John Simkin Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Jan. 31, 2008 http://www.miamiherald.com Miami Herald One-time Miami soldier of fortune dies BY JOHN DORSCHNERA '60s-era Miami soldier of fortune and a key figure for conspiracy theorists around the world, Gerald Patrick Hemming, is dead at 70. His death was confirmed Thursday morning by the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville, N.C. His son, Felipe, told The Miami Herald that he was found dead in his North Carolina home on Tuesday evening. A shadowy figure who enjoyed talking about paramilitary operations and anti-Castro activities during the 1960s, Hemming became known in his later years mostly for statements he made about the Kennedy assassination to the Warren Commission and to many investigative journalists. A Google search of Hemming's name and the Kennedy assassination turns up more than 4,000 hits. Robert K. Brown, publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine, said he knew Hemming well during the 1960s. "Gerry was an especially charismatic guy who on first impression came across very well. He was looked up to by a lot of Cuban exile groups. He was a big man, spoke fluent Spanish, a very intelligent guy.... But Gerry tended to get carried away with this conspiracy stuff,'' Brown said, "and it was hard to tell where the fact ended and the fiction started.'' He knew so many things,'' said Felipe Hemming, who works for Miami-Dade fire rescue. "He was still researching when he died. . . . My dad was an operator. He wasn't a guy on the side of the road making up stories.'' Others disagree. Don Bohning, who was The Herald's Latin America editor for many years, said, "I never believed a word he had to say.'' In 1959, after Castro came to power, Hemming spent considerable time hanging out in Havana, often in the company of William Morgan, an ex-U.S. paratrooper who went to Cuba to join the rebel forces in the Sierra del Escambray to fight the Batista dictatorship. A confidential U.S. Army report from March 1960 reports that Hemming was "stationed with Cuban rebel air force in Pinar del Rio. Claims he is a T-33 jet pilot with mission to intercept U.S.-based planes which fly over Cuba bent on destroying cane fields. Was formerly stationed in Isle of Pines." "Subject wears Army fatigues, is armed with a pistol, and wears a U.S. paratrooper bade. He states he has been in Cuba for two years. He wears no insignia of rank.'' Hemming may have claimed being in the Castro military at the time, but other experts question that information. However, Olga Morgan, the widow of William Morgan, recalls Hemming warning her husband to leave Cuba, or he would be killed by the Castro regime. "He said, 'Cuba is no good for you, with the new government. You need to get out. You have a family.' '' Morgan didn't heed Hemming's advice. He was executed by a Cuban firing squad in March 1961. In his 2005 book, The Castro Obsession, Bohning wrote that in the early 1960s, Hemming was among the soldiers of fortune who hung around the Time-Life bureau in Miami. An ex-Marine, six-foot-five, Hemming had organized a paramilitary force based in the Florida Keys called the Intercontinental Penetration Force. At one point, Bohning wrote, Hemming used Time-Life stationery to write to the military aide of President Kennedy, seeking ''advice and constructive criticism'' for his forces. ''There is no indication any was forthcoming,'' Bohning wrote. Hemming is survived by six children, said his son, Felipe. A graveside service is planned for 2 p.m. Monday at Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery in Spring Lake, N.C. A memorial service in South Florida may take place later. Herald investigations editor Mike Sallah contributed to this report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Does anyone know anything about this passage that appeared in Gerry's local paper today: "FBI files show that Gerry Hemming told agents in March 1968 that someone had offered to pay him to kill Martin Luther King." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Drago Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 I know several on this Forum kept up private email or phone correspondances with Gerry. Minus any personal parts I hope they will now feel free to impart whatever Gerry was able to provide as to his or other's involvement or possible involvement in the areas of our mutual interest. It is sad he was wheelchair bound in his last years, as his early photos show a prime-physical example of health. I'm most interested in this film John hinted about.....John, can you find out from the person who did it if and when they are thinking of making it available. There are not that many primary players or persons who had associates involved when the events happened. Tempus fugit and time to really make the most of what we have and who we yet have....RIP GPH. Peter, In preparation for Lancer's Hemming Panel, Gordon Winslow video taped a lengthy interview with GPH at the former's kitchen table. Panel members were provided with a copy before the conference -- with the proviso that it must be returned (which it was -- at least by me). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Drago Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 During preparation for the Hemming Panel, I was told that GPH had married a Cuban woman whom he abandoned on the island when he fled. According to the story, Castro imprisoned the lady in order to lure Hemming back to Cuba. It is said that he did not take the bait and that the lady died in custody. It was suggested to me that I publicly taunt GPH with this information. I declined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Drago Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Another Hemming recollection: He claimed that Carlos Marcello in fact was working WITH RFK, and that the former's deportation was staged by both men. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myra Bronstein Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Ronald Monerief Jr has just informed me that Gerry Hemming has died. Unfortunate news, if so - which I have no reason to doubt. He died with many questions unanswered and many, many tempting loose ends dangling...... I didn't know GPH personally and had a small bias against his bashing of Plumlee. The nature of their mutual enmity unknown to me. I relish not the death of anyone. Man of many mysteries. I hope he left some materials [either already out, or to be released upon his death] to help lift some of the fog. Not the moment to go into all this in detail, but some believe Hargrave and / or Vidal may have taken a flight to Dallas and, yes, that either implicated him or he was in some ways involved or set-up to look involved. R.I.P. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhemming.htm http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=g...G=Google+Search Wow, I just heard. Huge milestone. ... I'm respecting the request in the other thread not to post there if nothing nice could be said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas H. Purvis Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 If Hemming really had significant knowledge of who was behind the assassination, why was he not among all the suspicious deaths over the years, particularly during the time of the HSCA? Why was he allowed to live to age 71 if he had a real story to tell? Was it because of his value as a diversion, people always wanting to know what this person immediately identified with the JFK case had to say, no matter how implausible? (He told Weberman that E. Howard Hunt was one of the shooters and went down the TSBD elevator shaft by rope.) What if he happened to say too much? Or was it because he was involved in disinformation? Why, in 25 words or less, did he live so long? (R.I.P.) A "pawn" is seldom if ever informed of the strategy of the game! At most, provided that he survives the game, he understands the objective of the other sacrifices as well as his potential part in the overall game strategy. Provided of course that he is actually on the side of the table that won. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas H. Purvis Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 (edited) Another Hemming recollection:He claimed that Carlos Marcello in fact was working WITH RFK, and that the former's deportation was staged by both men. And therefore fully demonstrated exactly HOW to "confuse" with the facts! Edited February 1, 2008 by Thomas H. Purvis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernice Moore Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 I know several on this Forum kept up private email or phone correspondances with Gerry. Minus any personal parts I hope they will now feel free to impart whatever Gerry was able to provide as to his or other's involvement or possible involvement in the areas of our mutual interest. It is sad he was wheelchair bound in his last years, as his early photos show a prime-physical example of health. I'm most interested in this film John hinted about.....John, can you find out from the person who did it if and when they are thinking of making it available. There are not that many primary players or persons who had associates involved when the events happened. Tempus fugit and time to really make the most of what we have and who we yet have....RIP GPH. ****************** Peter: A.J Weberman made a tape with him back in 95.........I believe the Hemming Lancer Panel was in 96..or thereabouts..... so the tape is more than likely one and the same, it is the only I have ever heard of....mentioned...? You might want to contact him.......he has information related to it on his website,so if this is the tape, he has made no secret of it..... See...... THE THEORY RINGLEADER: GERRY PATRICK HEMMING Evidence strongly suggests HEMMING (former prisoner of Castro), met OSWALD in the Marines, and brought him into his plan. Click HERE to see a photo of HEMMING and this researcher taken in 1995. HEMMING told this researcher: "How can you set up people to take a fall unless you're dealing with them personally? Get the clue, asshole?" In 1978 I met HEMMING at his "private detective" office in the Little Havana section of Miami. Click HERE to see a photo of HEMMING in 1978. I was impressed by this 6' 7" man. HEMMING exuded self confidence and was fully conversant with all facets of trade craft. He was a criminal genius. HEMMING provided me with the identity of the third tramp. He said: "FRANK STURGIS was firing from the Records Building." He visited me at Bleecker Street......... ...and on........... http://www.ajweberman.com/nodules2/nodulec1.htm B......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernice Moore Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 (edited) Peter : Main Weberman Page........Right hand side in red.....click Gerry Patrick Hemming leads to a video...... http://www.ajweberman.com/coupt5.htm Video page.......If it stops click on the left hand side button again....and it continues....that is what worked for moi.. http://www.ajweberman.com/hemreal.htm B............ Edited February 2, 2008 by Bernice Moore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Thanks for that. Just watched it. I'm sure the one John Simkin is talking about is another and the one done when he spoke [formally and informally] in Dallas are yet others. I think there are more out there.....and audio tapes and transcripts of them, as well. He certainly didn't have a dull life, and did have a unique and colorfull style of speaking..... No I saw a different video. Gerry was being interviewed alongside Howard Davies. It was more interesting for what he did not say and the way he stopped Davies from answering questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Drago Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Perhaps the epitaph that should appear on his grave is the description once given him by an assassination writer: "Valedictorian in a Guerilla Suit." I meant it then, and I mean it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myra Bronstein Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 From Lancer:... In March of 1963, Hemming traveled to Dallas, Texas seeking financial support for his Interpen group. One of the person contacted included former Gen. Edwin Walker, who was shot at by Lee Oswald a few weeks later. Thanks Peter. The whole thing's interesting. Esp the intersection of Walker, who I am certain was involved and am almost certain was funded by HL Hunt, and Hemming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 A detailed article on Gerry Hemming by John Dorschner appeared in today's Miami Herald: http://www.miamiherald.com/511/story/407048.html Gerald Patrick Hemming, who died last week at 70, was one of those wild adventurers that only South Florida seems to produce: a self-styled Miami soldier of fortune who later became a key figure for conspiracy theorists around the world. A shadowy figure who headed an anti-Castro commando group in the 1960s, Hemming was known in his later years for statements he made to investigative journalists about the Kennedy assassination. A Google search linking Hemming's name with Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald turns up 12,000 hits. ''Gerry was an especially charismatic guy who on first impression came across very well,'' said Robert K. Brown, publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine, who knew Hemming in the 1960s. "He was looked up to by a lot of Cuban exile groups. He was a big man, spoke fluent Spanish, a very intelligent guy. . . . ''But Gerry tended to get carried away with this conspiracy stuff,'' Brown said, ``and it was hard to tell where the fact ended and the fiction started.'' ''He knew so many things,'' said Felipe Hemming, his only son, who works for Miami-Dade fire rescue. "The secrets he took to his grave. . . . He was still researching when he died. . . . My dad was an operator. He wasn't a guy on the side of the road making up stories.'' Others disagree. Don Bohning, who was The Miami Herald's Latin America editor for many years, said, "I never believed a word he had to say.'' Among his other exploits, Hemming was arrested three times, twice for drug smuggling and once for gun running. His only conviction was drug smuggling. A huge man -- broad-bodied and six-foot-five -- Hemming served in the U.S. Marines from 1954 to 1958. An aviation control tower operator, his last duty station was in barracks at Annapolis. He was a sergeant when he received an honorable discharge. ''He was a very good Marine,'' a Marine spokesman told The Herald in 1976 after examining Hemming's record. Hemming left the Marines just as Cuba was heating up in a revolution against strongman Fulgencio Batista, who fled the island in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 1959. Fidel Castro marched into Havana a week later. In 1959, Hemming spent considerable time hanging out in Havana, often in the company of William Morgan, an ex-U.S. paratrooper who had joined with rebels fighting the Batista regime in the Sierra del Escambray. A confidential U.S. Army report from March 1960 reports that Hemming was ``stationed with Cuban rebel air force in Pinar del Rio. Claims he is a T-33 jet pilot with mission to intercept U.S.-based planes which fly over Cuba bent on destroying cane fields. Was formerly stationed in Isle of Pines. "Subject wears Army fatigues, is armed with a pistol, and wears a U.S. paratrooper badge. He states he has been in Cuba for two years. He wears no insignia of rank.'' Hemming said repeatedly over the years that he was once part of the Castro military. That claim is disputed by Jay Mallin, a journalist who was in Cuba in the late 1950s and early '60s and later authored the book Covering Castro. Malin said Hemming's claim is ''total baloney. I was in touch with all these people,'' in Castro's 26th of July Movement. Whatever he was doing, he was in Havana in 1959 and perhaps part of 1960. Olga Morgan, the widow of William Morgan, recalls Hemming warning her husband to leave Cuba or he would be killed by the Castro regime. 'He said, 'Cuba is no good for you, with the new government. You need to get out. You have a family.' '' Morgan didn't heed Hemming's advice. He was executed by a Cuban firing squad in March 1961. By that time, Hemming was in Miami, often hanging out at Nellie's boarding house in Little Havana, a place where many would-be soldiers of fortune stayed, hoping to get in on some anti-Castro action. ''Gerry was always just a lot of talk,'' recalls Marty Casey, one of the Nellie's regulars at the time. A Miami Herald story, however, noted: "Hemming looked the way a soldier of fortune is supposed to look: six-foot-five, trim build, goatee, with a penchant for wearing an Australian bush hat, fatigue shirt and camouflage pants.'' Hemming told The Herald he frequently stayed at the Congress Inn on LeJeune Road, where various anti-Castro groups made available "free meals, booze and what have you.'' But much of the time, he was at No Name Key, where he organized a commando camp, training young men for attacks on Castro's Cuba. He called his group the International Penetration Force, which he claimed had 30 or 40 paratroopers. At one point, Hemming was arrested by Customs for gun-running, but the charges were dismissed. Hemming moved the guerrilla training to a site near New Orleans, but in June 1962 The Miami Herald reported that Hemming was ultimately forced to close the camp on the north edge of Lake Pontchartrain at the behest of the Cuban Revolutionary Council's Miami headquarters. The reason: The group fretted it would get into trouble with the U.S. State Department and CIA. In February 1963, Hemming wrote a long letter to Maj. Gen. C.V. Clifton, military aide to President Kennedy. The document was obtained under a freedom of information request by Bohning during the research for his book The Castro Obsession. In the letter, Hemming repeated the story about serving in Castro's rebel army, but then changed sides and began working with exile forces. ''Upon arrival in the U.S. I contacted the Central Intelligence Agency and forthwith spent long hours typing reports for their operatives,'' Hemming wrote. "Upon completion, I made myself available for reinfiltration into Cuba. After a period of weeks with no orders from the CIA, I decided to drop my cover and proceed to the Miami area to aid former Cuban associates that needed instructors.'' Hemming wrote that many anti-Castro Cubans were willing to fight but needed support. "We would appreciate it very much if you could find time to pass on some advice and constructive criticism.'' According to another government document, Hemming did meet with Gen. Clifton, Coordinator of Cuban Affairs Sterling Cottrell and Gen. Victor Krulak, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's counterinsurgency specialist. Clifton asked an assistant, Thomas A. Parrott, to do a report on Hemming. Parrott checked with Orrin Bartlett, the FBI's liaison with the White House. On March 5, 1963, Parrott wrote a memorandum for the record that Bohning obtained: 'According to Bartlett, Hemming is personally `very unacceptable' to Cuban refugees. These people, particularly the serious minded ones, consider him nothing more than a 'thorn in the flesh.' He is viewed as an adventurer and a soldier of fortune. He heads a 'would be anti-communist group.' '' The memo noted that the FBI ``did not trust him.'' Several months after that memo, in June 1963, five members of Hemming's Penetration Force were arrested for having an unregistered submachine gun. Hemming himself was not charged. After the Kennedy assassination on Nov. 23, 1963, WQAM radio personality Alan Courtney told investigators that a year earlier he had interviewed Hemming and three others on his radio show about their training camp in the Keys, according to an FBI document from the Kennedy assassination files released in 1992. ''At the conclusion of the program, a telephone call was received at the radio station from a young man who said he was from New Orleans, was formerly in the U.S. Marine Corps and wanted to volunteer his services,'' the FBI document stated. "Courtney recalled that this young man gave a name such as Harvey Lee, Oswald Harvey or Oswald Lee.'' After the Kennedy assassination, U.S. authorities clamped down on what was left of the anti-Castro commando activities, but some adventurers, including Hemming, kept hanging around South Florida, hoping for action. Some of these soldiers of fortune became involved in two highly publicized episodes in the late 1960s. One was the so-called CBS Invasion of Haiti in 1966. Its name came from the network unwittingly financing the aborted effort in return for exclusive coverage. The other was the attempted firebombing of Papa Doc's presidential palace in 1969 (the bombs missed). Casey participated in both efforts. He said Hemming was close to the participants of both episodes, but took part in neither. By 1976, Hemming had settled into an office in the Jose Marti Building on Southwest Eighth Street. The sign in the lobby directory said merely ''Hemming.'' He arrived for work about 2:30 p.m. He told a Herald reporter then that he was working for a trucking company, but gave the reporter a business card saying he was ''operations director'' of Parabellum Corp., a group started in October 1971 by Cuban adventurer Rolando Masferrer and others for the sale of military armaments to domestic and foreign markets. The corporation had been defunct for three years. In 1977, Hemming was arrested for conspiring to import marijuana into the United States. He was convicted. The case was overthrown on appeal. In 1980, Hemming was caught at the Lantana Airport in Palm Beach County with a plane loaded with 723 pounds of marijuana and a cache of Quaaludes. Hemming defended himself, saying he had been working for the U.S. government in an undercover operation. The government put on a witness who said that wasn't true. He was convicted and sentenced to 35 years. State records indicate he served seven. In his later years, Hemming enjoyed talking to journalists. But he made it hard for them, making the most astonishing revelations ''off-the-record'' and then making them work hard before he allowed snippets to be attached to his name. He had a virtually encyclopedic recall of data -- knowing, for example, the CIA station chief in Havana in 1960 was Jim Noel -- and he often would drop names without explanation, forcing journalists to do research to connect the dots. If reporters lacked knowledge -- such as the details behind Lee Harvey Oswald visiting the Cuban consulate in Mexico City in the fall of 1963 -- Hemming would insist they do their homework before they could appreciate his revelations. Hemming's suspected link to the Kennedy assassination is continuing and often changing. The key links are that Hemming told researchers that he had met Lee Harvey Oswald in 1959 and sometimes hinted that Oswald had been connected to American intelligence sources during his service in the U.S. Marines. Some conspiracy theorists are fascinated that a man who knew Oswald, who became enamoured with communism and went to the Soviet Union to live, also had connections with right-wing Cubans in Miami. In the 1997 book, Bloody Treason, Noel Twyman devoted an entire chapter to Hemming and his suspected links. Sometime in the 1990s, Hemming moved to Fayetteville, N.C. His son, Felipe, said he was found dead in his apartment on Jan. 29. Hemming is survived by his wife, Patricia, and six children. A graveside service was held Monday at Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery in Spring Lake, N.C. His son, Felipe, said a memorial service may take place later in South Florida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack White Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 I keep reading that Hemming was 6'5". I shook hands with him once in Dealey Plaza. I am 6'2" and weigh 190. Hemming towered over me by about 6" and must have weighed 300. He was like a pro football lineman. His hand was much larger than mine and he had a macho hand grip. I think 6'5" is propaganda. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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