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David Morales


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Right on James: And he had a large Adams Apple. I could not recall all the details and would not be in a position to know all the details about him. It was outside my expertise, a pilot, "bus Jocky" as Hemming used to call me. None the less, I can tell you how he lost his finger or fingers. He used to capture alligators and put on displays at an alligator farm near West Palm Beach and one got him one day. That was before he became engaged with the mob and the Cuban cause. I think he was also known as "the Assination" and ran around with " Charlie the blade". I know who this is (the blade; its recorded by me years ago ask Marrs) his real name) He used to work in Havana at Mayer Lansky's Casino, before the fall of Batista. Later came to Florida and got engageded in Ops as a "contract employee" for Johney Rosellie. However, I can not confirm that this is the man in the picture.. It does look like the man on the Dallas flight and I am on record as saying that years ago... to the FBI and to Jim Marrs and others. It went no where and I was accused of making up the story. Thanks for the memory jog... tosh (Tosh plumlee)

Tosh,

I believe that you were correct in your original belief that El Gato was not Bosch. This El Gato character was supposedly a real bad ass. He also allegedly had an association with Tony Varona, Bernie de Torres and a dude by the name of Edgardo Buttari Puig. Buttari was the Director for Social Assistance for the First Officers of Brigade 2506 Association. De Torres was the Vice Director for a time.

Buttari and Bernard (Macho) Barker also handled Cubans for clandestine activities - guys like Reinaldo Pico Ramon, Felipe de Diego and several of the guys arrested in the Watergate burglary. It sounds like El Gato fell in with that lot.

Give me a week or so and I should be able to get his name and a photo.

James

Edited by James Richards
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James, Morales was definitely in charge of the Tilt mission support.

He assigned the people and signed off on the supplies and even

the deployment of the radar support mother ship. He also wrote

the after action summary report representing JMWAVE.

However Shackley signed off with Pawley on JMWAVE support

for the project. For some time it appeared that Shackley

was the "approving officer".

Very recently however, we have obtained some rather amazing

correspondance revealing that Marshall Carter gave written permission for

Pawley to involve LIFE magazine, take their photo journalist and

do photo coverage of the mission - including apparently giving

LIFE first dibs on the coverage of the story if it succeeded or did not.

I'm sure you can appreciate the number of security regs such

an approval violated; not to mention it's potential impact on

the Kennedy administration. We are still working on that

aspect but as of now what we had once thought of as a somewhat

small scale rogue mission clearly was far more than that. On the

other hand it was definitely not cleared by the Cuban working group,

nor on the Presidential approved mission list nor apparently known

to RFK (if it had been Marshall Carter would have retired in pieces

rather than going on over to the NSA). Much more to be learned

here I think.

-- Larry

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Thanks James: Toney Varona and Barnard Baker (Macho) a friend of Masferrer (?) I did know. Sometimes I have confused Varona with John Martino..., not sure why. These are some of the people I was associated with in the gun-running dasys into Cuba. Barnard Baker was also known as "Burnie". Most of these people used code names, or mob names like "CharlieThe Blade" "El Toro" Shorty the snake" and Snake Eyes" If any of these were connected to the company then ther were assigned alases or code names... like 'Redbird' Gator" Hawk, or Eagle" along with a fake name, like "William H Pearson" or "Buck" or "Col. Rawlson" or "Rawlston" and others I can't remember. These names would become "cut-outs" and were only used for a short time frame or for a paticular operation, then be droped... thanks. looking forward to the pictures.... Tosh (Tosh Plumlee)

Thanks, Tosh.

Edgardo Buttari Puig who I mentioned in my previous post is present in this photo below but I don't know which one he is. I can tell you that is Bernie de Torres 4th from the right and Ed Collins in the white shirt on the far left - Collins being closely connected with Bill Seymour, Roy Hargraves, Felipe Vidal Santiago and Hemming's Interpen group.

Are you able to identify any of the others? Even if you can't remember names, rough time lines and places would be of huge assistance.

Cheers,

James

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James, Morales was definitely in charge of the Tilt mission support.

He assigned the people and signed off on the supplies and even

the deployment of the radar support mother ship. He also wrote

the after action summary report representing JMWAVE.

However Shackley signed off with Pawley on JMWAVE support

for the project. For some time it appeared that Shackley

was the "approving officer".

Very recently however, we have obtained some rather amazing

correspondance revealing that Marshall Carter gave written permission for

Pawley to involve LIFE magazine, take their photo journalist and

do photo coverage of the mission - including apparently giving

LIFE first dibs on the coverage of the story if it succeeded or did not.

I'm sure you can appreciate the number of security regs such

an approval violated; not to mention it's potential impact on

the Kennedy administration. We are still working on that

aspect but as of now what we had once thought of as a somewhat

small scale rogue mission clearly was far more than that. On the

other hand it was definitely not cleared by the Cuban working group,

nor on the Presidential approved mission list nor apparently known

to RFK (if it had been Marshall Carter would have retired in pieces

rather than going on over to the NSA). Much more to be learned

here I think. (Larry Hancock)

Thanks, Larry. Muchly appreciated.

I didn't know Carter was the one who gave LIFE permission to tag along. That is certainly interesting. I do agree that there is much more to be learned.

James

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Tosh, Billings was actually the LIFE photographer who went on the

Tilt mission with Bayo, Pawley, Martino et al.

As far as the JMWAVE records go including Morales follow up reports, there

was only one mission....which was supposed to get the Russians and from

which supposedly no personnel ever returned - according to Morales.

And there is no doubt that Morales was very much up the food chain,

Chief Ops officer right under Shackley and with direct access to the SGA...he

went back and forth to DC for briefings. In fact he behaved more like

he was on the same level as Shackley and wore some other hats to it

appears, some involving operations in Mexico.

There were rumors that Bayo and others came back later - certainly their

JMWAVE boat guide came back with the Tilt mission - but as far as

Morales and the CIA summary report went at the time, Bayo and

his team remained in Cuba, whereabouts unknown.

-- Larry

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There were rumors that Bayo and others came back later - certainly their

JMWAVE boat guide came back with the Tilt mission - but as far as

Morales and the CIA summary report went at the time, Bayo and

his team remained in Cuba, whereabouts unknown.

(Larry Hancock)

Indeed, Larry.

Boat operator Eugenio Martinez did return as did Virgilio Gonzalez (arrested in 1972). Rip Robertson returned as did James Arthur Lewis. Alfredo Mirr and Luis Cantin also returned hooking up with Tony Cuesta.

Do you think that Morales may have been stretching the truth? B)

James

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James, I'm shocked, implying that our buddy Dave might stretch the

truth?

Bend, break and tie in knots maybe but stretch...

Your point on Martinez is well taken and from all the reports I've

read it was common practice for he and Robertson to go in shore....after

all, he was the expert coastal boat guide.

On the other hand, certainly Bayo and others did not return with Pawley;

interestingly enough Martino was even reporting some of them alive and

well and needing exfiltration later that fall. All in all it's clear that it was

in someone's best interest to make it look like they had remained and were

most likely dead in Cuba. Whether that had anything to do with the

JFK conspiracy when it happened in June I very much doubt. Actually Morales

concluded that it was more likely they had been snookered into helping

put a Bayo combat team into Cuba.....and given the weapons in the photos

I'd say that may not have been a bad guess. Certainly the team was armed

for far more than simply slipping in covertly and extracting a couple of

Russian officers....

-- Larry

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.....and given the weapons in the photos

I'd say that may not have been a bad guess. Certainly the team was armed

for far more than simply slipping in covertly and extracting a couple of

Russian officers.... (Larry Hancock)

Larry,

There seemed to be a lot of Belgian FAL's being waved about in the Op Tilt photographs and according to Rappeleye and Becker in 'All American Mafioso', William Harvey secured FAL's for covert use so they would not be traced back to US agents. These were the weapons used by the Cuban army. Mmm.

James

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Tosh and James,

I'm confused about Gator and El Gato. Was Gator really El Gato (which means The Cat in Spanish), or were Gator and El Gato two different people (both with a missing finger)?

Ron

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I'm confused about Gator and El Gato. Was Gator really El Gato (which means The Cat in Spanish), or were Gator and El Gato two different people (both with a missing finger)? (Ron Ecker)

Hi Ron,

I'm not 100% sure they are the same man but I do know El Gato had some fingers chomped off by an alligator. Bizarre coincidence if they are not the same guy.

Anyway, I am trying to get a photo of El Gato for Tosh to have a look at.

James

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