainly all my friends have that memory and think of you affectionately. But despite his covert ways, Rudolf is eventually captured by the FBI. Two Coats of Paint is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. The search for this storage room led FBI agents to a building at 252 Fulton Street. of 1 Silverman tried to explain,but they were unable to assuage Louiss fears that he was being set up, either by the Americanswith Silverman and Bernikow in the role of undercover CIA operativesor by the KGB itself, with the two now placed in the unlikely role of double agents, trying to expose and entrap Viktor. No matter how much of a fat cat they get to be, they never lose that look., Danny Schwartz agreed. Who painted the portrait of Tom Hanks? The face of the coin was a 1948 Jefferson nickel. He was also Emil Goldfus, a kindly, unassuming, retired photofinisher and amateur painter, developing his craft with a group of fledgling Realist artists living and working in Brooklyn in the 1950s. Burt Silverman met Emil Goldfus in the winter of 1954, in the elevator at Ovington Studios, a building where he and many of his friends and professional colleagues rented space on Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn. You This trip was a gamble. While in federal prison in Atlanta, Goldfuss lawyer contacted Silverman, asking if hed be willing to correspond with his client. The information which he provided was applied by FBI Laboratory experts to the microphotograph from the Jefferson nickel. WebThe future Buffalo AKG Art Museum is scheduled to open on May 25, 2023. He was practical, not an ideologue in any sense of the word. I had hoped to talk to you about all of it. Additionally, the kind of typewriter which had been used in preparing the coded message could not be identified. WE CONFIRM THE RECEIPT OF YOUR LETTER TO THE ADDRESS `V REPEAT V AND THE READING OF LETTER NUMBER 1. Abel is spared the death penalty, and put to use as trade bait for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, who is shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles while taking photographs of Soviet military installations from 70,000 feet. 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 They could shed no light on the case. Had it been a trap? It was as if a hole in the fabric of his universe had suddenly opened up under his feet. ALL THE DATA ABOUT YOURSELF, PLACE OF WORK, ADDRESS, ETC., MUST NOT BE TRANSMITTED IN ONE CIPHER MESSAGE. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Rudolf Abel in the studio, 1957. Hi. Whether that was some kind of code or an implicit threat, Silverman couldnt determine, but with all their leads gone, they ended their quest. The Soviet intelligence service had a new assignment for Hayhanenone which would require him to sever relations with his family, to study the English language, and to receive special training in photographing documents, as well as to encode and decode messages. From the long list of possible suspects, the most logical candidate appeared to be Mikhail Nikolaevich Svirin. The book about you will, I think, be a truthful and honest one. He betrayed parts of the American nuclear program and was exposed for a banal mistake. This was his life. 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