Soviet spy ring cracked by nickel

Spokesman Magazine, April, 2004 by Dennis Casey

On 21 June 1957 officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service arrested "Mark" for his illegal entry into the United States and the failure to register as an alien.

Once captured, "Mark" was found to have had a long and illustrious career. While on the way to the United States in 1948 "Mark" had used the name of Andrew Kayotis. The real Andrew Kayotis had been born in Lithuania in 1895 and had become an American citizen in Grand Rapids, Mich., on December 30, 1930. When Kayotis returned to Lithuania in 1947 and subsequently died there, the circumstances were ripe to pick up a new identity.

After a while 'Mark" began to cooperate with his captors. He admitted that he was really a Russian citizen named Rudolf Ivanovich Abel who had been born in the Soviet Union on July 2, 1902. While Abel refused to discuss any of his intelligence activities, his photo studio and hotel room were virtual museums of modern espionage equipment.

Agents uncovered shortwave radios, cipher pads, cameras and film for producing microdots, a hollow shaving brush and an assortment of what one agent called "trick" containers.

Colonel Abel was indicted as a Russian spy and tried in Federal Court in New York City in October 1957. A key witness in the trial was his trusted subordinate Reino Hayhanen. On October 25, 1957 the jury found Abel guilty on all counts of espionage. Judge Mortimer W. Byers on November 15, 1957 sentenced Abel on three different counts to serve a total of 45 years in federal prison and pay $3,000 in fines.

KGB Colonel Abel appealed his convictions and claimed that rights guaranteed to him under the Constitution and the laws of the United States had been violated. On March 28, 1960, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction. An investigation that had started with a paperboy's hollow nickel resulted in smashing a Soviet spy ring.

On February 10, 1962, Rudolph Ivanovich Abel was exchanged for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.

By Dr. Dennis Casey

HQ AIA/HO

Lackland AFB, Texas