GLOBAL PRIVATE EYE DWELLS IN CONSTANT AIR OF MYSTERY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100100012-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 1998
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: November 16, 1953
• Content Type: NSPR

W'CTON Pori NU V 16 >53 CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved For Rel ase : CIA gralff 149R000100100012-0
Now Col. Amoss Works '
Global Private Eye Dwells
In Constant Air of Mystery
By Edward T. Folliard
rost Reporter
(Second in a Series)
Members of the International Services of Information
oundation, a private intelligence service headed by Col.
ius L. Amcss of Gibson Island, Md., get exciting read-
g for the $25 which they contribute annually.
A letter from Amoss to ISI members, dated last June
7, begins:
"GEORGI MALENKOV IS DEAD"
This was news, a real scoop.
But in the next sentence, Anloss hastens to add, "This
s a rumor from ISI sources-repeat, this is a rumor. It
s not a fact
Even though there are occasional letdowns, Amoss'
eports keep the adventurous spirit running high. Some-
itnes, people tt ho receive ISI material must fear for a
ime that the colonel is a goner. Very often, however, it
urns Out that he wasn't in any danger after all, and is
afe, sound and ready for further excitement.
essage Produced Thrill
On July 5, under a dateline reading "By courier from
lunich," Colonel Amoss gave his ISI subscribers a thrill
?ith this message:
'I am a virtual prisoner in
Munich hotel. I am not
ure that the care 'they' take
f me is due to consideration
or my safety-or theirs.
They' even post guards.
They' won't permit me to go
tit without protection-and
never at night. But when I
vent to parts I shouldn't
deputy chief of staff of the Take, for example, his trip
United States Ninth Air
Force. One reads: "To Pete
(Amoss' nickname) with sin-
cere thanks for his loyal sup-
port and excellent counsel,
Hoyt S. Vandenberg."
Books Indicate Interest
On the bookshelves are
Amoss' deep Interest in es-
~l1onage: Rebecca West's "The
Meaning of Treason," "Stalin
by Trotsky," "The Russian
Menace to Europe," "The Pat-
tern for World Revolution,"
"No Secret Is Safe," and
"Handbook for Spies."
According to a sketch in the
International Who's W It o,
Amoss was born in St. Louis
58 years ago last July 28. He
was a student at the Maryland
institute of Fine Arts in Bal-
timore. He was a press agent
for the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad in 1915-16, and after
that was sales manager for a
Baltimore firm.
In World \Var I. he was a
YMCA secretary with the 79th
117~ ' At+weraiso a YMCA
secretary in Greece during a
part of the Greco-Turkish War
of 1n19.21. Thereafter, in
1920-24, he was adviser to the
Greek Gener4j Staff, a job
that seems to have laid th
e
groundwork for his. later
,career
island Houses GHQ career as an intelligence man.
to this country
An 11-room rented house on from Greece, Amoss was an
the island, located on Chess-exporter in New York. He
peake Bay about 23 miles south-'also served with firms like
west of .Annapolis, is the gen- the ('ondossis Tobacco Co,
eral headquarters of Colonel and the Gramirade Interna-
Amoss' ISi network, although tional Corporation.
the business office is at 219 W. Served With OSS
Monument st., Baltimore. ~ He won his rank in \Vnrld
ention, they relaxed their He is a year-round resident' War 11, serving with the Air
uard, apparently consider- of the island, along with his! Force and OSS, and is now in
ng a danger zone safe ivacious English-horn wife,; the Air Force Reserve.
nough. It was'
wt I returned with-
aving experienced any ex-
1
le ent. But, once in my room,
se ies of 'shots' startled me;
ro gh my window, red flame
o ed briefly. I am ashamed
orld War IT when both were \\ell, he explained, he had
onovan's Office of Strategic was too secret. Also, he had
ervices and she for the made this discovery: that by
ritish. the time the raw- material was
A visitor calling on Col. processed - correlated with
r , y that I shouted to my Amoss on Gibson Island, as other intelligence, appraised
le d and personal security of- all visitors to the privately- and edited-it often was no
cc . 'Keep away from that owned island, must first he Tr5i,.:er ihteiligence but his.
in ov:' I am ashamed, he- cleared at the gate. Up the to.
u. we discovered that the "VdU tl way vs ure culullel s
ho" were firecracker explo- house. Guests are taken to
in , set off by German chil big Office, just Off the living
er in honor of our Fourth of room- It has an impressive
iy atmosphere, suggesting that
A ter this let-down, Colonel its occupant ha; been around.
ni ss hurried on in his iSt The walls are covered with
tt to tell about his meet-; autographed pictures. One
g ith some mysterious mem-i hears the inscription, "For my
rs of an "elite underground friend, Ulius Amoss, Franklin
st m." 1). Ronsevelt." (FDR auto-
H also had something In sayl graphed it when he was Gov-
o t his meetings with my:-J error of New York). There
ry men in a recent interview are two photographs of Gen.
ibson island. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, memen-
toes of the time when Col.
)