Today in History - May 1: Why CIA put spy pilot's wife in a mental institution
US spy pilot Gary Powers was charged with espionage after his plane was shot down over the USSR on May 1, 1960.
Powers had been trained by the CIA to hit the self-destruct button on his spy camera and to prick himself with a poison-laced pin if he was at risk of being captured.
But he did neither, causing a major headache for the US government.
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In the months afterwards, Powers was interrogated by the Soviets, before making a confession and public apology.
Back home he was portrayed as a hero in the press.
Before presenting his wife Barbara to the press, the CIA gave her sedatives and told her what to say.
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She was instructed to say her broken leg was the result of a water-skiing accident.
In truth, she had drunkenly fallen while dancing with another man.
When she was caught drink-driving a year later, the CIA had her committed to a mental institution.
Fearful Powers would find out about his wife while still in custody, and give up military secrets in despair and desperation, President John F. Kennedy approved a prisoner exchange.
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Powers was exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who had been caught spying in the US.
Abel had been caught after a hollow nickel containing a coded message was tracked back to him in 1957.
Powers spent nearly two years in Soviet custody. Abel had been behind bars in the US for five.
Powers and his wife divorced a few months after he returned to the US.
He received a cool reception from others in the US as well.
He was criticised for not hitting the self-destruct button on the plane, and for not killing himself with the shellfish toxin-laced needle he had been issued.
He died in a helicopter crash while flying for a local Los Angeles TV station in 1977.
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US authorities spent three years looking for Rudolf Abel. FBI
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