| Walter Raymond Wannall |
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W. Raymond Wannall, assistant FBI director
Wednesday, February 9, 2011; 8:22 PM
W. Raymond Wannall, who headed the FBI's intelligence division under J. Edgar
Hoover and later became the bureau's assistant director, died Jan. 29 of
pneumonia at Fairhaven, a retirement community in Sykesville, Md. He was 92.
Mr. Wannall spent more than three decades with the FBI before retiring in 1976.
For all but five years of his career, he worked in the intelligence division at the
bureau's D.C. headquarters. He was responsible for operations related to
counterintelligence, counterterrorism, security and espionage. Among the many
cases he worked on was the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst by the
Symbionese Liberation Army, a guerrilla group.
He also was one of the managers who handled Morris Childs, a disillusioned
member of the American Communist Party who during the Cold War became a
double agent for the FBI and penetrated the highest levels of the Kremlin.
Mr. Wannall's book "The Real J. Edgar Hoover, For the Record" was published
in 2000.
Walter Raymond Wannall Jr. was born and raised in Washington. He was a
graduate of McKinley Technical High School.
In 1942, he received a law degree from what is now the law school at Catholic
University. That same year, he entered the FBI as a special agent. During the
1940s and '50s, he worked on the bureau's Middle East intelligence desk.
He held life memberships in several professional organizations, including the
National Intelligence Study Center, and was a past chairman and president of the
Association of Former Intelligence Officers.
Mr. Wannall served on the boards of other organizations, including America's
Future Inc. and the Maldon Institute, a group that analyzes information presented
in the news media. He also lectured at the Alexandria-based Centre for
Counterintelligence and Security Studies.
Survivors include his wife of 70 years, Gertrude Crane Wannall of Sykesville;
two children, W. Raymond Wannall III of Gwynn Oak, Md., and Anne W. Hart
of Woodstock, Md.; a brother, former U.S. Senate sergeant at arms William H.
Wannall of Tallahassee, Fla.; two grandsons; and three great-granddaughters.
--- Emma Brown
Wednesday, February 9, 2011; 8:22 PM
W. Raymond Wannall, who headed the FBI's intelligence division under J. Edgar
Hoover and later became the bureau's assistant director, died Jan. 29 of
pneumonia at Fairhaven, a retirement community in Sykesville, Md. He was 92.
Mr. Wannall spent more than three decades with the FBI before retiring in 1976.
For all but five years of his career, he worked in the intelligence division at the
bureau's D.C. headquarters. He was responsible for operations related to
counterintelligence, counterterrorism, security and espionage. Among the many
cases he worked on was the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst by the
Symbionese Liberation Army, a guerrilla group.
He also was one of the managers who handled Morris Childs, a disillusioned
member of the American Communist Party who during the Cold War became a
double agent for the FBI and penetrated the highest levels of the Kremlin.
Mr. Wannall's book "The Real J. Edgar Hoover, For the Record" was published
in 2000.
Walter Raymond Wannall Jr. was born and raised in Washington. He was a
graduate of McKinley Technical High School.
In 1942, he received a law degree from what is now the law school at Catholic
University. That same year, he entered the FBI as a special agent. During the
1940s and '50s, he worked on the bureau's Middle East intelligence desk.
He held life memberships in several professional organizations, including the
National Intelligence Study Center, and was a past chairman and president of the
Association of Former Intelligence Officers.
Mr. Wannall served on the boards of other organizations, including America's
Future Inc. and the Maldon Institute, a group that analyzes information presented
in the news media. He also lectured at the Alexandria-based Centre for
Counterintelligence and Security Studies.
Survivors include his wife of 70 years, Gertrude Crane Wannall of Sykesville;
two children, W. Raymond Wannall III of Gwynn Oak, Md., and Anne W. Hart
of Woodstock, Md.; a brother, former U.S. Senate sergeant at arms William H.
Wannall of Tallahassee, Fla.; two grandsons; and three great-granddaughters.
--- Emma Brown