find Hammer in his pajamas, in tears and on his knees, pleading with two KGB agents not to arrest him. Hammer was being accused of bribery and smuggling two letters written by the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, letters that Hammer had purchased at an auction in New York. Karr said that Hammer was let off the hook by agreeing to donate the treasures to the Soviet Union. Death Within days of learning of Karr's public disclosure, Hammer dropped his takeover bid of Meade. Seven months later, in July 1979, hours after returning from a trip to Moscow, Karr was found dead in suspicious circumstances in his Paris hotel room. Amid suspicions that Karr had been murdered, his widow halted the burial so that an autopsy could be performed. One claim was that Karr had swindled his Russian partners. Rumors linked his friend Gvishiani to bribery scandals. Israeli intelligence officials claimed Karr was involved in secret Russian arms sales to states on the U.S. State Department's terrorist watchlist, namely Libya and Uganda. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, in the new atmosphere of openness, Soviet investigative journalist Albats published an article in Izvestia quoting documents from KGB archives that Karr was "a competent KGB source" who "submitted information to the KGB on the technical capabilities of the United States and other capitalist countries." Legacy In 2009, his grandson Doug Karr made the short film Ten for Grandpa about his fabled ancestor. A fast-paced investigation into Karr's complex life, the film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. References Yevgenia Albats, Senator Edward Kennedy Requested KGB Assistance With a Profitable Contract for his Businessman-Friend, Izvestia 24 June 1992, 5. Paul Quinn-Judge and Kathryn Tolbert, KGB file tells of prime treatment for Sen. Kennedy The Boston Globe 24 June 1992. Statement of Rep. Fred E. Busbey, Congressional Record 18 February 1944, A876. Statement of Rep. Martin Dies, Congressional Record 1 February 1943, 504–516. Extension of Remarks of Hon. Francis E. Walter, Congressional Record 6 February 1957. Henry Wallace Papers: see Harold Young from Oskar Lange, 3 July 1944. Washington Post, 3 July 1944. FBI Silvermaster file, (PDF p. 33). Washington Post, 4 July 1994. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. to Harvey Klehr, 18 April 1990. John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, pgs. 244–247. Yevgenia Albats, Reporting Stories