Eileen Welsome - Cold War Secrets: A Vanished Professor, a Suspected Killer, and Hoovers FBI

COLD WAR SECRETS

TRUE CRIME HISTORY

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Cold War Secrets: A Vanished Professor, a Suspected Killer, and Hoovers FBI Eileen Welsome

COLD
WAR
SECRETS

A VANISHED PROFESSOR,
A SUSPECTED KILLER, AND
HOOVERS FBI

EILEEN WELSOME

The Kent State University Press KENT, OHIO

2021 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Number 2021005745

ISBN 978-1-60635-425-4

Manufactured in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced, in any manner whatsoever, without written permission from the Publisher, except in the case of short quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Welsome, Eileen, author.

Title: Cold War secrets: a vanished professor, a suspected killer, and Hoovers FBI / Eileen Welsome.

Description: Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 2021. | Series: True crime history | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021005745 | ISBN 9781606354254 (paperback) | ISBN 9781631014550 (epub) | ISBN 9781631014567 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Riha, Thomas. | Missing persons--Investigation. | Tannenbaum, Galya, 1931-1971. | United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation--History. | Cold War.

Classification: LCC HV6762.U5 W45 2021 | DDC 363.2/336--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005745

25 24 23 22 21 5 4 3 2 1

To Jim

Thomas Riha and Hana Hruskova before the wedding. (Courtesy Hana Riha)

CONTENTS

I first heard about Thomas Riha almost a decade ago from a friend and fellow journalist named Julie Hutchinson, who had written about the case for the Boulder Camera.

Julie pulled up a photograph of Riha on her cell phone. He was a handsome man with a head of thick, dark hair and a carnation in his lapel. I was surprised nobody bothered to look for him after the Berlin Wall fell, she said.

Im going to find him, I responded spontaneously.

At a local history conference a couple of months later, I happened to meet Vonnie Perkins, the mother-in-law of Becky Perkins, Galya Tannenbaums youngest child.

Vonnie arranged an interview for me with Becky, who came to the meeting with documents and Galyas jewelry box. When I opened the jewelry box, the theme song from Doctor Zhivago started to play. In one of the trays were several small-caliber bullets.

I picked them up and rolled them in my hand. They were real. I looked questioningly at Becky.

She shrugged noncommittally.

Initially, I thought Galya was an innocent woman who had been made a scapegoat by federal and local law enforcement officials. It didnt seem plausible that a woman who was nearly forty years old, had four children, and no history of violent crimes would begin murdering peoplewith cyanide no less. But as I began reading the case files, many of which have been unavailable for decades, I realized that Galya was a darker and more complex person than I had imagined. I also realized that finding Thomas Rihaor his bodywas going to be nearly impossible, but I was too deep into the story to quit.

Many other people shared their memories and insights with me, including Zdenek Cerveny and Jarmila Zakova, Thomas Rihas nephew and niece, who both now live in Prague. Zdenek had just emigrated from Czechoslovakia to the United States when Riha disappeared and was plunged into the middle of the unfolding mystery. Jarmila remained in Prague and showed me the flimsy, blue airmail letters that Thomas had written to her in earlier years.

Although the Church Committee and former Colorado senator Gary Hart released a statement in the 1970s saying Riha was probably living in eastern Europe, Zdenek and Jarmila long ago gave up hope that Riha was alive and would one day coming knocking at their door.

I am also indebted to Hana Riha, Thomass ex-wife, who had looked forward to a happy marriage in Boulder only to flee her home forever on a cold spring night in March 1969. Hana spoke candidly of her brief marriage and loaned me many of the photographs used in this book.

I also owe a big thanks to Pete Ingwersen, one of Gustav Ingwersens grandchildren, who shared his memories of Gus and allowed me to use Guss photo in this book.

I also was fortunate enough to meet Fred Gillies a few weeks before he died. Fred covered the Riha story for the