 At age 10, Reisden was discovered by Count Leo von Loewenstein, a wealthy Austrian aristocrat and diplomat who was looking for children with just such an uncertain background whom he could raise to spy on upper crust radicals.Reisden was given a new identity as Baron Alexander von Reisden, the son of an Austrian couple who emigrated to Africa and then died.Having forgotten his earlier identity as Richard Knight, he was educated as an Austrian aristocrat and juvenile spy.