The Saga of the Swinging Spies | True Life Spy Stories

[Music] the glena bridge spans the Placid water of the haval river in Germany connecting West Berlin to Potsdam the Bridge's Stark almost austere Simplicity belies the great many human dramas that unfolded along its length during some of the most tense periods of the Cold War it was on this very Bridge dubbed the bridge of spies under the watchful eyes of two Global superpowers that a tension filled prisoner swap took place on the 11th of February 1986 a crowd of journalists and TV Crews gathered on the western side of the bridge to observe the spectacle standing on the bridge that day was corl cucher dressed in a Brooks brother's suit and wearing expensive Gucci loafers he was flanked by his equally well-dressed wife Hana Kucher 20 years earlier the Czechoslovakian Nationals had fled to America to start a new life as Soviet igr they set out to to live the American dream for Carl this meant climbing the ranks of Academia for Hana it was a lucrative career in the diamond trade both had become naturalized US citizens but all of this was a smoke screen Carl was in fact a sleeper agent deployed by Czechoslovakian intelligence to spy on the United States he achieved what no other before him had managed to infiltrate the CIA as an illegal Soviet spy as they strowed confidently across the bridge of Spar to their freedom American authorities could not help but feel that an American traitor had slipped through their fingers this is the story of Carl and Hana cucher the last of the Cold War super spars Carl cocher was born on the 21st of September 1934 in Bratislava the Slovak capital of Czechoslovakia a nation still in its relative infancy Czechoslovakia was formed through a union after the fall of the Habsburg Empire between Slovakia Bohemia and Moravia Carl was the son of Austrian born jaroslav his mother Ira was Jewish Czechoslovakia comprised a number of disparate people groups but this not withstanding in the 1930s the country was set to become a European industrial Powerhouse however the rise of Nazism in Germany would bring a premature end to this hopeful Outlook with the German fura nearly installed anti-Semitism became rough in Czechoslovakia by 1934 the Young Nation watched on helplessly when on the 30th of September 1938 Germany Great Britain France and Italy signed the Munich agreement this seeded large suedes of Czech land to Germany including the Sudan land which had a large population of ethnic Germans adol Hitler was not appeased and so continued to absorb more territory and installed a Nazi puppet state in the protectorate of bohemia and Moravia on the 1st of September 1939 the Nazis invaded Poland and thus began World War II the Crackdown on Jews in Czechoslovakia was severe with the cucha family moving when corl was just 4 years old from Bratislava to Prague where they thought they may blend in among the more Cosmic napolitan Society Carl's mother Ira spent the entirety of the war H up in the family apartment and managed to evade the Nazis her parents and two brothers were not as lucky perishing in the Nazi concentration camps The Liberation of Czechoslovakia began in mid 1944 with the Soviets establishing a provisional czechoslovak government in April of 1945 as the Soviets moved in Czechoslovakia was a country R for the ideological taking corl cucher who was 11 years old by this time had already learned to speak English in addition to his native Czech even from this early age he started to get into trouble he along with some other students in his class protested against the hanging of Stalin's portrait in the classrooms for this he was expelled but since Communism had not yet exerted its strangle hold on society corl and his peers were allowed back after a successful appeal in 1949 corl began attending a french-speaking school in Prague and it wasn't long before he was fluent in French while intelligent and diligent he had a definite anti-authoritarian streak which came to the four when he and a group of his classmates conspired in November 1949 to overthrow the Communist Regime this was a lofty ambition for a small group of 15-year-old boys but they nevertheless sought to procure some firearms for the job the teenage boys however were oblivious to the fact that one in their number was an Informer for the stb the Czech State security agency responsible for all intelligence and Counter Intelligence both domestic and foreign when the stb caught wind of the boy's plans the group was promptly arrested after a thorough interrogation the boys were released without charge the authorities perhaps recognized that teenage boys sometimes get up to Mischief while he managed to avoid prison young Carl now had an stb file opened in his name this would haunt him for decades and set in motion his later Life as a spy Czechoslovakia was a country rapidly falling into the hands of the Soviet Communist party stalinist style political purges were common and currency reform decimated the savings of countless Czech families but then with the death of Joseph Stalin on the 5th of March 1953 there was a glimmer of hope through his economic social and political reforms new Soviet leader Nikita kof released millions of political prisoners from Soviet prisons and secretly denounced Joseph Stalin to party members during his speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party Times in Czechoslovakia remained tough with president anonin zaroty remaining an Ardent follower of stalinism even erecting the world's largest statue of the man in Prague in 1955 in 1960 the czechoslovak Socialist Republic was born with that its political and ideological transformation was complete back on the home front Carl clashed often with his father jarus love he was evidently a hard man and routinely denigrated his son the family was not well off jaroslav being forced into early retirement from his position at the post office and the family surviving of a single meager pension to earn his keep Carl began working as a tour guard in Prague from age 15 he was by then fluent in Czech English French and Russian his language and storytelling abilities served him well and he relished the opportunity to exercise his creative streak something that his father did not encourage after graduating from his French high school with top marks in 1953 Carl applied to study at the prestigious Charles University but strangely his application was rejected he applied for a second time with the same result only after his third application later that year in 1953 was he accepted to study mathematics and physics subjects chosen for him by his father evidently Carl kocher's stb file which marked him as a troublemaker was harming his future career prospects and social standing Carl nevertheless pursued his studies diligently enrolling also in the Prague Academy during the last year of his studies at Charles University where he studied film Theory and script writing Carl also wrote part-time for Czechoslovakia television and taught science and maths at a Vocational High School eventually being appointed an assistant professor of mathematics at the Czechoslovakia Institute of Technology corl had by then spent 7 years working as a tour guide in Prague he received a call one day from a professor who worked in the philosophy department at Colombia university in the United States it was a phone call that would change Carl's life forever Professor George Klein had been told that Carl spoke good English and wanted to know whether Coral could be his guard as he toured the country studying Czech and Eastern European lit lature Carl accepted the offer and what solidified the relationship between the two men was when Carl took kown to see the grave of France kfka a still obscure Czech author whose work wouldn't find International recognition for many years to come Klein introduced Carl to a new world of people and ideas he seldom encountered in Czechoslovakia instilling in him a desire to see and experience what the world had to offer beyond the Iron Curtain to this end Carl cucher applied to join a teaching group that was due to travel to mallei while he was accepted into the program he was denied a passport then after he won a competition through UNESCO to teach in Cameroon his passport was again denied Carl's suspicions about his record with the stb would only be confirmed years later he had been blacklisted for travel outside of Czechoslovakia in an attempt to clean up his record Carl applied for membership with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1960 a friend had convinced him that this was a good idea arguing that if Carl could not beat them he may as well join them frustrated yet intent on not giving up Carl successfully applied in 1962 to work as a comedy writer for Czechoslovakia radio the opportunity would however be shortlived after Carl got into a spat with an undercover stb agent after a night out on the town Carl was approached by the stb agent after he was seen kissing his date good night on her doorstep an argument ensued with Carl being reported over the incident and later convicted of committing criminal activity of a moral character following an appeal Carl was sentenced to 2 years probation this was enough for him to be fired from his job at the radio station this put corl in a difficult position for to be unemployed in Czechoslovakia was in fact a felony at the time he was eventually able to find work as a night Watchman at a construction yard he moved between jobs for a period teaching at a planetarium and then working as an agricultural laborer for a man of Carl cooch's intellect and ambition he was never going to be satisfied with that kind of life in 1962 2 Carl contacted a friend from his former Film School whom he knew to be working for his arch nemesis the stb working within the Counter Intelligence Division Yan liska's job was to Snoop on actors and filmmakers who were considered soft targets for enemy recruitment lishka withdrew Carl's file from stb records and saw that it contained a thorough accounting of all of Carl's past indiscretions Carl suspicions as to to why he could never seem to get ahead in life were then confirmed the two friends gave the matter some thought applying for party membership hadn't been enough to clear Carl's record yet if he could be employed by the very organization harassing and holding him back maybe then he could arrange for his record to be expunged it was a plan so crazy it might just work corl began joining his friend Yan lishka at the bars and cafes frequented by the local stb agents slowly he began to ingratiate himself his comrades soon realizing that the former professor and polyglot may be of use to the agency it's not clear exactly when he was recruited but for the next 3 years Carl was given extensive training in spycraft including secret Communications detecting and avoiding surveillance and how to pass polygraph tests Carl cucher anti-authoritarian as he may have been had just signed up to become a small Cog in the Colossal Soviet machine Carl continued working as a laborer in the agricultural sector which he knew would serve as an aid in his ongoing Rehabilitation One Night in 1963 during a party held in the warehouse where he worked Carl laid eyes on Hana pamsa Carl was instantly boted with the young woman 10 years his Junior Not only was she strikingly beautiful but he soon learned that she came from a family with good communist credentials hana's father joined the party in 1945 and climbed the ranks to become the head of a local party branch and later a senior member of the Communist party's National infrastructure the feelings were mutual and within 3 months of meeting the couple were married in November of 1963 Hana knew about Carl's training and Association with the stb and both had their sights set on traveling abroad for their first big assignment soon enough coral and Hana got their big break they had earned enough trust with the stb to be asked to travel to the USA to pose as dissident refugees once in America their goal was to uncon themselves within the artistic journalistic and scientific Circles of the Eastern United States from there they would attempt to work their way into security organizations and gain access to classified materials to feed back to their check handlers if this plan sounds simplistic it was Carl and Hana were being treated as guinea pigs in the stb's first attempt to deploy a sleeper agent Behind Enemy Lines there was not much of a plan apart from getting the couple to the USA and then seeing what they could do traveling from behind the Iron Curtain to the West during the Cold War was was no simple task fortunately Hana had an uncle living in Austria Uncle Joseph was going to be their Gateway to the West on the 11th of September 1965 Carl and Hana traveled to Austria they traveled light taking with them almost nothing except the clothes on their backs and a bar of soap containing a hidden set of siher codes needed to communicate with the stb as a staunch communist and party member hana's father was indoctrinated into the operation he served as the conduit through which Hana would communicate by sending coded messages on postcards as part of the plan Carl had confided during a visit from Professor George Klein that he and Hana intended to defect he of course did not tell him of his true Mission ironically kleene was strongly suspected by the stb and coral for that matter of working for American intelligence once in Austria coral and Hana presented themselves at the American Embassy which had been tipped off to their arrival bylan and sought asylum in America the beauty of Carl's cover story was that it was more or less true his record with the stb that had plagued him his entire life now served another purpose credibility in the eyes of the West corl and Hana were granted Asylum and on the 5th of December 1965 they barded a charter flight arranged by the American fund for czechoslovak refugees they were Bound for America and would soon start their mission back in Prague the stb were left wondering whether they had made the right decision in selecting corl as their subject the agency was aware of his Progressive views and of course his history of runnins with the law they also knew that he had a violent temper was emotionally volatile and was primarily driven by money only time would tell if they had made the right choice it didn't take long for Carl and Hana to start building their new life in New York both soon found jobs which allowed the couple to rent an apartment on 55th Street near 8th Avenue and to purchase a used Chevy vehicle Hana worked for Harry Winston's famed Fifth Avenue Jewelry Store sorting diamonds Coral again through his relationship with Professor George CL secured a position working at radi free Europe this was a radio station run by the CIA which Broadcast pro-american News and political analysis to the Eastern block to the Soviets Radio free Europe was propaganda Enemy Number One it was popular among students and intelligencia and the USSR would have wanted nothing more than to stamp it out completely having a Man Behind Enemy Lines they hoped would prove useful in getting information on rf's staff who consisted of many dissidents and second generation Soviet igr Carl however refused to inform on his colleagues at the radio station his stb handlers were routinely frustrated by the death of information he supplied and what he did share they found not to be particularly useful Carl's persistent refusal to cooperate in this area remained a bone of contention between him and the stb for years Carl coa's Handler during this initial phase of his deployment was miroff poch an stb agent operating under diplomatic cover working out of the United Nations Miroslav and Carl Met from month to month with Carl being paid a few hundred on each occasion Carl was however still very much a sleeper agent Bing his time until he managed to burrow his way into the depths of American intelligence in 19 1966 with his sight still set on finding his way into the fold of American Academia corl applied for and was granted a fellowship to study at Indiana University Carl and Hana thus packed their things and moved to Bloomington Indiana in September of 1966 Bloomington was no Manhattan and so by Springtime the following year corl and Hana were angling to move back to New York George Clan proved useful once again introducing Carl to a professor at Columbia University and so after spending two semesters at Indiana Carl was offered and accepted a position working at Colombia's Russian Institute while he studied for his PhD this was a think tank headed by zigal brazinski a prominent Polish American who would later serve as counselor to US president Lyndon B Johnson Carl was certainly surrounding himself with influential people despite their clear progress the cooers were feeling the financial pinch and this caused strain on their relationship their jobs didn't pay that well and they felt leagues behind Coral's peers in Academia who had old money backing them up little did the cooers know that events in their home country of Czechoslovakia would soon add to their woes in January 1968 Alexander dupek was elected as the first Secretary of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia this was seen by the people as a hopeful sign for change following years of growing dissatisfaction among czechoslovaks over economic difficulties and the lack of political freedoms Dub's desire was to introduce socialism with a human face he wanted to democratize the government and increase freedom of the press speech and travel he also had a sight set on a more decentralized economy all these Ambitions represent presented a significant departure from the strict Soviet style control that characterized the Eastern block Dub's policy of Reform called his action program was viewed with deep suspicion by the Soviet Union and other warsa packed Nations they feared the spread of liberal-minded ideas to their own countries the tension reached its peak when in the late hours of the 20th of August 1968 the Soviet Union along with forces from Poland Hungary East Germany and Bulgaria invaded Czechoslovakia the invasion was met with widespread nonviolent resistance from the czechoslovak population but what became referred to as the Prague spring was quickly snuffed out the aftermath of the Soviet invasion was a period of normalization during which the status quo was restored Soviet leader Leonard brv removed dubek from office and engaged in a wholesale Purge of government officials and employees most of whom were replaced by Hardline Soviet style communist lackes on the global stage the West condemned The Invasion seeing exactly how low Soviet tolerance was for any kind of social and political reform the Cold War divide deepened as Soviet satellite States realized whether they liked it or not they were beholden to their superpower Soviet overlords back in New York car watched on with disgust describing himself in a later interview as a Czech Patriot Carl's primary National loyalty was to Czechoslovakia and his Slovak people not the Soviet Union he hated the regime that invaded his country and cared even less to work with anyone installed as part of the new Soviet puppet Regime in Czechoslovakia Carl's stb handler was one such victim of these purges being replaced by a new man loyal to the KGB Carl cucher lost virtually all motivation to continue his work for the stb he considered defecting this time genuinely and to tell all to the FBI in 1969 he quit his job at Radio free Europe after the program that he was working on was cancelled after months of lying low and avoiding contact with his handlers Carl received a signal to meet with the stb on the 30th of March 1970 Carl did not Pitch for the meeting nor did he the next day at a pre-agreed backup date for the next few months corl went to ground it was only on the 10th of October 1970 that Carl finally agreed to meet with his new Handler the meeting at the continental restaurant did not go as the stb expected with Carl flying into a rage yelling at his new Handler and threatening him despite the fiery encounter the two men agreed to to meet again a few months later Carl was given a shopping list of documents and information that his bosses wanted to get their hands on whether corl produced the goods would be a true test of his loyalty which the stb at that point was starting to seriously doubt in December 1970 when corl arrived at the next meeting empty-handed the stb began to lose all hope in their agent they even considered plans to take him down or sabotage his life in the USA during this tense period Carl even paid a visit to the FBI in November and told them that he had been approached by Czech intelligence Carl reasoned that if he came clean and offered to turn double agent he would avoid prosecution and be allowed to remain in the US the FBI being more interested in the mafia at that point in time didn't take Coral up on his offer and took no further action on the 21st of September 1971 Carl became a naturalized United States citizen hana's application was delayed given her firm family links to the Czech Communist party but her citizenship was granted the following year while the stb considered how best to cut off their agent for good they had no idea that Carl was on the verge of his biggest break yet growing increasingly frustrated with his job prospects Carl visited the job placement office at Columbia University where he expressed interest in working for the US government given his Proficiency in Czech and Russian it was suggested that he apply to join the CIAA and so in April 1972 and armed with letters of recommendation from kleene and brazinski this is exactly what Carl did the CIA was desperate to find men like Carl who spoke Russian and other Eastern European languages and he was thus a Shu in for a position apart from the regular interview process there was one other small hurdle to overcome a polygraph test but for a man like Carl this was no big issue he was a physicist by profession and had been trained by the stb to pass lie detector tests through control of his physiological responses to questioning corl took the test and passed with flying colors in February 1973 Carl coocher moved to Washington DC where he began working for a secretive branch of the cia's Soviet East European division there he was tasked with listening to recordings of secretly taped conversations between the cia's Soviet targets given his ongoing uneasy relationship with the stb Carl hadn't even told his handlers the reason for his move to Washington Czech intelligence was rather stunned when they found out and word quickly filtered up the chain of command to the KGB suddenly there was a lot of interest in Carl cucha the the stb had to face the fact that as volatile as their agent was he had managed entirely on his own to infiltrate the Central Intelligence Agency Against All Odds Carl Kucher had succeeded and the stb sleeper agent was about to be activated with his top secret security clearance corl began to feed critical information back to his handlers he told them that the KGB station Chief in Beirut was being monitored that checkers aia's military mission in West Berlin was being actively watched and that four different phone lines had been tapped by the CIA at the Soviet Embassy in Bogata after listening to and translating dozens of conversations from these tapped phone lines Carl learned that the CIA was attempting to recruit a Soviet Diplomat stationed in bogatar in 1973 alexanda ogorodnik had been enjoying his time away from Moscow in Latin America perhaps just a little bit too too much he had just found out that his Colombian mistress was pregnant and his bosses were going to be none too pleased when they found out through a joint Colombian intelligence and CIA operation Agar rodnik was recruited as a spy for the West Cod named Tron Ogar rodnik was soon recalled to Moscow to take up a position in the global Affairs Department of the Soviet foreign Ministry the CIA was thrilled to have an agent working for them in the heart of the Soviet Union his case was run by Martha Marty Peterson the first woman to serve as a case officer in the cia's Moscow station Ogar rodnik was arrested in July 1977 after the KGB got wind of a dead drop exchange arranged with Peterson during his interrogation Ogar rodnik bit down on a pen supplied to him by the CIA inside was a cyanide capsule within seconds he was dead a later investigation into the compromised operation revealed that translations of agent trigon's report from Russian into English had been prepared by none other than corl cucher whether he appreciated it or not there was a very real human cost to the work that cucha was doing having oued a Soviet double agent Carl knew exactly how much his position at the CIA was worth not only to the stb but to the organization pulling its strength that had much deeper Pockets he used this as a bargaining chip to demand much more compensation from the KGB Hana was no mere passenger in her husband's duplicitous dealings she had chosen to remain in New York to continue her work in the diamond trade she was earning a good living of $20,000 per year working for Savon diamonds but also became a courier for her husband meeting with stb agents and receiving payments in cash for documents and information that she handed over her job as a diamond dealer which required extensive travel all over the world provided excellent cover for her many trips overseas corl was eager to return to New York City which he did in the summer of 1975 after accepting a transfer to the cia's office of political research where he worked on a contract basis earning $122,000 a year in their endless pursuit of wealth and status Carl continuously demanded more money from the Soviets he argued that he couldn't fit in unless he was on an equal Financial footing with his colleagues and contemporaries corl was paid another $220,000 which he used in January 1976 to make a down payment on an apartment at the luxurious Park Regis building on the upper east side of Manhattan life was going well for the cooes by this stage they had fully assimilated into their new American lives were earning good money and corl was the stb and the kgb's Golden Boy the couple however took their hedonistic lifestyle to extreme levels theirs was a life fueled by materialism money drugs and sex were the orders of the day from around the time that Carl started working for the CIA in Virginia he and Hana began to attend sex parties together on the weekends they became active swingers and partied hard among the the social and political Elites from Washington to New York the couple would attend these parties weekly at such venues with names like Plato's Retreat the Hellfire The Swinging gate and capital couples these extra mural activities were in addition to the many holidays that Carl and Hana took together both at home in the US and in Europe Carl also became a fitness fanatic if he wasn't out jogging he could be found training at the Young young men's Hebrew Association Jim on 92nd Street Carl's Life as a spy was soaring to new heights as he became more senior in his role at the CIA he was being asked not just to translate recordings and reports but also to provide his own political analysis of the documents he translated what had started as a gamble by an inexperienced Czechoslovakian spy agency was paying major dividends Coral's success was so prolific that report of his activities had come across the desk of Oleg kugan the kgb's head of foreign Counter Intelligence he was in essence one of the kgb's top Spar catchers there was however one small catch Oleg kugan was rumored to secretly be working for the CIA in August of 1976 Carl and Hana arranged to meet with the stb in Austria while holidaying in Europe when they arrived they were told that they were being recalled to Czechoslovakia for further meetings once there Coral was taken to an stb Safe House in a small village outside Prague where he was confronted by collusion for hours he was put through the ringer being interrogated about his every movement since landing on American Shores by the end of the session corl was given an ultimatum appear on cck TV to admit to Espionage and announce the CIA or be cut Lo loose corl refused Point Blank saying that if he was not allowed to return to the USA people would come looking for him he and Hana were After All American citizens the two spies had reached a stalemate Carl and Hana were reluctantly Allowed by the KGB to return to the United States but their lives had been turned firmly upside down returning to Moscow kugan wrote a report denouncing Carl as an American spy kugan was powerful enough within the KGB apparatus for his decision to be taken as final now cut off from their handlers Hana continued working in the diamond trade and coral returned to a quiet life of Academia after his contract with the CIA came to an end for the next 5 years the cooches lived perhaps for the very first time since arriving in America an honest Life by the beginning of the 1980s Oleg kian's power was starting to erode rumors circulated about the possibility of him being a traitor and he was demoted to Deputy head of the Leningrad KGB as the Soviet intelligence World began to lose faith in their former general questions started to arise about some of the decisions he made along the way viewed with fresh eyes kian's interrogation and denouncement of corl cucha in 1976 started to be seen in a new life the stb realized how they were squandering one of their most valuable albeit volatile illegal agents in May 1981 KGB head Yuri andropov launched operation Ryan this was a Soviet Military Intelligence program designed to establish evidence of plans by America for a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union the new Reagan administration did little to quell Soviet fears with Ronald Reagan's Star Wars speech in 1983 sending tensions to new heights the Soviets needed all information on the ground as they could gather and so plans were soon put in place to try and patch things up with coral an stb agent by the name of yan feler was tasked with reactivating coral as an agent he was a face familiar to Hana who had met the man on occasion in previous Handover meetings he traveled to the USA in 1982 and reestablished contact with Carl bored and unfulfilled Carl CER didn't hesitate to accept Yan fieler's offer Carl managed to secure for himself a job working for the political campaign team of New York gubernatorial candidate Lewis lurman he was thus making important contacts in Republican circles and had Keen insights on the developing political situation in America as pleased as Carl was to have resumed his work as a spy he was getting anxious from the conspicuous man with binoculars across the street to the strange occasional clicking sound on his home telephone and the guy Carl kept bumping into at the gym he was convinced that he was being watched Hana had become so concerned about surveillance that she stopped working as a courier entirely by October 1983 by January 1984 Carl followed suit communicating the end of his cooperation with the stb by sending a message to Prague coral and hana's concerns of compromise were such that they had for some months been planning an exit from the United States in November of 1984 they sold the Manhattan apartment transferring the proceeds to a bank account in Zurich in anticipation of a move to Austria their concerns about surveillance were valid for some months the FBI had been watching Carl and Hana through routine surveillance by the FBI's Counter Intelligence Squad Carl began to make a regular appearance among the various Czech Nationals the FBI had on its watch List It is believed also that Yan feler who recruited Carl had in fact been working for the CIA at the time fer suddenly disappeared without Trace possibly into the cia's witness protection program the kgb's official position was that Oleg kugan had betrayed Carl cucher on the 15th of November 1984 the cooches left a meeting at the bank following the sale of their apartment Carl walked Hana to her office in the Diamond Club building on 47th Street and escorted her inside a few minutes later he exited the building alone he then spotted a familiar face it was the man he kept seeing at the gym the man caught his eye and walked directly up to Carl hand outstretched I have some friends that would like to speak to you the man said Carl knew immediately that he was looking into the eyes of an FBI agent while he knew he wasn't under arrest caral thought better of declining the man's invitation A car pulled up and Carl climbed in Carl was driven to a nearby hotel and taken up to a suite overlooking Central Park this was a joint CIA FBI operation corl was told to take a seat and the questioning began immediately Hana that they said had also been picked up and was being questioned in another room despite being subjected to many hours of questioning and being directly accused of being a Soviet spy corl maintained his nerve if the FBI and cia's intention was to extract a confession from Carl they were not going to succeed having no direct evidence of Espionage the agents had no choice but to let Carl and Hana go later that day Carl did however agree to meet again with the CIA and FBI but further interviews yielded little more for the investigators eventually Carl was offered a deal by the CIA confess to his Espionage and cooperate fully with the investigation in which case he would eventually be allowed to leave the country a free man or face prosecution and potentially spend the rest of his life Behind Bars self-preservation kicked in and Carl took the deal after providing a confession of of sorts the cooers were scheduled to leave the United States for good Bound for Austria on the 27th of November 1984 it was arranged that the FBI would drive the couple to the airport instead rening on the deal offered them by the CIA the FBI arrested Carl cucha for Espionage and detained Hana as a material witness Carl was locked up in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center although he knew he faced the possibility of a life sentence or even worse capital punishment he also knew that investigators didn't have much dirt on him as the matter wore on Hana ended up spending 4 months in jail after being charged with contempt of court for refusing to testify before a grand jury she was released pending an appeal the handling of the cocha case serves as a lesson in how to bungle an operation the confession that corl had provided as part of his deal with the CIA was tainted and would not be admissible in court without the confession investigators had little more than circumstantial evidence prosecutors were nevertheless Under Pressure to take the matter to trial and so Carl languished in jail while he awaited his day in court running out of options Carl devised a cunning plan through his lawyer he wrote a letter to the head of the KGB Vladimir kov Carl proposed that he betrayed for Nathan sharansky if that name is not familiar to you now it would have been in the mid 1980s Nathan sharansky was the world's most famous political prisoner at the time having been detained in Russia after attempting to immigrate to Israel in 1973 in 1977 he was imprisoned on charges of Espionage in reality he was no spy he just had a neck for exposing the corruption and cruelty of the Soviet Union he was a dissident and a global symbol of resistance it was a bold call for Carl to think that the KGB would agree to exchange him for their most high-profile prisoner even Carl's lawyer was doubtful considering his client at the time to be nothing more than a second rate spy the gamble however paid off whether the KGB truly valued Coral cucha as one of their most effective spies or merely saw the exchange of sharansky as a public relations and propaganda stunt we will never know what we do know is that Arrangements were soon made for a grand prisoner swap along the famous glena bridge for American prosecutors The Prisoner exchange was to be the Silver Lining on an otherwise a very dark cloud put simply Carl's investigation and prosecution had been botched there was very little Prospect of prosecutors actually securing a conviction at least in a prisoner Exchange they would get something out of the whole Fiasco as part of the deal Carl pleaded guilty to espionage charges on the 3rd of February 1986 and was compelled to accept a laugh sentence commuted to actual time served both he and Hana forfeit their American passports and were declared persona non grata after the formalities were out of the way the two Czech spares were flown from New York to Frankfurt and then traveled to Berlin for the swap Carl wearing a pair of Gucci loafers and a tailored Brooks Brothers suit and Hana wearing a black fur coat and white fur hat strutted across the bridge as cameras snapped away sharansky crossed the bridge in the other direction along with various other political prisoners swapped that day coral and Hana entered the gold Mercedes-Benz owned by famed spy lawyer Wolfgang vogle and were soon whisked away across the border corl and H received a hero's welcome when they returned to Prague they were given a house and a new Volvo as a reward and Carl soon secured a position working at the Prague Institute for economic forecasting Hana started working as a translator for the British Embassy in Prague eventually however her employer caught wind of her former life as a spy and she was terminated Carl and Hana Acclaim as national heroes did not survive the fall of the Soviet Union as the hammer and sickle flag was slowly lowered from the Kremlin on Christmas Day 1991 the cooes became nothing more than relics of a former era Carl and Hana remained living in the Czech Republic in relative obscurity today their humdrum existence a far cry from the Hedonism fueled lives of old ultimately Carl cucha was left questioning whether in the grand scheme of things anything he did true really made any difference that that's it I'm me a man's life okay so was exciting in a way but you want to see some some accomplishment you really made a difference what a difference did I make what did I [Music] accomplish I don't know if I would do it [Music] again [Music]

Channel: Philip Thompson

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Id: k49GZB6anHU

Length: 45min 53sec (2753 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 18 2024