Robert S. Allen

Robert Sharon Allen was born on July 14, 1900, in Latonia, Kentucky, to Harry and Lizzie (Elizabeth) Greenberg. Allen's given name was Herman Greenberg. He changed his name and lied about his age in order to join the military on September 6, 1916. His father officially changed his name to match his son's in 1918, saying that there was a German "taint" to the last part of his name and he desired a real American name. After that time all the family except his brother Isador used the name. Allen married fellow journalist Ruth Finney in 1929, and they remained married until her death in 1979. ==Career==

Allen joined the army, lying about his age in order to do so, an exposé of the Hoover administration. After Hoover tracked down their identities, both authors were fired. In 1932 the two journalists published a sequel, More Merry-Go-Round, According to John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev in their 2009 book Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, this was legal for Allen to do, being prior to the passage of the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act, and his motivation is unknown. In 1937, during the court-packing controversy, Allen and Pearson co-authored the book The Nine Old Men, about the U.S. Supreme Court. During the early forties he co-wrote the newspaper strip Hap Hopper with Drew Pearson. The strip was drawn by Jack Sparling. He served on General Patton's staff in World War II, reaching the rank of colonel. During a reconnaissance mission on April 7, 1945, near Apfelstädt, close to Erfurt, he got caught up in a firefight with a German unit and was seriously wounded. He was then taken prisoner and brought to a German military hospital in Erfurt. There, his arm was amputated. On April 11, 1945, he was liberated by soldiers of the 80th Infantry Division. His wartime diary was published after his death. In 1947, he edited the book Our Fair City, an exposé of corrupt conditions in American municipalities. He also wrote ''Lucky Forward: The History of Patton's Third Army.'' Papers concerning his military career reside in the George S. Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky. According to documents released by the CIA in 2007, Allen was the subject of a wiretap operation, Project Mockingbird. Associated Press reported: "Under pressure from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy" in 1962, CIA director John McCone "agreed to tap the telephones of columnists Robert S. Allen and Paul Scott in an effort to identify their sources for classified information which was appearing in their columns," says a memo a decade later to the agency's director." ==Death==

Allen died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Georgetown on February 23, 1981, at age 80. He also had cancer at the time of his death, and the effects of the disease had forced him to retire the year prior. ==References==