In 1960, alerted by the CIA, MI5 discovered two British spies stealing secrets from the highly sensitive submarine research center in Portland in southwest England. Based in London, their controller, Gordon Lonsdale, appeared to be a Canadian who frequently visited an unassuming middle-aged couple, Peter and Helen Kroger, living in a suburb of the capital. But the quiet suburban Krogers were actually deep cover American KGB spies—notorious undercover agents the FBI had been hunting for years, Morris and Lona Cohen —and just one part of an extensive network of Soviet operatives in the UK.
In the wake of the spies’ sensational trial, the FBI would uncover the true identity of the enigmatic Lonsdale—Konon Molody, a Russian who had lived in California before being recruited by the KGB. While in jail Molody and the Cohens opened secret talks with MI5 to betray Russia, but before they had the chance, the KGB blackmailed Britain into spy swaps to fly them back to Moscow.
Join International Spy Museum Historian and Curator Andrew Hammond in conversation with journalist and intelligence historian Trevor Barnes as we mark the 60th anniversary of the arrest of the Portland Spy Ring. Barnes is the author of Dead Doubles: The Extraordinary Worldwide Hunt for One of the Cold War’s Most Notorious Spy Rings. He and Hammond will explore how he drew on never-before-seen MI5 and FBI files, private family archives, and sources in Russia to illuminate one of the most infamous spy cases from the Cold War.
Following their discussion, you’ll be able to ask questions via our online platform.
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