New-York tribune., 1918-06-14
u. S. Officer
Is Seized as
TeutonAgent
Prussian at Fort slocum
Former Aid Of Prop
agandists

Oscar Titus, Prussian, formerly .
soldier of the Kaiser, an associate Of
jeremiah A. OLeary and an intimate
Of Bernstorff, Boy-Ed and the other
high priests Of German propaganda
here, was found in the United States
army yesterday by the Army Intel
ligence Bureau. Under the name of
Ralph F. Chatillon he had risen to the
rank Of lieutenant since his enlistment,
six months ago. Day before yesterday
he was stationed at Fort Slocum. Yes
terday he was in Raymond Street jail,
charged with espionage.
Lieutenant Chatillon is only the most
recent Of Titus's aliases. During the
fourteen years he has spent in this
country he has travelled the devious
paths he took to gain q livelihood as
Raoul de Chatil!on and Oscar de Cha
tillon, as we'll as under the names
already mentioned.
The Prussian has changed his ma
tionality, his calling, and even the color
of his hair, almost as often as he has
swapped names.
Has Had Many Occupations
He has been a grocer's boy, a re-
porter for German newspapers, press
agent for pro-German enterprises. He
has also, the intelligence officers be-
lieve, held more obscure though profit
able positions through his intimacy
with Bernstorff, Boy-Ed, Won Papen
and DR.. Dernburg.
Titus was twenty-four when he came
to the United States from Nordhausen.
Prussia, after finishing his term in the
German army. He was unable to speak
English when he arrived and was en-
ployed by one Landreck, German
grocer, Of Twenty-eighth Street and
Lexington Avenue, as delivery boy.
It was while he was working at this
humble calling that he appropriated
the grandiose title Of Oscar de Cha
tillon.
In 1905 Titus changed his name, no
tionality hair and job. He became
Roaul dc Chatillon. Of Wurtemberg,
and after dyeing his red hair brown
sought and obtained place on the
editorial staff of the "New Yorker
Staatszeitung
Only a few months thereafter he
went over to the German Herold" as
reporter OF the doings Of German So
cicties. and through his winning man.
ner, combined with unlimited self-as-
surance, soon became favorite among
the members of the numerous vereins.
BY this time he had put behind him
for good and all his grocery past, and
posed as a student Of medical science
sometimes as a German chemist
who was studying in the United States.
It was through the connections es-
tablished by his reportorial work that
he met in this year and married Bo-
hemian girl. Three years later he left
her. She sued him and he was or
War Brought Prosperity
The small wage that he was earning
made this difficult, but he managed to
scrape along until the outbreak Of the
war in Europe brought him prosperity.
Soon after the conflict began "Chat-
illon" spruced up in, dress and began
to take a lively part in the German
social events in New York. He was
vociferous in his loyalty to the Kaiser,
and when Leo Erier came from Ger
many to organize the Deutsehwehr-an
organisation for the collection of
jewelry and trinkets for the benefit Of
the Fatherland--"Chatii became
his press agent, at SIS day.
At this time he could not have been
earning more than $45 q week. includ-
ing his newspaper salary. Time and
again, 1t Is said, he spent double that
amount in one riotous night along
Broadway. Perhaps it was for this