FBI True arrived on CBS within the 2023 TV schedule to cowl a few of the FBI’s most high-stakes instances, with the brokers who risked life and limb telling the story themselves in conversations with fellow former brokers. The following episode on November 21 will study the 2001 investigation into then-FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who’s now generally known as essentially the most damaging spy within the historical past of the Bureau for promoting secrets and techniques to the Russians. Former FBI investigative specialist Eric O’Neill, who went undercover at Hanssen’s aspect, spoke with CinemaBlend about his harrowing expertise and the PTSD he suffered afterwards.
Eric O’Neill went undercover inside the FBI, utilizing his personal identification and life to immerse himself alongside Robert Hanssen with the clock ticking. Conducting this operation inside the partitions of the FBI did not imply that he was secure or that Hanssen would not suspect him if one thing was off. In an unique clip from the brand new November 21 episode (seen above), O’Neill shares an incident when he needed to fairly actually run by way of the constructing to return the PalmPilot and different gadgets that he’d taken at a uncommon opportune second, racing to beat Hanssen from catching him within the act.
When O’Neill spoke with CinemaBlend for FBI True, I famous that I hadn’t realized that an agent could possibly be in mortal peril from one other armed agent inside the partitions of the FBI. I requested the way it feels to look again at that harrowing state of affairs greater than twenty years later, he shared:
I do know that the second once I wasn’t sure whether or not I had gotten not simply the PalmPilot however an information card and a floppy disk appropriate in a bag with 4 equivalent pockets, figuring out [Robert Hanssen] was in a really heightened state of agitation and that he had a violent mood, and sitting at my desk questioning if there’s any likelihood I obtained it proper and making an attempt to do the mathematics in my head and realizing that I do not actually need to do math. The percentages are unhealthy, and there was a second there the place I assumed to myself, Laura, ‘I will die.’ I simply knew it. I knew sufficient about Hanssen, I knew sufficient in regards to the scenario, and I assumed, ‘I’ve to take a seat right here and do every little thing I can probably do to maintain him within the case even when it implies that I lose my life.’
The percentages weren’t in Eric O’Neill’s favor when he needed to try to preserve his cowl intact when Robert Hanssen was in a very unstable mind-set, no matter the truth that they have been in an FBI workplace. Regardless of being satisfied on the time that he was not going to outlive the undercover operation, he was profitable in returning the gadgets and holding his mission secret. The previous agent continued trying again:
‘I owe it to not solely myself for the work that I’ve accomplished, however the work everybody else has accomplished.’ It turned out okay, both by the grace of God or blind luck. I obtained these gadgets proper, in any other case he would have by no means made that final drop. However I suffered PTSD for years after that. I’d get up, having a nightmare the place he shot me proper there, and that is the second you get up. And it took some time to resolve that. I believe that writing my e book was the most important catharsis. Making a film about it and reliving that over and over, watching actors painting me, that was a bit onerous.
Eric O’Neill left the FBI after working the Robert Hanssen espionage case, and went on to put in writing a e book about his expertise referred to as Grey Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy that was revealed in 2019. The story has additionally been informed on movie and tv, notably together with Ryan Phillippe portraying O’Neill within the 2007 movie Breach. For FBI True (which can stream for Paramount+ subscribers following the debut on CBS on November 21), he informed the story to fellow former agent Kristy Kottis.
The format of FBI True entails brokers talking with different brokers overtly and candidly, with Kristy Kottis usually asking the questions which have by no means been answered fairly this manner earlier than. Different FBI True brokers beforehand opened as much as CinemaBlend about talking with Kottis, and Eric O’Neill shared his ideas on telling his undercover story to her for the upcoming episode:
Here is what was nice about speaking to Kristy. I realized issues about myself and dealing undercover that I had by no means realized. Now she’s an knowledgeable on this form of undercover work and I used to be studying on the job. So let’s put it that manner. I used to be a veteran ‘ghost,’ which implies that if I wanted to comply with you from the second you wake up-to-the-minute you fell asleep, I may do this and also you’d by no means know I used to be there. I’d know everybody you talked to, what number of occasions you tied your sneakers, what number of occasions you checked your watch, each license plate that was round you, the place you went, whether or not you want espresso or tea. All these types of issues. However I’d have by no means needed to communicate to you.
FBI True govt producer Craig Turk described the format of brokers speaking to different brokers on digicam because the “secret sauce” to make the docuseries work, and Eric O’Neill solely had good issues to say about working with Kristy Kottis. He continued:
It is so much totally different when you will have these private one-on-one undercover investigations, and in addition what it does to you mentally. That is one thing she understood very properly. Being on set with Kristy was a number of excellent remedy behind the takes as a result of we have been speaking so much, not simply in regards to the case however about what it is prefer to be undercover and survive it and are available out okay on the opposite aspect.
Fortunately, Eric O’Neill did certainly come out okay on the opposite aspect of the investigation into Robert Hanssen, however he went on to be very clear about how troublesome all the expertise was. After I informed the previous agent that his days within the workplace with Hanssen sound like a few of his scariest occasions throughout the operation, he expressed:
It felt extra like a jail. I didn’t need to go into the workplace. It was a type of issues the place lots of people have to do that of their jobs. Effectively, not as a lot anymore, as no person goes into the workplace, however when folks did, you’d trudge and you’d take this second on the door and this deep sigh and collect your self after which placed on that comfortable face and roll proper in and act. That is what I used to be doing. I used to be performing. I used to be portraying a job for Hanssen as a way to idiot him and also you needed to maintain that up. All of the lies would develop and develop and also you needed to maintain that mountain in your again. After which in fact if you left, that is when you may deflate, collapse, let your self really feel flooded with all that stress that you just have been holding at bay whilst you have been undercover nevertheless it was very troublesome.
Remember to tune in to CBS on Tuesday, November 21 at 10 p.m. ET for the “Searching Graysuit: America’s Lethal Traitor” installment. In contrast to different episodes of the docuseries that run for simply half an hour, FBI True devotes an entire hour to the sophisticated and high-stakes mission to catch Robert Hanssen as essentially the most damaging spy within the historical past of the Bureau.
You’ll find former episodes of the docuseries streaming through Paramount+, and take a look at our 2024 TV schedule for when the three scripted FBI reveals will return to CBS. FBI True EP Craig Turk can be the creator of FBI, and he addressed the hit present reaching the 100-episode milestone.
