In October of 1961 he received a specially manufactured X-ray device from Moscow that he was instructed to place over the final lock in the vault; KGB technicians could then deduce what combination unlocked the vault by studying the cogs inside the locking mechanism...
On 15 December 1962, Johnson accessed the vault for the first time and
looted its contents. The operation, extensively rehearsed beforehand,
went exactly as planned and by 03:15 the following morning some of
America’s most sensitive cryptographic and military information—some of
it classified higher than top secret—was on its way to Moscow. more
