ERIC ERICKSON, WARTIME SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201710011-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 7, 2010
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: January 25, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/07: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201710011-0
'T"61 YORK TMES
ON PAGE 25 JANUARY 1983
Eric Erickson, Wartime Spy
STOCKHOLM, Jan. 24 (AP) - Eric
Erickson, a Swedish businessman who
worked for American intelligence dur-
ing World War II, has died at the age of
92, family members announced today.
Mr. Erickson, an oil expert with in-
ternational business contacts, visited
Nazi Germany repeatedly during the
war, gathering information about syn-
thetic oil plants..
he lost almost all his friends and was
blacklisted by the Allies. But immedi-
ately after the war, he was honored by
being invited to meet President Harry
S. Truman.
Mr. Erickson lived in Menton on the
French Mediterranean coast during the
last years of his life.
In 1958, Alexander Klein published a
book about Mr. Erickson called "The
Counterfeit Traitor." The book was
made into a film in 1962, with William
Holden in the leading role.
Mr. Erickson was born in 1890 in the
United States, the son of Swedish immi-
grants. During World War I he fought
with the United States Army and at the
age of 21 he started working in the oil-
fields in Texas. In 1924 he came to
Sweden to start his own oil company,
and became a Swedish 'citizen in the
mid-1930's.
At' the oittb'reak of'flie war, in *hich
Sweden remained neutral, he- offered
the United States his services. Pretend.
ing. tha he was a Nazi, Mr. Erickm..=:
was accepted"in"Germany and visited
-there more -than 30 times- between 1939
and 1945.
He -made friends with Hermann
Goring, one of the Nazi leaders, who in
turn introduced him to Heinrich
Himmler, another member of the lead-
ership, who gave Mr. Erickson the right
to travel to study the production of syn-
thetic oil. The information was then
passed on to the Americans and was
used in planning bombing raids.
The Swede played his role so well that -
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/07: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201710011-0