In the spring of 1962 a short, stocky Russian walked into the FBI’s Midtown Manhattan office and offered to spy for the United States. He said his name was Aleksei Kulak and that he worked undercover for the KGB at the United Nations. Then he added three words that set off years of turmoil inside the bureau. “Your guy, Dick.”
A Walk-In at Midnight
Kulak, age 39, said the KGB had a source inside the FBI. The bureau made him Bureau Source 10 with the code name FEDORA. Agents launched a mole hunt and labeled the unknown spy UNSUB Dick. Joseph J. Hengemuhle and Joseph J. Palguta, senior counterintelligence men in New York, were assigned to lead the search.
The Hunt for “Dick”
New York was the largest field office with roughly a thousand agents. Six or seven Soviet squads and related units meant hundreds of logical suspects. Everyone named Richard drew scrutiny. Timecards and street assignments from the night of Kulak’s visit were checked.
A back room became the sealed base for the inquiry. Morale dropped as agents realized phones and even a garage pay phone were monitored. Transfers out of New York followed to reduce risk.
Dangles, Leads, and Years of Uncertainty
A dangle operation approached the KGB rezident. Meetings produced no usable clue to the mole. In 1964 or 1965 a second KGB officer, Valentin Lysov, also alleged a penetration. The search continued without a break. FEDORA kept meeting the FBI and identified KGB officers and sources in New York.
He reported that the KGB had obtained FBI surveillance codes. Debate over his bona fides persisted inside the FBI and at the CIA. He returned to Moscow in 1976, declined exfiltration after his cover was hinted at in print, and later died of natural causes. Former KGB general Oleg Kalugin said the KGB had a source in the FBI and that he personally paid the agent without learning his true name.
A Suspect in Queens
By the mid 1980s analyst Robert H. King reviewed FEDORA’s later reports and focused on a retired FBI agent who had lived in Queens. The file showed poor performance issues and personal vulnerabilities. King resolved a transliteration issue involving a Cyrillic initial and believed he had identified UNSUB Dick. Interviews brought denials.
Opinions among interviewers were split. Without a confession or a catch in the act the FBI did not prosecute. Revealing FEDORA to prove the case was judged untenable. The bureau made arrests in other spy cases in the 1980s and 1990s. The search for UNSUB Dick faded but never closed. Decades later the FBI declined to confirm or deny the case.
Spring 1962. A short Russian walked into the FBI’s Midtown office and offered to spy.
“Your guy, Dick,” he said, warning of a KGB mole inside the bureau.
The walk-in was Aleksei Kulak, a UN-based KGB officer.
With that, a secret hunt began…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/AIPsPfYiIj
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) September 15, 2025