Top Highlights

• After working in the FBI division that developed secret listening devices, Hanssen was again placed in a position to track Russian agents operating in the United States. In 1985 he approached the Soviets again and offered valuable secrets.
• At some point in 1979, Hanssen made a decision to sell American secrets to the Soviets. He visited an office of the Russian government's trading company and offered to spy. Hanssen would later claim that his goal was simply to make some extra money, as living in New York City was putting a financial squeeze on his growing family.
• As Hanssen grew up, his father was reportedly verbally abusive to him, often ranting that he would never succeed in life.
• He worked as a policeman in Chicago for three years and was placed on an elite unit that investigated corruption. He then applied and was accepted into the FBI. He became an agent in 1976, and spent two years working in the Indianapolis, Indiana, field office.
• In 1980, after his first interactions with the Soviets, Hanssen told his wife what he had done, and she suggested they meet with a Catholic priest. The priest told Hanssen to stop his illegal activities and donate the money he had gotten from the Russians to charity. Hanssen made the donation to a charity affiliated with Mother Teresa, and cut off ...

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