ADVENTURE WRITER IS LOST IN SEA CRASH MYSTERY OFF MOROCCO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700090001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 16, 2006
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 24, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For ReleasJMA . MI M-P75-
NOV 2 4 1964
STATI NTL
'Adventure Writer.-Is Lost in
Sea Crash Mystery Off Morocco.
By PHILIP H. DOUGHERTY
Holly Roth, a prolific Amer,
.can writer of intrigue and ad-
venture stories, is missing and
presumed dead after a myst-
rions sea accident off Morocco.
The case involving the New
York-born novelist, who also
wrote under the name of K. G.
Ballard and P. J. Merrill and
.sold to both television and the
movies, had elements that might
have made material for one of
her works: .. I
9A trip from Gibraltar to
the Canary Islands aboard a
ketch named Visa.
11 A shi
A th
An
th
t
p
-----
e
a
t I
I
b
th
ht
i
a""
"?Cal
oa
n
e n
g
. Next he went to the radio, hei
and sailed on, said and finally raised Radio
'I A. reported Central Intelli- ;
fence Agency dossier. - Safi, About noon the Santa-Af
The accident was reported to ricana; a Spanish fishing Craw-
ter, hove to, put two men aboard;
th
M
th
iti
b
e
oroccan au
y
or
es
the
Visa and took het in tow to
the 48-year-old writer's hus-'Safi
ban((, Joseph Franta, a 36-year.
old Czech who travels 'under a;RoMiss Roth's brother, .. Frank re-
Swiss passport. They were mar- ?v of Springfield, N.J a's
ceived a copy of Mr. , Franta
ricd four years ago. statement along t5...r.. -1A rl.. tr1 . .. / g with a "Pre=
ar, sow o a ay
slid "The Crimson In the
Purple."
A;s K. G. Ballard sh wrote
"Bnr Sinister" a.nci ."The Coast
of Fear:" "The Slender Thread"
wa.? under the name.P. J. Mere
rill.
.On television her Work has
appeared on the Kraft Mystery
Theater and bn Moment P
Fear. Two of her workii. have'
been bought for motion picturle ,
about 20 miles
north
of Safi , ,of an American Citizen" siened ' u : ~teft?1, ~: r1 ~ 1~p ! e
he
w
~ Ji~f~1 Sr4! jp
GJl(1r1IY lFN &~+~!+..
The New York Times Nov. 24, 1964
Cross shows where writer
vanished from sailboat.
life-jacketed form in the water. vice consul, lists the cause of
He called again; no reply. death as "accidental, presumed
The ketch, was running under lost at sea and drowned. " It
g lists the name as Helen Holly
motor and sail and he steered Roth-Franta, and her last
toward the spot and threw out United States address as 171
a buoy, he said. The line fouled West ''71st Street.
the propeller. He tied a line to Mr.1Roth,said yesterday that
himself, he went on, leaped into, that was the address of their
mother, Mrs. Benjamin Roth,
the heavy swells, but could not who now lives ip Baldwin Park,
find his wife, whom he supposed a Kuburb of Los Angeles. Miss
to be unconcious.. He returned Roth/ had lived at 308 West
to the ship, tied a longer rope 75th Street, he said.
to himself and jumped back in One of Miss l .oth's most re-
agein. Still no success. cent books, "Too Many Doc-
Exhausted, he climbed back tors, published by Random
s House undo her maiden name,
on the Visa, and fired flar gg concerned violence at, sea. She
and a gun in a vain attempt to also wrote "The Van Dreisen
attract fishing boats that he said Aff 1 " /1Sh d f L A "
Casablanca,
Mr. Roth, who operates a
rare-coin shop in Jersey City,
said ' he last saw his sister In'
1060, just before she 'married'
Mr. Franta. She had met him,
her brother said, in Geneva,
where he was with the Interna-
tional Labor Organization.
The ketch, vtr. Roth said, was
built in 1912 in Norway, weighs:
25 tons and was bought by Mr.
Franta in 1960 for $8,500. He
said it was later. put into the
name of his sister, who spent
$20,000 in renovating it. Mr.;
Roth said his sister had been,
living in Paris and Majorca. for
several years. During the last;
year, he said, the couple lived
aboard the ketch.
In. a letter to her brother;
making coffee while his wife
was standing watch. It was
about 4 A.M. He felt a strong
dated March 30, 1964, Miss
Roth wrote that her husband
shock that knocked him against was Navin difficulty, getting;,
into th ted St
t
She
a
s.
a wall, he said. He went topside
said the .LA was blackballing
and . saw a grayish ship about him and W lengthy file on
145 feet long moving away. He him. -' ,
called his wife, he said, but got The report: from Casablanca;
no reply: He thought >}la saw: a ptgxted by. Robert 0. Adam, ?the
Approved For Release 2006/11/16: CIA-RDP75-00149R0007000900.01-8