The passing of Gerry Hemming

[Lee Forman]

As opposed to adding to the other thread, I thought it might be a nice gesture to start a separate thread - especially for those who may have known Gerry and might like to say something in honor of his passing - perhaps to pass along to his family.

I considered Gerry Hemming a friend, and it was my privilege and honor to have the opportunity to come to know him in this fashion - he certainly pulled me up by the boot-straps. I had nothing except the greatest respect for the man, and I hope that perhaps some folks may care to say something nice here about him. If you can't say something nice, then please restrain yourself and leave no post at all.

Brilliant, well read, learned, informed, extremely humorous and witty, total recall, concerned about the welfare of his Country - some traits I will always associate with him. I will always appreciate all of the many conversations I had with Gerry - many times he made me laugh so hard I found it hard to breathe.

Hoisting some greenies in your honor Sir - Semper FI and rest in peace. You'll be greatly missed by many - certainly by me.

I thought I would paste one of the last personal emails I got from Gerry here just for the hell of it. I play second Father to a 10 year old going through some hard times - his strong desire in life is to become a Marine Corps sniper, and he wanted very much to have the opportunity to speak with Gerry, due to his strong facination with US history and weaponry, and my informative bio on some of Hemmings past exploits.

Sunday, December 16, 2007 3:05:22 PM

Lee:

Much thanks for the DVDs, they help break up the hours and hours on the books. Nothing worth a diddly xxxx on TV, so I end up staying on the C-SPAN channels most of the time.

No problema talking with the kid, and I will give him the same sermon I gave to my son when he was 16 years old. Felipe was raised here at Fort Bragg, and after running with the Army-brats whose parents were with most of the Airborne and Green Beret (SF) units, he decided that they were all pussies if they weren't SEALS or Delta Force troops.

MY ADVICE TO HIM WAS: [he was turning 17 in a few months, and he wasn't sure whether to go with the Marines, or try for the SEALS] -- Go over and talk to the chiefs and men at the many local volunteer fire departments in the 4 county area -- sign up with one or two of them, and learn the business. I told him that after a couple of "Grabs" [saving victims, especially kids] -- and maybe getting "Crispy'd" [burned] a couple of times; he would lose the "Gung-Ho" crap in a hurry !! [i was a prison firefighter at the time]

NOTHING is closer to the risk and danger of actual combat than being involved in firefighting !!

Secondly, I told him that once he got a couple of years of firefighting [and by then on the payroll with a department]; then he should make damn sure that his next move was training for certification as an EMT, followed by qualifying as a Paramedic.

4 years later he joined the US Air Force Reserves, just in time for "Op Desert Storm". He is pushing 39 years old now, and has been firefighting for 22+ years, and right now he is one of the top Firefighter/ Paramedics with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.

My advice to family & friends [both male and female] has always been: Get thee to a fire department, then after a while -- join the Guard or Reserves; and put college off until you finish the active duty tour so that the GI Bill pays for it all !!

Put the kid on the phone to me any time [let me know a few days ahead of time].

Semper Fi,

Gerry

[John Simkin]

As opposed to adding to the other thread, I thought it might be a nice gesture to start a separate thread - especially for those who may have known Gerry and might like to say something in honor of his passing - perhaps to pass along to his family.

I considered Gerry Hemming a friend, and it was my privilege and honor to have the opportunity to come to know him in this fashion - he certainly pulled me up by the boot-straps. I had nothing except the greatest respect for the man, and I hope that perhaps some folks may care to say something nice here about him. If you can't say something nice, then please restrain yourself and leave no post at all.

Brilliant, well read, learned, informed, extremely humorous and witty, total recall, concerned about the welfare of his Country - some traits I will always associate with him. I will always appreciate all of the many conversations I had with Gerry - many times he made me laugh so hard I found it hard to breathe.

Interesting post. I hope other people who knew him will also post on this thread. I will then give a link to this thread from my page on him. It will help to add balance to the other threads that are more critical of him.

Lee, what kind of judgement do you make of Gerry in regard to what he had to say about the JFK assassination?

[Bernice Moore]

Lee this is the obit from the Fayetteville newspaper.....

Published on Friday, February 01, 2008

Cold War figure dies

By Corey G. Johnson

Staff writer

A former soldier who trained Cubans to fight against Fidel Castro and had been a central figure in assassination probes of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. died this week in Fayetteville, family members said.

Gerald Patrick Hemming, 70, died in his sleep at his Haymount Manor apartment, his daughter, Kristi Hemming Roderick, said Thursday.

An exact date and cause of death is still being determined. Mr. Hemming will be buried with military honors at 2 p.m. Monday in Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery.

“My father was a Cold War freedom fighter,” Kristi Hemming said. “He put country first, which meant he wasn’t around as much as we like, but that’s OK, we loved him anyway.”

Born March 1, 1937, in Los Angeles, Mr. Hemming joined the Marines in 1954. Four years later, he left the Marines to go to Cuba, where he fought side-by-side with Fidel Castro to overthrow then president Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

“A lot of people don’t remember that initially we supported Castro,” said Mr. Hemming’s wife, Patricia Hemming. Patricia and Kristi Hemming live in Fayetteville.

Shortly after Castro assumed power, Mr. Hemming discovered the Cuban leader secretly working with the Soviet Union. He felt betrayed.

“He didn’t know nuclear warheads were being pumped into Cuba,” his wife said. “When he found out, he tried his best to stop it.”

Castro learned of Mr. Hemming’s plans to organize an uprising and threw him and his friends in jail, Patricia Hemming said. Sometime later, Mr. Hemming was able to escape. Many of his fellow insurgents weren’t as lucky.

“My father named my brother Felipe Vidal Santiago, in honor of Felipe Vidal, who was executed,” Kristi Hemming said. Vidal was a Cuban naval officer who went into exile when Castro gained power.

Mr. Hemming returned to the United States and settled in Miami, where he gradually became a fixture in the anti-Castro community. At the time, the CIA — operating out of a non-descript office on the campus of the University of Miami — was heavily recruiting Cubans for a secret offensive against Castro, according to congressional records.

Mr. Hemming was also recruiting and training Cubans to fight in his organization, called the Intercontinental Penetration Force (Interpen), the records shows. Some people alleged that Mr. Hemming was working with the CIA during that time.

His wife and daughter deny the allegation.

“If he did, where were the checks?” Patricia Hemming said. “We scraped and struggled all of our life.”

After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, the FBI questioned Mr. Hemming as a suspect. Investigators dropped the inquiry once they learned he was in Miami taking care of his pregnant wife, Patricia Hemming said.

But in the 1970s, congressional investigators questioned Mr. Hemming again after he revealed that he met Lee Harvey Oswald years before the assassination.

FBI files show that Mr. Hemming told agents in March 1968 that someone had offered to pay him to kill King.

Patricia Hemming said her husband began to fervently research both assassinations, in part to get to the truth and in part to clear his name.

“Those accusations were like a cloud that he wanted to get rid of,” she said.

As part of that effort, Mr. Hemming spoke out at assassination-related conferences. He is also listed as a technical adviser on Oliver Stone’s film J.F.K.

But he got his most joy in his humanitarian work, Kristie Hemming said.

In the 1970s, Mr. Hemming organized a group of doctors and Special Forces veterans for a rescue mission into Peru after an earthquake hit.

And he led a rescue mission into Honduras after a Hurricane flooded an entire area, family members said.

He moved from Florida to Fayetteville in the 1990s because he wanted to be near the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and old buddies.

“He wasn’t driven by money or the world,” Patricia Hemming said. “Honor was his most important thing.”

Staff writer Corey G. Johnson can be reached at johnsonc@fayobserver.com or 323-4848, ext. 487

Copyright 2008 - The Fayetteville (NC) Observer

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=284570

B.....

[Scott Deitche]

I only spoke to Gerry a few times over the phone and via email, but he was a trove of information and gave me some great anecdotes about Santo Trafficante. He was gracious and patient with my questions! An important historical figure.

[Tim Gratz]

I would like to second what Scott wrote about Gerry Hemming.

"Gracious" is definitely a word I would use to describe him.

If I would call and wake him (he had unusual sleeping habits) he would always be gracious.

Noel Twyman also commented in his book on Hemming's intelligence. I would also second that. He was definitely one of the most intelligent people with whom I ever conversed and he possessed a remarkable knowledge of history.

It was of course Gerry who revealed who were the visitors at Odio's door. I think that information is very important and may yet lead to the discovery of additional information.

So too his revelation of the identityy of the Mexico City mystery man. If Hemming was correct about his identification, that information is also of great importance in the assassination story although it is possible we may never know what was really going on in Mexico City.

[Gary Buell]

I was very sorry to hear of Gerry's death. My condolences to his family and friends. I never met the man but I was on his email list for a few years, as I'm sure some of you were, and we exchanged a few personal emails as well. He was not one to mince words. I would like to share a quote from an email to me of April 15, 2006, which may evoke a smile from some, and perhaps a grimace from others:

"Mellen-Head continues to maintain an intense hatred of RFK and company, and her attitude IS: that anybody who is CIA (and doesn't "Fess-up"to something) must be an evil-doer. Typical Commie-symp/wimp horsexxxx that I've been exposed to (and forced to put up with) even before fighting in Cuba, Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, Haiti, etc. !!

And moreover, this is typical of the membership on Simkin's forum, which is just another apparatchik disinformatziya scheme for a bunch of wimp-ass arrogant suckers, none of whom have ever had the balls to put it on the line !!

Lou Ivon had some interesting things to say about Garrison & Mellen-head, and "Big Jimbo's" boasting of what exactly her relationship actually involved !!"

[Lee Forman]

As opposed to adding to the other thread, I thought it might be a nice gesture to start a separate thread - especially for those who may have known Gerry and might like to say something in honor of his passing - perhaps to pass along to his family.

I considered Gerry Hemming a friend, and it was my privilege and honor to have the opportunity to come to know him in this fashion - he certainly pulled me up by the boot-straps. I had nothing except the greatest respect for the man, and I hope that perhaps some folks may care to say something nice here about him. If you can't say something nice, then please restrain yourself and leave no post at all.

Brilliant, well read, learned, informed, extremely humorous and witty, total recall, concerned about the welfare of his Country - some traits I will always associate with him. I will always appreciate all of the many conversations I had with Gerry - many times he made me laugh so hard I found it hard to breathe.

Interesting post. I hope other people who knew him will also post on this thread. I will then give a link to this thread from my page on him. It will help to add balance to the other threads that are more critical of him.

Lee, what kind of judgement do you make of Gerry in regard to what he had to say about the JFK assassination?

Thanks John.

I also received some private words reflecting sadness about his passing, which was much appreciated. And comments made here by others are appreciated as well. At the present time anyway, I don't have much more to add.

- lee

[John Simkin]

Noel Twyman also commented in his book on Hemming's intelligence. I would also second that. He was definitely one of the most intelligent people with whom I ever conversed and he possessed a remarkable knowledge of history.

I was very sorry to hear of Gerry's death. My condolences to his family and friends. I never met the man but I was on his email list for a few years, as I'm sure some of you were, and we exchanged a few personal emails as well. He was not one to mince words. I would like to share a quote from an email to me of April 15, 2006, which may evoke a smile from some, and perhaps a grimace from others:

"Mellen-Head continues to maintain an intense hatred of RFK and company, and her attitude IS: that anybody who is CIA (and doesn't "Fess-up"to something) must be an evil-doer. Typical Commie-symp/wimp horsexxxx that I've been exposed to (and forced to put up with) even before fighting in Cuba, Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, Haiti, etc. !!

And moreover, this is typical of the membership on Simkin's forum, which is just another apparatchik disinformatziya scheme for a bunch of wimp-ass arrogant suckers, none of whom have ever had the balls to put it on the line !!

Lou Ivon had some interesting things to say about Garrison & Mellen-head, and "Big Jimbo's" boasting of what exactly her relationship actually involved !!"

He might have been intelligent but he sure had problems showing it.

[Myra Bronstein]

Noel Twyman also commented in his book on Hemming's intelligence. I would also second that. He was definitely one of the most intelligent people with whom I ever conversed and he possessed a remarkable knowledge of history.

I was very sorry to hear of Gerry's death. My condolences to his family and friends. I never met the man but I was on his email list for a few years, as I'm sure some of you were, and we exchanged a few personal emails as well. He was not one to mince words. I would like to share a quote from an email to me of April 15, 2006, which may evoke a smile from some, and perhaps a grimace from others:

"Mellen-Head continues to maintain an intense hatred of RFK and company, and her attitude IS: that anybody who is CIA (and doesn't "Fess-up"to something) must be an evil-doer. Typical Commie-symp/wimp horsexxxx that I've been exposed to (and forced to put up with) even before fighting in Cuba, Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, Haiti, etc. !!

And moreover, this is typical of the membership on Simkin's forum, which is just another apparatchik disinformatziya scheme for a bunch of wimp-ass arrogant suckers, none of whom have ever had the balls to put it on the line !!

Lou Ivon had some interesting things to say about Garrison & Mellen-head, and "Big Jimbo's" boasting of what exactly her relationship actually involved !!"

He might have been intelligent but he sure had problems showing it.

Why is it that the forum admin is the only person not to respect the request in the original post?

"If you can't say something nice, then please restrain yourself and leave no post at all."

(Emphasis in the original.)

[Lee Forman]

Lancer's version, thanks to the frog.

Gerald Patrick Hemming, Jr., a swashbuckling six-foot five ex-Marine turned soldier-of-fortune, who personally knew many of the prominent personages of the tumultuous sixties, and whose name appears with regularity in the books and articles on the Kennedy assassination, died Monday at his home in Fayetteville, North Carolina after a lengthy illness. Born in Los Angeles on March 1, 1937, Hemming was 71.

After he left the Marine Corp in the fall of 1958, Hemming travelled to Cuba and assist the newly formed Castro government in military training. In Cuba, Hemming worked as an instructor in a Cuban parachute regiment and was later named adjutant of the San Julien air base. Hemming claims while at San Julien he thwarted an assassination attempt by a disgruntled Cuban soldier who intended to shoot against Fidel Castro while he toured the air base with Soviet envoy Anderi Mikoyan.

In Cuba, Hemming met and worked with another American named William Morgan who in April 1961 was brutally executed by Castro forces for being a traitor. Hemming stated that he met Jack Ruby at Morgan's residence. Morgan's US citizenship was restored in 2007. In Cuba he also met Frank Fiorini, also known as Frank Sturgis who gained notoriety in 1974 as one of the Watergate burglars.

Hemming met and liked Che Guevera who he described as a man of his word. Hemming claimed he had a secret meeting with Guevera during the height of the Cuban missile crisis.

Hemming fled Cuba in the fall of 1960 and was extensively debriefed by the CIA regarding Castro's military operations. He then started a paramilitary organization named Intercontinental Penetration Force or Interpen, which trained first in the Everglades and later on No Name Key, a small, mosquito-infested island thirty miles north of Key West. The group was sometimes known as "Patrick's raiders".

Hemming's group was heavily funded by right-wing Caribbean dictators but some believe there was secret funding from the CIA. Hemming claimed to be reporting to James Jesus Angleton, the controversial chief of the CIA's Counterintelligence arm. Hemming also had familial ties to the intelligence community: his uncle had been a business partner with John McCone, JFK's Director of the CIA.

In December 1962, Hemming and a dozen of his Interpen group were arrested in the Florida Keys shortly before leaving on a secret mission to Cuba. Jailed overnight in Key West, the group was bailed out by a Miami attorney who flew them to Miami on a chartered seaplane. Hemming stated that when they arrived in Miami, Oswald attempted to infiltrate their group but Hemming instructed his men to remove Oswald. Several months later when Hemming and his lawyer participated in a Miami radio talk show, a man identifying himself as Lee Oswald called the show. A week after the assassination, the talk show host reported the incident to the FBI. In 1978, Hemming testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had met Lee Harvey Oswald outside the Cuban Consulate in January 1959, was suspicious of Oswald's motives and the information he was seeking. Subsequently, Hemming advised his Cuban friends to get rid of Oswald.

On bail restriction arising from the arrest in the Florida Keys, Hemming was unable to return to Los Angeles for a Christmas reunion with his family. A short time thereafter, his father, who owned a television repair shop, died. Hemming always regretted missing that last Christmas with his father. He told one writer that for months after his father died he would call his father's business after hours just to listen to his father's voice on the recorded announcement of the business hours.

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.

Hemming testified to the HSCA that in the summer of 1963 he was personally offered money to arrange the murder of JFK; specifying one such offer was made in the home of New Orleans private investigator Guy Banister and another in the Dallas Petroleum Club.

In the late 1980s Hemming and two of his Interpen associates served as consultants to Oliver Stone's movie "JFK". He can be seen briefly in the film as the man co-coordinating the assassination. Although some speculate that members of Interpen may have been involved in the assassination, Hemming always denied that charge, but has suggested that several years later he learned the details of the assassination from persons who were involved. Among his controversial claims was that Kennedy assassination was funded in part by members of the family of Rafeal Trujillo, the Dominican Republic dictator assassinated in April 1961, and that there was a separate shooter in the Texas School Book Depository with a contract to kill Governor John Connally. He also claimed that the conspirators had planted a bomb in a car parked near the triple underpass that could have been used to blow up the entire presidential limousine had the shooters been unable to deliver a fatal head shot.

Hemming may have given us the answer to some of the mysteries of the assassination. For instance, he has identified the Mexico City mystery man as German born Mario Tauler Sague, recruited for the CIA by Bill Harvey while Harvey was the Berlin station chief. Sague was involved in one of the earliest attempts on Castro's life.

At the conference in Dallas, Hemming claimed to know Sylvia Odio's visitors were. He stated that one of them had once saved his life. In 2005, he finally revealed the names. The man who saved his life was Angelo Murgado, the "Angel" in the Odio story, and "Leopoldo" was Bernardo DeTorres, a name familiar to most students of the assassination. The names were first publicly identified in an article written by Mark Howell and Tim Gratz for the Key West Citizen. Murgado was interviewed in person by Prof Joan Mellen (in the presence of Hemming) and she tells the story in her book "A Farewell to Justice". Murgado was also interviewed by David Talbot for his book "Brothers". In "Brothers", Talbot states that Murgado told him that he, Murgado, had shown Robert F Kennedy the newspaper article and photo of Lee Oswald passing out literature in New Orleans, leading to the disturbing conclusion that when RFK learned of the arrest of Oswald for the murder of his brother, he recognized Oswald's name and photo.

Howard K. Davis, who served as an Army ranger in the Korean War and worked with the Castro forces in 1958 before the abdication of Batista, was the second in command of the Interpen group and worked closely with Hemming for many years. Davis, who now works for Homeland Security at the Miami airport, said of Hemming, "Hemming was at heart an idealist who longed for freedom for the Cuban people and like so many was disappointed that Castro betrayed the stated goals of his revolution. Gerry loved the Cuban people, spoke Spanish fluently and he is remembered with great fondness in the Cuban exile community. He named one of his sons after a Cuban exile who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the fight against Castro."

Hemming has been interviewed by various JFK researchers, and was a featured speaker at the JFK Lancer November in Dallas Conference in 1996. Hemming's HSCA testimony given on June 17, 1993, was donated by Noel Twyman to JFK Lancer for distribution. There are many who believe that most of Hemming's stories were nothing but the creation of a clever mind while others are equally confident that he carried some secrets of the assassination to his grave. Perhaps the epitaph that should appear on his grave is the description once given him by an assassination writer: "Valedictorian in a Guerilla Suit."

Some of us received this one on January 5th of this year...

Señores:

I served with Comandante/Cmdte. William Alexander Morgan in the Ejército Rebelde and attempted to have him leave with me to join the fight against Somoza in Nicaragua during the summer of 1960. It was during this time that we were running guns to Ramirez, Evelio Duque, and other anti-Castro rebels in the Sierra del Escambray, Las Villas Province.

(Cmdte. - NOT Mayor, in the Rebel Army a Major was titled with its then highest rank -- Comandante)

I stood mournfully on a hillside during the early morning of March 11, 1961 when he was executed at the Paredon in the moat of the La Cabaña Fortress. His executioner was NOT Capitan Herman Marks, and he was NOT shot in the knees to make him kneel.

Herman Marks had defected from Cuba months earlier on a sailboat that left from Batabanó (south coast of Habana Province) during October, 1960, and just days after Morgan's arrest. Marks was accompanied by a female American journalist who had put up the money for his escape in exchange for his personal story.

I am in contact with Olgita Rodriguez, viuda de Morgan, and who currently resides in Toledo, Ohio.

I trained anti-Castro Cuban exiles from before Playa Girón (1961) until the mid-1970s.

John Martino's false stories about William in his "Castro's Prisoner" book [co-authored by the late Nathaniel Weyl have contributed to much of this misinformation. I knew and worked with Martino until his death in 1975; and he admitted that Weyl had urged him to lie about his having personally known William. Martino was held at the Principe Prison during his 2-1/2 years of imprisonment, and never saw the inside of the La Cabaña Fortress. I was a guest for a while on Galería 14 and then on death row in La Cabaña during 1960.

William's "Title" should be changed to "Comandante". His last residence was at the penthouse of the apartment building on the corner of 16th and Calzada, Vedado, Habana, Cuba. [i know, because I lived there with him and the family + bodyguards off and on, for over a 2 year period.] The location of his arrest was in the office of Cmdte. Pedro Miret, on the top floor of the INRA Building. Fidel and Raul didn't have the nerve to witness the executions of William and his partner Cmdte. Jesus Carreras, which occurred simultaneously that early fateful morn.

Your search does NOT turn up another heroic anti-Castro Comandante, that of Cmdte. Felipe Vidal Santiago, "the 8th former Rebel Army Comandante to be executed by the traitors Castro !!"

Viva Cuba Libre,

Gerry Patrick Hemming

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.cubaarchive.org/rms/cuba/cgi-bi...917|63327328697

Case ID [?]

2993

Title

Mayor

First name [?]

William Alexander

Last name [?]

Morgan

Suffix

Aliases

William A. Morgan Ruderth

Age [?]

34

Gender

Birth date

Year of death

1961

Month of death

Day of death

3

Citizenship [?]

United States

Last known address [?]

146 Street between 23 and 25 Streets, Reparto Country Club

Last known city [?]

Havana

Last known province - at TOD [?]

La Habana

Last known province - current [?]

Ciudad de La Habana

Last known country [?]

Cuba

Location of death - address [?]

La Cabaña Fortress prison

Location of death - city [?]

Havana

Location of death - province - at TOD [?]

La Habana

Location of death - province - current [?]

Ciudad de La Habana

Location at death - country

Cuba

Trial held? [?]

Yes

Docket number [?]

No. 565 of 1961

Sentence details [?]

Capital punishment

Arrest or detention at time of death [?]

Yes

Date of arrest

Location of arrest

La Cabaña Fortress prison

Duration of arrest

N/A

Death attributed to

Castro government

Death attribution detail

N/A

Case description

Betrayed by a police informer, Morgan was charged with supplying arms to the Escambray rebels and sentenced to death after a sham trial presided by the notorious prosecutor Fernando Flores Ibarra ( “Charco de Sangre '). The firing squad platoon leader, American Rebel Army Capt. Herman Marks, forced him to kneel before the firing squad platoon by shooting him in the knees. Marks also delivered multiple “coup de grace “ shots to his head. Just days after his death, on March 15, 1961, Morgan’s twenty-three-year-old wife was arrested and remained imprisoned until 1973. She and their two daughters fled Cuba for the United States in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift and currently reside in Toledo, Ohio.

Associated Event

N/A

Sources

Telephone testimony of widow, 2006. Ruby Hart Phillips, New York Times, 3/10/1961, p. 8 and 3/12/1961, p. 32 Clark, 1990, p. 151. New York Times, 3/13/1961, p. 9. U.S. Information Agency, 1993, Year 1961. Encinosa, 1989, p. 154. Beruvides, 1993, p. 149. Ana Rodríguez, 1995, p. 128. Franqui, 1988, p. 346. Valladares, 1985, p. 27. Ariel Remos, Diario Las Américas, 11/11/ 1998. Cuban American National Foundation, Quilt, 1994. Directorio Revolucionario, 1965, p. 26. WAQI-Radio Mambí, p. 23. Gómez Estrada, 1990, p. 149. Encinosa, 1994, p. 67. Chicago Tribune, 10/3/1997. Ruíz, 1965, p. 202. Faria, 2002, p. 107. Ruíz, 1972, pp. 52 & 57. Barquín, 1975, p. ii-708. Circuito Sur, July 2002, p. 58. Nuestra Cuba, 1999, p. 17. Instituto Memoria Histórica, p. 8. Go to Source Directory

Conflict of Evidence

Ruíz, 1972, pp. 52 and 57 has him executed by firing squad on March 9, 1961. Barquín, 1975, p. ii-708, has him executed by firing squad in 1960. Circuito Sur, July 2002, p. 58, and Nuestra Cuba, 1999, p. 17, have him executed by firing squad at La Cabaña Fortress prison on March 11, 1961. Faria, 2002, p. 107, claims that Fidel and Raúl Castro attended his execution. Morgan was shot by Rebel Army Captain Herman Marks in both knees, to make him kneel before Castro brothers, then shot in both shoulders. Morgan bled to death before the actual firing squad execution. Instituto de la Memoria Hístorica Cubana contra el Totalitarismo, p. 8, has him executed by firing squad on March 31, 1961.

Causes of Death

Execution: by firing squad

Other Victims Same Event

no records found

Occupations

N/A

Affiliations

"U.S. Army veteran

Former member of the Rebel Army in the Escambray mountains.

External Files

no records found

Relatives in Archive

no records found

Victim Type

Prisoner / Detained

[Lee Forman]

First email from Hemming, Sunday, July 18, 2004 8:38:01 AM

Lee:

I appreciate your condolences RE: Roy's demise - - he was a loyal and skilled "Operator" !!

Your 2nd E-mail indicates some impatience as to my not making an immediate response. Firstly,

I have Carpal Tunnel, and I usually don't get on the keyboard that frequently; moreover, with my

receiving 100+ E-mails every day - - I have to sort out quite a bit before any answering !!

Secondly, I am not a fan of A. J. Weberman, as he is a gross xxxx and plagiarist who has accused me

of being part of the operation which murdered JFK. [My surname is Hemming - without the "S", but

then again, the Oliver Stone folks puts an "S" on my name in the credits after acting/consulting on

the JFK movie project.]

[see below my recent response to A.J.]

As to somebody with a .45 cal. pistol? - - I have absolutely NEVER heard of such a reference in any book, movie, declassified document, rumor, old wives tale, nor drunken bar conversation !!

Next, as to somebody "...looking like a Cuban..." - - there is no such animal, and as with most other

ethnic entities, few have common stereotypes !! In fact, one of the Fidel's Cuban fighter pilots, who

I flew with when I was a member of the Cuban Rebel Air Force, and who shot down a couple of the CIA planes at the Bay of Pigs - - Capt. Douglas Ruud, was Cuban born & raised!! He was tall, blonde-haired, and blue-eyed. He died in Miami [during a quick trip from Cuba] a couple of years back while visiting with some of the Cuban CIA pilots - - all of whom he had been shooting at during the BOP - - April 15-19th, 1961. Many of those same pilots had been his flying buddies before they defected to the U.S. - - whereas Douglas stayed loyal to Fidel.]

I think that you had better get back to the books and documents before making further inquiries. All

of the researchers with whom I have worked, have done extensive home-work before framing their questions.

I have demanded the same of ABC, CBS, NBC, CBC, NYT, House Select Committee, 1975 Senate Intelligence Commitee (May '75), Jim Garrison, Harold Weisberg, Twyman, Fonzi, Newman, Russo, Russell, Nigel Turner, et al. before I have ever done an interview with any of them over these last 35+ years !!

Semper Fi / De Oppresso Liber,

Gerry

___________________________________

Gerry,

Hello.

First off, I'd like to express my condolences concerning the passing of your friend Roy Hargraves. It had been my intention to get in contact with Roy, as I'd also read quite a bit about him as well, and he just seemed like someone I'd like to speak with - lot of charisma. Don Wheeler posted a message in regards to Roy's learning of his estranged family before he died, and I wrote to Don concerning your having been friends, and to get in contact with you if he wanted to know more about his brother. I didn't even know Roy, but was shocked when I learned of his death.

...

I tried to get in touch with a few other folks who were alive and well at the time of the action in Dealey Plaza, but haven't received any replies.

Anyway, I thought, what the hell, why not try Hemmings? People have told me that you are extremely intelligent and a genius, so I'm going to skip on bullxxxx if you don't mind:

When Kennedy was shot in the side of the head with the .45 by the guy on the stairs at the North Knoll [Cuban exile - any hints as to whom would have been THAT good with a .45? I've reviewed a lot of INTERPEN, Life magazine, Bayo stuff, and other photos, but I'm stuck], did someone then stick him like a prize pig, or shoot him, behind the retaining wall, and then load his body in a car behind the monument? Or did he manage to get away clean?

If the answer is yes, he was taken out according to plan, what did they do with the body? Put it in the trunk and then get the hell out of Dodge? Did the SS drive him away?

If no, is he still alive today, and do you have any idea how I might reach him?

Sorry - last question. Was it the plan to sit down after the action for those in Dealey Plaza? Just sit down and wait until the commotion ends? I noted that the signalman for the guy on the steps also sits down after the action, which is why I asked. I have no clue who he is either - he doesn't look Cuban anyway. It wasn't Roy was it?

Any information appreciated. Hope this email finds all well with you.

Kind regards,

Lee Forman

_________________________________________

A.J. Weberman [a/k/a "The Penguin Kid"]:

That really gives me a chuckle - - I can visualize you waddling around the late-night streets of New

York City, amongst the garbage cans, searching out "state-secrets" carelessly deposited in targeted

VIP's trash. Are you still creating "montages" of these priceless treasures, such as the ones that you proudly displayed to me in the stairwell of your loft at 7 Bleeker Street?

You ask why I didn't "rush-to-respond" to you E-mails?!! I have quite a few people ahead of you in a long line of missives from "serious" researchers, investigators, writers, authors, etc., etc.!! First, I had to forward your "scheme" E-mail to a couple dozen of same, and as anticipated - - the majority replied in disgusting terms. However, I didn't forward that one to any family members, as that would have really set them off, and once again they would have been furious with me for having any contact whatsoever with a fantasizing scribbler of your ilk.

Let me get this straight - - you are proposing that since I am currently old and infirm, and "... soon to croak", I must join with you [and your alleged "money-men"] - - and forthwith contrive a tale of how it

has come time for me to "Fess-up" to having participated [or "directed"] the "Crime-of-the-20th-Century", the assassination of JFK. And moreover, by engaging with you in this collaboration, I might leave untold Dollar$ to my children & grandchildren.

I have had 14 grandchildren, ranging in ages from 2 months to 23 years of age [2 in college]; and it is

bad enough that they, my brothers & sisters, cousins, nephews & nieces, aunts & uncles, and even distant relatives - - have had to be exposed to your insane rantings, ravings and scribblings ["Nodules"] since the 1970s; but now you want to enrage and further embarrass them with another series of phony concoctions which defy belief.

More than one researcher/author in Europe has asked: "....Why the hell haven't you filed Libel suits against Marita Lorenz, Weberman, et al.?" My response in Marita's case is that she is nuts, AND BROKE!! - - and in Weberman's case - - this is just what he wants, another opportunity to snatch a 2 inch pile of subpoenas from the federal clerk of court, and thereafter proceed to attempt the deposing

of countless aged VIPs from numerous government agencies, hounding them with obtuse questioning - - such as: Where they were when Oswald farted at 9:42am on September 14th, 1963?!!

I recall that way back in 1977, when I and my brother Bob, allowed you access to our Miami offices;

and after perusing your first "literary-work-of-art?" ["Crotch D'Etat"] - - he asked me if I had ever seen a similar piece of bookbound xxxx?!! I told him that your text was quite similar to the crap that the "Limey", Hans Tanner, had produced upon his return to London post-Bay of Pigs. Here was a race-car "buff" who claimed to have participated in so-called "Commando-Ops" while a member/adviser to Batista Falla's MDC "organization?". Total bullxxxx, and like your later tome, largely consisting of plagiarized newspaper articles, and worse yet - - quoted completely out of context or outright false-

hoods. Tanner, much like his buddy Frank Fiorini-Sturgis, never participated in anything, that is: except having his picture taken aboard [or near] alleged "raider-boats".

Just like the 1959 "phony-photo" taken of "Fat-Daddy-Frank" [by Andrew St. George]; posing over the mass grave of "Batistianos" executed by Raul Castro many days prior. One thing you could be sure of - - Frank would always be there to wave "bye-bye" to the men and boys he had conned into going on fatal "missions" against Fidel. What a joke, that is - - if it hadn't always resulted in fatalities!! Did you ever wonder why such a "perpetual-snitch-patsy" got himself roped into the "Watergate Fiasco"; because he, Hunt, Barker, et al. [excepting Rolando Martinez, who was a genuine CIA hero] had long before been labeled as the perfect fall-guys necessary for the coup against Nixon.

So now you want me to join the James Files, Chauncey Holts, et al. - - and fabricate a grandiose plot explaining how a "ragtag" SF (ODA) Team sallied forth and pulled off the "Crime-Of-The-Century".

Another thing: why is it that you, along with a dozen or more other various and assorted scriveners, go "catatonic" [thousand-yard-stare] every time I would start explaining how my team was lured by government agents into "providing security" at Miami Int'l Airport during JFK's November 18th [Monday afternoon] visit?? Even Nigel Turner "went blank" when I opened up that subject while he was here filming for TMWKK. Why?!! Because Y'all know that the assassination was planned to go

down right there at MIA [or along the 36th Street causeway enroute to Miami Beach]; and that these "Perps" are very much alive and well - - and still in the business. Kinda scares the xxxx out of you brave "histerians"!!

All your phony crap trying to prove that Hunt & Sturgis were the "Tramps"!! I often discussed this with Oliver Stone while we were filming the JFK movie; and amongst our many arguments on many "factual items" was: They were not tramps, nor the genuine title "Hobos", and they were taken from a "gondola (gravel) car" - - not a boxcar!! Hobos never travel in a gondola car, simply because the car has a "bomb-bay" apparatus which can trap the unwary.

Ironically, the "tramp character" who you falsely labeled as Hunt, was in fact played by a genuine [retired] CIA assassin who practically raised Stone from childhood.

So, "bookreader", got any more tapes of me getting pissed off at you over the phone - - you remember, getting a rise-out-of-me - - with your continuos bald accusations during the interviews of 1994-'95?!! It really takes a genuine asshole to argue with an "Operator"; especially one who is simply attempting to further educate a mal-hygenic prevaricating non-scriptus-libris !!

Ever Onward, blathering and bleating,

Gerry

____________________________________

[Thomas H. Purvis]

Lancer's version, thanks to the frog.

Gerald Patrick Hemming, Jr., a swashbuckling six-foot five ex-Marine turned soldier-of-fortune, who personally knew many of the prominent personages of the tumultuous sixties, and whose name appears with regularity in the books and articles on the Kennedy assassination, died Monday at his home in Fayetteville, North Carolina after a lengthy illness. Born in Los Angeles on March 1, 1937, Hemming was 71.

After he left the Marine Corp in the fall of 1958, Hemming travelled to Cuba and assist the newly formed Castro government in military training. In Cuba, Hemming worked as an instructor in a Cuban parachute regiment and was later named adjutant of the San Julien air base. Hemming claims while at San Julien he thwarted an assassination attempt by a disgruntled Cuban soldier who intended to shoot against Fidel Castro while he toured the air base with Soviet envoy Anderi Mikoyan.

In Cuba, Hemming met and worked with another American named William Morgan who in April 1961 was brutally executed by Castro forces for being a traitor. Hemming stated that he met Jack Ruby at Morgan's residence. Morgan's US citizenship was restored in 2007. In Cuba he also met Frank Fiorini, also known as Frank Sturgis who gained notoriety in 1974 as one of the Watergate burglars.

Hemming met and liked Che Guevera who he described as a man of his word. Hemming claimed he had a secret meeting with Guevera during the height of the Cuban missile crisis.

Hemming fled Cuba in the fall of 1960 and was extensively debriefed by the CIA regarding Castro's military operations. He then started a paramilitary organization named Intercontinental Penetration Force or Interpen, which trained first in the Everglades and later on No Name Key, a small, mosquito-infested island thirty miles north of Key West. The group was sometimes known as "Patrick's raiders".

Hemming's group was heavily funded by right-wing Caribbean dictators but some believe there was secret funding from the CIA. Hemming claimed to be reporting to James Jesus Angleton, the controversial chief of the CIA's Counterintelligence arm. Hemming also had familial ties to the intelligence community: his uncle had been a business partner with John McCone, JFK's Director of the CIA.

In December 1962, Hemming and a dozen of his Interpen group were arrested in the Florida Keys shortly before leaving on a secret mission to Cuba. Jailed overnight in Key West, the group was bailed out by a Miami attorney who flew them to Miami on a chartered seaplane. Hemming stated that when they arrived in Miami, Oswald attempted to infiltrate their group but Hemming instructed his men to remove Oswald. Several months later when Hemming and his lawyer participated in a Miami radio talk show, a man identifying himself as Lee Oswald called the show. A week after the assassination, the talk show host reported the incident to the FBI. In 1978, Hemming testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had met Lee Harvey Oswald outside the Cuban Consulate in January 1959, was suspicious of Oswald's motives and the information he was seeking. Subsequently, Hemming advised his Cuban friends to get rid of Oswald.

On bail restriction arising from the arrest in the Florida Keys, Hemming was unable to return to Los Angeles for a Christmas reunion with his family. A short time thereafter, his father, who owned a television repair shop, died. Hemming always regretted missing that last Christmas with his father. He told one writer that for months after his father died he would call his father's business after hours just to listen to his father's voice on the recorded announcement of the business hours.

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.

Hemming testified to the HSCA that in the summer of 1963 he was personally offered money to arrange the murder of JFK; specifying one such offer was made in the home of New Orleans private investigator Guy Banister and another in the Dallas Petroleum Club.

In the late 1980s Hemming and two of his Interpen associates served as consultants to Oliver Stone's movie "JFK". He can be seen briefly in the film as the man co-coordinating the assassination. Although some speculate that members of Interpen may have been involved in the assassination, Hemming always denied that charge, but has suggested that several years later he learned the details of the assassination from persons who were involved. Among his controversial claims was that Kennedy assassination was funded in part by members of the family of Rafeal Trujillo, the Dominican Republic dictator assassinated in April 1961, and that there was a separate shooter in the Texas School Book Depository with a contract to kill Governor John Connally. He also claimed that the conspirators had planted a bomb in a car parked near the triple underpass that could have been used to blow up the entire presidential limousine had the shooters been unable to deliver a fatal head shot.

Hemming may have given us the answer to some of the mysteries of the assassination. For instance, he has identified the Mexico City mystery man as German born Mario Tauler Sague, recruited for the CIA by Bill Harvey while Harvey was the Berlin station chief. Sague was involved in one of the earliest attempts on Castro's life.

At the conference in Dallas, Hemming claimed to know Sylvia Odio's visitors were. He stated that one of them had once saved his life. In 2005, he finally revealed the names. The man who saved his life was Angelo Murgado, the "Angel" in the Odio story, and "Leopoldo" was Bernardo DeTorres, a name familiar to most students of the assassination. The names were first publicly identified in an article written by Mark Howell and Tim Gratz for the Key West Citizen. Murgado was interviewed in person by Prof Joan Mellen (in the presence of Hemming) and she tells the story in her book "A Farewell to Justice". Murgado was also interviewed by David Talbot for his book "Brothers". In "Brothers", Talbot states that Murgado told him that he, Murgado, had shown Robert F Kennedy the newspaper article and photo of Lee Oswald passing out literature in New Orleans, leading to the disturbing conclusion that when RFK learned of the arrest of Oswald for the murder of his brother, he recognized Oswald's name and photo.

Howard K. Davis, who served as an Army ranger in the Korean War and worked with the Castro forces in 1958 before the abdication of Batista, was the second in command of the Interpen group and worked closely with Hemming for many years. Davis, who now works for Homeland Security at the Miami airport, said of Hemming, "Hemming was at heart an idealist who longed for freedom for the Cuban people and like so many was disappointed that Castro betrayed the stated goals of his revolution. Gerry loved the Cuban people, spoke Spanish fluently and he is remembered with great fondness in the Cuban exile community. He named one of his sons after a Cuban exile who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the fight against Castro."

Hemming has been interviewed by various JFK researchers, and was a featured speaker at the JFK Lancer November in Dallas Conference in 1996. Hemming's HSCA testimony given on June 17, 1993, was donated by Noel Twyman to JFK Lancer for distribution. There are many who believe that most of Hemming's stories were nothing but the creation of a clever mind while others are equally confident that he carried some secrets of the assassination to his grave. Perhaps the epitaph that should appear on his grave is the description once given him by an assassination writer: "Valedictorian in a Guerilla Suit."

Some of us received this one on January 5th of this year...

Señores:

I served with Comandante/Cmdte. William Alexander Morgan in the Ejército Rebelde and attempted to have him leave with me to join the fight against Somoza in Nicaragua during the summer of 1960. It was during this time that we were running guns to Ramirez, Evelio Duque, and other anti-Castro rebels in the Sierra del Escambray, Las Villas Province.

(Cmdte. - NOT Mayor, in the Rebel Army a Major was titled with its then highest rank -- Comandante)

I stood mournfully on a hillside during the early morning of March 11, 1961 when he was executed at the Paredon in the moat of the La Cabaña Fortress. His executioner was NOT Capitan Herman Marks, and he was NOT shot in the knees to make him kneel.

Herman Marks had defected from Cuba months earlier on a sailboat that left from Batabanó (south coast of Habana Province) during October, 1960, and just days after Morgan's arrest. Marks was accompanied by a female American journalist who had put up the money for his escape in exchange for his personal story.

I am in contact with Olgita Rodriguez, viuda de Morgan, and who currently resides in Toledo, Ohio.

I trained anti-Castro Cuban exiles from before Playa Girón (1961) until the mid-1970s.

John Martino's false stories about William in his "Castro's Prisoner" book [co-authored by the late Nathaniel Weyl have contributed to much of this misinformation. I knew and worked with Martino until his death in 1975; and he admitted that Weyl had urged him to lie about his having personally known William. Martino was held at the Principe Prison during his 2-1/2 years of imprisonment, and never saw the inside of the La Cabaña Fortress. I was a guest for a while on Galería 14 and then on death row in La Cabaña during 1960.

William's "Title" should be changed to "Comandante". His last residence was at the penthouse of the apartment building on the corner of 16th and Calzada, Vedado, Habana, Cuba. [i know, because I lived there with him and the family + bodyguards off and on, for over a 2 year period.] The location of his arrest was in the office of Cmdte. Pedro Miret, on the top floor of the INRA Building. Fidel and Raul didn't have the nerve to witness the executions of William and his partner Cmdte. Jesus Carreras, which occurred simultaneously that early fateful morn.

Your search does NOT turn up another heroic anti-Castro Comandante, that of Cmdte. Felipe Vidal Santiago, "the 8th former Rebel Army Comandante to be executed by the traitors Castro !!"

Viva Cuba Libre,

Gerry Patrick Hemming

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.cubaarchive.org/rms/cuba/cgi-bi...917|63327328697

Case ID [?]

2993

Title

Mayor

First name [?]

William Alexander

Last name [?]

Morgan

Suffix

Aliases

William A. Morgan Ruderth

Age [?]

34

Gender

Birth date

Year of death

1961

Month of death

Day of death

3

Citizenship [?]

United States

Last known address [?]

146 Street between 23 and 25 Streets, Reparto Country Club

Last known city [?]

Havana

Last known province - at TOD [?]

La Habana

Last known province - current [?]

Ciudad de La Habana

Last known country [?]

Cuba

Location of death - address [?]

La Cabaña Fortress prison

Location of death - city [?]

Havana

Location of death - province - at TOD [?]

La Habana

Location of death - province - current [?]

Ciudad de La Habana

Location at death - country

Cuba

Trial held? [?]

Yes

Docket number [?]

No. 565 of 1961

Sentence details [?]

Capital punishment

Arrest or detention at time of death [?]

Yes

Date of arrest

Location of arrest

La Cabaña Fortress prison

Duration of arrest

N/A

Death attributed to

Castro government

Death attribution detail

N/A

Case description

Betrayed by a police informer, Morgan was charged with supplying arms to the Escambray rebels and sentenced to death after a sham trial presided by the notorious prosecutor Fernando Flores Ibarra ( “Charco de Sangre '). The firing squad platoon leader, American Rebel Army Capt. Herman Marks, forced him to kneel before the firing squad platoon by shooting him in the knees. Marks also delivered multiple “coup de grace “ shots to his head. Just days after his death, on March 15, 1961, Morgan’s twenty-three-year-old wife was arrested and remained imprisoned until 1973. She and their two daughters fled Cuba for the United States in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift and currently reside in Toledo, Ohio.

Associated Event

N/A

Sources

Telephone testimony of widow, 2006. Ruby Hart Phillips, New York Times, 3/10/1961, p. 8 and 3/12/1961, p. 32 Clark, 1990, p. 151. New York Times, 3/13/1961, p. 9. U.S. Information Agency, 1993, Year 1961. Encinosa, 1989, p. 154. Beruvides, 1993, p. 149. Ana Rodríguez, 1995, p. 128. Franqui, 1988, p. 346. Valladares, 1985, p. 27. Ariel Remos, Diario Las Américas, 11/11/ 1998. Cuban American National Foundation, Quilt, 1994. Directorio Revolucionario, 1965, p. 26. WAQI-Radio Mambí, p. 23. Gómez Estrada, 1990, p. 149. Encinosa, 1994, p. 67. Chicago Tribune, 10/3/1997. Ruíz, 1965, p. 202. Faria, 2002, p. 107. Ruíz, 1972, pp. 52 & 57. Barquín, 1975, p. ii-708. Circuito Sur, July 2002, p. 58. Nuestra Cuba, 1999, p. 17. Instituto Memoria Histórica, p. 8. Go to Source Directory

Conflict of Evidence

Ruíz, 1972, pp. 52 and 57 has him executed by firing squad on March 9, 1961. Barquín, 1975, p. ii-708, has him executed by firing squad in 1960. Circuito Sur, July 2002, p. 58, and Nuestra Cuba, 1999, p. 17, have him executed by firing squad at La Cabaña Fortress prison on March 11, 1961. Faria, 2002, p. 107, claims that Fidel and Raúl Castro attended his execution. Morgan was shot by Rebel Army Captain Herman Marks in both knees, to make him kneel before Castro brothers, then shot in both shoulders. Morgan bled to death before the actual firing squad execution. Instituto de la Memoria Hístorica Cubana contra el Totalitarismo, p. 8, has him executed by firing squad on March 31, 1961.

Causes of Death

Execution: by firing squad

Other Victims Same Event

no records found

Occupations

N/A

Affiliations

"U.S. Army veteran

Former member of the Rebel Army in the Escambray mountains.

External Files

no records found

Relatives in Archive

no records found

Victim Type

Prisoner / Detained

Morgan on left!

Carcano "Short Rifle" on right!

After the revolution, Cuba was not a BYOR "club", and thusly one had to make do with what the club had to offer in stock.