Police: Ga. author who claimed to be CIA assassin in book kills self in accidental shooting

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Police in west Georgia say an Army Reserve intelligence officer who wrote a 2007 memoir claiming he had been a CIA assassin has died after accidentally shooting himself.

Coweta County sheriff's deputies found 58-year-old Roland Haas late Saturday lying behind his car on the side of the road about a quarter-mile from his home. Police say a handgun Haas was carrying fired accidentally and the bullet severed a large artery in his thigh.

Haas wrote a 2007 book titled "Enter the Past Tense: My Secret Life as a CIA Assassin." He claimed in the memoir to have assassinated international drug dealers for the CIA during the Cold War.

His wife, Marilyn Haas, said Wednesday her husband was a patriotic hero. But several former CIA officers claim Haas' book was a fabrication.