His father, Conrad Johan Zahl Hansen, was a tailor, originally from the island Kvitvær, Lurøy, Nordland in northern Norway.
[3] Hansen became politically radicalized during the Great Depression and he became a convinced socialist and joined the American Trotskyist group led by James P.
[1] With his wife, Reba, Hansen went to Mexico to meet the exiled Russian Communist leader, Leon Trotsky.
When the Stalinist agent Ramón Mercader struck Trotsky in the head with an ice axe, Hansen, together with Charles Cornell, prevented the assassin from fleeing.
[1] His wife and close collaborator, Reba Hansen, remained in the Socialist Workers Party until she died in 1990.