Fri, 6 Dec 2013

Robert Lee Johnson, the Man Who Spied For the Soviet


Robert Lee Johnson, the man who spied for the Soviet was an American sergeant, and was apparently the most damaging U.S Army spies in the early stages of the Cold War.


Johnson, Mitkenbaugh And KGB


Most of the spies who are driven into the world of espionage are motivated by greed, fear, or idealism. But it was different with Johnson; it was more about retaliation against the US Army. According to his opinion, the Army had wasted his talents by putting him behind a desk which caused him a spiteful man. It all began on February 22, 1953 when Johnson was stationed in Berlin, Germany; he sought political asylum for himself and his fiancée, Hedwig Pipek, a former Austrian prostitute.

The Soviets didn't seem very enthusiastic about his offer to defect from the US Army; instead he was instructed to remain in the Army, reasoning that he would be of more use to the Soviets by supplying them data rather than disappearing behind the Iron Curtain.

While he was in Berlin, he met an old friend, Army Sergeant James Allen Mitkenbaugh who is equally traitorous. The two immediately became accomplices, providing the KGB with the papers they had pillaged.

Johnson failed to provide the KGB useful documentations in the first years of his life as an undercover agent, and his search for revenge seems to fall out. In 1956, he took a discharged from the US Army. He and his wife returned to the US and squandered their life's savings that forces his wife, Hedwig back to prostitution to try to supply them with some sort of income.

It seems that Johnson was heading nowhere but into 1957, Mintkenbaugh appeared back in his life. Johnson was asked to return as a Soviet spy.


Robert Lee Johnson Gave KGB Valuable Information


Once again, Robert Lee Johnson, the man who spied for the Soviet, returned to the Army as a sergeant. Luck was on his side, he and Hedwig were quartered at a missile site in Palos Verdes Peninsula, California. This was the place that Johnson truly provided KGB some valuable information.

In 1960, Hedwig has undergone a series of mental breakdown and was hospitalized in Paris. Johnson requested to be with his wife and was granted to transfer. Johnson didn't know that that was the turning point in his life as a spy. The courier center was impregnable but Johnson was able to gain access into by applying as a clerk. On December 15, 1962, Robert Lee Johnson, the man who spied for the Soviet, accessed the vault for the first time and ransacked its content.


Johnson Stabbed To Death In Prison By His Son

In 1964, the US Army, still unaware of Johnson's skullduggery transferred him back to the US; Johnson deserted and after several months he resurfaced only to be betrayed by his wife, who had suffered from another mental breakdown, when the FBI interrogated her.

Robert Lee Johnson was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. But that was not how the story ends. It was later found out that Johnson and Hedwig had a son, Robert Lee Johnson Jr. that had been placed in a foster home. He visited his father in prison and stabbed his chest without saying a word. Robert Lee Johnson, the man who spied for the Soviet died within an hour after the fatal injury.



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