Peter Rhodes

Who is Peter Rhodes?

Peter Christopher Rhodes was an American journalist born in Manila. FBI files note a discrepancy between his date of birth and that given to the Selective Service Commission. Rhodes early background information is among extensive redactions in his FBI file.

Rhodes parents were divorced in 1914 and remarried in 1915. Christof Beutinger, Rhodes father, was shot and killed in his home in 1916, and Rhodes mother, who worked in British intelligence, was tried in his death. Rhodes mother maintained it was self-defense, and was acquitted. She later changed her name back to "Rhodes", her maiden name.

Peter Rhodes received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1933 and a M.A. in 1934. He received a graduate fellowship to Oxford, England, and studied there until 1936.

In 1936 Rhodes was employed by the New York Herald Tribune in Paris. In 1937 Rhodes worked for United Press as a war correspondent in Paris, working in Spain and Norway in succeeding months.

In 1940, as the Norwegian campaign unfolded, Rhodes covered the battle of Narvik and then escaped to the United States, via Sweden and Russia. He then was assigned to London where he remained during the London blitz.

Rhodes returned to the New York and began employment with the federal government in the Foreign Broadcasting Monitoring Service of the Federal Communications Commission at a good salary. In February the FBI, while surveiling Jacob Golos, head of the secret apparatus of the CPUSA followed Golos to Rhodes' apartment in New York. Golos attached much significance to Rhodes' work.