Was there a Russian spy in Jackson in the 1970s?

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Forget that Russian spy ship that was steaming north off the Jersey Shore a couple weeks ago.

During the Cold War, there was a real life Tom Clancy thriller playing out right in our own backyard. Well, actually it was more like a Coen brothers' parody.

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Forty years ago this winter, the FBI charged a Soviet defector named Ivan Nikoronovich Rogalsky, who had settled in Jackson Township's Russian community, with trying to obtain secrets about NASA's space shuttle program from an RCA scientist in Lakewood who was assigned to the project at a Princeton laboratory.

Rogalsky, a  single, 34-year-old unemployed mechanic at the time, had been a sailor aboard a Soviet merchant ship in 1970 or 1971 when he defected to the West while at a port in Spain. He eventually made his way to the United States. But by the end of the 1970s, down on his luck, Rogalsky had soured on Uncle Sam and decided he wanted to return to Mother Russia, according to the FBI agent who was in charge of New Jersey at the time.

One teensy-weensy problem: the Soviet Union didn't want him back. So Rogalsky decided he needed to do something huge to earn his way back into the hearts of his former comrades. He convinced the Soviets he could deliver them the secrets of the American space shuttle, according to the FBI.

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Rogalsky had met Paul Nekrasov, an RCA engineer at a party in November 1975, and saw his work on the new space shuttle program as his ticket back through the Iron Curtain. Never exactly subtle in his approach with Nekrasov, according to Nekrasov himself in an interview at the time, the scientist followed protocol and reported the contact to his superiors, who alerted federal authorities. The FBI then began a sting operation with Nekrasov in the role of a willing cooperating witness.

At some point, Rogalsky reached out to the Soviet mission at the United Nations in New York, where he was met by Petrovich Karpov, second secretary to the Soviet delegation and an undercover KGB agent, according to the FBI. Rogalsky explained his circumstances and offered to exchange classified materials about America's reusable spacecraft in exchange for the mission's help in repatriating him back to Russia.

Louis A. Giovanetti, then special agent in charge of the FBI in New Jersey, said at the time that numerous meetings were arranged between Rogalsky and Nekrasov, in which the Russian pressed Nekrasov on numerous occasions "to obtain information from RCA" which was thereafter passed to Karpov.

The FBI had placed Rogalsky under surveillance for six months and monitored a dozen meetings he had with Nekrasov, Giovanetti said.

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After Rogalsky met with Nekrasov, he then would meet with Karpov, who had become his Soviet contact, and turn over the "secret data" to him. In reality, under the guidance of the FBI, Nekrasov was feeding Rogalesky worthless information that had previously been declassified, the FBI agent said.

In October 1976, the Soviets asked Rogalsky to provide them with specific intelligence on American "secret satellite communications," Giovanetti said.

The FBI decided that the appropriate time to move in on Rogalsky was coming soon and the agency provided Nekrasov with "a secret document" related to what the Soviets wanted, to hand over to Rogalsky. The document was wrapped in a copy of the Asbury Park Press, according to Nekrasov. When the hand off was complete, FBI agents moved in on the Lakeview Manor condominium on North Lake Drive in Lakewood where Nekrasov lived and where he was meeting for the last time with Rogalsky.

The date was Jan. 7, 1977.

Rogalsky was charged with spying for the Soviet Union and faced the death penalty. Karpov, who had diplomatic immunity and therefore was outside the grasp of the U.S. justice system, was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in court documents.

However, Rogalsky never went to trial. He was declared to be mentally incompetent by the U.S. District Court. While incarcerated, he had shaved his head and complained that the FBI was listening to his thoughts through his hair and the fillings in his teeth. After spending four years in state and federal prisons, as well as various psychiatric hospitals, Rogalsky was released — still a legal resident of the United States. He returned to the Russian community of Rova Farms in Jackson, where he found support from a female friend who took him into her home.

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Rogalsky, who was described in Press reports at the time as a muscular man with a ruddy complexion and brown wavy hair, and who seemed to be always smiling, greeted a Press reporter who went to see him after he was freed in 1981.

"Publicity?" Rogalsky snickered. "Publicity will not help me now. When I was in jail, I called many reporters, but nobody wanted to talk to me. Now I am out of jail and everyone wants to talk to me."

Thomas S. Higgins, his public defender in the federal espionage case, said in an interview in 1981: "Ivan is still trying to find his way. He still wants to go back to the Soviet Union. He is unhappy here."

However, Higgins said the Soviets had turned their back on Rogalsky.

"Russia doesn't trust him and doesn't want him back," Higgins said.