Turrou was born in Kobryn, Russia (later Poland, now Belarus). He was orphaned as an infant and adopted by a wealthy tradesman. He spent much of his youth travelling around the world living in Egypt, India, China, Japan and Australia. He attended schools in Warsaw, Cairo, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Berlin and London. On March 12, 1913 Turrou arrived at Ellis Island aboard the SS Bremen. In New York he sold newspapers and did various odd jobs. In 1916 he left for France and joined a Polish unit of the French Foreign Legion. While recovering from battle wounds in a Paris hospital he met Teresa Zakrzewski, from Zahacie, Poland (now Belarus). He followed her to China, where she, at that time, lived with her parents, and married. They had a son, Edward, in 1918. Turrou was hired by the Chinese Eastern Railway as a translator and Theresa, whose parents had gone to Siberia, went there to give birth to their second child, Victor (1919). Turrou remained in China.

In the chaos of the Russian civil war, Turrou became separated from his family. With the border closed he was unable to communicate with Theresa. His inquiries at the American Counsel indicated everyone in the little village where she was living had been massacred by the Bolsheviks. Turrou gave his family up for dead. He decided to return to the United States. For a time he worked as a salesman but on April 20, 1920 enlisted in the US Marine Corps. While a Marine he petitioned to become a naturalized US citizen (April 29, 1921), at the same time changing his name from Turovsky to Turrou. He was assigned to USMC HQ in Washington, DC where he translated documents for the Historical Section. Later he was selected for a special mission in France and Belgium to map battlefields where Marines had fought. One of the officers he worked for in Europe, Captain Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr. wrote him a testimonial. (Shepherd later became USMC Commandant, 1952- 1955.) Turrou was discharged in May 1921 for disability, “not in the line of duty and not as result of misconduct, character excellent”. He returned to Europe and joined the American Relief Administration (ARA) serving in Soviet Russia as a translator (chiefly in Moscow) from October 1921 until February 1923.

Over the next nine years Turrou participated in a variety of investigations including bankruptcy, extortion, sabotage and prostitution cases. He played prominent roles in high profile cases, the Lindbergh Kidnapping (1932), the Kansas City Massacre (1933) and the Nazi Spy Ring (1938).

Lt Col Turrou served as president of La Confédération Interalliée des Officiers de Réserve (The Interallied Confederation of Reserve Officers) from 1960 – 1962. He spent most of the rest of his life living in Paris, France, where he was the long-time commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Turrou died on 10 December, 1986, at the age of 91. He is buried on the outskirts of Paris at the Neuilly-sur-Seine New Communal Cemetery, Rue de Vimy, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com