Frank Sturgis: Difference between revisions
Frank Sturgis existed, so passes WP:V. |
|||
(254 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|One of the five Watergate burglars}} |
|||
{{Refimprove|date=March 2009}} |
|||
{{For|the president of the New York Stock Exchange from 1892–1894|Frank K. Sturgis}} |
|||
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}} |
|||
{{Infobox person |
{{Infobox person |
||
| name = Frank Anthony Sturgis |
| name = Frank Anthony Sturgis |
||
| image = |
| image = File:Frank Sturgis (various).jpg |
||
| caption = |
| caption = |
||
| birth_name = Frank Angelo Fiorini |
| birth_name = Frank Angelo Fiorini |
||
| birth_date = |
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|12|9}} |
||
| birth_place = [[Norfolk]], |
| birth_place = [[Norfolk, Virginia]], United States |
||
| death_date |
| death_date = {{death date and age|1993|12|4|1924|12|9}} |
||
| death_place |
| death_place = Miami, United States |
||
| occupation = |
| occupation = Military, espionage |
||
| nationality = |
| nationality = |
||
| URL = |
|||
}} |
}} |
||
{{Watergate|People}} |
{{Watergate|People}} |
||
'''Frank Anthony Sturgis''' (December 9, 1924 – December 4, 1993), born '''Frank Angelo Fiorini''', was one of the five [[Watergate |
'''Frank Anthony Sturgis''' (December 9, 1924 – December 4, 1993), born '''Frank Angelo Fiorini''', was one of the five [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]] burglars whose capture led to the end of the [[presidency of Richard Nixon]].<ref name="The New York Times; December 5, 1993">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Frank A. Sturgis, Is Dead at 68; A Burglar in the Watergate Affair |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/05/obituaries/frank-a-sturgis-is-dead-at-68-a-burglar-in-the-watergate-affair.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York |date=December 5, 1993 |access-date=December 14, 2014 |archive-date=April 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409113832/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/05/obituaries/frank-a-sturgis-is-dead-at-68-a-burglar-in-the-watergate-affair.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
||
He served in several branches of the United States military and in the [[Cuban Revolution]] of 1958, worked as an undercover operative for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]],<ref name="auto">Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, ''Cuba on My Mind: The Secret Lives of Watergate Burglar Frank Sturgis'' (New York: A Forge Book, December 30, 2009, p. 35.</ref> and was alleged to be involved in the [[assassination of John F. Kennedy]]. |
|||
==Early life and military service== |
==Early life and military service== |
||
When still a child, his family moved to [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
When still a child, his family moved to [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania. On October 5, 1942, in his senior year of high school, 17-year-old Frank Angelo Fiorini joined the [[United States Marine Corps]] and served under Colonel "Red Mike" [[Merritt A. Edson]] in the [[First Marine Raider Battalion]] in the Pacific Theater during the [[Second World War]].<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch (2011). ''Warrior''. New York: A Forge Book, pp. 25–26.</ref> |
||
"On April 14, 1942, [[William J. Donovan|William Donovan]], as Coordinator of Information (forerunner of the [[Office of Strategic Services]]), activated units charged with gathering intelligence, harassing the Japanese through [[Guerrilla tactics|guerrilla actions]], identifying targets for the Army Air Force to bomb, and rescuing downed Allied airmen."<ref>Central Intelligence Agency. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070613111914/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article07.html ''Behind Japanese Lines in Burma: The Stuff of Intelligence Legend (2001)'']. Retrieved May 30, 2012.</ref> This was what led to [[Joseph Stilwell|Stilwell's]] Chinese forces, [[Orde Wingate|Wingate's]] Raiders, and [[Merrill's Marauders]] involvement in the war,<ref>[[William R. Peers|Peers, William R.]] and [[Dean Brelis]]. ''[[Behind the Burma Road|Behind the Burma Road: The Story of America's Most Successful Guerrilla Force]]''. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1963, back cover.</ref> and Frank got trained in [[guerrilla tactics]] and gathering intelligence, which became useful in his later events.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} |
|||
⚫ | On November 9, 1947, Fiorini joined the [[United States Naval Reserve]] at the Norfolk Naval Air Station and learned to fly while still working at the tavern. He was honorably discharged on August 30, 1948 and joined the [[United States Army]] the next day. He was sent immediately to [[West Berlin]], where the [[USSR]] had closed the land routes during the [[Berlin Blockade]], and he became a member of General [[Lucius D. Clay|Lucius Clay]]'s honor guard. Two weeks after the USSR reopened the land routes on May 11, 1949, Fiorini was honorably discharged. As a [[Marine Raider]], Fiorini had worked behind enemy lines gathering intelligence, and during his Army tenure in Berlin and [[Heidelberg]], he had a top secret clearance and worked in an intelligence unit whose primary target was the [[Soviet Union]]. Fiorini started to believe Russia was a threat, and he became a lifelong militant. Returning to Norfolk in 1952, he took a job managing the Cafe Society tavern, then partnered with its owner, Milton Bass, to co-purchase and manage The Top Hat Nightclub in [[Virginia Beach]].<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, ''Warrior'' (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), |
||
Honorably discharged as a [[corporal]] in 1945, he enrolled at [[Virginia Polytechnic Institute]] but left college and joined the [[Norfolk Police Department]] on June 5, 1946.<ref name="spartacus">{{cite web |url=http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKsturgis.htm |title=Frank Fiorini (Sturgis) |publisher=Spartacus Educational |date=September 1997 |access-date=May 5, 2015 |archive-date=March 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317113258/http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKsturgis.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> He soon discovered a corrupt payoff system and brought it to the attention of his superiors, who told him to overlook the illegal activities. On October 5, 1946, he had a confrontation with his sergeant and resigned the same day. For the next 18 months, he managed the Havana-Madrid tavern in Norfolk that catered to foreigners, mostly Cuban merchant seamen.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} |
|||
Fiorini attended the [[Virginia Polytechnic Institute]] before becoming the manager of the Whitehorse Tavern in Norfolk, Virginia.<ref>http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKsturgis.htm</ref> While in [[Norfolk, Virginia]] he attended a few classes at [[Old Dominion University]] before joining the Norfolk Police Department.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}} |
|||
⚫ | On November 9, 1947, Fiorini joined the [[United States Naval Reserve]] at the Norfolk Naval Air Station and learned to fly while still working at the tavern. He was honorably discharged on August 30, 1948, and joined the [[United States Army]] the next day. He was sent immediately to [[West Berlin]], where the [[USSR]] had closed the land routes during the [[Berlin Blockade]], and he became a member of General [[Lucius D. Clay|Lucius Clay]]'s honor guard. Two weeks after the USSR reopened the land routes on May 11, 1949, Fiorini was honorably discharged. As a [[Marine Raider]], Fiorini had worked behind enemy lines gathering intelligence, and during his Army tenure in Berlin and [[Heidelberg]], he had a top secret clearance and worked in an intelligence unit whose primary target was the [[Soviet Union]]. Fiorini started to believe Russia was a threat, and he became a lifelong militant. Returning to Norfolk in 1952, he took a job managing the Cafe Society tavern, then partnered with its owner, Milton Bass, to co-purchase and manage The Top Hat Nightclub in [[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]].<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, ''Warrior'' (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), pp. 30–44.</ref> |
||
==Intelligence activities 1952-1962== |
|||
⚫ | On September 23, 1952, Frank Fiorini filed a petition in the Circuit Court of the City of [[Norfolk, Virginia]], to change his name to Frank Anthony Sturgis, adopting the surname of his stepfather Ralph Sturgis, whom his mother had married in 1937. His new name resembled that of Hank Sturgis, the fictional hero of [[E. Howard Hunt]]'s 1949 novel, ''Bimini Run'', whose life parallels Frank Sturgis' life from 1942 to 1949 in certain salient respects.<ref>Chapter 19 of the [[United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States|Rockefeller Commission]] report denied the suggestion that Sturgis took his present name from the Hunt character, or that the name change was associated in any way with Sturgis' knowing Hunt before 1971 or 1972.</ref> |
||
⚫ | On September 23, 1952, Frank Fiorini filed a petition in the Circuit Court of the City of [[Norfolk, Virginia]], to change his name to Frank Anthony Sturgis, adopting the surname of his stepfather Ralph Sturgis, whom his mother had married in 1937. His new name closely resembled that of Hank Sturgis, the fictional hero of [[E. Howard Hunt]]'s 1949 novel, ''Bimini Run'', whose life parallels Frank Sturgis's life from 1942 to 1949 in certain salient respects.<ref>Chapter 19 of the [[United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States|Rockefeller Commission]] report denied the suggestion that Sturgis took his present name from the Hunt character, or that the name change was associated in any way with Sturgis' knowing Hunt before 1971 or 1972.</ref> |
||
⚫ | |||
Sturgis moved to [[Miami]] in 1957, where the Cuban wife of his uncle Angelo Vona introduced him to former Cuban president [[Carlos Prio]], who joined with other Cubans opposing dictator [[Fulgencio Batista]] to plot their return to power. They were sending money to [[Mexico]] to support [[Fidel Castro]]. Prio asked Sturgis to go to [[Cuba]] to join up with Castro and to report back to the exiled powers in Miami.<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, ''Warrior'' (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 38.</ref> |
|||
⚫ | |||
[[File:Frank Sturgis (various).jpg|thumb|Frank Sturgis (various photos)]] |
|||
In 1956, Sturgis moved to Cuba, and went to Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Honduras. Sturgis moved to Miami in 1957, where the Cuban wife of his uncle Angelo Vona introduced him to former Cuban president [[Carlos Prío Socarrás|Carlos Prío]], who joined with other Cubans opposing dictator [[Fulgencio Batista]] to plot their return to power. Now Frank had gotten together with an old friend, Richard Sanderlin who was also a Norfolk, Virginia native. Once they had relocated to Miami, Florida, they began an arms and munition smuggling operation into Cuba, bound for the rebels of Fidel Castro. They were sending money to Mexico to support [[Fidel Castro]], whose July 26 Movement had arranged a meeting between CIA Inspector General [[Lyman Kirkpatrick]] and their representatives in 1957 by Pepín Bosch, an executive of the [[Bacardi|Bacardi Corporation]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3BDH9FK6grMC&q=vilma+espin&pg=PA208 |title=Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause |last=Gjelten |first=Tom |date=2008 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780670019786 |language=en }}</ref> Prio asked Sturgis to go to Cuba to join up with Castro and to report back to the exiled powers in Miami, so he went down and met with Castro.<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, ''Warrior'' (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 38.</ref> While Richard Sanderlin traveled to the Sierra Maestra Mountains in Oriente Province Cuba, where he began training the Castro rebels, in military strategy, tactics, weapon handling, and hand to hand fighting. |
|||
⚫ | Sturgis met up with Castro and his 400 rebels in the [[Sierra Maestra]] mountains. Sturgis offered to train |
||
In 1958, Frank made contact with the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) in Cuba at the US Consulate in Santiago. He worked as an informer for the agency with his control officer Sam Jenis. Sturgis also became involved running guns to Cuba,<ref name="auto"/> along with mobster [[Santo Trafficante Jr.|Santo Trafficante]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/nsia-Hearing03-16-77Trafficante/nsia-Hearing03-16-77Trafficante/Hearing+Trafficante+28_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "Hearing 03-16-77 Trafficante" |website=archive.org }}</ref> and not surprisingly was arrested for illegal possession of arms, but released without charge. In 1959, Sturgis had contact with casinos in Cuba and some say met Lewis McWillie, mobster Traficante's man in Cuba, and the manager of the [[Tropicana Club|Tropicana Casino]] who by his own testimony<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo2/jfk5/mcwill.htm |title=TESTIMONY OF LEWIS McWILLIE, LAS VEGAS, NEV. |website=mcadams.posc.mu.edu |access-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-date=January 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122010620/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo2/jfk5/mcwill.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> was a known acquaintance of [[Jack Ruby]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://riversong.wordpress.com/the-jack-ruby-connection/ |title=The Jack Ruby Connection |date=January 31, 2014 |access-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-date=January 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190101003009/https://riversong.wordpress.com/the-jack-ruby-connection/ |url-status=live }}</ref> |
|||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | Sturgis met up with Castro and his 400 rebels in the [[Sierra Maestra]] mountains. Sturgis offered to train Castro's troops in guerrilla warfare. Castro accepted the offer, but he also had an immediate need for guns and ammunition, so Sturgis became a gunrunner.<ref name="auto"/> Using money from anti-Batista Cuban exiles in Miami and some suspect the CIA, Sturgis purchased boatloads of weapons and ammunition from CIA weapons expert [[Samuel Cummings]]' [[International Armament Corporation]] in [[Alexandria, Virginia]]. Sturgis explained later that he chose to throw in with Castro rather than Prío because Fidel was a soldier, a man of action, whereas Prío was a politician, more a man of words.<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, ''Warrior'' (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 39.</ref> |
||
In March 1958, Sturgis opened a training camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where he taught [[Che Guevara]] and other [[26th of July Movement]] rebel soldiers guerrilla warfare.<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, ''Warrior'' (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 43.</ref> When Castro seized power, a rebel firing squad on [[San Juan Hill]] executed 71 of their opponents on January 11, 1959, into an awaiting 40-foot (12.2 m) ditch that had been opened with a bulldozer. Although Sturgis did not take part in the execution, he was photographed afterwards holding a rifle on top of the covered mass grave.<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/Time-1-26-1959.pdf Cuba] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007001558/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/Time-1-26-1959.pdf |date=October 7, 2016 }} latinamericanstudies.org</ref> [[File:Frank_Sturgis_in_Cuba_1959.jpg|thumb|right|Sturgis, with a July 26 Movement armband, stands on a mass grave of 71 Batista supporters at San Juan Hill on January 11, 1959.]]His friend Richard Sanderlin, completed the training of Raul Castros Second Front, and led a guerrilla band into combat operations against the Cuban army of Batista. |
|||
Castro then appointed Sturgis gambling czar and director of security and intelligence for the air force, in addition to his position as a captain in July 26 Movement.<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, ''Warrior'' (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 57.</ref> Sturgis went to Miami on June 2, 1959, with Alan McDonald while "supervising the investigation of several American gamblers with criminal records that operate casinos in Havana." They requested from Metropolitan Criminal Intelligence Supervisor Frank Kappel information on "[[Meyer Lansky|Meyer]] and [[Jake Lansky]], Joe Silesi aka Joe Rivers and Santos Trafficante," that was provided to them six days later after the Cuban government sent an official written request.<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Fiorini-6-2-1959.pdf Official document. Request] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826103724/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Fiorini-6-2-1959.pdf |date=August 26, 2016 }} latinamericanstudies.org</ref> He was introduced to two men that were transported to Cuba from [[Venezuela]] to assist in the organization of the revolution and Frank saw they were clearly communist. He began to sound out those that he knew were anti-communist including [[Camilo Cienfuegos]], as he knew leaders like [[Raúl Castro]] and Che Guevara were communist, but he was unsure about Fidel Castro. Sturgis defected the following month with Revolutionary Air Force chief Commandant [[Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz]]<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Fiorini-7-12-1959.pdf Official document. Cuban revolt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826111020/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Fiorini-7-12-1959.pdf |date=August 26, 2016 }} latinamericanstudies.org</ref> and they joined the anti-Castro exile opposition. |
|||
Sturgis participated with him a few months later in an anti-Castro leaflet-dropping raid over Cuba. Sturgis formed the Anti-Communist Brigade which Hans Tanner in his book "Counter-Revolutionary Agent", says the organization was "being financed by dispossessed hotel and gambling owners" from Cuba. The Border Patrol in Miami reported that Sturgis was involved in a CIA operation being financed by Sergio Rojas (former Cuban Ambassador to Great Britain) to overthrow Castro. It has been claimed, with little in the way of evidence, that Sturgis was involved in helping the CIA organize the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], for whose ultimate failure he blamed President Kennedy. Sturgis recruited 19 year old [[Marita Lorenz]],<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/03/marita-lorenz-fidel-castro-conspiracy-theories |title=The Story of Marita Lorenz: Mistress, Mother, C.I.A. Informant, and Center of Swirling Conspiracy Theories |magazine=Vanity Fair |date=November 1993 |access-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-date=June 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605193147/https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/03/marita-lorenz-fidel-castro-conspiracy-theories |url-status=live }}</ref> who was close to Fidel Castro, and she took CIA pills,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/1369419/The-teenager-Castro-and-the-CIA-poison-plot.html |title=The teenager, Castro and the CIA poison plot |first=Tony |last=Paterson |date=October 7, 2000 |via=www.telegraph.co.uk |access-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231093135/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/1369419/The-teenager-Castro-and-the-CIA-poison-plot.html |url-status=live }}</ref> which she hid in her face cream, to poison Castro, but the plot failed.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/04/archives/police-studying-arrest-of-sturgis-who-denies-threatening-accuser.html |title=Police Studying Arrest of Sturgis, Who Denies Threatening Accuser |first=Laurie |last=Johnston |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 4, 1977 |access-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231092821/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/04/archives/police-studying-arrest-of-sturgis-who-denies-threatening-accuser.html |url-status=live }}</ref> According to Lorenz, she met Sturgis again before the Kennedy assassination in 1963 with others planning a big event.<ref name="Meskil">{{cite news |last=Meskil |first=Paul |title=Ex-Spy Says She Drove To Dallas With Oswald & Kennedy 'Assassin Squad' |url=http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/L%20Disk/Lorenz%20Marita/Item%2011.pdf |access-date=March 7, 2013 |newspaper=New York Daily News |date=September 20, 1977 |location=New York |page=5 |archive-date=May 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514013752/http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/L%20Disk/Lorenz%20Marita/Item%2011.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Lorenz stated that she joined Sturgis traveling to Dallas after the meeting.<ref name=Meskil/> Lorenz later testified about this Kennedy assassination plot before the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] (HSCA).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.jfk-online.com/lorenz.html |title=JFK: Gaeton Fonzi on Marita Lorenz |website=www.jfk-online.com |access-date=November 16, 2023 |archive-date=January 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127220230/https://www.jfk-online.com/lorenz.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
|||
Sturgis was claimed to be a member of [[Operation 40]], a CIA-sponsored [[counterintelligence]] group composed of [[Cuban exile]]s.<ref name="Smith, Jr.">{{cite book |last=Smith, Jr. |first=W. Thomas |author-link=W. Thomas Smith Jr. |title=Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency |year=2003 |publisher=Facts on File, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=9781438130187 |page=104 |access-date=October 5, 2015 |chapter=40, Operation |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Jc9wBsImOIC&pg=PA104 |title-link=Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency |archive-date=June 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614203833/https://books.google.com/books?id=1Jc9wBsImOIC&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The group was formed to seize control of the [[Cuban government]] after the Bay of Pigs Invasion.<ref name="The Palm Beach Post; May 11, 1961">{{cite news |last=Bartlett |first=Charles |author-link=Charles L. Bartlett (journalist) |date=May 11, 1961 |title=Cuban Terror Unit Barred? |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zfIiAAAAIBAJ&pg=1072%2C1852022 |newspaper=The Palm Beach Post |location=Palm Beach, Florida |page=9 |access-date=May 7, 2015}}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The operation was concentrating on Cuba and were operating out of Mexico. |
|||
⚫ | Despite his claimed involvement in numerous CIA sponsored operations including the Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1975 [[United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States|Rockefeller Commission]] succinctly states that "Frank Sturgis was not an employee or agent of the CIA either in 1963 or at any other time."<ref>[http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/hunt_sturgis.htm Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829144724/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/hunt_sturgis.htm |date=August 29, 2008 }} Chapter 19</ref> |
||
==Watergate burglary 1972== |
==Watergate burglary 1972== |
||
[[File:Frank Sturgis and Bernard Barker, 1960 and 1972.jpg|thumb|Frank Sturgis and Bernard Barker, 1960 (top) and 1972]] |
[[File:Frank Sturgis and Bernard Barker, 1960 and 1972.jpg|thumb|Frank Sturgis and Bernard Barker, 1960 (top) and 1972]] |
||
{{main|Watergate scandal}} |
{{main|Watergate scandal}} |
||
On June 17, 1972, Sturgis, [[Virgilio González]], [[Eugenio Martínez]], [[Bernard Barker]] and [[James W. McCord, Jr.]] were arrested while installing electronic listening devices in the national [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] campaign offices located at the [[Watergate]] office complex in Washington. The |
On June 17, 1972, Sturgis, [[Virgilio Gonzalez|Virgilio González]], [[Eugenio Martínez]], [[Bernard Barker]] and [[James W. McCord, Jr.]] were arrested while installing electronic listening devices in the national [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] campaign offices located at the [[Watergate]] office complex in Washington. The White House office telephone number of CIA officer [[E. Howard Hunt]] was found in address books of the burglars. Reporters were able to link the break-in to the White House. The burglars had successfully entered into the same location several weeks earlier, but returned to fix a malfunctioning device and to photograph more documents. [[Bob Woodward]], a reporter working for ''[[The Washington Post]]'' was told by a source ([[Deep Throat (Watergate)|Deep Throat]]) who was employed by the government that senior aides of President [[Richard Nixon]] had paid the burglars to obtain information about his political opponents. |
||
Sturgis was portrayed in ''[[All the President's Men (film)|All the President's Men]]'', the 1976 film retelling the events of the Watergate scandal, by [[Ron Hale]]. |
|||
==Prison and later investigations== |
==Prison and later investigations== |
||
In January 1973, Sturgis, Hunt, Gonzalez, Martinez, Barker, [[G. Gordon Liddy]] and James W. McCord were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. |
In January 1973, Sturgis, Hunt, Gonzalez, Martinez, Barker, [[G. Gordon Liddy]] and James W. McCord were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. |
||
Sturgis was convicted in 1973 with Max Gonzalez and [[Jerry Buchanan]] in a federal court in Miami (73-597-CR-CA) of transporting cars stolen in Texas into Mexico.<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Sturgis-Appeal-1974.pdf Appeal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826072924/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Sturgis-Appeal-1974.pdf |date=August 26, 2016 }} latinamericanstudies.org</ref> This prompted [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] (DEA) Acting Regional Director David W. Costa to send a letter to Judge C. Clyde Atkins on March 10, 1975, indicating that Sturgis had been covertly cooperating with the DEA.<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Sturgis-DEA-1975.pdf Letter to Judge] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826082121/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Sturgis-DEA-1975.pdf |date=August 26, 2016 }} latinamericanstudies.org</ref> Sturgis served 14 months in the minimum security federal prison in [[Eglin, Florida]].[[File:Frank_Sturgis_1973.jpg|thumb|right|Sturgis leaves the Miami federal courthouse building in handcuffs after being convicted in 1973 of taking cars stolen in Texas to Mexico.]] After leaving prison, Sturgis served as a Miami police informant and continued providing intelligence on the anti-Castro activities of Dr. Orlando Bosch.<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Sturgis-Deposition-1978.pdf Deposition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826080752/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Sturgis-Deposition-1978.pdf |date=August 26, 2016 }} latinamericanstudies.org</ref> |
|||
St. George's article was published in ''[[True (magazine)|True]]'' magazine in August 1974. Sturgis claims that the Watergate burglars had been instructed to find a particular document in the Democratic Party offices. This was a "secret memorandum from the Castro government" that included details of CIA covert actions. Sturgis said "that the Castro government suspected the CIA did not tell the whole truth about this operations even to American political leaders". |
|||
St. George's article was published in ''[[True (magazine)|True]]'' magazine in August 1974. Sturgis claims that the Watergate burglars had been instructed to find a particular document in the Democratic Party offices. This was a "secret memorandum from the Castro government" that included details of CIA covert actions. Sturgis said "that the Castro government suspected the CIA did not tell the whole truth about these operations even to American political leaders".<ref>[http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/White%20Materials/Watergate/Watergate%20Items%2017131%20to%2017456/Watergate%2017132.pdf Confessions of a Watergate Burglar] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083835/http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/White%20Materials/Watergate/Watergate%20Items%2017131%20to%2017456/Watergate%2017132.pdf |date=March 4, 2016 }} jfk.hood.edu</ref> In response to Sturgis' repeated braggadocio to the news media, the CIA issued a public statement on May 30, 1975, indicating that he had never been connected with them "in any way."<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Sturgis-CIA-denial-1975.pdf CIA demial] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826082957/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sturgis/Sturgis-CIA-denial-1975.pdf |date=August 26, 2016 }} latinamericanstudies.org</ref> |
|||
⚫ | In an interview with [[New York Daily News]] reporter [[Paul Meskil]] on June 20, 1975, Sturgis stated, |
||
⚫ | In an interview with [[New York Daily News|New York ''Daily News'']] reporter [[Paul Meskil]] on June 20, 1975, Sturgis stated, "I was a spy. I was involved in assassination plots and conspiracies to overthrow several foreign governments including Cuba, [[Panama]], [[Guatemala]], the [[Dominican Republic]], and [[Haiti]]. I smuggled arms and men into Cuba for Castro and against Castro. I broke into intelligence files. I stole and photographed secret documents. That's what spies do." |
||
Sturgis was denied a pardon by President [[Jimmy Carter]].<ref name="The New York Times; August 15, 1987">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Ehrlichman Seeks a Pardon for Watergate Crimes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/15/us/ehrlichman-seeks-a-pardon-for-watergate-crimes.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York |agency=AP |date=August 15, 1987 |access-date=December 14, 2014 |archive-date=May 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524211653/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/15/us/ehrlichman-seeks-a-pardon-for-watergate-crimes.html |url-status=live }}</ref> |
|||
==JFK conspiracy allegations== |
==JFK conspiracy allegations== |
||
Sturgis has been the subject of various allegations regarding the [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination of President John F. Kennedy]]. He also made claims that other individuals were involved in the assassination of Kennedy. |
|||
===Early allegations: Sturgis as one of the "three tramps"=== |
===Early allegations: Sturgis as one of the "three tramps"=== |
||
{{Main|Three tramps}} |
{{Main|Three tramps}} |
||
[[File:The Three Tramps.jpg|thumb|The Three Tramps, Sturgis allegedly the one in the middle]] |
|||
''[[The Dallas Morning News]]'', the ''[[Dallas Times Herald]]'', and the ''[[Fort Worth Star-Telegram]]'' photographed three |
''[[The Dallas Morning News]]'', the ''[[Dallas Times Herald]]'', and the ''[[Fort Worth Star-Telegram]]'' photographed three transients under police escort near the [[Texas School Book Depository]] shortly after the assassination of Kennedy.<ref name="Bugliosi">{{cite book |last=Bugliosi |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Bugliosi |title=Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy |year=2007 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-04525-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/reclaiminghistor00bugl/page/930 930] |url=https://archive.org/details/reclaiminghistor00bugl/page/930 }}</ref> The men later became known as the "three tramps".{{sfn|Bugliosi|2007|p=930}} According to [[Vincent Bugliosi]], allegations that these men were involved in a conspiracy originated from theorist [[Richard Sprague|Richard E. Sprague]] who compiled the photographs in 1966 and 1967, and subsequently turned them over to [[Jim Garrison]] during his [[trial of Clay Shaw|investigation of Clay Shaw]].{{sfn|Bugliosi|2007|p=930}} Appearing before a nationwide audience on the December 31, 1968, episode of ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson|The Tonight Show]]'', Garrison held up a photo of the three and suggested they were involved in the assassination.{{sfn|Bugliosi|2007|p=930}} Later, in 1974, assassination researchers [[A. J. Weberman|Alan J. Weberman]] and [[Michael Canfield]] compared photographs of the men to people they believed to be suspects involved in a conspiracy and said that two of the men were Watergate burglars Hunt and Sturgis.{{sfn|Bugliosi|2007|p=931}} Comedian and civil rights activist [[Dick Gregory]] helped bring national media attention to the allegations against Hunt and Sturgis in 1975 after obtaining the comparison photographs from Weberman and Canfield.{{sfn|Bugliosi|2007|p=931}} Immediately after obtaining the photographs, Gregory held a press conference that received considerable coverage and his charges were reported in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]''.{{sfn|Bugliosi|2007|p=931}}<ref name="Weberman">{{cite book |last1=Weberman |first1=Alan J |author-link1=A. J. Weberman |last2=Canfield |first2=Michael |title=Coup D'Etat in America: The CIA and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy |edition=Revised |year=1992 |orig-year=1975 |publisher=Quick American Archives |location=San Francisco |isbn=9780932551108 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780932551108/page/7 7] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780932551108/page/7 }}</ref><ref>[http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/White%20Materials/White%20Magazines%20And%20Articles/Newsweek%2004-28-75/Item%2001.pdf Dallas: new questions and answers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602171031/http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/White%20Materials/White%20Magazines%20And%20Articles/Newsweek%2004-28-75/Item%2001.pdf |date=June 2, 2023 }}, Newsweek, April 28, 1975, pp. 37–38</ref> |
||
The [[Rockefeller Commission]] reported in 1975 that they investigated the allegation that Hunt and Sturgis, on behalf of the CIA, participated in the assassination of Kennedy.<ref name="CCAUS-C19">{{cite book |title=Report to the President by Commission on CIA Activities in the United States |url=http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=930&relPageId=1 |
The [[Rockefeller Commission]] reported in 1975 that they investigated the allegation that Hunt and Sturgis, on behalf of the CIA, participated in the assassination of Kennedy.<ref name="CCAUS-C19">{{cite book |title=Report to the President by Commission on CIA Activities in the United States |url=http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=930&relPageId=1 |date=June 1975 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, DC |page=251 |chapter=Chapter 19: Allegations Concerning the Assassination of President Kennedy |chapter-url=http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=71095 |ref={{harvid|Report to the President by Commission on CIA Activities in the United States, Chapter 19|1975}} |access-date=January 1, 2013 |archive-date=June 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614203756/https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=930#relPageId=3 |url-status=live }}</ref> The final report of that commission stated that witnesses who testified that the "derelicts" bore a resemblance to Hunt or Sturgis "were not shown to have any qualification in photo identification beyond that possessed by an average layman".{{sfn|Report to the President by Commission on CIA Activities in the United States, Chapter 19|1975|p=256}} Their report also stated that FBI Agent Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt, "a nationally-recognized expert in photoidentification and photoanalysis" with the FBI photographic laboratory, had concluded from photo comparison that none of the men were Hunt or Sturgis.{{sfn|Report to the President by Commission on CIA Activities in the United States, Chapter 19|1975|p=257}} In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations reported that forensic anthropologists had again analyzed and compared the photographs of the "tramps" with those of Hunt and Sturgis, as well as with photographs of Thomas Vallee, Daniel Carswell, and [[Fred Crisman|Fred Lee Chrisman]].<ref name="HCSA-IB">{{cite book |title=Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/ |year=1979 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, DC |pages=91–92 |chapter=I.B. Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy. Other scientific evidence does not preclude the possibility of two gunmen firing at the President. Scientific evidence negates some specific conspiracy allegations |chapter-url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1b.html |ref={{harvid|Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives, Chapter I, Section B|1979}} |access-date=August 28, 2017 |archive-date=April 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200403232215/https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the committee, only Chrisman resembled any of the tramps but determined that he was not to be in Dealey Plaza on the day of the assassination.<ref name="HCSA-IB"/> In 1992, journalist [[Mary La Fontaine]] discovered the November 22, 1963, arrest records that the Dallas Police Department had released in 1989, which named the three men as Gus W. Abrams, Harold Doyle, and John F. Gedney.{{sfn|Bugliosi|2007|p=933}} According to the arrest reports, the three men were "taken off a boxcar in the railroad yards right after President Kennedy was shot", detained as "investigative prisoners", described as unemployed and passing through Dallas, then released four days later.{{sfn|Bugliosi|2007|p=933}} |
||
===Sturgis makes his own allegations=== |
|||
In 1976, Sturgis claimed that he was assigned to investigate any possible role that Cuban exiles may have played in the assassination of Kennedy.<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976">{{cite news |author=<!--Truncated version of the same article in the St. Petersberg Times notes author as Barney Seibert--> |title=Sturgis Says He Gave Report Of Ruby Plotting With Castro |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19760708&id=7eQhAAAAIBAJ&pg=5545,3652347 |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |location=Sarasota, Florida |agency=UPI |page=2E |date=July 9, 1976 |access-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-date=June 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614203753/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19760708&id=7eQhAAAAIBAJ&pg=5545,3652347 |url-status=live }}</ref> He stated that his investigation revealed that ten weeks prior to the assassination, Jack Ruby met with Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba to discuss "the removal of the President" in order to neutralize the threat of invasion by the United States.<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/><ref name="Lawrence Journal-World; July 10, 1976">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Ex-operative says Ruby met with Castro |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19760710&id=DyEyAAAAIBAJ&pg=6970,1402013 |newspaper=Lawrence Journal-World |location=Lawrence, Kansas |agency=AP |page=24 |date=July 10, 1976 |access-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-date=June 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614203835/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19760710&id=DyEyAAAAIBAJ&pg=6970,1402013 |url-status=live }}</ref> According to Sturgis, others at the meeting included Raúl Castro, Che Guevara, [[Ramiro Valdés]] and "an Argentine woman who is believed to have been a Russian KGB agent".<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/><ref name="Lawrence Journal-World; July 10, 1976"/> He said that Ruby had also made several trips to Havana in the months before the assassination in order to arrange deals in which arms would be sold to Cuba and in which illegal drugs from Cuba would be smuggled into the United States.<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/> Sturgis also claimed that [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] was involved in the conspiracy, and that other governments either were involved in the conspiracy or knew of the conspiracy.<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/> He said that his investigation did not reveal that Cuban exiles were involved in the assassination.<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/> |
|||
Sturgis declined to specifically identify the sources of his information, but noted he said that they included members of the "anti-Castro Cuban underground."<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/><ref name="Lawrence Journal-World; July 10, 1976"/> He further claimed that associates of his involved in intelligence had independently confirmed his report.<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/><ref name="Lawrence Journal-World; July 10, 1976"/> According to Sturgis, his report was made in early 1964 and that it was given to "certain American intelligence agencies, including the [[United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security|Senate Internal Security Committee]]."<ref name="Lawrence Journal-World; July 10, 1976"/> He said that he did not know if it had been forwarded to the [[Warren Commission]].<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/> Similarly, Sturgis said that information about the 1964 reports had been provided to the [[United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States|Rockefeller Commission]] as well as the [[Church Committee]]'s intelligence subcommittee chaired by [[Richard Schweiker]], but that he did not know if they received the actual reports.<ref name="Sarasota Herald-Tribune; July 9, 1976"/><ref name="Lawrence Journal-World; July 10, 1976"/> |
|||
Sturgis stated he was revealing that he made the reports in order to refute "the leftist element in the country" who claimed the CIA was involved in the assassination of Kennedy.<ref name="Delaware County Daily Times; July 10, 1976">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Jack Ruby visited Castro |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/19418265/ |newspaper=Delaware County Daily Times |location=Chester, Pennsylvania |agency=[[Associated Press]] |page=2 |date=July 10, 1976 |access-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020215008/http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/19418265/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Jack Ruby's brother, Earl, responded to the allegations as "outlandish," "ridiculous," and "absolutely false".<ref name="Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily; July 10, 1976">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Ruby's Brother Contradicts Story |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1842&dat=19760708&id=yxosAAAAIBAJ&pg=4883,1722258 |newspaper=Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily |volume=107 |issue=190 |location=Florence, Alabama |agency=UPI |page=5 |date=July 10, 1976 |access-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-date=June 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614203755/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1842&dat=19760708&id=yxosAAAAIBAJ&pg=4883,1722258 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="The Victoria Advocate; July 12, 1976">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Claim False; Brother of Ruby Says |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19760712&id=CBlZAAAAIBAJ&pg=6966,2057752 |newspaper=The Victoria Advocate |location=Victoria, Texas |agency=AP |page=7A |date=July 12, 1976 |access-date=October 20, 2014 }}</ref> |
|||
In a 1977 television interview conducted by [[Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)|Bill O'Reilly]], Sturgis indicated that [[Alexander Butterfield]] had notable "associations" with CIA officials, associating himself with the position taken by [[L. Fletcher Prouty]] who had made headlines nationwide with his allegation that Butterfield was operating on behalf of the CIA.<ref>SMU Jones Film. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7-OBN6q0dk "Bill O'Reilly Interviews Frank Sturgis 1977"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112230235/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7-OBN6q0dk |date=November 12, 2021 }} (video interview). WFAA Collection.</ref> |
|||
===Marita Lorenz: Sturgis with Oswald=== |
|||
In September 1977, Marita Lorenz told Paul Meskil of the ''New York Daily News'' that she met Oswald in the fall of 1963 at an Operation 40 [[safe house]] in the [[Little Havana]] section of Miami.<ref name="Meskil"/> According to Lorenz, she met him again before the Kennedy assassination in 1963 in the house of Orlando Bosch, with Sturgis, Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz, and two other Cubans present.<ref name=Meskil/> She said the men studied Dallas street maps and that she suspected that they were planning on raiding an arsenal.<ref name=Meskil/> Lorenz stated that she joined the men traveling to Dallas in two cars and carrying "rifles and scopes", but flew back to Miami the day after they arrived.<ref name=Meskil/> In response to her allegations, Sturgis said he did not recall ever meeting Oswald and reiterated his previous denials of being involved in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy.<ref name=Meskil/> |
|||
On October 31, 1977, Sturgis was arrested in Lorenz's apartment after Lorenz told police that Sturgis threatened her in an attempt to force her to change her testimony to federal investigators.<ref name="Observer-Reporter; November 5, 1977">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Sturgis Charges Dropped |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19771105&id=5_ddAAAAIBAJ&pg=1220,803080 |newspaper=Observer-Reporter |location=Washington, Pennsylvania |agency=AP |page=A-5 |date=November 5, 1977 |access-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-date=June 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614203836/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19771105&id=5_ddAAAAIBAJ&pg=1220,803080 |url-status=live }}</ref> In an interview with [[Steve Dunleavy]] of the ''[[New York Post]]'' shortly after he posted bail, Sturgis said that he believed communist agents had pressured Lorenz into making the accusations against him.<ref name=Dunleavy>{{cite news |last=Dunleavy |first=Steve |title=Sturgis' Exclusive Story; Marita Pressured By Reds |url=http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/S%20Disk/Sturgis%20Frank%20Fiorini/Item%2011.pdf |access-date=March 7, 2013 |newspaper=New York Post |date=November 3, 1977 |author-link=Steve Dunleavy |location=New York |pages=3, 14 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023734/http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/S%20Disk/Sturgis%20Frank%20Fiorini/Item%2011.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Later that week in [[Manhattan Criminal Court]], charges against Sturgis were dropped after the prosecutor told the judge that his office found no evidence of coercion or harassment.<ref name="Observer-Reporter; November 5, 1977"/> Recapping the series of events, [[Timothy Crouse]] of ''[[The Village Voice]]'' described Sturgis and Lorenz as "two of the most notoriously unreliable sources in America".<ref name="Crouse">{{cite news |last=Crouse |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Crouse |date=November 21, 1977 |title=Crime and Punishment; Page One Hoax from a Cloak & Dagger Duo |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1299&dat=19771121&id=_ABOAAAAIBAJ&pg=6366,3812556 |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |access-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-date=January 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108200101/https://news.google.com/newspapers?dat=19771121&id=_ABOAAAAIBAJ&nid=1299&pg=6366%2C3812556 |url-status=live }}</ref> |
|||
===Posthumous allegations: Hunt's "deathbed confession"=== |
===Posthumous allegations: Hunt's "deathbed confession"=== |
||
After the death of Hunt in 2007, |
After the death of Hunt in 2007, John Hunt and David Hunt revealed that their father had recorded several claims about himself and others being involved in a [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories|conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy]].<ref name=Williams>{{cite news |last=Williams |first=Carol J. |title=Watergate plotter may have a last tale |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-mar-20-na-hunt20-story.html |access-date=December 30, 2012 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=March 20, 2007 |location=Los Angeles |archive-date=July 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130714234227/http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/20/nation/na-hunt20 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Hedegaard>{{cite magazine |last=Hedegaard |first=Erik |title=The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=April 5, 2007 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/13893143/the_last_confessions_of_e_howard_hunt/1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618150441/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/13893143/the_last_confessions_of_e_howard_hunt/1 |archive-date=June 18, 2008 }}</ref> In the April 5, 2007, issue of ''Rolling Stone'', John Hunt detailed a number of individuals implicated by his father including Sturgis, as well as [[Cord Meyer]], [[David Sánchez Morales]], [[David Atlee Phillips]], [[William King Harvey|William Harvey]] and an assassin he termed "French gunman grassy knoll" who many presume was [[Lucien Sarti]].<ref name=Hedegaard/><ref name=McAdams>{{cite book |last=McAdams |first=John |title=JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think About Claims of Conspiracy |year=2011 |publisher=Potomac Books |location=Washington, DC |isbn=9781597974899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2OJeNytAOZkC |author-link=John C. McAdams |access-date=December 30, 2012 |page=189 |chapter=Too Much Evidence of Conspiracy }}</ref> The two sons alleged that their father cut the information from his memoirs, ''American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond'', to avoid possible perjury charges.<ref name=Williams/> According to Hunt's widow and other children, the two sons took advantage of Hunt's loss of lucidity by coaching and exploiting him for financial gain.<ref name=Williams/> The ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' said they examined the materials offered by the sons to support the story and found them to be "inconclusive".<ref name=Williams/> |
||
==Portugal, 1980: Camarate Affair== |
|||
Sturgis is also linked to the assassination, on December 4, 1980, of Portuguese prime minister [[Francisco de Sá Carneiro]] and 6 other people aboard a Cessna aircraft, in what became known as the [[1980 Camarate air crash|Camarate affair]]. He was named by two of his alleged accomplices, Fernando Farinha Simões and José Esteves, in a written confession,<ref name="Carvalho">{{cite book |last1=Carvalho |first1=Frederico Duarte |title=Camarate: Sá Carneiro e as armas para o Irão |year=2012 |publisher=Editorial Planeta |location=Lisbon |isbn=978-9896573430 }}</ref> as the person who pressed the button of the detonator to activate the bomb on the plane. |
|||
==Later life== |
==Later life== |
||
In 1979, Sturgis traveled to [[Angola]] to help rebels fighting the communist government, which was supported by |
In 1979, Sturgis traveled to [[Angola]] to help rebels fighting the communist government, which was supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, and to teach guerrilla warfare. In 1981 he went to [[Honduras]] to train the US backed [[Contras]] who were fighting [[Nicaragua]]'s [[Sandinista]] government, which was supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union; the [[Army of El Salvador]]; and the [[Honduras death squads]]. He made a second trip to Angola and trained rebels in the Angolan bush for [[Holden Roberto]]. He interacted with Venezuelan terrorist [[Carlos the Jackal]]. In 1989 he visited [[Yassir Arafat]] in [[Tunis]]. Arafat shared elements of his peace plan, and Sturgis was debriefed by the CIA on his return.<ref>Jim Hunt and Bob Risch (2011). ''Warrior''. New York: A Forge Book, pp. 313–314.</ref> |
||
In an obituary published December 5, 1993, |
In an obituary published December 5, 1993, ''[[The New York Times]]'' quoted Sturgis' lawyer, [[Ellis Rubin]], as saying that Sturgis died of cancer a week after he was admitted to a veterans' hospital in Miami, five days shy of his 69th birthday. It was reported that doctors diagnosed lung cancer that had spread to his kidneys, and that he was survived by a wife, Jan, and a daughter named Autumn.<ref name="The New York Times; December 5, 1993"/> |
||
==Notes== |
==Notes== |
||
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}} |
|||
{{Reflist|2}} |
|||
==Bibliography== |
===Bibliography=== |
||
*Escalante, |
* Escalante, Fabián (1995). [https://archive.org/download/FabianEscalanteSecretWarCubaCIA/Fabian%20Escalante%20Secret%20War%20Cuba%20CIA.pdf ''The Secret War: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959–62''.] Melbourne: Ocean Press. {{ISBN|1875284869}}. Translated by Maxine Shaw. Edited by Mirta Muñez. |
||
* Hunt, Jim, and Bob Risch (2012). ''Warrior: Frank Sturgis—The CIA's #1 Assassin-Spy, Who Nearly Killed Castro But Was Ambushed by Watergate ''. [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]]. {{ISBN|978-0765328649}}. |
|||
*Schlesinger, Arthur M. 1978. ''Robert Kennedy and His Times''. ISBN 978-0-233-97085-1 |
|||
* Othen, Christopher (2022). ''The Men from Miami: American Rebels on Both Sides of Fidel Castro's Revolution''. [[Biteback Publishing]]. {{ISBN|978-1785906862}}. |
|||
*Waldron, Lamar, with Thom Hartmann. 2009. ''Legacy of Secrecy''. |
|||
* [[Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.|Schlesinger, Arthur M. (Jr.)]] (1978). [[iarchive:notesonrobertken00dani|''Robert Kennedy and His Times'']]. Boston: [[Houghton Mifflin]]. {{ISBN|978-0233970851}}. |
|||
==External links== |
==External links== |
||
{{Portal|Biography |
{{Portal|Biography}} |
||
⚫ | |||
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKsturgis.htm Sturgis Spartacus Biography] |
|||
⚫ | |||
{{Authority control |
{{Authority control}} |
||
{{Persondata |
|||
|NAME= Sturgis, Frank Anthony |
|||
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Fiorini, Frank Angelo |
|||
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= United States military, undercover operative |
|||
|DATE OF BIRTH= December 9, 1924 |
|||
|PLACE OF BIRTH=Norfolk, United States |
|||
|DATE OF DEATH= December 4, 1993 |
|||
|PLACE OF DEATH= Miami, Florida}} |
|||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturgis, Frank}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturgis, Frank}} |
||
[[Category:1924 births]] |
[[Category:1924 births]] |
||
[[Category:1993 deaths]] |
[[Category:1993 deaths]] |
||
[[Category:American |
[[Category:American anti-communists]] |
||
[[Category:American people convicted of burglary]] |
|||
[[Category:American people of Italian descent]] |
|||
[[Category:American spies]] |
[[Category:American spies]] |
||
[[Category:Cancer deaths in Florida]] |
|||
[[Category:Cold War spies]] |
[[Category:Cold War spies]] |
||
[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer]] |
[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Florida]] |
||
[[Category:Military personnel from Norfolk, Virginia]] |
|||
[[Category:Military personnel from Philadelphia]] |
|||
[[Category:Opposition to Fidel Castro]] |
[[Category:Opposition to Fidel Castro]] |
||
[[Category:People associated with the John F. Kennedy |
[[Category:People associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy]] |
||
[[Category:People |
[[Category:People convicted in the Watergate scandal]] |
||
[[Category:People from |
[[Category:People from Miami]] |
||
[[Category: |
[[Category:CIA agents convicted of crimes]] |
||
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]] |
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]] |
||
[[Category:United States |
[[Category:United States Marine Corps non-commissioned officers]] |
||
[[Category: |
[[Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II]] |
||
[[Category:United States Navy reservists]] |
|||
[[Category:Watergate Seven]] |
|||
[[Category:Police informants]] |
Latest revision as of 08:12, 9 November 2024
Frank Anthony Sturgis | |
---|---|
Born | Frank Angelo Fiorini December 9, 1924 Norfolk, Virginia, United States |
Died | December 4, 1993 Miami, United States | (aged 68)
Occupation(s) | Military, espionage |
Watergate scandal |
---|
Events |
People |
Frank Anthony Sturgis (December 9, 1924 – December 4, 1993), born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the presidency of Richard Nixon.[1]
He served in several branches of the United States military and in the Cuban Revolution of 1958, worked as an undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency,[2] and was alleged to be involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Early life and military service
[edit]When still a child, his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On October 5, 1942, in his senior year of high school, 17-year-old Frank Angelo Fiorini joined the United States Marine Corps and served under Colonel "Red Mike" Merritt A. Edson in the First Marine Raider Battalion in the Pacific Theater during the Second World War.[3]
"On April 14, 1942, William Donovan, as Coordinator of Information (forerunner of the Office of Strategic Services), activated units charged with gathering intelligence, harassing the Japanese through guerrilla actions, identifying targets for the Army Air Force to bomb, and rescuing downed Allied airmen."[4] This was what led to Stilwell's Chinese forces, Wingate's Raiders, and Merrill's Marauders involvement in the war,[5] and Frank got trained in guerrilla tactics and gathering intelligence, which became useful in his later events.[citation needed]
Honorably discharged as a corporal in 1945, he enrolled at Virginia Polytechnic Institute but left college and joined the Norfolk Police Department on June 5, 1946.[6] He soon discovered a corrupt payoff system and brought it to the attention of his superiors, who told him to overlook the illegal activities. On October 5, 1946, he had a confrontation with his sergeant and resigned the same day. For the next 18 months, he managed the Havana-Madrid tavern in Norfolk that catered to foreigners, mostly Cuban merchant seamen.[citation needed]
On November 9, 1947, Fiorini joined the United States Naval Reserve at the Norfolk Naval Air Station and learned to fly while still working at the tavern. He was honorably discharged on August 30, 1948, and joined the United States Army the next day. He was sent immediately to West Berlin, where the USSR had closed the land routes during the Berlin Blockade, and he became a member of General Lucius Clay's honor guard. Two weeks after the USSR reopened the land routes on May 11, 1949, Fiorini was honorably discharged. As a Marine Raider, Fiorini had worked behind enemy lines gathering intelligence, and during his Army tenure in Berlin and Heidelberg, he had a top secret clearance and worked in an intelligence unit whose primary target was the Soviet Union. Fiorini started to believe Russia was a threat, and he became a lifelong militant. Returning to Norfolk in 1952, he took a job managing the Cafe Society tavern, then partnered with its owner, Milton Bass, to co-purchase and manage The Top Hat Nightclub in Virginia Beach.[7]
On September 23, 1952, Frank Fiorini filed a petition in the Circuit Court of the City of Norfolk, Virginia, to change his name to Frank Anthony Sturgis, adopting the surname of his stepfather Ralph Sturgis, whom his mother had married in 1937. His new name closely resembled that of Hank Sturgis, the fictional hero of E. Howard Hunt's 1949 novel, Bimini Run, whose life parallels Frank Sturgis's life from 1942 to 1949 in certain salient respects.[8]
Moves to Cuba, joins Castro forces
[edit]In 1956, Sturgis moved to Cuba, and went to Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Honduras. Sturgis moved to Miami in 1957, where the Cuban wife of his uncle Angelo Vona introduced him to former Cuban president Carlos Prío, who joined with other Cubans opposing dictator Fulgencio Batista to plot their return to power. Now Frank had gotten together with an old friend, Richard Sanderlin who was also a Norfolk, Virginia native. Once they had relocated to Miami, Florida, they began an arms and munition smuggling operation into Cuba, bound for the rebels of Fidel Castro. They were sending money to Mexico to support Fidel Castro, whose July 26 Movement had arranged a meeting between CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick and their representatives in 1957 by Pepín Bosch, an executive of the Bacardi Corporation.[9] Prio asked Sturgis to go to Cuba to join up with Castro and to report back to the exiled powers in Miami, so he went down and met with Castro.[10] While Richard Sanderlin traveled to the Sierra Maestra Mountains in Oriente Province Cuba, where he began training the Castro rebels, in military strategy, tactics, weapon handling, and hand to hand fighting.
In 1958, Frank made contact with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Cuba at the US Consulate in Santiago. He worked as an informer for the agency with his control officer Sam Jenis. Sturgis also became involved running guns to Cuba,[2] along with mobster Santo Trafficante,[11] and not surprisingly was arrested for illegal possession of arms, but released without charge. In 1959, Sturgis had contact with casinos in Cuba and some say met Lewis McWillie, mobster Traficante's man in Cuba, and the manager of the Tropicana Casino who by his own testimony[12] was a known acquaintance of Jack Ruby.[13]
Sturgis met up with Castro and his 400 rebels in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Sturgis offered to train Castro's troops in guerrilla warfare. Castro accepted the offer, but he also had an immediate need for guns and ammunition, so Sturgis became a gunrunner.[2] Using money from anti-Batista Cuban exiles in Miami and some suspect the CIA, Sturgis purchased boatloads of weapons and ammunition from CIA weapons expert Samuel Cummings' International Armament Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia. Sturgis explained later that he chose to throw in with Castro rather than Prío because Fidel was a soldier, a man of action, whereas Prío was a politician, more a man of words.[14]
In March 1958, Sturgis opened a training camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where he taught Che Guevara and other 26th of July Movement rebel soldiers guerrilla warfare.[15] When Castro seized power, a rebel firing squad on San Juan Hill executed 71 of their opponents on January 11, 1959, into an awaiting 40-foot (12.2 m) ditch that had been opened with a bulldozer. Although Sturgis did not take part in the execution, he was photographed afterwards holding a rifle on top of the covered mass grave.[16]
His friend Richard Sanderlin, completed the training of Raul Castros Second Front, and led a guerrilla band into combat operations against the Cuban army of Batista.
Castro then appointed Sturgis gambling czar and director of security and intelligence for the air force, in addition to his position as a captain in July 26 Movement.[17] Sturgis went to Miami on June 2, 1959, with Alan McDonald while "supervising the investigation of several American gamblers with criminal records that operate casinos in Havana." They requested from Metropolitan Criminal Intelligence Supervisor Frank Kappel information on "Meyer and Jake Lansky, Joe Silesi aka Joe Rivers and Santos Trafficante," that was provided to them six days later after the Cuban government sent an official written request.[18] He was introduced to two men that were transported to Cuba from Venezuela to assist in the organization of the revolution and Frank saw they were clearly communist. He began to sound out those that he knew were anti-communist including Camilo Cienfuegos, as he knew leaders like Raúl Castro and Che Guevara were communist, but he was unsure about Fidel Castro. Sturgis defected the following month with Revolutionary Air Force chief Commandant Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz[19] and they joined the anti-Castro exile opposition.
Sturgis participated with him a few months later in an anti-Castro leaflet-dropping raid over Cuba. Sturgis formed the Anti-Communist Brigade which Hans Tanner in his book "Counter-Revolutionary Agent", says the organization was "being financed by dispossessed hotel and gambling owners" from Cuba. The Border Patrol in Miami reported that Sturgis was involved in a CIA operation being financed by Sergio Rojas (former Cuban Ambassador to Great Britain) to overthrow Castro. It has been claimed, with little in the way of evidence, that Sturgis was involved in helping the CIA organize the Bay of Pigs Invasion, for whose ultimate failure he blamed President Kennedy. Sturgis recruited 19 year old Marita Lorenz,[20] who was close to Fidel Castro, and she took CIA pills,[21] which she hid in her face cream, to poison Castro, but the plot failed.[22] According to Lorenz, she met Sturgis again before the Kennedy assassination in 1963 with others planning a big event.[23] Lorenz stated that she joined Sturgis traveling to Dallas after the meeting.[23] Lorenz later testified about this Kennedy assassination plot before the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA).[24]
Sturgis was claimed to be a member of Operation 40, a CIA-sponsored counterintelligence group composed of Cuban exiles.[25] The group was formed to seize control of the Cuban government after the Bay of Pigs Invasion.[26] The operation was concentrating on Cuba and were operating out of Mexico.
Despite his claimed involvement in numerous CIA sponsored operations including the Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1975 Rockefeller Commission succinctly states that "Frank Sturgis was not an employee or agent of the CIA either in 1963 or at any other time."[27]
Watergate burglary 1972
[edit]On June 17, 1972, Sturgis, Virgilio González, Eugenio Martínez, Bernard Barker and James W. McCord, Jr. were arrested while installing electronic listening devices in the national Democratic Party campaign offices located at the Watergate office complex in Washington. The White House office telephone number of CIA officer E. Howard Hunt was found in address books of the burglars. Reporters were able to link the break-in to the White House. The burglars had successfully entered into the same location several weeks earlier, but returned to fix a malfunctioning device and to photograph more documents. Bob Woodward, a reporter working for The Washington Post was told by a source (Deep Throat) who was employed by the government that senior aides of President Richard Nixon had paid the burglars to obtain information about his political opponents.
Sturgis was portrayed in All the President's Men, the 1976 film retelling the events of the Watergate scandal, by Ron Hale.
Prison and later investigations
[edit]In January 1973, Sturgis, Hunt, Gonzalez, Martinez, Barker, G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping.
Sturgis was convicted in 1973 with Max Gonzalez and Jerry Buchanan in a federal court in Miami (73-597-CR-CA) of transporting cars stolen in Texas into Mexico.[28] This prompted Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Acting Regional Director David W. Costa to send a letter to Judge C. Clyde Atkins on March 10, 1975, indicating that Sturgis had been covertly cooperating with the DEA.[29] Sturgis served 14 months in the minimum security federal prison in Eglin, Florida.
After leaving prison, Sturgis served as a Miami police informant and continued providing intelligence on the anti-Castro activities of Dr. Orlando Bosch.[30]
St. George's article was published in True magazine in August 1974. Sturgis claims that the Watergate burglars had been instructed to find a particular document in the Democratic Party offices. This was a "secret memorandum from the Castro government" that included details of CIA covert actions. Sturgis said "that the Castro government suspected the CIA did not tell the whole truth about these operations even to American political leaders".[31] In response to Sturgis' repeated braggadocio to the news media, the CIA issued a public statement on May 30, 1975, indicating that he had never been connected with them "in any way."[32]
In an interview with New York Daily News reporter Paul Meskil on June 20, 1975, Sturgis stated, "I was a spy. I was involved in assassination plots and conspiracies to overthrow several foreign governments including Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. I smuggled arms and men into Cuba for Castro and against Castro. I broke into intelligence files. I stole and photographed secret documents. That's what spies do."
Sturgis was denied a pardon by President Jimmy Carter.[33]
JFK conspiracy allegations
[edit]Sturgis has been the subject of various allegations regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He also made claims that other individuals were involved in the assassination of Kennedy.
Early allegations: Sturgis as one of the "three tramps"
[edit]The Dallas Morning News, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram photographed three transients under police escort near the Texas School Book Depository shortly after the assassination of Kennedy.[34] The men later became known as the "three tramps".[35] According to Vincent Bugliosi, allegations that these men were involved in a conspiracy originated from theorist Richard E. Sprague who compiled the photographs in 1966 and 1967, and subsequently turned them over to Jim Garrison during his investigation of Clay Shaw.[35] Appearing before a nationwide audience on the December 31, 1968, episode of The Tonight Show, Garrison held up a photo of the three and suggested they were involved in the assassination.[35] Later, in 1974, assassination researchers Alan J. Weberman and Michael Canfield compared photographs of the men to people they believed to be suspects involved in a conspiracy and said that two of the men were Watergate burglars Hunt and Sturgis.[36] Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory helped bring national media attention to the allegations against Hunt and Sturgis in 1975 after obtaining the comparison photographs from Weberman and Canfield.[36] Immediately after obtaining the photographs, Gregory held a press conference that received considerable coverage and his charges were reported in Rolling Stone and Newsweek.[36][37][38]
The Rockefeller Commission reported in 1975 that they investigated the allegation that Hunt and Sturgis, on behalf of the CIA, participated in the assassination of Kennedy.[39] The final report of that commission stated that witnesses who testified that the "derelicts" bore a resemblance to Hunt or Sturgis "were not shown to have any qualification in photo identification beyond that possessed by an average layman".[40] Their report also stated that FBI Agent Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt, "a nationally-recognized expert in photoidentification and photoanalysis" with the FBI photographic laboratory, had concluded from photo comparison that none of the men were Hunt or Sturgis.[41] In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations reported that forensic anthropologists had again analyzed and compared the photographs of the "tramps" with those of Hunt and Sturgis, as well as with photographs of Thomas Vallee, Daniel Carswell, and Fred Lee Chrisman.[42] According to the committee, only Chrisman resembled any of the tramps but determined that he was not to be in Dealey Plaza on the day of the assassination.[42] In 1992, journalist Mary La Fontaine discovered the November 22, 1963, arrest records that the Dallas Police Department had released in 1989, which named the three men as Gus W. Abrams, Harold Doyle, and John F. Gedney.[43] According to the arrest reports, the three men were "taken off a boxcar in the railroad yards right after President Kennedy was shot", detained as "investigative prisoners", described as unemployed and passing through Dallas, then released four days later.[43]
Sturgis makes his own allegations
[edit]In 1976, Sturgis claimed that he was assigned to investigate any possible role that Cuban exiles may have played in the assassination of Kennedy.[44] He stated that his investigation revealed that ten weeks prior to the assassination, Jack Ruby met with Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba to discuss "the removal of the President" in order to neutralize the threat of invasion by the United States.[44][45] According to Sturgis, others at the meeting included Raúl Castro, Che Guevara, Ramiro Valdés and "an Argentine woman who is believed to have been a Russian KGB agent".[44][45] He said that Ruby had also made several trips to Havana in the months before the assassination in order to arrange deals in which arms would be sold to Cuba and in which illegal drugs from Cuba would be smuggled into the United States.[44] Sturgis also claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in the conspiracy, and that other governments either were involved in the conspiracy or knew of the conspiracy.[44] He said that his investigation did not reveal that Cuban exiles were involved in the assassination.[44]
Sturgis declined to specifically identify the sources of his information, but noted he said that they included members of the "anti-Castro Cuban underground."[44][45] He further claimed that associates of his involved in intelligence had independently confirmed his report.[44][45] According to Sturgis, his report was made in early 1964 and that it was given to "certain American intelligence agencies, including the Senate Internal Security Committee."[45] He said that he did not know if it had been forwarded to the Warren Commission.[44] Similarly, Sturgis said that information about the 1964 reports had been provided to the Rockefeller Commission as well as the Church Committee's intelligence subcommittee chaired by Richard Schweiker, but that he did not know if they received the actual reports.[44][45]
Sturgis stated he was revealing that he made the reports in order to refute "the leftist element in the country" who claimed the CIA was involved in the assassination of Kennedy.[46] Jack Ruby's brother, Earl, responded to the allegations as "outlandish," "ridiculous," and "absolutely false".[47][48]
In a 1977 television interview conducted by Bill O'Reilly, Sturgis indicated that Alexander Butterfield had notable "associations" with CIA officials, associating himself with the position taken by L. Fletcher Prouty who had made headlines nationwide with his allegation that Butterfield was operating on behalf of the CIA.[49]
Marita Lorenz: Sturgis with Oswald
[edit]In September 1977, Marita Lorenz told Paul Meskil of the New York Daily News that she met Oswald in the fall of 1963 at an Operation 40 safe house in the Little Havana section of Miami.[23] According to Lorenz, she met him again before the Kennedy assassination in 1963 in the house of Orlando Bosch, with Sturgis, Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz, and two other Cubans present.[23] She said the men studied Dallas street maps and that she suspected that they were planning on raiding an arsenal.[23] Lorenz stated that she joined the men traveling to Dallas in two cars and carrying "rifles and scopes", but flew back to Miami the day after they arrived.[23] In response to her allegations, Sturgis said he did not recall ever meeting Oswald and reiterated his previous denials of being involved in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy.[23]
On October 31, 1977, Sturgis was arrested in Lorenz's apartment after Lorenz told police that Sturgis threatened her in an attempt to force her to change her testimony to federal investigators.[50] In an interview with Steve Dunleavy of the New York Post shortly after he posted bail, Sturgis said that he believed communist agents had pressured Lorenz into making the accusations against him.[51] Later that week in Manhattan Criminal Court, charges against Sturgis were dropped after the prosecutor told the judge that his office found no evidence of coercion or harassment.[50] Recapping the series of events, Timothy Crouse of The Village Voice described Sturgis and Lorenz as "two of the most notoriously unreliable sources in America".[52]
Posthumous allegations: Hunt's "deathbed confession"
[edit]After the death of Hunt in 2007, John Hunt and David Hunt revealed that their father had recorded several claims about himself and others being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy.[53][54] In the April 5, 2007, issue of Rolling Stone, John Hunt detailed a number of individuals implicated by his father including Sturgis, as well as Cord Meyer, David Sánchez Morales, David Atlee Phillips, William Harvey and an assassin he termed "French gunman grassy knoll" who many presume was Lucien Sarti.[54][55] The two sons alleged that their father cut the information from his memoirs, American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond, to avoid possible perjury charges.[53] According to Hunt's widow and other children, the two sons took advantage of Hunt's loss of lucidity by coaching and exploiting him for financial gain.[53] The Los Angeles Times said they examined the materials offered by the sons to support the story and found them to be "inconclusive".[53]
Portugal, 1980: Camarate Affair
[edit]Sturgis is also linked to the assassination, on December 4, 1980, of Portuguese prime minister Francisco de Sá Carneiro and 6 other people aboard a Cessna aircraft, in what became known as the Camarate affair. He was named by two of his alleged accomplices, Fernando Farinha Simões and José Esteves, in a written confession,[56] as the person who pressed the button of the detonator to activate the bomb on the plane.
Later life
[edit]In 1979, Sturgis traveled to Angola to help rebels fighting the communist government, which was supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, and to teach guerrilla warfare. In 1981 he went to Honduras to train the US backed Contras who were fighting Nicaragua's Sandinista government, which was supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union; the Army of El Salvador; and the Honduras death squads. He made a second trip to Angola and trained rebels in the Angolan bush for Holden Roberto. He interacted with Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal. In 1989 he visited Yassir Arafat in Tunis. Arafat shared elements of his peace plan, and Sturgis was debriefed by the CIA on his return.[57]
In an obituary published December 5, 1993, The New York Times quoted Sturgis' lawyer, Ellis Rubin, as saying that Sturgis died of cancer a week after he was admitted to a veterans' hospital in Miami, five days shy of his 69th birthday. It was reported that doctors diagnosed lung cancer that had spread to his kidneys, and that he was survived by a wife, Jan, and a daughter named Autumn.[1]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b "Frank A. Sturgis, Is Dead at 68; A Burglar in the Watergate Affair". The New York Times. New York. December 5, 1993. Archived from the original on April 9, 2023. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
- ^ a b c Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, Cuba on My Mind: The Secret Lives of Watergate Burglar Frank Sturgis (New York: A Forge Book, December 30, 2009, p. 35.
- ^ Jim Hunt and Bob Risch (2011). Warrior. New York: A Forge Book, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Central Intelligence Agency. Behind Japanese Lines in Burma: The Stuff of Intelligence Legend (2001). Retrieved May 30, 2012.
- ^ Peers, William R. and Dean Brelis. Behind the Burma Road: The Story of America's Most Successful Guerrilla Force. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1963, back cover.
- ^ "Frank Fiorini (Sturgis)". Spartacus Educational. September 1997. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- ^ Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, Warrior (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), pp. 30–44.
- ^ Chapter 19 of the Rockefeller Commission report denied the suggestion that Sturgis took his present name from the Hunt character, or that the name change was associated in any way with Sturgis' knowing Hunt before 1971 or 1972.
- ^ Gjelten, Tom (2008). Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause. Penguin. ISBN 9780670019786.
- ^ Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, Warrior (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 38.
- ^ "Full text of "Hearing 03-16-77 Trafficante"". archive.org.
- ^ "TESTIMONY OF LEWIS McWILLIE, LAS VEGAS, NEV". mcadams.posc.mu.edu. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
- ^ "The Jack Ruby Connection". January 31, 2014. Archived from the original on January 1, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
- ^ Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, Warrior (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 39.
- ^ Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, Warrior (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 43.
- ^ Cuba Archived October 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine latinamericanstudies.org
- ^ Jim Hunt and Bob Risch, Warrior (New York: A Forge Book, May 2011), p. 57.
- ^ Official document. Request Archived August 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine latinamericanstudies.org
- ^ Official document. Cuban revolt Archived August 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine latinamericanstudies.org
- ^ "The Story of Marita Lorenz: Mistress, Mother, C.I.A. Informant, and Center of Swirling Conspiracy Theories". Vanity Fair. November 1993. Archived from the original on June 5, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
- ^ Paterson, Tony (October 7, 2000). "The teenager, Castro and the CIA poison plot". Archived from the original on December 31, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
- ^ Johnston, Laurie (November 4, 1977). "Police Studying Arrest of Sturgis, Who Denies Threatening Accuser". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 31, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g Meskil, Paul (September 20, 1977). "Ex-Spy Says She Drove To Dallas With Oswald & Kennedy 'Assassin Squad'" (PDF). New York Daily News. New York. p. 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
- ^ "JFK: Gaeton Fonzi on Marita Lorenz". www.jfk-online.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- ^ Smith, Jr., W. Thomas (2003). "40, Operation". Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 104. ISBN 9781438130187. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
- ^ Bartlett, Charles (May 11, 1961). "Cuban Terror Unit Barred?". The Palm Beach Post. Palm Beach, Florida. p. 9. Retrieved May 7, 2015.[permanent dead link ]
- ^ Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States Archived August 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Chapter 19
- ^ Appeal Archived August 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine latinamericanstudies.org
- ^ Letter to Judge Archived August 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine latinamericanstudies.org
- ^ Deposition Archived August 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine latinamericanstudies.org
- ^ Confessions of a Watergate Burglar Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine jfk.hood.edu
- ^ CIA demial Archived August 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine latinamericanstudies.org
- ^ "Ehrlichman Seeks a Pardon for Watergate Crimes". The New York Times. New York. AP. August 15, 1987. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
- ^ Bugliosi, Vincent (2007). Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 930. ISBN 978-0-393-04525-3.
- ^ a b c Bugliosi 2007, p. 930.
- ^ a b c Bugliosi 2007, p. 931.
- ^ Weberman, Alan J; Canfield, Michael (1992) [1975]. Coup D'Etat in America: The CIA and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (Revised ed.). San Francisco: Quick American Archives. p. 7. ISBN 9780932551108.
- ^ Dallas: new questions and answers Archived June 2, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, Newsweek, April 28, 1975, pp. 37–38
- ^ "Chapter 19: Allegations Concerning the Assassination of President Kennedy". Report to the President by Commission on CIA Activities in the United States. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. June 1975. p. 251. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
- ^ Report to the President by Commission on CIA Activities in the United States, Chapter 19 1975, p. 256.
- ^ Report to the President by Commission on CIA Activities in the United States, Chapter 19 1975, p. 257.
- ^ a b "I.B. Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy. Other scientific evidence does not preclude the possibility of two gunmen firing at the President. Scientific evidence negates some specific conspiracy allegations". Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. 1979. pp. 91–92. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ^ a b Bugliosi 2007, p. 933.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Sturgis Says He Gave Report Of Ruby Plotting With Castro". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Sarasota, Florida. UPI. July 9, 1976. p. 2E. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f "Ex-operative says Ruby met with Castro". Lawrence Journal-World. Lawrence, Kansas. AP. July 10, 1976. p. 24. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ^ "Jack Ruby visited Castro". Delaware County Daily Times. Chester, Pennsylvania. Associated Press. July 10, 1976. p. 2. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ^ "Ruby's Brother Contradicts Story". Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily. Vol. 107, no. 190. Florence, Alabama. UPI. July 10, 1976. p. 5. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ^ "Claim False; Brother of Ruby Says". The Victoria Advocate. Victoria, Texas. AP. July 12, 1976. p. 7A. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ^ SMU Jones Film. "Bill O'Reilly Interviews Frank Sturgis 1977" Archived November 12, 2021, at the Wayback Machine (video interview). WFAA Collection.
- ^ a b "Sturgis Charges Dropped". Observer-Reporter. Washington, Pennsylvania. AP. November 5, 1977. p. A-5. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ^ Dunleavy, Steve (November 3, 1977). "Sturgis' Exclusive Story; Marita Pressured By Reds" (PDF). New York Post. New York. pp. 3, 14. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
- ^ Crouse, Timothy (November 21, 1977). "Crime and Punishment; Page One Hoax from a Cloak & Dagger Duo". The Village Voice. New York. Archived from the original on January 8, 2024. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ^ a b c d Williams, Carol J. (March 20, 2007). "Watergate plotter may have a last tale". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Archived from the original on July 14, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
- ^ a b Hedegaard, Erik (April 5, 2007). "The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 18, 2008.
- ^ McAdams, John (2011). "Too Much Evidence of Conspiracy". JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think About Claims of Conspiracy. Washington, DC: Potomac Books. p. 189. ISBN 9781597974899. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
- ^ Carvalho, Frederico Duarte (2012). Camarate: Sá Carneiro e as armas para o Irão. Lisbon: Editorial Planeta. ISBN 978-9896573430.
- ^ Jim Hunt and Bob Risch (2011). Warrior. New York: A Forge Book, pp. 313–314.
Bibliography
[edit]- Escalante, Fabián (1995). The Secret War: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959–62. Melbourne: Ocean Press. ISBN 1875284869. Translated by Maxine Shaw. Edited by Mirta Muñez.
- Hunt, Jim, and Bob Risch (2012). Warrior: Frank Sturgis—The CIA's #1 Assassin-Spy, Who Nearly Killed Castro But Was Ambushed by Watergate . Macmillan. ISBN 978-0765328649.
- Othen, Christopher (2022). The Men from Miami: American Rebels on Both Sides of Fidel Castro's Revolution. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1785906862.
- Schlesinger, Arthur M. (Jr.) (1978). Robert Kennedy and His Times. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0233970851.
External links
[edit]- 1924 births
- 1993 deaths
- American anti-communists
- American people convicted of burglary
- American people of Italian descent
- American spies
- Cold War spies
- Deaths from lung cancer in Florida
- Military personnel from Norfolk, Virginia
- Military personnel from Philadelphia
- Opposition to Fidel Castro
- People associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy
- People convicted in the Watergate scandal
- People from Miami
- CIA agents convicted of crimes
- United States Army soldiers
- United States Marine Corps non-commissioned officers
- United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
- United States Navy reservists
- Watergate Seven
- Police informants