Heribert von Feilitzsch grew up in Germany, only yards from the East German border, the "Iron Curtain." In 1988 he came to the United States as a student. Fascinated with the Mexican-American border, he pursued a Masters Degree in Latin-American History with focus on Mexican-German-American relations at the University of Arizona. The Mexican-American border, devoid of self-shooting machines and mine fields, still constitutes a barrier that divides two cultures, two distinct national identities, and creates a complicated economic and political framework worth studying. While pursuing a business career in later years and adding an MBA from Wake Forest University, he remained committed to writing about the Mexican-American border. After decades years of painstaking original research in the U.S., Mexico, England, and Germany, von Feilitzsch authored four books the German secret service in the United States between 1908 and 1917, as well as a multi-volume history about the FBI before and during World War I.