Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher - Capture

Capture

In April 1957, Fisher told his artist friends he was going south on a seven-week vacation. Less than three weeks later, acting on Häyhänen's information, surveillance was established near Fisher's photo studio. On May 28, 1957, in a small park opposite Fulton Street FBI agents spotted a man acting nervously. From time to time the man got up, and walked around eventually left. FBI agents were convinced he fitted the description of "MARK". The surveillance continued on "MARK" and on the night of June 13, a light was seen to go on in Fisher's studio at 10:00 pm.

On June 15, 1957, Häyhänen was shown a photograph of Fisher that the FBI had taken with a hidden camera. Häyhänen confirmed that it was "MARK" in the photograph. Once the FBI had a positive identification, they stepped up surveillance, following Fisher from his studio to the Hotel Latham. 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. Fisher decided that he would not turn traitor as Häyhänen had done because he still trusted the KGB and he knew that if he cooperated with the FBI, he would not see his wife and daughter again.

At 7:00 am on the morning of June 21, 1957, Fisher answered a knock on the door to his room, Room 839. Upon opening the door, he was confronted by FBI agents who addressed him as "colonel" and stated that they had "information concerning involvement in espionage." Fisher knew that the FBI's use of his rank could have only come from Häyhänen. Fisher said nothing to the FBI and, after twenty-three minutes staring at Fisher, the FBI agents called in the waiting Immigration and Nationality Service officers who arrested Fisher and detained him under section 242 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Fisher was then flown to the Federal Alien Detention Facility in McAllen, Texas, and held there for six weeks. During this period Fisher stated that his real name was Rudolph Ivanovich Abel and that he was a Russian citizen, although he refused to discuss his intelligence activities. By stating that his real name was Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, Fisher was trying to send a covert signal to Moscow to let them know that he had been captured.

During Fisher's detainment the FBI had been busy searching his hotel room and photo studio, where they discovered espionage equipment including shortwave radios, cipher pads, cameras and film for producing microdots, a hollow shaving brush, and numerous "trick" containers including hollowed-out bolts. In Fisher's New York hotel room the FBI had found four thousand dollars; a hollow ebony block containing a 250-page Russian codebook; a hollow pencil containing encrypted messages on microfilm and a key to a safe-deposit box containing another fifteen thousand dollars in cash. Also discovered were photographs of the Cohens, and recognition phrases to establish contact between agents who had never met before.

As Fisher was no longer considered an alleged illegal alien, but rather an alleged spy, he was flown from Texas to New York on August 7, 1957, to answer the indictment. Indicted as a Russian spy, Fisher was tried in Federal Court at New York City during October 1957, on three counts:

• Conspiracy to transmit defense information to the Soviet Union – 30 years imprisonment;
• Conspiracy to obtain defense information – 10 years imprisonment; and
• Conspiracy to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notification to the Secretary of State – 5 years imprisonment.

Häyhänen, Fisher's former assistant, testified against him at the trial. The prosecution failed to find any other alleged members of Fisher's spy network, if there were any. The jury retired for three and half hours and returned on the afternoon of October 25, 1957, finding Fisher guilty on all three counts. On November 15, 1957, Judge Mortimer W. Byers sentenced Fisher to concurrent terms of imprisonment of thirty, ten and five years on the three counts and fined him a total of three thousand dollars.

Fisher, or "Rudolf Ivanovich Abel", was to serve his sentence (as prisoner 80016–A) at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Georgia. He tried to busy himself with painting, learning silk-screening, playing chess, and writing logarithmic tables for the sheer enjoyment of it. He became friends with two other convicted Soviet spies. One of these was Morton Sobell, whose wife had failed to receive the five thousand dollars embezzled by Häyhänen. The other prisoner was Kurt Ponger, an Austrian who had been sentenced for conspiracy to commit espionage.