The Redefector
by Audiochuck
Holy Fool | Chapter 10
About this podcast
It was 1985, the so-called “Year of the Spy”. The CIA had been losing Soviet assets left and right; the first loss seemed like bad luck, but four in a row? That wasn't coincidence — it was a deadly leak. And just as the Agency was scrambling to find answers, across the world, a KGB colonel named Vitaly Yurchenko walked into the American embassy in Rome and volunteered his services in exchange for immediate exfiltration to the United States.
At the time, Yurchenko was the highest ranked KGB officer ever to defect to America, and the Agency felt it had hit the jackpot. Instead, his defection would go on to become one of the most dizzying, high stakes espionage debacles of the last century. Although many of his bombshell revelations were bonafide, a doubt soon began haunting the intelligence community: Was Vitaly Yurchenko telling the whole truth? And if not... What had he been sent to hide?
Join host Julie Cohn in this ten-part series featuring interviews with CIA officers, bodyguards, FBI Special Agents, reporters and even a former KGB general as she uncovers the truth behind the decades-long Vitaly Yurchenko mystery.
Episodes
- Holy Fool | Chapter 10 · 57 min · Season 1 Episode 10After two years building a mosaic of research about the Vitaly Yurchenko mystery, finally a full picture emerges: the truth.
- In Search of a Spy | Chapter 9 · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 9The modern day hunt for Vitaly Yurchenko, the 90 year-old spy.
- Joyride | Chapter 8 · 52 min · Season 1 Episode 8Some old veterans from the Soviet and Eastern Europe division decide to take matters into their own hands and start a new hunt. It's unconventional, it's personal, and this time…
- It’s Hard to Find a Leak | Chapter 7.5 BONUS · 56 min · Season 1BONUS EPISODE: Bodies continue to drop, despite the leaks identified by Yurchenko. Despite intensifying debate over his legitimacy, the SE division has a new desperate focus: to…
- Whiplash | Chapter 7 · 52 min · Season 1 Episode 7Yurchenko... reappears, sowing chaos. A debate begins to rage in the press, at the CIA, and even in the White House: Was Vitaly Yurchenko a plant from the very beginning?
- Vanished | Chapter 6 · 52 min · Season 1 Episode 6To cheer up the despondent Yurchenko, the CIA takes Yurchenko on a road trip through the American Southwest, complete with a stop in Sin City. Soon after he returns from the…
- Valentina | Chapter 5 · 44 min · Season 1 Episode 5Yurchenko travels to Canada to be reunited with the love of his life, but plans go awry...
- The Safe Safehouse | Chapter 4 · 56 min · Season 1 Episode 4Yurchenko and his team of CIA and FBI officers start over in a new safehouse in the Virginia countryside. Meanwhile, the mole Yurchenko revealed... makes a run for it.
- Goat Rodeo | Chapter 3 · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 3Vitaly Yurchenko is a fountain of intelligence and quickly becomes a celebrity in US intelligence circles. But the higher his profile, the greater the threat to his safety...
- Meet the Team | Chapter 2 · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 2The CIA and FBI have less than 24 hours to prepare to welcome the KGB colonel who, in the defector world, appeared to be the catch of the century.
- The Walk-in | Chapter 1 · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 1It was August 1st, 1985, a year so full of espionage drama that it has since become known as "The Year of the Spy." The CIA had been suspiciously losing Soviet assets one after…
- Trailer: The Redefector · 3 min · Season 1It was 1985, and the CIA had a painful secret. Soviet assets who had been secretly working for the CIA had begun ominously disappearing one, after another. One might be bad luck……
