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HUNT'S CIA assignment in 1953 was the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala - Project PB SUCCESS. HUNT worked closely with DAVID PHILLIPS on this operation. DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on October 31, 1922 - a spook who was born on Halloween. He attended Texas Christian University and worked as an actor until World War II intervened. PHILLIPS served as a nose gunner in the Army Air Corps. He was shot down over Austria, but returned to the Allied lines after twice escaping from German prison camps. In 1948 PHILLIPS married an airline stewardess and, with a $200 a month option on a play he had written that was never produced, he and his bride decided to go to Chile to live cheaply. In Chile he purchased Latin America's oldest English-language newspaper, The South Pacific Mail. Because of this he was approached by the CIA and asked to pose as Chief of Station in Santiago, Chile, so that the CIA could observe the extent of KGB surveillance. PHILLIPS told The Washington Post: "I was to be a 'dangle.' Word was to be leaked out in Chile that I was chief of American intelligence there. Sure enough, a KGB agent soon began to cultivate me. I was at the time being paid $50 a month for my services. When that Soviet showed up it occurred to me I should be getting more." [Washington Post 7.2.75] PHILLIPS career with the CIA began in Chile on February 1, 1951 when he took a job as a contract agent at $600 per month with a term that ended February 28, 1951. He again entered on duty on January 25, 1952 and was paid $6,000 per year with a term that ended on August 31, 1953. On March 4, 1954 PHILLIPS entered on duty as a Contract Employee at $7200 per year. On August 1, 1954 his pay was increased to $8360 per year with a term ending March 31, 1955. At this time PHILLIPS was HUNT'S Deputy Chief for Propaganda and he left Chile to become, according to Who's Who, "a lecturer on Latin America." THE OVERTHROW OF JACOBO ARBENZ 1954 Jacobo Arbenz, a professional Army officer, was the son of a Swiss father who migrated to Guatemala. In 1944 Jacobo Arbenz took part in a military coup against General Jorge Ubico. Dissatisfied with a successor of Jorge Ubico, Jacobo Arbenz participated in another coup and became a member of the subsequently installed Junta. Jacobo Arbenz was made the ranking officer in the Guatemalan Army in 1949, after his chief rival was ambushed and assassinated. The chauffeur of Jacobo Arbenz, and later his secretary, was credited with the murder. Jacobo Arbenz ran for President in 1950. During the election campaign his main rival, General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, went into hiding under threat of arrest. Five days before Jacobo Arbenz was elected President through massive vote fraud in November 1950, Colonel Carlos Castillo-Armas headed an unsuccessful revolt against him. Carlos Castillo-Armas was badly wounded and thrown into prison. Jacobo Arbenz took office in March 1951. The following summer Carlos Castillo-Armas tunneled his way out of prison and left the country. President Arbenz declared a partial state of siege in 1951, allegedly to control the dispatches of unfriendly foreign correspondents. Arbenz also tried to institute land reforms; the United Fruit Company, the country's biggest employer, was outraged when he expropriated 225,000 acres of its property. The profits of United Fruit began to drop when labor unions demanded $2.50 a day for each worker, instead of $1.36. [Business Week 4.30.55] During the early 1950's, United Fruit was a symbol of American economic imperialism. The term "Banana Republic" had its roots in the domination by United Fruit of Central and South American governments. Jacobo Arbenz turned frequently to the Communists to maintain his power. By 1954 they were running Guatemala. President Eisenhower, Vice President NIXON and the other National Security Council members called for the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz. In the Spring of 1954, the USSR began covertly supplying the Guatemalan regime with arms, hidden aboard a Swedish freighter, in unmarked boxes. When the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Allen Dulles, received news of this shipment, the fate of Jacobo Arbenz was sealed.
HUNT'S VERSION In his autobiography, Undercover, HUNT recalled that he recommended the ouster of Jacobo Arbenz shortly after he was elected, but his superiors at the CIA refused to act until Arbenz threatened the profits of United Fruit. Then, according to HUNT, the lawyer who represented United Fruit, Ernest Cuneo, pressured the CIA leadership into taking action against Arbenz. PHILLIPS described the chain of command in the Arbenz operation as follows: the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Allen Dulles; then Director /Plans Richard Bissell; then Deputy Director/Plans Frank Wisner and his subordinate Tracy Barnes; then Colonel J.C. King, Chief /Western Hemisphere Division; then himself and HUNT. TRACY BARNES Tracy Barnes graduated from Harvard Law School and practiced with Carter, Ledyard & Milburn. [Weyden Bay of Pigs p39] During the war, Tracy Barnes joined the OSS and worked with Allen Dulles in attempting to arrange a secret surrender of the Nazis in Italy in 1945. In February 1951 he joined the CIA. He became Deputy Director of the Psychological Strategy Board during the Korean war. Tracy Barnes served as Chief of Station of the CIA in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1954 to 1956, and London Chief of Station from 1957 to 1959. Tracy Barnes was a relative of Nelson Rockefeller. Nelson Rockefeller's Latin American interests had been endangered by Arbenz. Nelson Rockefeller joined the Eisenhower Administration from 1953 to 1954 as a Special Consultant, Assistant for Cold War Strategy. Tracy Barnes chose HUNT and PHILLIPS for the Arbenz operation, which was given a semi-autonomous status. HUNT was posted to Miami. In 1954 the CIA approached Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, then an anti-Arbenz exile living in El Salvador. In My War With Communism, Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes wrote: "A former United Fruit Company executive...came to see me with two gentlemen whom he introduced as CIA agents. They said I was a popular figure in Guatemala and they wanted to lend me their assistance to overthrow Arbenz. When I asked for the conditions for the assistance I found them unacceptable. Among other things I was asked to favor the United Fruit Company..." Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes agreed to support the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz but, according to HUNT, "It had been decided at the State Department that Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes was a 'right-wing reactionary'...and so the CIA's support was put behind Colonel Carlos Castillo-Armas." On January 29, 1954, Jacobo Arbenz charged that Carlos Castillo-Armas and Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes were receiving assistance, in their joint effort to overthrow him, from Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza. Anastasio Somoza allowed anti-Arbenz forces to use an island off the Nicaraguan coast as a base of operations. American soldiers-of-fortune, working as CIA contract employees, were the flyers of the Guatemalan rebel air force. On the morning of the planned invasion a meeting took place among President Eisenhower, the Dulles brothers, and Joint Chiefs of Staff representatives, during which President Eisenhower asked if they were sure the operation would succeed. Assured that it would, President Eisenhower responded: "I'm prepared to take any steps that are necessary to see that it succeeds." [Ross & Wise Inv. Gov. p176] On June 18, 1954, Carlos Castillo-Armas and his army crossed the Honduran border into Guatemala. His CIA-sponsored air force had just bombed San José, a large Guatemalan port city. The troops of Carlos Castillo-Armas dug in just inside the Guatemalan border, where they waited for further air strikes. After the forces of Jacobo Arbenz took out most of CIA's exile air force, the CIA immediately resupplied them with new aircraft. Under constant air attack, Jacobo Arbenz began to panic. On June 22, 1954, Guatemalan Government forces began an unsuccessful drive to dislodge the forces of Carlos Castillo-Armas. At the front, CIA-recruited members of the Army of Jacobo Arbenz, at the request of DAVID PHILLIPS, sent back messages to him that they were being overwhelmed by the troops of Carlos Castillo-Armas. PHILLIPS also set up a clandestine radio station in Mexico, the "Voice of Liberation" which pretended to be broadcasting from within Guatemala and orchestrated false reports about legions of rebels who didn't exist and major battles that never took place. Under such a propaganda barrage, on June 25, 1954, Jacobo Arbenz resigned and took asylum in the Mexican Embassy. On July 8, 1954, a Guatemalan military junta elected Carlos Castillo-Armas President. In August Castillo-Armas suspended all civil liberties. Soon he restored to United Fruit the land seized by Jacobo Arbenz. Jacobo Arbenz lived in exile until June 27, 1971, when he was found dead in his bathtub in Mexico City at age 57. Officials listed the cause of death as drowning due to a heart attack. Jacobo Arbenz had been under treatment for a stomach ailment. [Immerman, R. CIA in Guatemala pp. 139-140; NYT 1.28.71] La Prensa, the newspaper of Buenos Aires, reported: "The death of Jacobo Arbenz still has not become clear. Jacobo Arbenz was found asphyxiated and drowned in his bathtub, covered by boiling water. According to the police, the body was horribly burned by hot water and an autopsy was needed to determine the cause of death. The police indicated that Arbenz did not spend much time in the bathtub and the door to the bathroom was locked. They had to break it down to enter." In 1955 Allen Dulles dispatched the former adversary of Arbenz, Ambassador John E. Peurifoy, to Bangkok, Thailand. There, John E. Peurifoy and his son were killed in a head-on collision with a heavy truck in 1956. HOWARD HUNT believed his death was the revenge of the Communists. [Immerman, R. CIA in Guatemala p253] Author Thomas Powers reported that two Guatemalans who worked closely with DAVID PHILLIPS on a clandestine radio transmitter, known as the Voice of Liberation, were assassinated in 1957. Ché Guevara took asylum with Jacobo Arbenz. It took him a month to get out of Guatemala. Author Thomas Powers reported: "PHILLIPS was in Guatemala searching through captured documents, and opened a CIA file on Guevara."
THE ILLNESS OF DR. JUAN CORDOVA CERNA In Give Us This Day HUNT related that the CIA had initially favored a pre-eminent jurist and coffee grower, Juan Cordova Cerna, to head the post-Arbenz regime: "I thought back to the period before the overthrow of Colonel Arbenz when the CIA was treating with three exiled leaders: Colonel Castillo Armas, Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna, and Colonel Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes. As a distinguished and respected jurist, Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna had my personal vote as provisional president; our paramilitary people, however, were impressed with Castillo Armas' qualities as a military leader, and State had vetoed Ydigoras Fuentes as authoritarian. I remembered meeting secretly with Juan Cordova Cerna in a room in the Mexico City YMCA, and how at a critical time in the pre-invasion maneuvering, he had been forced to enter the Ochsner Clinic for cancer surgery. With his hospitalization, the possibility of civilian leadership ended, and Colonel Armas was selected to carry though. Chance, then, as it so often does, played the decisive role in the destiny of a nation." In Undercover, HUNT recounted that Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna "reluctantly had left Guatemala for New Orleans. There, it was discovered that he suffered from throat cancer and treatment was begun at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans." [HUNT Undercover p97] PHILLIPS wrote: "One facet of CIA planning had gone awry in a development beyond control - the moderate civilian who was groomed to become the interim President contracted a fatal illness." [PHILLIPS Nightwatch p53] PHILLIPS was asked "Do you have any knowledge about how Juan Cordova came to contract the disease, cancer?" He answered: "No, I do not know." ANALYSIS Did Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna really have HUNT'S personal vote? HUNT wrote: "It had been decided at the State Department Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes was a right-wing reactionary." In the past, HUNT favored political figures who had been labeled "right-wing reactionaries" by the State Department. For example, he described his friend Pedro Diaz Lanz as one of those labeled a right-wing reactionary. Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna would not have conformed to HUNT'S vision of a post-Arbenz government. Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna, a candidate for election in 1950, was a former legal advisor for the United Fruit Company. Washington lobbyist Tom Corcoran, an associate of Ernest Cuneo, called Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna "the liberal" among the exiles. Ché Guevara wrote his followers: "Keep in contact and be united with groups around Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna...because they represent valuable allies and should not be despised." [Fuentes, My War with Communism p146] After Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, HUNT'S next logical choice should have been Castillo Armas. Had HUNT poisoned Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna during their meeting, to thwart the wish of the State Department to make him the head of the post-Arbenz Guatemalan government? Could the cancer of Juan Cordova Cerna have had some relation to the Ochsner Clinic? Was the Clinic unwittingly or wittingly CIA-penetrated? No credible evidence of this exists as of 1996, however some interesting documents have been released regarding Alton Ochsner. Dr. Alton Ochsner (born May 4, 1896; died August 1981), the founder of the Ochsner Clinic, had prestigious credentials and was the past president of the American Cancer Society. Alton Ochsner was part of the New Orleans anti-Communist community which included David Ferrie and his associate, William Guy Banister. Ochsner was linked to FBI Agent WARREN C. DeBRUEYS through the New Orleans Crime Commission in 1967. Alton Ochsner was linked to OSWALD through these men. Carlos De La Vega, a Cuban exile, was director of Latin American Relations of the Ochsner Foundation. Carlos De La Vega was under a special State Department contract to act as a bodyguard for foreign dignitaries. [Memo Martin to Garrison 3.31.67] Dr. Alton Ochsner was a consultant to the U.S. Air Force "on the medical side of subversive matters," and a personal friend of the Somoza family. [Scott, Beyond Conspiracy p649] In April 1993, Dr. Alton Ochsner's son, Alton Ochsner Jr., was asked: "Did your dad know guys like Ferrie and that crew? Freedom fighter types?" He replied: "Yeah, he knew about anybody who might have been labeled an anti-communist. My dad was a strong anti-communist and he believed in all these things. He knew all the local people who were on trial or involved in the Garrison investigation. Now he and Ed Butler thought OSWALD was involved in a communist conspiracy. I don't think they thought this was the CIA at that time. "My daddy was an ambassador without portfolio to Central America, and particularly Nicaragua. He went down there...he was a professor of surgery at Tulane and some of the most distinguished Latin American citizens were the doctors. Some trained under him at Tulane, so he had a close connection with them. Some became government leaders. And he went down there several times, not as an ambassador, but as a doctor...he probably knew, or met, the fellow that came up to the Ochsner Clinic [Dr. Juan Cordova Cerna]. He came up to the clinic because of my dad's connection with those people, but I don't know specifically who took care of that patient or whether my dad was actually doing it..." Dr. Ochsner was asked if his father had ever been approached by the CIA: "Yeah, some Argentinean colonel contacted my dad and said there was a Argentinean, he wouldn't say his name, that needed my dad's medical attention. He asked him to come down and see him, because for political reasons the man couldn't leave the country. Shortly before my dad saw that fella, the CIA visited my dad, and said 'Are you going down to see Peron?' And he said, 'I don't know who I am going to see'...He went down there and it was Juan Peron, he had a vascular occlusion of his leg. He needed a particular kind of surgery the Argentineans hadn't perfected. My dad was hesitant to do it in Argentina and, unfortunately, it was not politically right for Peron to leave Argentina. He entertained my dad royally." ALTON OCHSNER AND THE CIA The CIA reported: "Dr. Ochsner was of contact interest in October 1947 and November 1948. He has been a cleared source since May 13, 1955. The last official contact with Dr. Ochsner personally occurred on January 8, 1962, and with the Ochsner Clinic on November 8, 1963." Another CIA document read: May 17, 1968 SUBJECT: Ochsner, Alton Alton Ochsner, born May 4, 1896, at Kimball, South Dakota, is Director of the Ochsner Foundation and head of the Ochsner Clinic, New Orleans, Louisiana. He was of contact interest in October 1947 and November 1948. His file indicates no further interest from that time. Another CIA document read: May 31, 1968 MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, CI/RA [Raymond Rocca] ATTENTION: Mr. Kesler SUBJECT: OCHSNER, Edward William Alton aka OCHSNER, Alton BUTLER, Edward S. REFERENCE: Memo dated May 17, 1968, from C/SRS/OS to C/CI/R&A - Subject: Ochsner, Alton. Per your request of May 17, 1968, for additional information on Alton Ochsner that would (deleted) a manual search of Office of Security indices on Ochsner resulted in a record on Edward William Alton Ochsner who is identical to Alton Ochsner. A summary of information contained in Edward William Ochsner's file is attached. Also attached for your information, per request of May 17, 1968, is a summary of Edward S. Butler which had been previously prepared for the information of the Director of Security. Paul F. Gaynor, Chief Security Research Staff/Office of Security. Attachment as stated: SUBJECT: Ochsner, Edward William Alton aka Ochsner, Alton Subject, who was born May 4, 1896, at Kimbell, South Dakota, is the Director of the Ochsner Clinic (Paragraph deleted). His spouse's name was given as Mabel Lockwood Ochsner, born November 8, 1896, at Chicago, Illinois. They were married September 23, 1923, and have four children but the children's names were not listed. There is no information in his file to reflect any connection with the Information Council of the Americas. THE REGIME OF CARLOS CASTILLO-ARMAS Carlos Castillo-Armas proved to be more dogmatically anti-Communist than Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes. Within a week of his taking power, the new government announced that it had arrested 4,000 people for taking part in Communist activity. Within four months, the Carlos Castillo-Armas government registered 72,000 people as Communists and expropriated the property of most of its political foes. It disenfranchised illiterate Guatemalans (more than 70% of the population), among whom the Communists had been influential. Under the Carlos Castillo-Armas government $900 million in aid flowed into Guatemala, largely from the U.S. The Carlos Castillo-Armas regime became inept and scandal-ridden. CIA was dismayed. THE DEATH OF CARLOS CASTILLO-ARMAS On July 26, 1957, President Carlos Castillo-Armas was shot down at about 9:00 p.m. as he and his wife prepared to enter the dining room of the Presidential Palace. He was struck by two bullets, one of which severed his aorta. A communiqué identified the assassin as Romeo Vasquez Sanchez, 20 years old; it said he immediately committed suicide with the same rifle he had used to kill the President. The first authorities to arrive on the scene after the shooting were all military, including the Minister of Defense. The Guatemalan Government described Romeo Vasquez Sanchez as a "Communist fanatic" who was expelled from the Guatemalan Army six months ago for "Communist ideology," but had joined the Presidential Palace Guard. Eight days later, the Guatemalan Government said Romeo Vasquez Sanchez had been dismissed from the Army in June 1955, two years ago. It claimed to have a 40-page handwritten diary in which the assassin referred to "a diabolic plan to put an end to the existence of the man who holds power." The diary read: "I have had the opportunity to study Russian communism. The great nation that is Russia is fulfilling a most important mission in history...the Soviet Union is the first world power in progress and scientific research." The Guatemalan Government claimed to have found evidence on the person of Romeo Vasquez Sanchez that linked him to Moscow. The evidence turned out to be a card from the Latin American service of Radio Moscow that read: "It is our pleasure, dear listener, to engage in correspondence with you. We are very thankful for your regular listening to these programs." When OSWALD was arrested in New Orleans, he had the name of a Radio Moscow commentator on his person. A few days later, the Guatemalan presidential press office gave out photostatic copies of another postcard from Radio Moscow Romeo Vasquez Sanchez had just received. Government investigators linked Romeo Vasquez Sanchez to Moscow-directed Communist plotting, however, no evidence ever turned up that Romeo Vasquez Sanchez was a member of the Guatemalan Communist Party. The death of Carlos Castillo-Armas was then blamed on his enemies within the government. Forty-eight civilians were brought in for questioning and 17 Presidential Guard members were court-martialed. Two privates were sentenced to two-year prison terms for alleged previous knowledge of a plot to kill the President. HUNT: "Now Carlos Castillo-Armas was dead, assassinated by a member of the Presidential bodyguard in whose pocket was found a card from Radio Moscow, and Ydigoras his elected heir. Perhaps, I reflected, the fact of Ydigoras' presidency meant he should have been selected six years earlier." [HUNT Day p119] ANALYSIS The scenario for the Carlos Castillo-Armas assassination was similar to that of the Kennedy assassination. Both assassins were alleged Communists who had no official Communist Party ties. Both assassins were to be killed shortly after the assassination - although there was a two-day delay in OSWALD'S case. Both assassins were supposed to be linked to Moscow - Romeo Vasquez Sanchez via a card from Radio Moscow, OSWALD through defection to Russia and a visit to Cuba. Both men kept diaries. MIGUEL YDIGORAS FUENTES The man who was really HUNT'S first choice, Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, was elected Guatemalan President in 1958 after his defeat in a first election resulted in street riots, strikes, demonstrations and general lawlessness by his supporters. In return for quelling the disturbances, the junta proceeded to nullify the election and hold another. Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes won the second election. Six weeks later, he visited President Eisenhower in Washington, to show he was not the "rightist monster I have been painted." Guatemala was again safe for American investments, and in 1959, Fortune magazine reported that United Fruit was "in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras and is still the largest single private landowner, single largest business and largest corporate employer." The magazine noted that the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, General Walter Bedell Smith, had become a director of the United Fruit Company. [McCann United Fruit p62] YDIGORAS FUENTES IS OUSTED Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes instituted land and tax reforms then allowed Juan José Arévalo, a anti-Communist socialist, to return to Guatemala from exile in Mexico City. Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes believed that the return of Juan José Arévalo would eventually redound to the benefit of Roberto Alejos, whom he was grooming as his successor. Instead, Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes was overthrown and Roberto Alejos arrested. In 1963 Roberto Alejos' candidate for Congressional President, Manuel Orellana Portillo, was arrested on drug charges. [Scott, Deep Pol. p337] The Minister of Defense, Enrique Peralta Azudia, took charge of the government. Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes flew to Nicaragua, where he praised the generals who had removed him from power. After this coup, many leftists were allegedly murdered. No reports of the murders appeared in the press in 1963. Nonetheless in 1976, Andrew St. George, a journalist with CIA contacts, located a Cuban exile who participated in the extermination sweeps. The exile claimed he was flown to Guatemala in a black airplane with no markings, given a gun and a police identification card by Colonel Barrios, the Guatemalan in charge of the operation, then commanded to kill specific leftists. MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD July 25, 1975 SUBJECT: Andrew St. George aka: Andrew Szent Gyorgi SF # 424 122 1. Andrew St. George was first of interest to the Office of Security in December 1949 upon receipt of information of a counter-intelligence nature concerning Soviet intelligence service use of Andrew St. George as an agent in Vienna, Austria, in the mid-1940's. In December 1958 Andrew St. George was of interest to the Western Hemisphere Division for debriefing regarding his knowledge of Castro rebel activities, however, this interest was short-lived, being canceled in January 1959. In January 1960 St. George was of interest to the Domestic Contacts Division as a source of foreign positive intelligence, and he was contacted by 00/Contact Division then and again in February 1962 and March 1964. His wife, Jean St. George, nee: Hoopes (SF #428675) was also of interest to 00/Contact Division in August 1960. (Note: Mrs. St. George is a cousin of former staff employee, Mary F. Wallen, SF # 34 760). 2. For the most part, the St. George file contains information of a counter-intelligence nature and information concerning his writings. There is cross-reference information in the file identifying at least one DDO asset. [CIA MFR 7.25.75; Werbell doc. grp.; FBI 118-5695, 100-347094; FBI 62-5, Serial 44368 UnID; FBI WFO 118-5519 p5; Wall Street Journal 4.18.80] E. HOWARD HUNT: 1955 to 1957 HUNT won a Commendation from Tracy Barnes for his part in PB SUCCESS. As noted by PHILLIPS, "HOWARD HUNT was assigned to the American Embassy in Tokyo" in 1955. In 1955 the Inspector General of the CIA generated several reports regarding the HUNT'S activities in Japan. Some were memorandums by Bruce Solie regarding the employment of Mrs. Hunt at the Argentine Embassy, Tokyo, others concerned "Activities of HUNT and his Wife in Tokyo: HUNT and the Screen Writers Guild and Authors League of America; HUNT'S feeling Towards Communism - Stella Kim." In 1956 HUNT worked on the U-2 project: "I had been involved [with Richard Bissell] in arranging certain landing and takeoff privileges for U-2 aircraft abroad." On June 7, 1956, the CIA generated this Inter-Office Memorandum to File: Subject: Cross References. 1. During processing or review, it has been determined that a possible or actual relationship exists, or may exist, between or among the person listed below: (Deleted) (illegible numbers) #39128, #36992, #37268, #37736, #39772, HUNT HOWARD #23500." HUNT'S assignment in Japan ended in February 1957. 1957 CHIEF OF STATION MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY HUNT was Station Chief in Montevideo, Uruguay from January 1957 to June 1960.On October 22, 1956, Joseph M. Adams, Chief, Official Cover and Liaison, sent a Request For Security Certification to the Chief of the Personnel Security Division regarding HUNT: "It is requested that the appropriate security certification be prepared and forwarded to the (deleted) as soon as possible. This SAC is to be assigned to (deleted) and will depart Washington for PCS on or about March 1, 1957." Tad Szulc reported HUNT secretly organized a plan to overthrow the Uruguayan Government of President Benito Nardone. [Szulc Compulsive Spy p77] When HUNT'S Attorney, Ellis Rubin, asked him to name the source of this information, Szulc said he was unclear on the matter. The CIA created this index card: "HUNT, E. HOWARD CR #160644 *(deleted) Memo for NYFO May 5, 1958 WH Div May 20, 1958 May 5, 1958 for NFO May 20, 1958 for WHO 0595211." FRANK FIORINI STURGIS 1924 TO 1945 It was unclear when FRANK FIORINI'S mother, Mary Vona, was born. In 1945 Mary Vona listed her age as 35 years old on her daughter's birth certificate. That would mean she was born in 1910. Frank Angelo Fiorini wed Mary Vona in 1920 in Norfolk, Virginia; their son, FRANK ANTHONY FIORINI was born on December 9, 1924. STURGIS told the Rockefeller Commission that his father's name was Angelo Anthony Fiorini. STURGIS: "Both of my mother's parents were born in Italy, and both of my father's parents were born in Italy." In 1926 Mary Vona and Frank Angelo Fiorini separated. That year, a half-sister of FRANK FIORINI died at the age of six. FRANK FIORINI moved to the home of his aunt, Kathleen Parsons, in Philadelphia. This dwelling was a former servant's quarters. FRANK FIORINI lived in Philadelphia from 1930 to 1942. In 1939 Mary Vona married Ralph Sturgis. During his deposition in HUNT v. ajweberman, STURGIS was not asked if his stepfather legally adopted him, but the FBI found no indication of this during its investigation. FRANK FIORINI went to Catholic school then attended Roosevelt Junior High School, Philadelphia, and Germantown High School, Philadelphia.. At 16, his I.Q. was 96. After two years of high school, FRANK FIORINI became an apprentice machinist, and worked in a ball bearing factory. STURGIS would later claim that he had "strong leanings to become a Catholic priest." MILITARY SERVICE
STURGIS enlisted in the Marines on October 5, 1942, at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In October 1942 he trained at Parris
Island, South Carolina. His infantry weapons record listed him as a
"sharpshooter."STURGIS was shipped to the Pacific jungles, where, on
March 16, 1943, he volunteered for the Marine's toughest unit, the
First Marine Raider Battalion, First Marine Raider Regiment, First
Marine Amphibious Corps - the legendary Edson's Raiders, where he
was a message center man. STURGIS said he "Went behind enemy lines
and disrupted communications and supply lines, sent back
intelligence information...prisoners if possible." [High Times
Interview] He also served as an Automatic Rifleman and later as a
"Rifle Gr. Lor. STURGIS' mother, nee Mary Vona, divorced Ralph Sturgis and married Almond Kinzell Hulsey, (born January 4, 1913 died April 1974) a 32 year old bus driver for the Miami Transit Company, in 1945. STURGIS told the Norfolk Police Department his mother's name was Mary Hulsey. [FBI 139-4089-146] Hulsey and Mary Vona Fiorini Sturgis had a child: The Navy reported: To Whom This May Concern: June 4, 1945 Subject: Mrs. Mary Fiorini, mother of Corp. FRANK A. FIORINI, USMC. 1. Subject Mrs. Fiorini is a patient under the care of medical officers at this dispensary before and since the delivery of her last baby on February 24, 1945 at the U.S. Naval Dispensary, Miami Beach, Florida. At present she is very much concerned with the care of herself and the infant who is a feeding problem. 2. According to the credited information from Subject, Mrs. Fiorini, and from Navy Relief investigators, she is a dependent-in-fact of her son, Corp. FRANK A. FIORINI, who has served with the Marines overseas for three years and was wounded in action. Her present infant is the child of a civilian who disappeared five and a half weeks after their marriage. She must take care of the child and herself without help, and lives on the dependant's allowance contributed by her son in the Marines. It is therefore natural that she desires that her son be transferred to duty in this locality and she does in fact need assistance which is not otherwise available. At the same time she is very proud of her son, as a Marine, and does not wish him to leave the service." Mary Vona gave birth to Carmela Frances Hulsey. Carmela Frances Hulsey committed suicide on February 9, 1971. [FBI 139-4089-861, 122, 911 w/h] The FBI reported: "The following investigation was conducted by S.A. Joseph O'Brien at Norfolk, Virginia: On August 10, 1972, a photograph of one Carmela Francis Moore, who is described as a white female, date of birth February 24, 1945, 5'3" tall, weighing 103 pounds, blue eyes, blonde hair, was exhibited to Angelo Fiorini, the father of subject FRANK ANTHONY FIORINI. Angelo Fiorini identified this photograph was being a step-sister of subject FIORINI. Angelo Fiorini advised that this girl had accidentally died in the city of Norfolk, Virginia, approximately a year and half ago. Fiorini stated that prior to her death, MOORE, whose maiden named was Hulsey, had been divorced from her husband Michael Moore and had subsequently remarried. Fiorini stated that Francis was born to his former wife Mary, and her second husband, whose name was Hulsey. Fiorini said he did not know what Moore's married name was at the time of her death. Fiorini indicated that Moore used to work as a photographer for one Milton Maser. Maser is deceased, however his business accounts were previously handled by one Herb Levin." Through Levin the FBI was able to determine the Moore had remarried under the name Aubrey. Aubrey's death certificate indicated that she had died on February 9, 1971, by suicide, as Aubrey shot herself. STURGIS: 1945 TO 1956 STURGIS was discharged as a Corporal on October 23, 1945 due to demobilization. Prior to his discharge from the Marines in 1945, STURGIS entered Sun Valley Naval Center, Idaho, because of "exhaustion and possible psychoneurosis" and "somnambulism." STURGIS told High Times Magazine: "I didn't realize that volunteering to join the service would radically change my whole concept of life. I was wounded twice. I received several medals and commendations. My last major operation was in Okinawa. I was sent back from a hospital ship with shell shock, they called it 'psychoneurosis hysteria.' I jumped ship many times to get back to my unit. I couldn't sleep. You see, the rule in the Pacific at that time was that if a man was wounded twice he was sent back to the United States automatically. Well, not only was I wounded twice, I spent over the enlisted time and even volunteered to stay longer." High Times asked: "So they thought you were crazy?" "Well, I'd been in so many battles, I think possibly I was trying to prove something to myself by going into the service - not ever having killed a person in my life, then being trained and brainwashed to kill people in all different aspects of warfare and hand-to-hand combat. Killing people with a knife. Silent killing. I was trained at this and I was very good at it." STURGIS suffered from combat fatigue. STURGIS escaped three times from the Sun Valley Naval Center before he was given a medical release. [Jack Anderson Wash. Post 12.60] He received an Honorable Discharge. STURGIS' home was listed as Miami, Florida, on the Discharge. ANALYSIS STURGIS became a Marine at age 17 and engaged in combat almost immediately. If not for World War II, FRANK STURGIS may have become a priest. STURGIS survived years of intensive combat including Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Guadalcanal, which was located in the Solomon Islands. He loved combat and action. He was in so many battles that eventually he began to show signs of mental instability. BETTY FIORINI In 1945 STURGIS moved to Miami, where he married Nora Odell Thompson, aka Betty Fiorini, born June 13, 1938 at Radford, Virginia. Nora Odell Thompson had a record of arrests for prostitution. The FBI reported: "According to the records of Norfolk, Virginia, Police Department, Thompson was last arrested at that city on August 7, 1953." STURGIS told Robert Olsen of the Rockefeller Commission that "He started getting involved with Cuban people in Miami in about 1945. Carlos Prio was first forced out of Cuba by Batista in 1946. STURGIS' uncle was married to a Cuban woman and was either in exile or was visiting Florida." [RCD Olsen telephone conversation with STURGIS 4.29.75] STURGIS and Nora Odell Thompson moved to Norfolk, Virginia, in June 1946, so that STURGIS could join the Police Force there. He was employed as a Norfolk City Patrolman from June 5, 1946, to September 7, 1946.He quit the Police Department, no reason given, and worked as a bartender and nightclub manager of the Virginia Tavern, in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1949 he was the owner and manager of the Whitehorse Tavern. [Dept. of Navy FOIA req. 5720 ARAD 5U000597 3.14.95 B.L. Thompson; Watergate FBI file on STURGIS] STURGIS was in the United States Naval Reserve at the Norfolk Air Station from November 9, 1947 to August 30, 1948. After receiving an honorable discharge one year later, he joined the United States Merchant Marines in 1950 and traveled to and from Europe. The Norfolk, Virginia, Police Department files reflected that FIORINI was fingerprinted as an applicant for a National Defense Program on January 27, 1950. STURGIS: "I went to Europe in the early 1950's. I was with the Army Security Agency in Heidelberg, Germany, which was EUCOM Headquarters. While I was there I met a young lady with the Israeli Intelligence that I found out later on was a Hungarian actress...I was going to Officer's Candidates School, and I declined on that." [Rock. Comm. Test.] STURGIS told High Times Magazine "Well, I was in Berlin with a soldier friend of mine and we heard some screaming and ruckus that was going on in an alley. We went to investigate because we heard a woman's voice, and we got mixed up with three young Germans and had a nice little battle with them. The girl was pretty well beaten. Later I found out that she was a Hungarian actress, Jewish, and the three Germans belonged to the Nazi youth party that was still operating underground in Germany. Having saved her life I developed a very good relationship with this young lady who started visiting me in the barracks and all. I didn't realize until later that she was the girlfriend of one of the army colonels who was on General Clay's staff. The Colonel found out about us and shipped me out of Berlin. Through a fickle finger of fate I wound up with the Army Security Agency. When I returned to the States, when I was still going with her, I became very suspicious of some of her activities. I found that she was working very hard for the liberation of Israel and I told her I would certainly help her in Israel if I could, because I was very sympathetic to the underdog. I returned to Europe, met her again, and helped her in her activities over a period of years. I assisted her as a courier in some of the work she did for Israel. As the years went by her work became more serious and there were some things I could not do for her. Eventually I lost contact with her, and to this day I don't know whether she is dead or alive." Documents indicated STURGIS was granted a Top Secret clearance and he handled reports from Allied agents in Berlin. STURGIS received a Dependency Discharge from the Army. In 1952 this was changed to an Honorable Discharge. He moved to Miami and found work as a taxi driver. In June 1950 he was arrested for beating Nora Odell Thompson. From 1952 to 1954 STURGIS owned and managed a bar in Virginia Beach, Virginia. On September 23, 1952, STURGIS filed this petition: VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF NORFOLK IN RE: FRANK ANGELO FIORINO PETITION FOR CHANGE OF NAME To the Honorable Clyde H. Jacob, Judge: Your petitioner, FRANK ANGELO FIORINO, respectfully represents the following facts: 1. That he is a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was born in the city of Norfolk, Virginia, on December 9, 1924, and has resided and been domiciled in the City of Norfolk, State of Virginia, since his birth. 2. That he is the son of Mary Fiorino (whose maiden name was Mary Vona) and Angelo Fiorino, and that Mary Fiorino, the Mother of FRANK ANGELO FIORINO, divorced her husband, Angelo Fiorino, about fifteen years ago, and that his Mother married one Ralph Sturgis, and that he has been living with his Mother, ever since birth in the City of Norfolk, State of Virginia. 3. Your petitioner desires to change his name from FRANK ANGELO FIORINO to FRANK ANTHONY STURGIS, for the reason that he has been living with his mother all of his life, and that she is known as Mary Sturgis, and that it is also the desire of his step-father to have his name changed from FRANK ANGELO FIORINO to FRANK ANTHONY STURGIS. (Signed) FRANK ANGELO FIORINO. On September 23, 1952, STURGIS petition was granted. STURGIS was questioned about this name change in the course of HUNT v. ajweberman: Q. Did you use the name STURGIS prior to 1953? A. No. I always used FIORINI. Q. Did you use STURGIS prior to 1953? A. No. No; only when my name was changed because my stepfather, because of my stepfather, his name was Ralph Sturgis. Q. So in 1953, you adopted the name STURGIS legally. A. Yes. Q. And from that time forward you shifted from FIORINI to STURGIS? A. I only use FIORINI on legal matters. Q. Do you remember how old you were when your mother remarried? A. God. I can't remember. I believe she was married either in Carolina, or in Virginia. ANALYSIS This petition contained numerous false statements. First, the name FIORINO instead of FIORINI was used. FRANK signed the document "FIORINO." FRANK was living with a prostitute at the time, not with his mother and father. Ralph Sturgis had either divorced Mary Vona, or left Mary Vona when she became involved with Hulsey and gave birth to his child. By the time STURGIS returned to Norfolk, Ralph Sturgis was long gone, so his story that he wanted to adopt his stepfathers name was totally false. STURGIS told the Rockefeller Commission: "Well, the reason for that was that I felt there were too many Fiorinis, Frank Fiorini especially. I don't know. My mother wanted me to change the name, really, she influenced me to change the name from FIORINI to STURGIS, because she had a bad situation with my father and hated the Fiorini family. So naturally she convinced me, I want you to change your name to STURGIS from FIORINI." On September 20, 1954, Betty Fiorini was shot in the head and killed by Lyghia Buckwater. The FBI described both women as prostitutes. Buckwater was sentenced on October 15, 1954, to 15 years in prison for second degree murder. The FBI reported: "On instant date, Bureau agents interviewed subject's former wife, Juanita Fiorini Sturgis, presently remarried and known as Juanita Nelson...Nelson advised that she met Subject in approximately 1954 and married him at Norfolk, Virginia, in May 1956. Subject deserted her in March 1957, at which time he apparently went to Cuba to work for Castro as a mercenary. During the time she knew him, Subject was employed as a tavern manager at various bars in downtown, Norfolk, Virginia, also, Subject allegedly engaged in gambling activities; however no specifics known regarding this. Also, Subject worked for an insurance company, name unknown, and at Walker Realty, Norfolk, Virginia, as a real estate salesman. Nelson stated that the Subject had been married one time before; however she did not know where Subject had married his former wife, known to her only as Betty. Nelson said that Subject's former wife, Betty, was shot and killed by another woman, but did not know the exact location or date of this incident. Nelson stated that on one occasion prior to her marriage to STURGIS, she took a trip down with him to Miami, Florida; however she did not know what her husband did at that time. After their marriage in May 1956 they returned to Miami, Florida, for a trip, at which time Subject attended pro-Castro meetings at a convention hall on Flagler Street in downtown Miami. This trip was of short duration and the last one she took with the Subject to Miami. During the time they resided together, Nelson wrote several letters to various Cubans in Miami and Cuba for the Subject. In these letters, the Subject offered his services to Castro as a mercenary. Just prior to his leaving Norfolk, Virginia, for Cuba in March 1957, STURGIS started a check-kiting scheme so that he could finance his trip to Cuba. Subject was never prosecuted for this, nor did he ever repay the money. Nelson was not sure at which bank this scheme was perpetrated. Nelson stated that she divorced the Subject sometime in the early 1960's; however, she could not remember the date. After the Subject returned from Cuba, she remembers seeing him on three different occasions in Norfolk, Virginia. On the first occasion, Subject was still in the employ of Fidel Castro and was passing through Norfolk en route to New York City on official business for Cuba. The second time she saw him was in the home of James Kestner, a writer for the Virginian-Pilot and Ledger Star, daily newspapers in Norfolk, Virginia. Nelson thought that this meeting took place in 1960 and believed it was after STURGIS had left Castro. Nelson said she saw STURGIS one other time in Norfolk, Virginia, and thinks it was around 1965, however, she could give no details regarding this meeting. Nelson said that while the Subject was working for Castro she met him on two or three occasions in hotels in Washington, D.C. and New York City. During the last meeting in New York, STURGIS told Nelson he was disenchanted with Castro's activities and was thinking of talking to the CIA...On instant date, records of the Circuit Court, Norfolk, Virginia, indicated that Subject's wife, Juanita Fiorini was granted a divorce from Subject under the name FRANK ANTHONY FIORINI (STURGIS) on May 2, 1961. She was awarded a decree vinculo matrimonii and divorce was based on desertion. Instant date (Deleted) advised Subject, under name FRANK FIORINI, attended the college of William and Mary College at Norfolk, Virginia, as a part time student during the spring semester, 1954 and fall semester 1954 and 1955. Subject was dropped on January 24, 1955 for non-attendance." [FBI 159-4089-474] CUBAN AFFAIRS: STURGIS 1956 STURGIS traveled to Miami in 1956, where he met Carlos Prio Soccarras. STURGIS: "I had family on my mother's side living in Miami. One of my uncles lived there married a Cuban woman. My uncle's name was Angelo Vona. And this is how I got involved in the Cuban situation. She lived here in exile during the time of Fulgencio Batista. She was one of President Carlos Prio's people." At this time, Carlos Prio Soccarras was funding Fidel Castro, who allegedly had promised to restore him to the presidency, should his revolution against Fulgencio Batista prove successful. STURGIS told High Times Magazine about when he first met Fidel Castro: "It was in Miami at the Flagland Theater, where he had a meeting with the Cuban colony. One of his principal underground chiefs in the Miami area was the owner of the Pollack Restaurant in downtown Miami. So, through Mr. Pollack, who I got to know, I met Fidel. I was introduced and Fidel says, 'I can use people like you. With your past experience, I can use people like you in the revolution.' Fine, when you need me, call me, I told Fidel. ANALYSIS No one ever questioned STURGIS' uncle, Angelo Vona, who was allegedly married to a Cuban exile. We have to take his word that this was how he first became involved in anti-Batista activity. WALLACE SHANLEY Former U.S. Customs agent Wallace Shanley recalled the FRANK FIORINI of the late 1950's: "FRANK was trying to bring arms into Santiago, Cuba. He and another soldier-of-fortune had gathered up a collection of this and that, without any clear mandate from Fidel or anybody. They didn't seem to have any real connection. They just wanted to get it in, and use these arms as an entré and so forth. They usually obtained the arms from Interarmco, but as I remember, it was such an assortment of gun shell type materiels, I can't see this as a clear shipment from Interarmco. It was an amateur effort. Now a young man came to me and he said, 'I am working with this guy named FRANK FIORINI, he's down in Cuba now. I have kinda lost my stomach for this business, and besides, I've fallen in love with a girl. I need $500, and I want to get the hell out of here and see no more of FRANK FIORINI.' I sent him to someone at the Cuban Consulate who was very skilled in security matters. He promised the kid $500. The kid gave me an affidavit whereupon I searched FRANK'S house and in the house I found what I expected - an arms cache. The Consul said, 'We nailed that guy FIORINI down in Santiago and we have him down there. We're kind of done with him. We kinda of weakened him, and we don't think he wants any more of it. What would you do if he came up here?' I said 'I would arrest him.' When he returned I gave FRANK a preliminary hearing. He wasn't represented, so the Commissioner asked him if he had anything to say. He said, 'Oh yes' and he pulled up his lose shirt and his back was a mass of welts. It was all colors of the rainbow. But FRANK always had this wonderful smile. Fidel was very much indebted to him. It was hard to get arms in there." When STURGIS returned to Norfolk from Miami, he was arrested for immoral conduct: cohabitation with Juanita K. Terrell. On May 11, 1956, he and Juanita K. Terrell were married. The family of Juanita K. Terrell was close to Carlos Prio Soccarras, and she had been the Subject of an FBI investigation. He met with Juanita K. Terrell in Washington, D.C., just before a flight to Cuba in March 1957.
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