John Stockwell, the 88-year-old former CIA officer known for writing a tell-all book about the agency, was found dead in Austin following an extensive search, according to the Travis County sheriff\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The office issued the alert for Stockwell at about 1:30 a.m. June 13 after he was reported missing. He was last seen walking near the 3000 block of\u00a0 Wickham Lane\u00a0on June 12, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The alert was discontinued June 14 after search crews found him dead in a wooded area near his neighborhood, spokesperson Kristen Dark said.<\/p>\n
Dark said the search involved Travis County sheriff\u2019s deputies, sheriff\u2019s office K-9 units, Texas Search and Rescue K-9 teams and boats, Texas game wardens in boats, sheriff\u2019s office drones and aerial assistance from Austin police Air 1 unit and Star Flight.<\/p>\n
The Travis County sheriff\u2019s office continues to investigate Stockwell\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with all investigations into unnatural deaths, every possibility is considered by detectives,\u201d Dark said in an email. \u201cSo far, the investigation has not revealed any signs of foul play.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case will remain open until investigators receive final autopsy results, which are still pending. The sheriff\u2019s office has not released a cause of death.<\/p>\n
Beyond the search that drew local attention in Austin, Stockwell was known nationally as a former CIA officer who later became one of the agency\u2019s most prominent critics.<\/p>\n
He was born Aug. 27, 1937, in Brazoria, Texas, and received his bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of Texas in 1959 before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stockwell spent years with the CIA and served as chief of the agency\u2019s Angola Task Force during the mid-1970s, according to The New York Times. After leaving the agency in 1977, he publicly criticized covert U.S. operations and wrote \u201cIn Search of Enemies,\u201d a book detailing his experiences with the CIA.<\/p>\n
After leaving the CIA, Stockwell returned to Austin to write. He published the novel \u201cRed Sunset\u201d in 1982 and a collection of essays titled \u201cThe Praetorian Guard: The U.S. Role in the New World Order\u201d in 1991.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Stockwell, the 88-year-old former CIA officer known for writing a tell-all book about the agency, was found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-351954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}