"deer gun" I gave you about 30 years ago? ~JDL
H. Keith Melton is a man of espionage. He is the author of more than 25 nonfiction works on covert activities (including The Ultimate Spy Book ) and by far the world’s largest private collector of spy memorabilia . Even his spectacular Boca Raton house has the air of hiding secrets. Nestled at the end of a prosperous but rather generic cul-de-sac in a gated south Florida subdivision, Melton’s house hardly stands out at curbside from the neighborhood. But looks, as any clandestine operative knows, can be creatively deceiving.
To meet the 68-year-old author in his lair is to be ushered not just into his home but also into his powerful preoccupations. The room where we meet, for instance, was once a staid ballroom. No longer: The walls, the ceilings, even the wet bar are honed from gleaming, hand-hammered stainless steel stretching across 1,350 square feet. Metal craftsmen, recruited from the commercial side of the construction trade, fashioned the bolts holding the silvery sheets in place from the same metal. “The design inspiration for this room is the nose cone of a zeppelin,” Melton informs me, as we sink into plush black leather chairs designed after those that once graced Walt Disney‘s office.
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