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Frank Guzman aka Mario Silverio Villamia


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In this article Daniel Hopsicker discusses the life and death of Mario Silverio Villamia, who was charged along with

Carlos Prio Socarras, Robert McKeown and "various other individuals" with conspiracy to smuggle guns and

equipment to Cuba.

Jack Ruby, of course, had at one time approached McKeown about smuggling Jeeps to Cuba.

While using the alias Frank Guzman, Villamia was murdered in 1979, probably as a result of his drug smuggling activities.

The Warren Commission document linked by Hopsicker indicates that Villamia and Guzman were one and the same.

http://www.madcowprod.com/04162010.htm

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In this article Daniel Hopsicker discusses the life and death of Mario Silverio Villamia, who was charged along with

Carlos Prio Socarras, Robert McKeown and "various other individuals" with conspiracy to smuggle guns and

equipment to Cuba.

Jack Ruby, of course, had at one time approached McKeown about smuggling Jeeps to Cuba.

While using the alias Frank Guzman, Villamia was murdered in 1979, probably as a result of his drug smuggling activities.

The Warren Commission document linked by Hopsicker indicates that Villamia and Guzman were one and the same.

http://www.madcowprod.com/04162010.htm

How did he get a Navy jet?

The founder of Temco (later LTV), was D.H. Byrd, who owned the Texas School Book Depository where President Kennedy was killed. And as we've seen in previous stories like Big Safari, the Kennedy Assassination, & the war for control of the Venice Airport, the airport was the site where Byrd's Regulus missiles for the Air Force were tested.

We uncovered evidence indicating that Guzman's real name was Mario Silverio Villamia in testimony to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of JFK about the underworld ties of Jack Ruby, the slayer of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Ruby had approached Texas gunrunner Robert McKeown about selling jeeps to Castro.

McKeown had been convicted of the same offense in 1958, said a Commission exhibit dated April 17, 1964. "the company AND "the bluegrass conspiracy"

Also convicted with McKeown had been the former President of Cuba, Carlos Prio, and four other men, one of whom was one Mario Silverio Villamia, aged 34, also known as Frank Guzman.

We did the math.

The Warren Commission "Frank Guzman" had been 34 in 1964. Ten years later, in 1974, the Sarasota newspaper profile of "Frank Guzman" reported:

"For the 44-year old Guzman, the jet is a partial answer to the search for finding excitement in life."

We received further confirmation after we tracked down a former drug pilot for The Company who spoke with us on condition of anonymity.

He had flown with Guzman, he said, "at least a hundred" flights to Colombia from the Venice Airport. We had no trouble believing him. His name and involvement with the group is well-chronicled in news reports from the time.

After a conviction for drug trafficking 30 years ago, his life has returned to normal, he said. Today he is a respected businessman in a city not far from Venice

Frank came from Cuba when Castro came to power," he confirmed. "He had ties to a former Cuban President Carlos Prio. Along with other Cuban exiles he participated in the Bay of Pigs, then worked with the CIA during the 1960's."

"Venice was a kind of quiet Mena (Arkansas)," said our pilot informant.

"Jackson Stephens had built this huge headquarters next to the airport. And he was in charge. But I do remember seeing Porter Goss around the airport a lot.

At that time, Goss was a CIA Agent assigned to Latin America. He later became a Florida Congressman from Charlotte County, where he eventually became head of the House Intelligence Committee. In 2002 he was named Director of the CIA under George W. Bush.

BK: At the time of the assassination of JFK, Porter Goss was stationed at JMWAVE, and was involved in the maritime paramilitary operations against Cuba.

Brad Ayers remembers Porter Goss as a case officer for some of the teams that he trained. Gen. Krulak was assigned to support the CIA maritime operations at JMWAVE by Gen. Curtis LeMay on Sept. 24, 1963, while Gen. Taylor was in Vietnam and LeMay was temporarily the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Desmond FitzGerald was the CIA officer in charge of the covert Cuban operations.

Edited by William Kelly
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Lee Harvey Oswald at Barksdale AFB in 1955?

War for control of the Venice Airport

Big Safari, the Kennedy Assassination, & the war for control of the Venice Airport

"I knew by now that when a group of individuals gravitated toward one another for no apparent reason, or inexplicably headed in the same direction as if drawn by a magnetic field, or coincidence piled on coincidence too many times, as often as not the shadowy outlines of a covert intelligence operation were somehow becoming visible."—New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison

Sept 08, 2009

by Daniel Hopsicker

email the author

A fierce war being waged for control of the Venice Municipal Airport has led to the discovery of covert CIA and military operations, dating back to at least 1959, which go well beyond what was previously known to have taken place there.

Operations at the Venice Airport have involved individuals whose names figure prominently in the Kennedy Assassination, for example Texas oilman General D. H. (Harry) Byrd, owner of a defense contractor which in the late 50's and early 60's built and launched Regulus II cruise missiles from the beach directly in front of the Venice Airport in a program run out of at Eglin AFB in Florida's panhandle.

"Vought's Regulus II was a Mach 2 capable cruise missile optimized for launch from surfaced submarines and other Navy surface vessels, and later served as a high-speed target drone for other weapon development programs," company literature stated.

Byrd's Chance-Vought Aircraft, later re-named LTV, would become—almost immediately after the JFK assassination—a principal beneficiary of the massive military spending accompanying the growth of American military involvement in the Vietnam War. </H3>General Byrd, of course, was the owner of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, where the Warren Commission alleged Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots which killed President John F. Kennedy.

Byrd also ran the Texas and Louisiana Civil Air Patrol, at the same time cadets Barry Seal and Lee Harvey Oswald were meeting Kennedy assassination conspirator Capt. David Ferrie at a two-week summer camp of the Louisiana Civil Air Patrol at Barksdale Air Force Base in July of 1955

Amazingly—especially for a tiny airport located in an out-of-the-way retirement community—according to a recently-uncovered police report there is a second man active at the Venice Airport with relevance to the Kennedy assassination as well.

According to this recently-unearthed police report, that man, a suspected CIA Agent, flew to Cuba in 1969 on a mission to assassinate one of "four or five" of the men then still alive who had been part of the Kennedy assassination "hit team."

A Dec 6 1978 memo from the Chief Deputy of the Sarasota Sheriff's Dept. to the FBI's Tampa office on the subject on Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" states he recently learned that four or five years ago "Stephen Ruth, arrested several years earlier on a burglary charge, had been the passenger on an airplane that crashed in Cuban territory in...early 1970."

"At that time Ruth was suspected of trafficking in narcotics... had spent some time in jail in Cuba... and on his release returned to Venice Florida."

The day after Ruth was arrested, "Ruth contacted Corporal Lynn Taylor of the Sarasota Sheriff's office Venice Office. Stephen Ruth reportedly told Corporal Taylor that his true mission in Cuba was to do away with an individual who was incarcerated in a Cuban prison."

"According to Ruth, this individual was one of five persons involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ruth told... the officer....that within five years he would have some nice cars and as much money as he needed."

"Corporal Ruth asked Ruth if he had done what he was sent there to do and Ruth replied that the job had been done, and though there were no there comments, Corporal Taylor advised that he had the feeling Ruth was inferring he had been sent there by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA.)"

The police report was found in the archives of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, in an FBI folder from the House Select Committee on Assassinations. JFK VOLUME XV.

There are valid reasons to suspect Ruth may be telling the truth. For one thing, as we will see tomorrow, within five years Ruth was rich. And Ruth also appears to have unexplained pull with authorities in Florida.

"Spooks," as we have been reporting for more than five years, are no strangers at the Airport where Mohamed Atta's hijackers made their base in the U.S.

Venice was home to the headquarters of Beverley Enterprises, owned by Jackson Stephens, known as President Jimmy Carter's roommate when both men were at the Naval Academy, we previously reported, in "Welcome to TerrorLand."

Jackson Stephens's name is almost invariably linked to America's super-secret National Security Agency, the NSA, as well as to—it must be said—the massive cocaine trafficking through Mena, Arkansas during the 1980's in support of the Contra war in Nicaragua.

From Welcome to TERRORLAND, chap 1:

"When we interviewed the former Venice Chief of Police, he seemed more than a little embarrassed, and totally apologetic about what had been allowed to happen at the tiny airport in his town. He asked that we not judge city officials too harshly. They had little or no control over what went on at the Venice Airport.

"The Venice Airport is the kind of place where it's not unusual to see a Blackhawk helicopter touch down at three in the morning and then take off again 30 seconds later," the former Chief said with a shrug. "Or the airport can be quiet and deserted one minute, and the next have 5000 paratroopers landing. That's just the way it is here."

The Most Dangerous Game

While Byrd's Texas Book Repository was being put to what Mr Byrd no doubt claimed was unauthorized use on Nov. 22 1963, Mr Byrd himself had been otherwise engaged.

With a big assist from Linda Minor, a lawyer and invaluable researcher into all things Texan, and resources freely available at the amazing Mary Ferrell Foundation, we make bold to offer a brief distillation of what happened next…

On the day of the assassination Byrd was conveniently "away from his desk."

He was out of the country on a two-month safari in central Africa. When he returned in January, his good friend Lyndon Johnson was the new President of the United States, his School Book Depository building had become famous in his absence, and a huge juicy defense contract was waiting on his desk, awarded to his company to build fighter planes, and to be paid from the 1965 Congressional budget… even though it had not yet been approved by Congress.

It sounds a lot like Al Capone, who was famously taking some sun down in Miami when the St Valentines Day Massacre shook Chicago. That is, of course, just conjecture. But here's something that's not:

We called on a source, now retired, who had worked in the American aerospace industry building satellites for the NSA for several decades.

He might have known General Harry Byrd, we figured. He had... in fact, he had worked for him at LTV.

And in between anecdotes that are colorful, but neither here nor there, he mentioned that, oh, bye the bye, did we know that

When Byrd's defense aerospace firm LTV "went big" after the JFK assassination, he told us, it had become a big part of an overarching Air Force Operation…

For years afterward, he said, every self-respecting big-time Air Force defense program—everyone who was anyone, in other words—came under the overall rubric of an Air Force Operation whose declassified code-name, when he named it, give us pause.

It was called Operation Big Safari.

"The Earth is one big safari park for these good old boys, and we're the lions and tigers and bears."

http://www.madcowprod.com/09082009.html

Edited by William Kelly
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  • 4 weeks later...

Email from Arlene Villamia:

Just want to mention to William Kelly and Michael Hogan that their recent posts are basically wrong - my father Mario Silverio Villamia, is still alive, and well. He was Cuban born to Galician parents and nationalized here in the US when he married my mother Carmen Guzman - still alive too - in the 1940's. My father was involved in the pro democratic Cuban nationalist movement the M267. My father, now aged 86 and is writing his memoirs and we have received FOIA papers in realation to him recently. He refused to participate in the Bay of Pigs and Operation Mongonse when invited to do so by the CIA - and ended up serving federal prison time in the US for his pro Castro activities.

My uncle Frank Guzman, born in Puerto Rico, came to live in NYC - the Bronx, at age 6 with my mother and their family. He was brilliant and a life long plane enthusiast and self taught mechanical genius. He was a member of the John Birch Society - very conservative man - who loved to perform in the sky and was in several paracuting clubs in Long Island and then Florida with his wife. He was fairly successful and leased his planes out while in business in Venice - one of which was used by a marijuana smuggler - unbeknown to him - when the plane crashed with its cargo my uncle - being the only link to that person - was lured to that hotel and murdered so that he could not give the name of the person. There was no substantial investigation into his murder. This was during the time that the Columbian drug gangs were taking over southern Florida and competing with the traditional organized crime elements - who had often worked in tandem with anti Castro forces within the US - those lines a blurry in fact. Our family assumed that law enforcement was in the pockets of these organized criminals and did not press for further investigation since we feared for the safety of his wife and children at the time.

Arlene Villamia

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I'd suggest the ''organised criminals'' were in the pockets of ''law enforcement''. A further blurry is the formation of the FSLN and the preparations that started with the possible fall of Somoza and the shift towards the days of the contras. Obviously the membership in the John Birch Society is interesting.

edit add: Did this Robert also operate out of or through Alabam?

Edited by John Dolva
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The founder of Temco (later LTV), was D.H. Byrd, who owned the Texas School Book Depository where President Kennedy was killed. And as we've seen in previous stories like Big Safari, the Kennedy Assassination, & the war for control of the Venice Airport, the airport was the site where Byrd's Regulus missiles for the Air Force were tested.

Apologies if this has been posted previously but didn't Mac Wallace also "work" for LTV ?

Russ

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Byrd the Bonehead. The use of (in context) good old boys, or as often spelled good ole'boy/s, not johnnies, not yankees, carpet beggers etc is a bit interesting.

Another use of the term was a speech by a wizard or whatever in sone nearby state in a klan meeting saying something like : Kennedy. one of the good ole'boys down in dallas took care of him. In the 1965 huac investugation into various militant right wing groups and got lots and lots of fifth amendments but some tantalising snippets, the DeWitts and associates for example. Elizabeth seems to have been among the most slippery and her and her associates who did speak created more questions than answers.

Edited by John Dolva
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Email from Arlene Villamia:

Just want to mention to William Kelly and Michael Hogan that their recent posts are basically wrong - my father Mario Silverio Villamia, is still alive, and well. He was Cuban born to Galician parents and nationalized here in the US when he married my mother Carmen Guzman - still alive too - in the 1940's. My father was involved in the pro democratic Cuban nationalist movement the M267. My father, now aged 86 and is writing his memoirs and we have received FOIA papers in realation to him recently. He refused to participate in the Bay of Pigs and Operation Mongonse when invited to do so by the CIA - and ended up serving federal prison time in the US for his pro Castro activities.

My uncle Frank Guzman, born in Puerto Rico, came to live in NYC - the Bronx, at age 6 with my mother and their family. He was brilliant and a life long plane enthusiast and self taught mechanical genius. He was a member of the John Birch Society - very conservative man - who loved to perform in the sky and was in several paracuting clubs in Long Island and then Florida with his wife. He was fairly successful and leased his planes out while in business in Venice - one of which was used by a marijuana smuggler - unbeknown to him - when the plane crashed with its cargo my uncle - being the only link to that person - was lured to that hotel and murdered so that he could not give the name of the person. There was no substantial investigation into his murder. This was during the time that the Columbian drug gangs were taking over southern Florida and competing with the traditional organized crime elements - who had often worked in tandem with anti Castro forces within the US - those lines a blurry in fact. Our family assumed that law enforcement was in the pockets of these organized criminals and did not press for further investigation since we feared for the safety of his wife and children at the time.

Arlene Villamia

Thank youi JS and Arlene Villamia.

I didn't know that I said he was dead. I was quoting Dan Hopsicker.

I'm glad that the younger generation wants the truth out and that we will get his first person story, hopefully soon.

And to answer the question - Didn't Max Wallace work for LTV? - I don't know but you would think that his record would be public knowledge by now. I'd also like to know if Max Wallace worked for Lockheed.

Maybe John Simkin will enourage Arlene to join the forum and post some excerpts and answer some questions from forum members?

Bill Kelly

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Maybe John Simkin will enourage Arlene to join the forum and post some excerpts and answer some questions from forum members?

He rejected the idea but he might be willing to answer questions. If you post them on this thread I will ask them by email.

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Byrd used to fly down his pals to Mexico in the 40's for RnR.

It's just something about all this that brings Brian Jones, Alabama, SOF editor and the Contras to mind. SDS, Colorado, Somoza:Nicaragua.Drugs and weaponry, all to further a particular cause: the implementation of the Monroe Doctrine.

edit:typo

Edited by John Dolva
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