MYSTERY IN AMSTERDAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200790031-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 7, 1999
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: December 12, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

GERALD TMUNIF.
's .ery
flA ,
..r,r ", AI ncu L? ~_oluer,
Of rho Herald Tribune Staff
a
Approved For Release WOSMW
m
e Dr. Follis traveled alone on- occasion, ??..'r,
:however, he was accompanied by a medical colleague.
k On Thursday, Dec. 2, Or, Follis took shuttle plane
.from Washington to New York and left for amsterdam on
,'a; non-stop jet. He arrived thereon Friday, morning and ,~
'that day, according to his friends here, kept an appoint- . g
"that with a Dr Oomen D
t
STATINTL
i Sometime after 4:30 last Sunday morning, the' world's-.
top authority on nutritional pathology, a . Washington,.;
~. C. doctor named Richard H. Follis, disappeared in'-.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
Chief inspector Piet Landman, of the ' Amsterdam '-,
''olice,' said the 56-year-old 'doctor probably fell into one . ,
Of the city's many canals and drowned during the Atlantio
kale that raked Holland that week end, r a
But the body of Dr. Follis has not been discovered after,"
extensive dragging operation,
` ' In_Eur ~e, the vre. head linln the d . 1is-',:
& pearajp and hinng, _broadly?tha somehow the CIA
1n~!,lieci~ In Washington, the doctor's colleagues scott..'
A~the Idea of an Intelligence connection. One Pointed
Put: "Dick.Follis was one of the most dedicated scientists
1n the world,"
i In London, usually reliable intelligence sources said
that the doctor almost certainly was murdered. They'
tefused to say how or why they arrive at that conclusion.
In Amsterdam, Chief Inspector Landman Insisted that .
"I do not think there has been a crime-just an accident." '?
A State bepartment security official called It one of
,the most peculiar and perplexing matters he ever has
dealt with. "Almost nothing about it jibes," he said(-
The doctor's background is Impressive. %
A graduate of Yale University (Class of '32) and';
Johns Hopkins Medical School ('36), Baltimore-born Dr.
.2r'ollis, sore .of a famous surgeon, taught for several years
and then, In. 1955, became an 'employee of 'the Veterans
Qdminlstration. That year he was detached for work
at?the prestigious Armed, Forces Institute of Pathology:
ill Washington, but the VA continues to pay his salary.
As the author of two textbooks on nutritional medicine
(-used by almost every accredited medical school) and
of more than 150 articles, Dr. Follis was described by a]L,-~
f his medical colleagues and' by doctors abroad'as the.,,
recognized international. authority 1n his field.
Since 1955, the Doctor 'has made more than a score
trips to odd corners of the world on survey work In
'
the field. of nutrition. In 1959 he was in Saigon and the
V.llages of Viet Nam, In- 1960 In Th iand. ?,Il
INCREASING TRAVEL
The :pace of his. travel then 'stepped up.' In 1961, he , q
visited the West.Indies, Burma, Lebanon, and Colombia. The
,next year he went to Uruguay and Jordan. In 1963, he was
In Brazil, Uruguay again, Bolivia and "a couple'of other
daces I can't find In the record," said one
era od his co-work-
,
In 1964, he went to -Lebanon again, and this year. hews in Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico.
tl few of Dr. Follis' trips were made to attend h ec+i?cal
;c`onferences, but most were to carry out field studies in his
'specialty: The cure and prevention of goiter. He also was
an expert on dwarfism and growth retardation in children., ?'
Much of th ti
, a u
c expert in he e
Approved Fors.~f99~17~'.-~~0A 00200790031-3
continued