Jane Wallis Burrel | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 22, 1911 Dubuque, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | January 6, 1948 (aged 36) Paris–Le Bourget Airport Paris, France |
| Cause of death | Plane crash |
| Education | Smith College |
| Occupation | US intelligence officer |
| Employer(s) | Office of Strategic Services, X-2 Counter Espionage Branch, Central Intelligence Agency |
| Known for | First CIA officer to be killed in the line of service |
| Spouse |
David Burrell
(m. 1933; sep. 1946) |
| Parent |
|
Jane Wallis Burrell (September 22, 1911 – January 6, 1948) was an American intelligence officer during World War II and the early part of the Cold War. She studied in the US, Canada and France in the 1930s and traveled widely in Europe. Wallis Burrell later became a housewife before joining the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a clerk in 1943. Her work in photographic analysis was commended and she was chosen to join the new X-2 Counter Espionage Branch. She transferred to London in December 1943 and followed the Sixth United States Army Group to France and Germany in the following years. Wallis Burrell's work with double agents helped to deceive German forces prior to the liberation of Brest, France.
After the German surrender she tracked down and interrogated Nazi officials and recovered counterfeit gold currency. She worked for the OSS's successor organizations, the Strategic Services Unit and the Central Intelligence Group before joining the Central Intelligence Agency on its establishment in September 1947. While flying back to Paris from Belgium on official business in January 1948 her plane crashed and she was killed, becoming the first CIA officer to be killed in the line of service.