Stripper Discusses Friendship With Accused Spy

ByABC News
May 17, 2001, 10:48 PM

May 18 -- Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen may have sold secrets to the Russians, gone to a Catholic Mass, and rendezvoused with an exotic dancer all in the same day.

Former prostitute and stripper Priscilla Sue Galey says that between 1990 and 1991 she carried on a platonic relationship with Hanssen and received close to $80,000 in gifts from the accused spy.

When Galey first met Hanssen, she was a 33-year-old exotic dancer at Joanna's 1819 Club, only minutes from the FBI headquarters.

One afternoon in 1990, while she was performing, she recalls catching Hanssen's eye. After she left the stage she says the then-46-year-old FBI agent gave her a tip with a note saying that he "had never expected to see such grace and beauty in a strip club." It was "the most beautiful compliment I had ever heard in my entire life," she says.

A few weeks later, Galey says, Hanssen returned to the club and presented her with a sapphire and diamond necklace.

But Hanssen did not seem interested in romance. He told her he was a happily married father of six. His exact intentions were unclear, but Galey says she expected that eventually he would come on to her sexually.

Such overtures never came, however, though Hanssen continued to frequent Joanna's 1819 Club.

Sugar Daddy Talks of God

When holidays approached, Galey says he bestowed another generous gift: $2,000 in cash for her to pay for dental work. Galey says there was also a letter explaining she should not feel in any way indebted to him.

"He was happily married," she says. "He didn't expect anything out of me."

Hanssen was a devout Roman Catholic and Galey says he talked about religion, "every time he got the chance." He even urged her to come to his family's church.

"He would just tell me things, you know, that I did need to change my life," Galey says. "It always revolved around being closer to God."

As the relationship progressed, she says Hanssen told her he was going to Hong Kong on business and she begged him to bring her back a souvenir from the East. To her surprise, Hanssen decided instead to bring her along though they flew on separate planes and stayed in separate rooms.