Robert Philip Hanssen, double agent, 1944-2023

When authorities arrested Robert Hanssen, the FBI’s most high profile double agent had just one question for his colleagues: “What took you so long?”

Hanssen, who was found dead this week in his cell in a Colorado supermax prison, was serving out a life sentence after being found guilty of spying for Moscow for more than $1.4mn, for more than two decades.

Hanssen’s case was dubbed “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history” in a government report. He compromised more than 50 FBI human sources (including several who were later executed), handed over thousands of classified documents and revealed top secret intelligence gathering techniques as well as the US strategy for responding to nuclear conflict.

Outwardly, Hanssen was a suburban father and patriot, who drove his six children around in old cars and was devoted to Opus Dei, a conservative movement within the Catholic church. But the spy led a secret life which inspired half a dozen books and several films for television and cinema.

“What made him so egregious was that he was in the rare category of people who had great access . . . and he so blatantly betrayed that trust,” said Paul McNulty, a former senior Justice Department official who oversaw the case.

The son of a Chicago police officer, Hanssen dropped out of dental school and joined the FBI in 1976. He emulated former director J Edgar Hoover by wearing dark suits, but his quick temper and dour manner made him unpopular.

Hanssen first started working for Soviet military intelligence in the late 1970s, helping to blow the cover of top US double agent Dmitri Polyakov, a Soviet general who was later executed. His work in US counterintelligence gave him access to classified information and an understanding of just how poorly the FBI guarded its nascent computer databases.

The agent’s treachery extended to his personal life too. He allowed a friend to spy on himself and his wife Bonnie while they had sex, and he struck up a bizarre friendship with a stripper who he took on trips and bought gifts for, even as he lectured her about going to church.

Hanssen went dormant in the early 1980s, after Bonnie caught him trying to hide some papers in their home in Scarsdale, New York. She confronted him, made him meet with their priest and donate the Soviet spying proceeds to charity.

But as his FBI career stalled, Hanssen started working for Moscow again. His handler lavished praise and money on him, playing on his need…