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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren Elizabeth.

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Speaker 2: How are you.

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Speaker 3: I'm doing well? How about you?

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Speaker 2: I'm well, I'll thank you.

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Speaker 3: Look at us. Both of us will at the.

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Speaker 2: Same time healthy, hailed, God blessed. I love to love it. Listen,

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Speaker 2: you know it's ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: I do. And I'm so glad you asked, because I

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Speaker 3: wanted to share this one, please do. So there's this

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Speaker 3: guy he uh, well, I don't know how best put it.

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Speaker 3: A couple of years. Happened a couple years ago, think

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Speaker 3: in twenty twenty three. I think he was a Florida man,

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Speaker 3: So you know it's going to get good. Sure, he

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Speaker 3: was just hanging out near a dog park, you know,

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Speaker 3: and he saw that the owner walked away from their car,

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Speaker 3: so he went in like rummaged around, and he found

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Speaker 3: the keys were in the cup holder, so he stole

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Speaker 3: the man's BMW uh and then he drove off. Okay,

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Speaker 3: apparently he was speeding because he or that he was

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Speaker 3: just not very good at driving a BMW or he

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Speaker 3: was just like so cool with like, man, I can't

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Speaker 3: believe a fast BMW's go. He got up to one

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Speaker 3: hundred miles an hour. And then he crashed the car

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Speaker 3: in a single vehicle accident by himself. I imagine he

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Speaker 3: hit a tree, and then passing motorists saw that, They're like,

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Speaker 3: oh my goodness. They pulled over, and then they pulled

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Speaker 3: him from the total car. Yeah right, And then the

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Speaker 3: cops arrived at the crash scene. And this guy, he's

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Speaker 3: his name is Calvin Johnson. He was thirty six years

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Speaker 3: old at the time. He's like kind of out of it.

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Speaker 3: But I do not think that that explains what I'm

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Speaker 3: about to tell you, because I think he would have

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Speaker 3: said this even if he had not bumped his head

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Speaker 3: on the steering wheel. So the cops were like, so

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Speaker 3: what happened here? And he's, oh, man, you guys saved

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Speaker 3: me from the aliens. They're like what. And so then

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Speaker 3: they took him to a local hospital, where he was

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Speaker 3: placed under guard because they realized the car was stolen.

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Speaker 3: And on top of that, Johnson had also told the

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Speaker 3: police that, you know, like how he got into the

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Speaker 3: stolen car was that he was teleported into the car

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Speaker 3: by the aliens.

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Speaker 2: So but the truth.

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Speaker 3: He also made a passing reference to the X Men

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Speaker 3: movies and comics books.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so he was.

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Speaker 3: Like, I think, probably referencing Nightcrawler. He was like, Bam,

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Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I'm there, I'm in the car.

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Speaker 3: I'm doing one hundred miles an hour. So they're like, okay,

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Speaker 3: he gets charged with grand theft, auto driving on a

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Speaker 3: license that was suspended, and also, yeah, there you go.

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Speaker 3: That's pretty much it is. Man claims that he was

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Speaker 3: teleported into a stolen car by aliens to get out

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Speaker 3: of charges.

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Speaker 2: What if he was telling the truth.

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Speaker 3: There is that possibility, Elizabeth.

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Speaker 2: You can't rule that out.

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Speaker 3: I think if we're lucky, we should one day like

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Speaker 3: find like a Florida like you know, sheriff or like

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Speaker 3: policemen who will tell us all the various just the

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Speaker 3: best stories they've ever heard from people trying to get

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Speaker 3: out of crimes. Oh Man, you know that could go

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Speaker 3: for a full amazing you want to go year by

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Speaker 3: year or alphabetical, like how do you want to do this?

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Speaker 2: So there you go, this is ridiculous. Do you want

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Speaker 2: to know what else is ridiculous?

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Speaker 3: Please?

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Speaker 2: Losing your best magic trick? This is ridiculous crime. It's

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Speaker 2: podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Heis and cons It's

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Speaker 2: always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: Oh you damn right, you heard the nice lady.

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Speaker 2: You heard me. Spies, man, spies. Do you think you'd

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Speaker 2: make a good.

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Speaker 3: Spy depends on the context.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's a type of criminal.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I think that I have some of the

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Speaker 3: skill sets for it. But i'd have to because you

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Speaker 3: have to be duplicitous and lie to the people. I'd

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Speaker 3: have to really believe in the mission. You couldn't just

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Speaker 3: make me a spy and drop me off anywhere. I'd

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Speaker 3: have to believe that it was necessary to do this

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Speaker 3: because I have a hard time lying to people who

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Speaker 3: I think are, like you know, not worthy of being

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Speaker 3: lied to. But if I believe they're worthy of being

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Speaker 3: lied to, you better believe it. The best damn spy

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Speaker 3: you could send in.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I am not sure i'd be the best spy.

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Speaker 2: Like I can sort of blend in as a white

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Speaker 2: lady of a certain age, Like you get to a

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Speaker 2: point where you become invisible, which is both nice and

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Speaker 2: kind of a bummer. Oh yeah, but it makes for

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Speaker 2: a good spy, I would guess. And I've been thinking

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Speaker 2: a lot lately about the French resistance. You know, no reason,

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Speaker 2: no reason. I think that I would have been amazing

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Speaker 2: in that because you're like a saboteur. I can mess

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Speaker 2: stuff up really well. So let's take advantage of that,

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Speaker 2: like go next level, like put putting the metal plates

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Speaker 2: on the railroad tracks. Stuff like that, blow and whistles,

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Speaker 2: whistle misinformation, as Billy Bragg saying, if you've got a blacklist,

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Speaker 2: I want to be on it. He also sang in

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Speaker 2: the same song waiting for the Great Leap Forward another

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Speaker 2: favorite line of mine, the revolution is just a T

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Speaker 2: shirt away. Seeing that to myself when I put on

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Speaker 2: my US out of California t shirt. Okay, so the

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Speaker 2: whole like taker, tailor, soldier, spy. Yeah, it's too tense

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Speaker 2: for me really, So it's too much stress.

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Speaker 3: It's a it's a it's too tense.

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Speaker 2: Oh Zarah, that was beautiful, Like you know that I

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Speaker 2: work really hard to keep my day to day life

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Speaker 2: is like to tamp down the stress. It's never going

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Speaker 2: to be stress free, but to minimize the stress.

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Speaker 3: Anxiety the thing that's worth it for you to worth it.

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Speaker 3: So I try to increase I tried to introduce stress

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Speaker 3: and anxiety into my life. I'm like, how can I

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Speaker 3: bike on the edge of a cliff? Yes?

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Speaker 2: How can I make this to the situation worse? You

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Speaker 2: told us earlier this week about some World War two battles, Yes,

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Speaker 2: And I told you recently about World War two spies. Yes,

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Speaker 2: the doll Lady, the folks up in New York and

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Speaker 2: that has radio, with the radios and the such. I'm

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Speaker 2: going to close out my spy triptych today. Trip. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you're going to move it. It's all of these earthly delights.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna move it forward a little to the Cold War. Okay,

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Speaker 2: So back when we were unfriendly with the USSR and

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Speaker 2: we had all sorts of spycraft. It was different from

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Speaker 2: what went down during World War Two. Yes, Like the

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Speaker 2: English had more classic spy stuff going on then double

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Speaker 2: agents and that sort of thing, and they'd have someone

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Speaker 2: drop behind enemy lines who would pretend to be a

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Speaker 2: Nazi sympathizer or something like basically wearing a trench coat. Sure,

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Speaker 2: playing a part. But you get into the Cold War,

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Speaker 2: you got the two Germany's, the lives of others and

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Speaker 2: all that stuff. Have you ever seen that movie? Great,

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Speaker 2: good movie. It's a powerful dramas, Aaron, I love those.

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Speaker 2: I say that because I couldn't remember the name of

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Speaker 2: the movie and I had to blind google it and

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Speaker 2: like you know, like like East German Spy others, and

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Speaker 2: I saw the movie described as a powerful drama, powerful drama.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, the Cold War was tense. Brother two eventual

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Speaker 2: superpowers quietly going at it. We've got the CIA for

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Speaker 2: Intelligence over on state side, with help from the FBI.

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Speaker 2: They meaning the Russians. The Soviets had the KGB. The

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Speaker 2: Soviet Union may not still exist, but you can't tell

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Speaker 2: me the KGB isn't still kicking and running.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they just changed the letters to FSB.

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Speaker 2: Precisely, and they know how to mess with us. They

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Speaker 2: play the long game, Yes, very good at the long game.

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Speaker 2: Very good at the long game. So let's talk about

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Speaker 2: Cold War spy stories. And I have one particular incident

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Speaker 2: that's super ridiculous. It's right up our alleys.

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Speaker 3: Perfect a crime.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So we're going to start in nineteen forty eight,

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Speaker 2: and that's when the KGB sent and experienced illegal operators

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Speaker 2: what they would refer to these as Villiam General Kovich.

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Speaker 2: Fisher sent him to North America and he traveled under

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Speaker 2: the name Andrew Kotis, and he had the real Chaotis' passport.

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Speaker 2: Don't ask questions, I've said too much. He used the

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Speaker 2: passport to enter Canada and then cross into the United

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Speaker 2: States in November of nineteen forty eight. So once he

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Speaker 2: gets into the United States, he sheds that identity and

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Speaker 2: with help from another KGB illegal operator, Josef Grigoulovich, Fisher

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Speaker 2: picks up a new identity. He gets his hands on

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Speaker 2: genuine but repurposed American documents in the name Emil Robert Goldfuss, Goldfuss, Goldfuss.

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Speaker 2: This was one of those old con moves where they

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Speaker 2: took the identity of a male child who died as

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Speaker 2: an infant.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the classic Goldfist.

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Speaker 2: He's a New Yorker who died in infancy, and so

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Speaker 2: the NKVD, that's the predecessor to the KGB. They got

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Speaker 2: the dead kid's birth certificate years earlier.

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Speaker 3: Just in case they needed to put somebody in just

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Speaker 3: for future long game.

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Speaker 2: I'm telling you, planning ahead.

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Speaker 3: It's that chest mind, it is.

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Speaker 2: So by late nineteen forties, early fifties, Fish Emil, he's

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Speaker 2: living quietly in New York what's his code name?

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Speaker 3: What's his code name? Elizabeth?

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Speaker 2: Good question?

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Speaker 3: Mark Mark.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot happening with that, Like he's like, my

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Speaker 2: name is Emil, but folks call me Mark. It kind

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Speaker 2: of makes me think of our discussions about the like

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Speaker 2: really common gen X millennial names. So like number one

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Speaker 2: is Josh. Mark is in there, Mike Scott, Kevin, Aaron, Brian.

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Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, for the.

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Speaker 2: Gals, Jennifer, Stephanie, Teresa. So Mark he ran Mark. My

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Speaker 2: name is Mark. He ran a Soviet espionage network that

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Speaker 2: handled atomic and defense related secrets, and he used couriers

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Speaker 2: for his work. For example, Morris and Lona Cohen. They

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Speaker 2: had been associated with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Yeah, and

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Speaker 2: I'll remind you, as you probably well know, the Rosenbergs

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Speaker 2: were US citizens who spy for the Soviets during the

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Speaker 2: Cold War, cost them their life. Yes, spiona is just

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Speaker 2: serious stuff. So this wasn't easy work getting the secrets

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Speaker 2: to the bosses. Soviet intelligence relied on what those in

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Speaker 2: the biz call clandestine tradecraft.

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Speaker 3: M love that way you say that this is stuff.

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Speaker 2: Like dead drops in parks and bridges. Yes, coated radio transmissions.

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Speaker 3: Spy gear leaving stuff like in newspapers, and just like you.

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Speaker 2: Sit next to someone on a bench and you put

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Speaker 2: your briefcase down next to their identical briefcase. Saren you

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Speaker 2: know how it is.

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Speaker 3: I tried doing that with my friends and they always

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Speaker 3: bring the wrong briefcase. We timed this.

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Speaker 2: I do it to strangers.

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Speaker 3: Take the briefcase.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I see sevenger like with a bag and you're

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Speaker 2: going to set down and you walk off. They're like, wait,

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Speaker 2: there's something called the Bulgarian umbrella and it shot out

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Speaker 2: a dart poisoned with rice and old Bulgarian umbrella.

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Speaker 3: Dang.

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Speaker 2: There was an anal Cia toolkit what and so it

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Speaker 2: was like a good sized capsule thing that contained little

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Speaker 2: tools and like a file and knife blades. It's basically

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Speaker 2: like a Swiss army knife but in a rounded tube,

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Speaker 2: and he just kept it prisons. You stuck it up

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Speaker 2: there and if you're caught, you could poop it out

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Speaker 2: and use the tools to escape and get poop on

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Speaker 2: your hands.

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Speaker 3: Yeah apparently, okay, back I guess back then the prisons

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Speaker 3: didn't do the whole like open your cheeks but.

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Speaker 2: Like squat and cough. No. No, the KGB had transmitters

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Speaker 2: that they would build into the heels of shoes.

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Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, they.

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Speaker 2: Complete with batteries, microphones, and they'd rig up the shoes

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Speaker 2: of a target so they could listen in on their

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Speaker 2: conversations and like all the walks that they took.

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Speaker 3: And also people were getting their shoes shined back then,

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Speaker 3: so like when like Castro visited the America United Nations,

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Speaker 3: he left his shoes outside of his hotel to have

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Speaker 3: him shine, and the CIA is like, let's get our

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Speaker 3: hands on the shoes there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. The Soviets also made a lipstick gun ooh yeah.

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Speaker 2: They called it the kiss of Death, and he'd twist

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Speaker 2: the base and it would shoot out a single bullet

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Speaker 2: and then there'd be me like dig through my purse

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Speaker 2: to put the lips to gun sublamo take a lip off,

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Speaker 2: and then you know. Of course, they had like disappearing

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Speaker 2: ink pens. Oh nice, the ink disappeared, not the pens.

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Speaker 3: I assume this is not like the kid's lemon juice version.

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Speaker 2: According to History on the Net, I swear to god,

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Speaker 2: I'm finding the best, like solid, most reputable website lately.

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Speaker 2: History on the Net quote the accepted method to conceal

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Speaker 2: ink used to be wet writing. An agent would write

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Speaker 2: with ink on the paper, steam it, let it dry,

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00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:36,400
Speaker 2: re steam the paper to remove any indentations, let it

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Speaker 2: dry again, and then write something on top to cover

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Speaker 2: the original message. It took up a lot of time

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Speaker 2: and effort. During the nineteen fifties, the KGB developed a

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Speaker 2: quicker method disappearing ink pens. But they don't tell us

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Speaker 2: what the mustage.

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Speaker 3: I'll tell you all about what they used to do.

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Speaker 2: None of you BIG's history on the web. And then

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Speaker 2: there was there were trick concealment devices like hollow bolts

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Speaker 2: or like everyday objects that had been like hollowed out.

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Speaker 3: I have a bunch of those, actually, do you no,

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Speaker 3: legitimately do I've got like fake a lot of fake

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Speaker 3: products like But I also have like like a sharpie

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Speaker 3: pen that I can like unscrew and but you can

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Speaker 3: write with it if you take the top off and

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Speaker 3: somebody like wants to use it, it works. But then I

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Speaker 3: can unscrew it and I can like put my weed

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Speaker 3: in there or whatever, and pretty much I have it

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Speaker 3: all for traveling with weed. I have like I've got

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Speaker 3: like shaving cream. I've got like I've got fake lenses

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Speaker 3: for cameras. Really, I've got a ton of fake.

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Speaker 2: Things, yes, purely for traveling.

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Speaker 3: Well, my dad would got me into a long time

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Speaker 3: ago when I would go to visit him and he

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Speaker 3: would like, you know, give me like pot to travel

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Speaker 3: back and see my mother. And then I would like,

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Speaker 3: you know, have to do it. And so he's like,

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Speaker 3: this is how I do it. I get a couple

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Speaker 3: of cans or whatever. And he had like these screw

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Speaker 3: top cans that he got from like High Times magazine,

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Speaker 3: and he would put them in a cooler. But my

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Speaker 3: favorite was is that sometimes when he had a large amount,

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Speaker 3: he wouldn't put it anything. He just put it in

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Speaker 3: his dirty laundry and then he would put like some

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00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:03,360
Speaker 3: dirty underwear on top. No CoP's gonna dig through a

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00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:06,640
Speaker 3: black man's dirty laundry. But that's putting a lot of

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Speaker 3: trust in racism policy.

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Speaker 2: Really is Well, I I have a story for you

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Speaker 2: today that's about one of those hollowed out concealment devices.

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Speaker 2: Oh nice, you're gonna love this, the hollow nickel. So

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00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:25,120
Speaker 2: while Mark is in the US stealing secrets, what's happening

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00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:26,280
Speaker 2: back in the USSR?

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Speaker 3: What is happening back in the US Elizabeth.

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00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:33,840
Speaker 2: And ridiculous crime is perfect. Okay No a Finnish speaking

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Speaker 2: Soviet citizen named Reno hey Yan first name Reno r

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Speaker 2: e I n O okay so Reno not like No.

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00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:47,560
Speaker 2: When I was like looking up the pronunciations of it,

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00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:50,040
Speaker 2: it's like either Reno or Reno. And they were saying

294
00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:52,160
Speaker 2: that the finish would be Reno, but it's probably not

295
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:55,200
Speaker 2: and all the Finns are going to be like Lizbeth.

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Speaker 2: It's actually, why do you hate us? Hey yann okay

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00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,600
Speaker 2: hey a. And then he was being groomed for illegal work.

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Speaker 2: So he was born near Leningrad in nineteen twenty and

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Speaker 2: he served the NKVD, the KGB predecessor during the Soviet

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Speaker 2: Finnish War aka the Winter War. He was an interpreter

301
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Speaker 2: and a security officer, and then he spent World War

302
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Speaker 2: two and the post war years doing counterintelligence in the

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00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:28,520
Speaker 2: Soviet North, which is cold. Nineteen forty eight, KGB brings

304
00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:33,880
Speaker 2: him to Moscow, trained him in photography, codes, clandestine communications,

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Speaker 2: and they gave him a new identity, Eugene Nikolai Maki.

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00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:44,040
Speaker 2: Maki an American citizen of Finnish descent. Ah interesting so

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00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:48,120
Speaker 2: for several years in Finland, he like painstakingly builds this

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00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:53,640
Speaker 2: false identity. He got a genuine Idaho birth certificate for

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00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:57,280
Speaker 2: this identity of Maki, and then in nineteen fifty two

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Speaker 2: he gets a US passport in that name. He sails

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Speaker 2: out of Southampton on the Queen Mary heads for the States,

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00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:06,960
Speaker 2: gets to New York October twenty first, nineteen fifty two.

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Speaker 2: Now he's Eugene.

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Speaker 3: Mackey, American citizen.

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Speaker 2: So before leaving Europe, he had been told that once

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00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:16,360
Speaker 2: he got to New York, he should announce his arrival

317
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,520
Speaker 2: to his new superior, this guy code named Michael. And

318
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:22,640
Speaker 2: the way that he was to do it was to

319
00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:26,760
Speaker 2: put a red thumbtack on a sign post labeled horse

320
00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:29,760
Speaker 2: Carts near Tavern on the Green and Central Park. Okay,

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00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,160
Speaker 2: so a white thumbtack would signal to him that Mikhail

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00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,560
Speaker 2: suspected surveillance. So what that means is that if you

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00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:41,680
Speaker 2: happen across a random thumbtack on a telephone post or something,

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00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:43,680
Speaker 2: take it off and put it somewhere else, or toss

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00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:47,040
Speaker 2: it in the trash, loose lips, sink ships, saren. We

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Speaker 2: all have to do our parties.

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Speaker 3: So I do love about stuff. It's just innocuous things

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00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:53,200
Speaker 3: that nobody would really take a second look at. But

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Speaker 3: he's totally sending a very powerful mess exactly.

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Speaker 2: So Maki like he followed these instructions and made contact

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Speaker 2: with Mikhale who was later identified as Soviet un official

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Speaker 2: Mikhail Severin. And so once they make contact, Machi worked

333
00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,560
Speaker 2: as a courier. He handled dead drops and communications for

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00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,440
Speaker 2: the networks. And when I say dead drops, let's imagine

335
00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:19,199
Speaker 2: he was doing that Vogue dancing split smooth backwards on

336
00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:24,320
Speaker 2: the ground. I love that. That's so good. And so

337
00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,679
Speaker 2: as part of his equipment, the KGB gave him this

338
00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:31,000
Speaker 2: assortment of concealment devices. So we had like hollow pens

339
00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:35,320
Speaker 2: like you have nice pencils, screws, batteries, coins. Some were

340
00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:38,880
Speaker 2: magnetized so they could cling to metal surfaces. Like that's

341
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:41,359
Speaker 2: the best part of spying the gadgets.

342
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Speaker 3: Really, and I think's my favorite part.

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Speaker 2: I mean, that's what we think of with James Bond, right,

344
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:46,560
Speaker 2: Q coming through with like that is true, the pens

345
00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:48,679
Speaker 2: that are guns and like the oil slick out of

346
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Speaker 2: the back of the aston Martin.

347
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Speaker 3: Even when like you do investigations into the actual Cia.

348
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Speaker 3: They always cite like I want some of those James

349
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Speaker 3: Bond gadgets.

350
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Speaker 2: Like you guys like you so Maki. He has all

351
00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:03,520
Speaker 2: these toys, like spy things, and among them is a

352
00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:06,639
Speaker 2: hollow Jefferson nickel. And he'd picked it up in a

353
00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:09,560
Speaker 2: dead drop at some point like late nineteen fifty two,

354
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,840
Speaker 2: early nineteen fifty three, but he never used it. He

355
00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,480
Speaker 2: didn't properly use it, Okay. Inside that coin was a

356
00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,239
Speaker 2: micro photograph that had a coded message from Moscow in it,

357
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:24,760
Speaker 2: and the Soviets intended it as a welcoming instruction for

358
00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:26,520
Speaker 2: this new agent in America.

359
00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:27,439
Speaker 3: That's crazy.

360
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,600
Speaker 2: But instead the nickel slipped out of his hands and

361
00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:33,040
Speaker 2: into the stream of everyday New York change.

362
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,320
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me? He lost the dead drop.

363
00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:36,560
Speaker 2: The dead drop nickel.

364
00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,000
Speaker 3: In fact, that is the danger of making something a coin.

365
00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:42,920
Speaker 2: It could be as long as seven months. The coins

366
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Speaker 2: circulated anonymously through the city.

367
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:47,200
Speaker 3: You know what. You know me, I used to be

368
00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:49,240
Speaker 3: and when I was a very young boy into magic,

369
00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:51,440
Speaker 3: and I would buy double sided nickels, so that way,

370
00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:53,280
Speaker 3: when you flipped it always came up the same thing.

371
00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:55,240
Speaker 3: It was always tails or always heads. Yeah, And I

372
00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:56,960
Speaker 3: could only keep one of those for like a month

373
00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,359
Speaker 3: before I would spend it as changed. I'd always be

374
00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:02,240
Speaker 3: so frustrated, exactly put it in the special pocket.

375
00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:08,440
Speaker 2: So you're going to relate to this. Let's take a break.

376
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:10,560
Speaker 2: When we come back, We're going to track that nickel.

377
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:34,080
Speaker 2: Welcome idiot.

378
00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:38,119
Speaker 3: When we last we last spoke, you say, how I

379
00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:39,280
Speaker 3: show what are you being rude?

380
00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:43,840
Speaker 2: I'm so rude. Soviet spy gets a hollow nickel then

381
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:47,520
Speaker 2: loses it immediately to it. That is the kind of

382
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:50,920
Speaker 2: spy I would be like, I would probably okay, I'd

383
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:54,920
Speaker 2: like obsess over not losing it, and then I'd use

384
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:58,040
Speaker 2: medical tape to fasten it to my bosom, and then

385
00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 2: I'd be like constantly physically aware of it being there

386
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,320
Speaker 2: at all times, and then it would stress me out

387
00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:05,200
Speaker 2: and I'd get all sweaty, and then the tape would

388
00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:07,879
Speaker 2: get damp and lose its stickiness, and I'd be like

389
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:09,879
Speaker 2: riding the subway and get up from a seat and

390
00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,200
Speaker 2: it would slip off and follow the ground. Then I'd

391
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:14,000
Speaker 2: go to a store and I'd try and clothes in

392
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:15,920
Speaker 2: the dressing room and like go to change and I'd

393
00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:18,080
Speaker 2: see that the tape was gone, and the color would

394
00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:20,560
Speaker 2: drain from my face, but then the heat would rise

395
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:22,600
Speaker 2: up on my face and I'd have a panic attack.

396
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:25,280
Speaker 3: And he tried to like really quickly mentally calculate all

397
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:26,119
Speaker 3: the places you've.

398
00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:28,240
Speaker 2: Just been, Sarah, this is dressing me out just thinking

399
00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:33,399
Speaker 2: about it, like spiraling the thoughts. No stop, okay, Zaren,

400
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:35,679
Speaker 2: it must be so difficult to be here, have no idea.

401
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:38,800
Speaker 2: I really don't close your eyes.

402
00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:43,399
Speaker 3: Oh wow, really yes, okay.

403
00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:51,920
Speaker 2: I want you to picture it. It's Monday evening, June

404
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:56,359
Speaker 2: twenty second, nineteen fifty three. You are Jimmy Bozart, a

405
00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:00,399
Speaker 2: fourteen year old paper boy, freckle faced and apple cheeked.

406
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 2: You wear your ginger hair slicked into a good boy haircut.

407
00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:06,920
Speaker 2: You're a hard worker, very personable, and that's what makes

408
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:10,640
Speaker 2: you really good at one part of your job, collections. Tonight,

409
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,159
Speaker 2: you are collecting for the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper at thirty

410
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,639
Speaker 2: four oh three Foster Avenue in the East Flatbush section

411
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 2: of Brooklyn. It's a massive, standard postwar brick apartment building.

412
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 2: Tonight is one of your collection nights. You've gone apartment

413
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:30,000
Speaker 2: two apartment, ringing, buzzers, knocking on doors, and collecting spare

414
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:33,520
Speaker 2: change and small bills from subscribers. You knock at one

415
00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:36,000
Speaker 2: apartment belonging to a woman. She owes you money for

416
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,960
Speaker 2: her Eagle subscription, but only had a one dollar bill

417
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,160
Speaker 2: on hand. That's far more than what you're collecting for

418
00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:45,359
Speaker 2: dollar bill, real high roller. The problem is that you

419
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,320
Speaker 2: don't have a full dollar's worth of change in your pockets.

420
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:51,160
Speaker 2: This happens a lot. You just knock on the next

421
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:53,119
Speaker 2: door and see if they have change for a dollar.

422
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:56,200
Speaker 2: So you knock on the door across the hall. Door opens,

423
00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:59,000
Speaker 2: a woman stands before you. You tell her you need

424
00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:01,120
Speaker 2: change for the woman across the hall. Can they break

425
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:04,440
Speaker 2: a dollar? The woman calls to another woman in the apartment,

426
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:07,320
Speaker 2: sitting in a chair listening to the radio. She explains

427
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,520
Speaker 2: the situation. We got change for a buck, newsboy needs

428
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:13,920
Speaker 2: it for what's her name across the hall. The two

429
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 2: women proceed to scrounge around their apartment, digging through purses

430
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:21,080
Speaker 2: and drawers and cigar boxes. These are helpful gals, you

431
00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:24,720
Speaker 2: think to yourself. They huddle together and count out the coins.

432
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:28,160
Speaker 2: A dollar one calls out, tickled to have collected enough

433
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,000
Speaker 2: coins for you. She shuffles back to the doorway and

434
00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:34,119
Speaker 2: you extend your hand holding the rumpled dollar bill. The

435
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:37,439
Speaker 2: woman takes the bill and pours a combination of nickels, dimes,

436
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:40,400
Speaker 2: and pennies into your cupped palms. If you walk back

437
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:43,199
Speaker 2: across the hall and hand the woman or change, she

438
00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:45,840
Speaker 2: counts out the subscription money and you continue on to

439
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 2: the next customer's door. When you're done, you make for

440
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:51,720
Speaker 2: the stairs and race down, your feet in quick percussion

441
00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 2: on the industrial tiles. You get to the ground floor

442
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 2: and head down the corridor into the foyer. You're jingling

443
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,400
Speaker 2: the coins in your hand as you go. You push

444
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:02,400
Speaker 2: open the front door of the building and step out

445
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 2: into the warm evening Cars cruise by on Foster Avenue.

446
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:08,960
Speaker 2: You pass a group of older teens sitting on the

447
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,879
Speaker 2: stairs from the building to the street. They're listening to

448
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 2: Dooop on the transistor radio. You continue to jingle the

449
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:18,960
Speaker 2: change in your hand, but something sounds weird. You fish

450
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,040
Speaker 2: around through the coins. There's one in there that has

451
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,119
Speaker 2: a sort of thinner ring to it. You think you

452
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:28,000
Speaker 2: do this every week. You've memorized the sounds of the coins.

453
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:31,120
Speaker 2: As you move from building to building, you feel each

454
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,040
Speaker 2: coin and then lift a nickel from your palm. It's

455
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 2: lighter than any nickel you've felt. You click it against

456
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:41,080
Speaker 2: another coin, it sounds almost hollow. You balance the nickel

457
00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:43,480
Speaker 2: on the tip of one finger and flick it upwards

458
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:46,480
Speaker 2: to see it flip and fall. When it comes down

459
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,920
Speaker 2: on the sidewalk, the nickel splits cleanly into two halves.

460
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:54,640
Speaker 2: On the ground are Jefferson's Head and Monticello. No longer

461
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:56,879
Speaker 2: are they out of sight from each other, And in

462
00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 2: between them is a miniature, circular piece of mine microfilm.

463
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:03,320
Speaker 2: At first, do you think it might be a magician's

464
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:06,159
Speaker 2: trick coin or some kind of toy. You pick up

465
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 2: the two halves of the nickel and the tiny film disc.

466
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,800
Speaker 2: You see a dense page of numbers on the microfilm,

467
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 2: but you can't read them without magnification. You tuck the

468
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,400
Speaker 2: busted coin into the breast pocket of your shirt and

469
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:21,000
Speaker 2: head off to meet up with some friends. Can't wait

470
00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:25,119
Speaker 2: to show them this crazy coin, So Saren, that is

471
00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 2: so awesome. His kid had no idea what he was

472
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:29,360
Speaker 2: sitting on.

473
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,920
Speaker 3: Also, just quick note, do you love that? Back then,

474
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 3: and I did this as a paper boy, I used

475
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:37,679
Speaker 3: have to go do collections and we would send children

476
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,680
Speaker 3: off into the night time with like fistfuls of cash

477
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 3: or change and go, yeah, go get your pay from

478
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,320
Speaker 3: all these neighbors who you've been delivering a paper to.

479
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 3: And I'd never once got robbed, never even thought about it.

480
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:52,040
Speaker 3: But I don't think parents today would have let them

481
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 3: their children do any.

482
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 2: Of them stranger's doors.

483
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,639
Speaker 3: Would need to be a paper boy on the bike

484
00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 3: riding around this and then going to strangers and asking

485
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 3: them for money, and then trying to come home and

486
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 3: doing this once a month, usually the same time, so

487
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 3: people could very quickly figure out, like it was this

488
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 3: a little boy going around with lots of money on him. Yeah, exactly, kids, man,

489
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:13,560
Speaker 3: I'm telling you that they had a very different past.

490
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 2: Different time. So Jimmy, right, he has no idea this

491
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:19,359
Speaker 2: is crazy.

492
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he's got the coolest stuff around.

493
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:23,199
Speaker 2: So he goes and he shows the coin to this

494
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 2: neighborhood friend later in the evening.

495
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:26,720
Speaker 3: Of course, of course his best friend.

496
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:29,280
Speaker 2: I assume yes, And so Jimmy, he's raised on like

497
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:32,560
Speaker 2: pulp spy story. This looks like something out of a

498
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:33,400
Speaker 2: comic book.

499
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 3: Or one of the old radio shows. I mean, this

500
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 3: is straight out Green audience.

501
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 2: Right, So he and his friend like they didn't they

502
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 2: thought it was cool, they didn't really get the importance

503
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:43,959
Speaker 2: of what they'd found. So the coin gets passed around

504
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,399
Speaker 2: informally among kids, like, oh, this guy wants to see it,

505
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:52,240
Speaker 2: and like, finally, this original friend his dad is a

506
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,920
Speaker 2: New York City cop. Okay, So the cop hears the

507
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:57,880
Speaker 2: kids talking about it, and then they say, well, let's

508
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:01,080
Speaker 2: show the dad, and then that is how like the

509
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 2: chain starts to get it to the FBI. So the

510
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,679
Speaker 2: New York City cop dad, he takes the coin to

511
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:10,680
Speaker 2: a New York City police detective and then that guy

512
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 2: goes and interviews Jimmy, and so the detective he talks

513
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 2: to Jimmy, but he also he realizes a couple of

514
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:20,000
Speaker 2: things after looking at this coin, like actually holding it,

515
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 2: it's professionally machineda has to be. The microfilm has all

516
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:29,119
Speaker 2: these unknown coded numerals, and right away he's like, this

517
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:32,880
Speaker 2: is espionage related. This is not a fun magic trick thing.

518
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 2: So the detective he takes the hollow nickel and the

519
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:40,879
Speaker 2: microfilm to the FBI's New York City office. That was

520
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:44,119
Speaker 2: on June twenty fourth, two days after the original discovery,

521
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 2: so it passed around every kid in Flatbush before it

522
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 2: made its way to the FBI. The New York office

523
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 2: immediately is like, okay, that's a microphotograph. If all these

524
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 2: five digit numbers are arranged in columns, this looks like

525
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:01,560
Speaker 2: coded intelligence. So they carefully pack it up ship it

526
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,679
Speaker 2: to the FBI lab in Washington. Lab gets it on

527
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:07,920
Speaker 2: the twenty sixth of June nineteen fifty three, so they

528
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,720
Speaker 2: examine it and it shows that the device was more

529
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 2: sophisticated than just stage magic. So the obverse the face

530
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:19,680
Speaker 2: was a genuine nineteen forty eight Jefferson nickel, and it

531
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:23,920
Speaker 2: was drilled with like a nearly invisible hole in the

532
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 2: r of trust, so that you have to use like

533
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 2: a fine needle to pop the halves apart. Is how

534
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 2: you were supposed to do it, not flick it up

535
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 2: in the air and let it hit the ground, Jimmy.

536
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 2: And the reverse side was made from a different nickel

537
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,359
Speaker 2: that had been minted between nineteen forty two and nineteen

538
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,400
Speaker 2: forty five. And they knew that because they had been

539
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:47,240
Speaker 2: producing copper silver alloy.

540
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 3: Yeah.

541
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:51,159
Speaker 2: THET war, Yeah, wartime shortages. I have a couple of

542
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 2: those Okay, so maybe you have a fake one. I

543
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 2: wish then, So then we have the round microphotograph, ten

544
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 2: columns of five dis groups. Think about how tiny that

545
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 2: has to be. Yeah, inside a nickel twenty one numbers

546
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 2: in most of the columns, So we have two hundred

547
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 2: and seven five digit groups. That's crazy. It's tiny. And

548
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 2: this is like looks like it's a photo reduction of

549
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 2: a typed page.

550
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 3: Yeah. Completely, that's what I was kind of imagining, like

551
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 3: like it's like microfiche microfiche right, right.

552
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:26,639
Speaker 2: So lab specialists, cryptanalysts, they tried all these different standard

553
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 2: techniques on the numerical groups, but they couldn't break the cipher.

554
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 2: And then they tried to identify the typewriter from which

555
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:35,280
Speaker 2: like the original page had been produced.

556
00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 3: I'm wondering if it's like if it corresponds to a

557
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:38,719
Speaker 3: book and page numbers.

558
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,240
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. They're trying absolutely everything. Their reference

559
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 2: collection covered US manufactured typewriters, but none of them match.

560
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 2: So they're like, okay, so we can say it's a

561
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:52,520
Speaker 2: foreign typewriter, but that doesn't really get you too far. Yeah,

562
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 2: the cipher specialists, they you know, they jump into it.

563
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 2: Field agents in New York. They're trying to trace the

564
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 2: physical coin, but the cipher specialists just keep cracking at it.

565
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 2: They can't. They're not making any headway. The field agents

566
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 2: they find the two women who gave the change to

567
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 2: Jimmy that evening. Yeah, and both remember Jimmy, but neither

568
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 2: of them ever heard of a hollow coin, and they

569
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 2: were like, no, we gave him ordinary money. We didn't

570
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 2: have anything crazy like that.

571
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 3: I'm sure they were worried about suspicions or sure.

572
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, so agents they canvassed novelty and magic shops. They

573
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 2: showed pictures of the nickel and they were asking if

574
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 2: anyone sold similar quote trick coins. One novelty salesman commented

575
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 2: that the hollow interior was too small to be useful

576
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 2: for stage magic.

577
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, what would you put in there?

578
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 2: Yeah? Everyone's like, we've never seen anything like that. Like

579
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 2: you're saying, what's the point of it? Why would you

580
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 2: do that?

581
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly. I mean like they would rather do like

582
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 3: what I bought, which it's like a double headed nickel,

583
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 3: because then it actually has some value, right.

584
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 2: But what are you gonna do with this tiny little

585
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 2: piece of paper.

586
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:55,640
Speaker 3: And that little compartment?

587
00:29:55,960 --> 00:30:01,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, so over the next several years, FBI offices around

588
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 2: the country sent suspicious coins and tokens to the lab.

589
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 2: A hollowed half dollar from New York, a nickel plated

590
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 2: penny from LA, a pair of hollow pennies from DC.

591
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:16,440
Speaker 2: Everything gets examined. None showed the same tool marks or

592
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 2: construction details as the Brooklyn nickel. Meanwhile, cipher specialists still

593
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 2: at work. Even with help from defectors from communist block

594
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 2: intelligence services, no one could identify the cryptosystem that was used.

595
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 2: So by the mid fifties, the hollow nickel had become

596
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 2: super high priority. But everyone's like, I think it's just unsolvable.

597
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,680
Speaker 3: Do you think some of the other spies who decided

598
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 3: to flip or defectors, They're like, I didn't get them.

599
00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:44,520
Speaker 3: Why didn't I get a nickel? They didn't tell me that.

600
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 3: I guess I'm not top tier, I'm not mark.

601
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 2: So this is obvious espionage. We have this signal without

602
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 2: an identified sender, recipient, or message, so it's like a

603
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 2: true mystery. The break came almost four years after Jimmy

604
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:05,920
Speaker 2: dropped the nickel on the floor. In early May of

605
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,200
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty seven, a man in his mid thirties, called

606
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,960
Speaker 2: the US embassy in Paris, and then showed up in

607
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 2: person right afterwards, and he talked to American officials and

608
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,719
Speaker 2: said that he was an officer in Soviet intelligence who

609
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 2: had been operating for the past five years in the

610
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,040
Speaker 2: United States, and that he was now being recalled to

611
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 2: Moscow and he wants to defect. Who is this man?

612
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 3: Who is this man?

613
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:35,360
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Reno Jyadnen What the OG remember him? Eugene Nikolai Machi.

614
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 2: So he had sailed from the US on the French

615
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 2: liner La Liberte, ostensibly to go home to Moscow. Instead

616
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,720
Speaker 2: he gets to Europe. He diverts to Paris, walks into

617
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 2: the embassy. CIA officers are kind of skeptical, but then

618
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 2: he produces one of his gadgets, a hollow, finish five

619
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 2: Marco coin containing microfilm, and so they're like, oh wait, no,

620
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 2: he really is by the press, He's for real. So

621
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 2: the CIA are holding a coin just like the one

622
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:08,040
Speaker 2: that turned up in Brooklyn. Let's stop there for a bit,

623
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:12,720
Speaker 2: get some ads in far more than our recommended daily allowance,

624
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 2: and then when we come back, we're going to talk

625
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 2: more spice stuff, all right.

626
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 3: Zaren dude, I'm loving this story. Not only has it

627
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 3: made me now go have to like go online after

628
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 3: we're done with this so I can go buy myself

629
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 3: some more double headed nickels. But I'm loving.

630
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 2: This is the hollow nickel you remember.

631
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 3: I gave one to your nephew. I bet he lost.

632
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 2: He did. He probably did.

633
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:54,960
Speaker 3: Within like a week. That's how I used to do it.

634
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 2: Most kids can't hang on to it. Yeah, no more

635
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 2: than a month obviously. So where were we May eleventh,

636
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:07,200
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty seven. So the American authorities, they fly Maki

637
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 2: back to New York, turn them over to the FBI,

638
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:13,240
Speaker 2: They give him medical checks, they give him a safe

639
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 2: place to live, and then he just goes through these

640
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 2: really long debriefings by counterintelligence agents. It's like weeks and

641
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,719
Speaker 2: weeks of interviews. And so he describes his recruitment, his

642
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 2: training under the identity of Eugene Nikolai Macky, his service

643
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 2: in New York. He explains how his first boss, Mikhail,

644
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 2: met him only rarely, usually in the Prospect Park subway station,

645
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 2: and they communicated through dead drops. So some of these

646
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 2: dead drops, right, one was a hole in the concrete

647
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 2: steps in Prospect Park, one was at the base of

648
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:54,960
Speaker 2: a lamppost in Fort Tryon Park. Yeah, we had one

649
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 2: at the end of an iron fence near Maccomb's Bridge.

650
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 3: Did you ever use things like this, use dead drops

651
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:01,200
Speaker 3: of friends?

652
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 2: No, No, I had no reason to do such a thing.

653
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 2: I don't have hollowed out stuff.

654
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:09,759
Speaker 3: But you're a smart person. You ever needed to, like

655
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 3: give somebody a message. We didn't want anyone else to

656
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:17,840
Speaker 3: find it. No friends or do crimes crimes crime with friends.

657
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:19,880
Speaker 3: So if I wanted to leave them something that their

658
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 3: parents didn't want to have them, No.

659
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 2: I just kept kept myself.

660
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, we all knew like which like you know, the

661
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:28,879
Speaker 3: top of a banister in a house where you could

662
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 3: lift off, or some like decoration outside of their home,

663
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 3: like one of the bulbs you could unscrew and you

664
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:35,319
Speaker 3: put in things like that.

665
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 2: Oh way, that's some spycraft, your spike kids.

666
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:40,360
Speaker 3: Well, I've been reading this kind of stuff since I

667
00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 3: was like, I'd love you know me, I wanted to

668
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 3: be a con man or a spy.

669
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 2: Were little boys would do that kind of stuff? No,

670
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:49,319
Speaker 2: I did not. I did not.

671
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 3: You and your brother might.

672
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 2: No, he didn't want to play with me. So one

673
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 2: of the dead drops. FBI agents found a hall bolt

674
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:03,879
Speaker 2: that had been cemented in place for two years by

675
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,839
Speaker 2: repair workers, and they open it up, they like, get,

676
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 2: you know, pry it out. It still had a typewritten

677
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 2: note about missed meetings in it.

678
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:13,480
Speaker 3: You don't come to the meetings.

679
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:14,920
Speaker 2: Where have you been man?

680
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 3: He also he talked to Moscow.

681
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 2: Come on, like your attendance is abysmal. He talked about

682
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:27,080
Speaker 2: all the tools that use hollow bolts and coins, hollow pens, pencils, batteries,

683
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:32,320
Speaker 2: all intended to conceal tiny messages or lists of numbers.

684
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,479
Speaker 2: And so they search his home in Peakskill, New York.

685
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:39,360
Speaker 2: They find, you know, all a ton of these devices.

686
00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,800
Speaker 2: And then they find another, this one to finish fifty

687
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 2: Marca coin. And there was a small hole in one

688
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:48,880
Speaker 2: letter of the inscription, just like the hole in the

689
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:52,040
Speaker 2: R and trust and Jimmy's nickel. And the coin had

690
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:56,160
Speaker 2: been made by joining two separate pieces. So lab examiners

691
00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:58,840
Speaker 2: compared the finish coin to the hollow nickel from nineteen

692
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,719
Speaker 2: fifty three. They all these similarities in the design, the workmanship.

693
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 2: It became really clear that the Brooklyn coin had probably

694
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 2: come from the same espionage apparatus that was now just

695
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 2: being laid out like a beautiful banquet for them by

696
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 2: this defecting KGB officer. So once the FBI figures that

697
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 2: the hollow nickel is tied to Reno Machi's network, they

698
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:25,560
Speaker 2: questioned him in detail about the codes and the cryptosystems

699
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 2: that he had been using since the late thirties.

700
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:29,879
Speaker 3: Totally they think have started there, but.

701
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:36,279
Speaker 2: You'd think so. Using his descriptions, the FBI cryptanalysts they said, like,

702
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,840
Speaker 2: let's talk about those five digit groups on the micro

703
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,000
Speaker 2: photograph please, And it turned out to be a really

704
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:46,439
Speaker 2: sophisticated KGB cipher related to what is now known as

705
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 2: the VIC cipher, combining this like substitution with transposition with

706
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:57,040
Speaker 2: additive elements. The structural key information was supplied by Reno

707
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:01,919
Speaker 2: and the lab finally breaks the messag So by June third,

708
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty seven, almost exactly four years after the nickel

709
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,920
Speaker 2: reached the Bureau, the full text was decoded. It was

710
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 2: a five point message from Moscow Center addressed to a

711
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 2: newly arrived illegal agent, almost certainly intended for Reno. So

712
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 2: he gets it, loses it. Here's the message. He missed

713
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 2: one we congratulate you on a safe arrival. We confirm

714
00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:29,400
Speaker 2: the receipt of your letter to the address V repeat

715
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 2: V and the reading of letter number one. Two for

716
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,880
Speaker 2: organization of cover, we gave instructions to transmit to you

717
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 2: three thousand in local currency. Consult with us prior to

718
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 2: investing in any kind of business, advising the character of

719
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 2: this business. Three, according to your request, we will transmit

720
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:52,200
Speaker 2: the formula for the preparation of soft film and news separately,

721
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:56,280
Speaker 2: together with your mother's letter. Four. It is too early

722
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:59,160
Speaker 2: to send you the gammas and cipher short letters, but

723
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 2: the longer ones make with insertions. All the data about yourself,

724
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:06,480
Speaker 2: place of work, address, et cetera. Must not be transmitted

725
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:11,360
Speaker 2: in one cipher message. Transmit insertions separately. Five The package

726
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,279
Speaker 2: was delivered to your wife personally. Everything is all right

727
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:16,840
Speaker 2: with the family. We wish you success. Greetings from the

728
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:21,319
Speaker 2: comrades number one, third of December. Wow, yeah, all of

729
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:25,719
Speaker 2: that inside on Nickel. Yes, yeah, it is super cold war.

730
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:31,919
Speaker 2: So beyond the cipher Reno. Reno gives the FBI far

731
00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:35,960
Speaker 2: more dangerous information. So he talks about Mark, the man

732
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 2: now running the network after Mikhail returned to Moscow. So

733
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:42,880
Speaker 2: He didn't know Mark's real name or is current address,

734
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 2: but he knew that Mark was bald and wore this

735
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:49,200
Speaker 2: like really distinctive dark snap brim fedora that had a

736
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:53,560
Speaker 2: white band. He's all milady. He posed as an artist

737
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 2: and photographer in Brooklyn, and he had a studio in

738
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,760
Speaker 2: the Ovington Studios building on Fulton Street.

739
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,280
Speaker 3: He wasn't attached to the embassy. He was like actually

740
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:04,960
Speaker 3: just free floating right right.

741
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:08,839
Speaker 2: So they have the description, the location. FBI agents they're

742
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:12,360
Speaker 2: able to identify this middle aged man living quietly as

743
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:17,640
Speaker 2: a meal are goldfuss, So surveillance teams they start watching

744
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:21,880
Speaker 2: the studio and its surroundings. On May twenty eighth, nineteen

745
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 2: fifty seven, they watch this man who's acting all nervous.

746
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,120
Speaker 2: He's in a small park opposite Fulton Street. He's kind

747
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:31,840
Speaker 2: of like moving around checking for contacts, then leaving, and

748
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:34,640
Speaker 2: the FBI had set up all these hidden cameras to

749
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:38,799
Speaker 2: capture this nice On June fifteenth, nineteen fifty seven, the

750
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:44,560
Speaker 2: FBI shows the pictures to Reno. Reno, he immediately identifies,

751
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 2: like that's Mark there. He is that man Mark, that's

752
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:51,480
Speaker 2: my handler, and so they have positive ID. They intensify

753
00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 2: the surveillance. So they follow Mark from his studio to

754
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:57,920
Speaker 2: the Hotel Latham in Manhattan, and that's where he was

755
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,160
Speaker 2: staying under the name Emil Goldfuss. And it seemed like

756
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:03,400
Speaker 2: he was aware that he was being watched, but he

757
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:07,560
Speaker 2: didn't have a valid passport under any of his identities,

758
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:09,920
Speaker 2: so he couldn't really like skip the country quickly.

759
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:14,080
Speaker 3: Whoa, Yeah, that seems like a big hole in their

760
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:14,960
Speaker 3: whole plan.

761
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:16,960
Speaker 2: Like, oh, yeah, you'd think you should be able to

762
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 2: jump quickly.

763
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:19,279
Speaker 3: You have multiple passports, So.

764
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:22,719
Speaker 2: What he doesn't know. Moscow had already decided that he

765
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:26,120
Speaker 2: should exfiltrate. So the KGB was in the process of

766
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:30,319
Speaker 2: getting him new identities and passports, one in the name

767
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:33,120
Speaker 2: of Robert Callan and then another in the name of

768
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 2: Vasili Zogel. And they had all these contacts in Canada

769
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:39,080
Speaker 2: that was want to help him out. Yeah, the only

770
00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:42,080
Speaker 2: problem was that the paperwork wasn't ready in time. So

771
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:46,280
Speaker 2: seven am June twenty first, nineteen fifty seven, FBI agents

772
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 2: knock on the door of room eight thirty nine at

773
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 2: Hotel Latham. The occupant opens the door. They addressed him

774
00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:55,680
Speaker 2: as Colonel and they told him They had information about

775
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 2: his involvement in espionage, the use of his rank ceronel,

776
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:04,560
Speaker 2: which only his KGB colleagues and Reno knew. Told him

777
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,279
Speaker 2: immediately like, oh my god, Reno sold me out. The

778
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:10,880
Speaker 2: jig is up. So he doesn't say anything. They just

779
00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 2: take him into custody. After about twenty minutes, the agents

780
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:18,960
Speaker 2: called Immigration and Naturalization Services officers and they arrest him

781
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:22,879
Speaker 2: as an alleged illegal alien under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

782
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:26,920
Speaker 2: So they searched his hotel room. They searched the Brooklyn studio.

783
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:30,800
Speaker 2: They find a ton of espionage material.

784
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 3: Like all photographs, photographer.

785
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 2: Shortwave radio receivers and transmitters, cipher pads, micro dot cameras

786
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:44,280
Speaker 2: and film, a hollow shaving brush, hollow bolts, a hollow

787
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:49,160
Speaker 2: pencil that had microfilmed ENCRYPTID messages in it. He had

788
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:52,239
Speaker 2: this hollow ebony block that had a two hundred and

789
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:56,440
Speaker 2: fifty page Russian codebook in it. Yeah, they also.

790
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 3: Found out the codebook.

791
00:41:57,480 --> 00:41:59,359
Speaker 2: They got the actual code book, two hundred and fifty

792
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:02,400
Speaker 2: pages in like this big block of wood. They also

793
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:05,720
Speaker 2: found sixty five hundred dollars in cash in his hotel

794
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:08,360
Speaker 2: room and a key to a safe deposit box that

795
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:12,800
Speaker 2: had another fifteen thousand. So he gets flown to the

796
00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:17,359
Speaker 2: Federal Alien Detention Facility in McCallan, Texas, and he spent

797
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:21,400
Speaker 2: weeks there, said nothing, wouldn't say a word. Then suddenly

798
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 2: he adopts a new name. He's like, actually, guys, my

799
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:29,520
Speaker 2: real name is Rudolph Ivanovitch Abel. And they're like, okay,

800
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 2: should Rudy Yeah, and he's like, I'm a Soviet citizen

801
00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:35,360
Speaker 2: and I am not going to cooperate with US authorities.

802
00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:39,799
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. So Rudolph Abel, though, is actually the name

803
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:42,040
Speaker 2: of a dead KGB colleague of his.

804
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:43,840
Speaker 3: He picked a different spy.

805
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:48,120
Speaker 2: So he knew that when Moscow saw that name in

806
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:51,640
Speaker 2: the American press, they would know that Mark had been

807
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 2: captured and he hadn't talked. Wow, that's how he's signaling

808
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:59,160
Speaker 2: to them. So August, right August of nineteen fifty seven,

809
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:03,360
Speaker 2: Mark's emil. He gets transferred back to New York to

810
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:07,319
Speaker 2: face federal charges of conspiracy to transmit defense information to

811
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 2: the Soviet Union, conspiracy to obtain such information, and conspiracy

812
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 2: to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

813
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:16,799
Speaker 3: I wonder if at this point he was worried that

814
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:19,040
Speaker 3: they would just like, you know, cut their losses and

815
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:21,320
Speaker 3: like he would just be found not breathing.

816
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:25,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think that happened. He gets formally

817
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:29,680
Speaker 2: indicted August seventh, and the Brooklyn Bar Association got him

818
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:33,720
Speaker 2: this lawyer James Donovan, who was a former OSS lawyer.

819
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:37,360
Speaker 2: At the trial in October of nineteen fifty seven, the

820
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:41,440
Speaker 2: government presents this like super detailed case, and they have

821
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:44,279
Speaker 2: all the physical evidence from the studio, the hotel room.

822
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:48,800
Speaker 2: They have the testimony of Reno who explained the codes,

823
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 2: He explained the dead drops, concealment devices. He did the

824
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:58,839
Speaker 2: dead drop and the gallery gagged. He was serving spy.

825
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:01,239
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you that, thank you.

826
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 2: Among the exhibits and like all of these narrative elements

827
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 2: was the story of the Hollow Nickel, the legend of

828
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 2: the Hollow Nickel. So the government could now tell the

829
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 2: jury that the seemingly isolated mystery that started in that

830
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:18,839
Speaker 2: Brooklyn hallway in nineteen fifty three was part of this

831
00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:24,240
Speaker 2: huge KGB apparatus that had employed Mark. The coin, the microphotograph,

832
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:28,200
Speaker 2: the decoded message all helped tie him to Soviet intelligence.

833
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:31,800
Speaker 2: So the jury, they deliberate for three and a half hours,

834
00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:34,160
Speaker 2: they come back guilty all three counts.

835
00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:34,560
Speaker 3: Of course.

836
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:38,759
Speaker 2: November fifteenth, nineteen fifty seven, the judge sentenced him to

837
00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:42,360
Speaker 2: thirty years in prison and a fine of three thousand dollars.

838
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,239
Speaker 2: That's thirty five thousand today. That does not seem like

839
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:49,239
Speaker 2: a lot, does no. The press ate this up. So

840
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:52,640
Speaker 2: media coverage like really quickly picked up on the FBI's

841
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:56,880
Speaker 2: internal shorthand, and they start referring to the espionage prosecution

842
00:44:57,120 --> 00:44:58,799
Speaker 2: as the hollow Nickel case.

843
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:00,760
Speaker 3: Of course that's the sexy, right.

844
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 2: It's just too ridiculous not to highlight. So Mark he

845
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,880
Speaker 2: serves his sentence, and they also mean there were pictures

846
00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:10,800
Speaker 2: of Jimmy getting like a medal of Yeah, yeah.

847
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:11,680
Speaker 3: Of course from the FBI.

848
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:13,320
Speaker 2: I mean it's great.

849
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 3: You got a paper boy with a Nickels the best.

850
00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:19,920
Speaker 2: So Mark, they send them to prison at the Federal

851
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:23,879
Speaker 2: pen in Atlanta. Oh yeah yeah. And he when he's there,

852
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 2: he's like pulling on Martha Stewart, he's painting, studying, getting

853
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,840
Speaker 2: he wrote logarithmic tables for amusement, which is totally something

854
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:36,920
Speaker 2: you would do, are you a spot? And it was

855
00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:40,160
Speaker 2: also like associating with other imprisoned spies.

856
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:42,000
Speaker 3: They keep them together that way.

857
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 2: Apparently they had like spy club and they all go out.

858
00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 2: February nineteen sixty two.

859
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 3: I'd love to know the board games they play.

860
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:49,440
Speaker 2: Risk.

861
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:50,680
Speaker 3: Of course, there you go.

862
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:53,919
Speaker 2: H February nineteen sixty two. After more than four years

863
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,640
Speaker 2: in prison, he gets released as part of a high

864
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 2: profile spice.

865
00:45:58,160 --> 00:45:58,359
Speaker 3: Yeah.

866
00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:03,480
Speaker 2: So at the bridge between West Berlin and Potsdam and

867
00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 2: Soviet officials exchanged Rudolph Abel aka Mark for down YouTube

868
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:12,480
Speaker 2: pilot Francis Gary Powers while at Checkpoint Charlie, the East

869
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 2: Germans simultaneously released American graduate student Frederick Pryor. You may

870
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:20,280
Speaker 2: remember that scene from Bridge of Spies. The Tom Hanks

871
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:23,640
Speaker 2: movie is theren It's a powerful drama, right, the powerful

872
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:26,800
Speaker 2: drama to starring Tom Hanks America's Sweetheart.

873
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:28,759
Speaker 3: Once you started saying this, I'm like, I'm pretty sure

874
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 3: this is the Tom Hanks movie.

875
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:32,040
Speaker 2: And you know what, he's a treasurer. Yes, it was

876
00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:37,840
Speaker 2: a powerful drama. And Sacramento and went to Skyline High Inkland.

877
00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:41,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, he considered himself an Oakland boy. He went to Sacramento, stay.

878
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 2: For college, America's Sweetheart. Back in the Soviet Union, Mark

879
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:49,440
Speaker 2: lived out his days as like a celebrated intelligence professional.

880
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:53,360
Speaker 2: He did lectures about the spycraft, the trade craft, he

881
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:56,719
Speaker 2: did some consulting, and what of the hollow nickel of

882
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,440
Speaker 2: it lives in the FBI files and in our hearts.

883
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 3: Oh, they don't have like in one of their cases,

884
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 3: like when they like, you know, you walk down the

885
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:05,200
Speaker 3: hallway and see like, I don't.

886
00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:07,600
Speaker 2: Know they have it, trophies, they have it, but it

887
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,239
Speaker 2: lives in all of us at some point, whether we

888
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:10,719
Speaker 2: like it or.

889
00:47:10,719 --> 00:47:11,640
Speaker 3: Not touched it.

890
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:13,480
Speaker 2: What's your ridiculous takeaway?

891
00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:20,280
Speaker 3: Two things? One, Hobo Nichols, those are cool.

892
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:21,400
Speaker 2: The carved when.

893
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:23,480
Speaker 3: They when they carve it, because it's one of the

894
00:47:23,520 --> 00:47:24,480
Speaker 3: softest metals.

895
00:47:24,200 --> 00:47:27,959
Speaker 2: Of the elements carved on top of you can.

896
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:30,759
Speaker 3: Turn like Jefferson into like you know, you know, I

897
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:32,439
Speaker 3: don't know, a member of the Grateful.

898
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:35,280
Speaker 2: Dead, like exactly.

899
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:37,160
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I was like thinking, I'm like I need

900
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:40,440
Speaker 3: to get into Hobo, Like maybe I can actually do that.

901
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:43,480
Speaker 3: Maybe now I have the patience to if not the

902
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 3: artistic talent. And then the second one was I can't remember, so.

903
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:53,239
Speaker 2: That ridiculous, it's so ridiculous.

904
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:56,239
Speaker 3: What's yours? What's your ridiculous take away, Elizabeth, I.

905
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:58,400
Speaker 2: Just I love. I love a good spycraft.

906
00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:00,080
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I love.

907
00:48:00,080 --> 00:48:03,440
Speaker 2: He's kind of you know, and the ridiculousness of it

908
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:06,719
Speaker 2: of like the stakes were really really high, but there's

909
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,279
Speaker 2: all these like kind of goofy elements to it and

910
00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:12,480
Speaker 2: elements of chance. You know, you put something in a

911
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:15,480
Speaker 2: hollow bolt and then workers come by and they're like, oh,

912
00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:18,319
Speaker 2: this seems loose and they cemented in yeah, and then

913
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:21,480
Speaker 2: now you've missed all your meetings, Like it's just silly.

914
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 3: Oh I remember what it was. Yes, did you ever

915
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:29,879
Speaker 3: see the skit about the guy who does ass pennies? No? Oh, yeah,

916
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter, but you're what, Yeah, so your girl

917
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:37,680
Speaker 3: Amy Poehler was in a comedy group, right, and in

918
00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:40,920
Speaker 3: one of the sketches, if it was she wasn't. In

919
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:43,200
Speaker 3: the sketch was this guy on a golf course talking

920
00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:46,640
Speaker 3: about how he had confidence because he did ass pennies.

921
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:48,520
Speaker 3: And the guy's like, what's that? And he's like, for

922
00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 3: a number of years, I've been putting pennies in my

923
00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:54,799
Speaker 3: butt and then I afterwards I spend them and so

924
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:57,239
Speaker 3: I know, and he just does this like crazy math

925
00:48:57,280 --> 00:48:59,920
Speaker 3: of like how many hundreds of thousands or millions of

926
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:02,880
Speaker 3: pennies he's put out that have all spent time inside

927
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,239
Speaker 3: of his rectum. And so he's like, anytime I deal

928
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:07,400
Speaker 3: with somebody and i'm nervous, I know that they've handled

929
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:09,800
Speaker 3: one of my ass pennies and it makes me relax.

930
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:12,360
Speaker 3: It's he's like, you need to go get yourself some

931
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:15,480
Speaker 3: the ass pennies and used to be the key to successful.

932
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:17,359
Speaker 2: That's how you do That's how you stay calm as

933
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:17,719
Speaker 2: a spy.

934
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:20,720
Speaker 3: Yes, you just know someone's like, that's been my rectum.

935
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:25,120
Speaker 2: That's perfect. Damn near that is a great Takeaway's ridiculous though,

936
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:25,919
Speaker 2: you know what I think?

937
00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:27,320
Speaker 3: Upright, Citizens Brigade?

938
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,839
Speaker 2: That was the girl? Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, with that,

939
00:49:31,239 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 2: I think I need to talk back.

940
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:38,200
Speaker 3: Oh oh my god.

941
00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:42,000
Speaker 2: I let.

942
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:49,920
Speaker 4: Hi Elizabeth and Zaron and producer Dave. This is Diana

943
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:53,759
Speaker 4: from Oregon, and I just wanted to say I love

944
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:58,520
Speaker 4: it when Elizabeth goes on about California history and like

945
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:01,680
Speaker 4: how much she loves Bay area and stuff, because that's

946
00:50:01,719 --> 00:50:05,920
Speaker 4: how I feel about Oregon. Sorry, I I'm from here

947
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:08,360
Speaker 4: and I love it. And you know, I don't know

948
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:11,920
Speaker 4: how many generations but at least you know, five or something.

949
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:15,720
Speaker 4: So yeah, I like that, keep up the good one.

950
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:19,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's it's really it feels good to

951
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:21,920
Speaker 2: be rooted in a place, you know, and like, especially

952
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:25,240
Speaker 2: because sometimes we feel sort of rootless just in general,

953
00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:25,640
Speaker 2: and so.

954
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:27,960
Speaker 3: Especially as Americans, there's a lot of rootlessness.

955
00:50:28,080 --> 00:50:30,680
Speaker 2: And it's really cool to live in a place in

956
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:34,920
Speaker 2: obviously we live in the moment where we are in places,

957
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:39,359
Speaker 2: and to be in the present, but to like look

958
00:50:39,400 --> 00:50:42,239
Speaker 2: around and figure out what happened, you know, however many

959
00:50:42,280 --> 00:50:45,239
Speaker 2: decades years before, Yeah, and to see how things have

960
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:47,840
Speaker 2: changed and evolved, and that's awesome.

961
00:50:47,960 --> 00:50:50,160
Speaker 3: And to have that sense of connection where you can

962
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 3: feel pride about something that is not something you had

963
00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:55,400
Speaker 3: anything necessary to do, but you now have an affinity,

964
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:55,839
Speaker 3: you know what I mean.

965
00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:58,040
Speaker 2: Well, and I think too, like, you know, I was

966
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:00,920
Speaker 2: talking to someone recently who had just move to a

967
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:04,839
Speaker 2: place and where you're trying to Like, they were moved

968
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 2: to Oakland, and we're trying to learn more and more

969
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,920
Speaker 2: about like what had you know, gone inspired there? They

970
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 2: hit the whole history of it, and so I think

971
00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:15,719
Speaker 2: you don't like, you know, you're from Oregon and going

972
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:19,239
Speaker 2: back several several generations, same for me for California. But

973
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:21,640
Speaker 2: I think you don't have to have that to feel

974
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:25,120
Speaker 2: rooted and connected to a community like you can. You can,

975
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:27,960
Speaker 2: you know, get in there and become part of that

976
00:51:27,960 --> 00:51:30,840
Speaker 2: community and learn that history and it's just fascinating stuff.

977
00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:33,200
Speaker 2: But you do feel a little bit special, even though,

978
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:36,880
Speaker 2: like you're saying, it's not anything you've personally accomplished. But

979
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:41,040
Speaker 2: to have like that long route to the to the ground.

980
00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:43,880
Speaker 3: When you can feel like as you not just to

981
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 3: repeat the same expression, but rooted somewhere, it gives you

982
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:50,080
Speaker 3: a quiet and really pleasing confidence. You know, it's like

983
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:52,279
Speaker 3: this is my place, and it's like I'm going to

984
00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 3: look out for this.

985
00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:54,200
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.

986
00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:56,319
Speaker 3: It makes me maybe more likely to pick up litter.

987
00:51:56,360 --> 00:51:57,000
Speaker 3: I mean, who knows.

988
00:51:57,120 --> 00:51:59,759
Speaker 2: Honestly, I think we have a problem where people don't

989
00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:04,000
Speaker 2: feel connected to their communities. You know, we all we

990
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:06,560
Speaker 2: don't get out of like a little online bubble sometimes,

991
00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:07,320
Speaker 2: you know, I'm saying.

992
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:09,799
Speaker 3: And ask somebody who has had to get rooted in

993
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:13,040
Speaker 3: new places, I definitely recognize the value of it.

994
00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:15,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and you've done that pretty well. But you

995
00:52:15,640 --> 00:52:18,959
Speaker 2: also you haven't lost your connection to Atlanta you still

996
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:22,520
Speaker 2: feel like right, I think that's awesome. That's the way

997
00:52:22,560 --> 00:52:25,279
Speaker 2: to do it. That's it for today. You can find

998
00:52:25,360 --> 00:52:28,600
Speaker 2: us online at ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also at

999
00:52:28,680 --> 00:52:31,680
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime on both Blue Sky and Instagram. We're on

1000
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:36,200
Speaker 2: YouTube a Ridiculous Crime podd Email ridiculous Crime at gmail

1001
00:52:36,200 --> 00:52:38,840
Speaker 2: dot com and then leave us a talk back on

1002
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 2: the iHeart app. Please reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted

1003
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 2: by Elizabeth Duttman's Aaron Burnett, produced and edited by the

1004
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:53,640
Speaker 2: Guy who Came In from the Cold Dave Cousten, starring

1005
00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:57,279
Speaker 2: Annaalice Rutger Is Judith. Research is by Agent Double O six,

1006
00:52:57,360 --> 00:53:00,960
Speaker 2: Marissa Brown and Marathon Man Jabari Davis. The theme song

1007
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:03,799
Speaker 2: is by Spy Kid Thomas Lee and three Days of

1008
00:53:03,800 --> 00:53:07,320
Speaker 2: the Travis Dutton. Host wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred.

1009
00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:10,840
Speaker 2: Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre. Executive

1010
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:13,080
Speaker 2: producers are the sum of all Ben Bollen's and the

1011
00:53:13,160 --> 00:53:25,640
Speaker 2: Noel Brown identity Redicous Crime, Say It One More Timequous Crime.

1012
00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:30,000
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts

1013
00:53:30,120 --> 00:53:33,279
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or

1014
00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:35,120
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.