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Abner "Butch" Stokes


John Simkin

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Butch,

As to Mickey Kappes, I know this is a poor quality image but could this be him?

James

James

That looks more like my best friend back then. Mickey had the same hairline, but his face was fatter. He always dressed nice, even when working. Shirts with collars, etc. He was well liked. This could be him later than when I knew him.

Butch

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Butch,

As to Mickey Kappes, I know this is a poor quality image but could this be him?

James

James

That looks more like my best friend back then. Mickey had the same hairline, but his face was fatter. He always dressed nice, even when working. Shirts with collars, etc. He was well liked. This could be him later than when I knew him.

Butch

Butch,

That image was snapped on the Eddie Bayo mission in the summer of 1963. I don't know what happened to Kappes after all of this but I did come across a possible contact a few years ago. I emailed him but never received a reply.

Cheers,

James

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Mark,

I wrote that without consulting a dictionary. I don't know if it makes any sense or not, but I thought it sounded okay.

Ron

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"Butch" wrote:

These boats and motors were usually painted all one color. Dark flat green or gray. If the motors were black, they were not painted. They also worked with a friend of mine that ran Safe Harbor Marina in Key West. His name was Chuck Mersereau. He had been head of the Mercury Race Team before taking this job.

I could ramble on but will answer some other questions now.

Safe Harbor Marina is located in stock Island, FL (the last "key" before Key West). The Marina was the headquarters of Mineral Traders, the cover name of a CIA company that was used to haul arms shipments into Cuba in early 1960. Mineral Traders was run by Lynch and Robertson. They were informed of the opcoming BOP operation only about two weeks before it went down, by Jake Esterline, who met them at Mineral Traders, Mineral Traders was located in the building that used to be the HQ for the ferry that ran between Havana and Key West.

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"Butch" wrote:

These boats and motors were usually painted all one color. Dark flat green or gray. If the motors were black, they were not painted. They also worked with a friend of mine that ran Safe Harbor Marina in Key West. His name was Chuck Mersereau. He had been head of the Mercury Race Team before taking this job.

I could ramble on but will answer some other questions now.

Safe Harbor Marina is located in stock Island, FL (the last "key" before Key West). The Marina was the headquarters of Mineral Traders, the cover name of a CIA company that was used to haul arms shipments into Cuba in early 1960. Mineral Traders was run by Lynch and Robertson. They were informed of the opcoming BOP operation only about two weeks before it went down, by Jake Esterline, who met them at Mineral Traders, Mineral Traders was located in the building that used to be the HQ for the ferry that ran between Havana and Key West.

Safe Harbor was owned by the Toppino family. They are a very prominent Keys family. George Toppino and Chuck were good friends. Funny story: One of the workers at the Marina was born and raised in Key West. He had never been north of Marathon. He was given the job of taking one of Rips boats to Miami. This was his first trip there. He was about 20 years old. The boat had a cover on it to hide the machine gun. Don't you know he got stopped by the Highway Patrol and detained when they found it. He swore he would never leave Key West again. Things like that happened often, even to me once. I thought I was going to jail for sure, when Rip appeared on the dock. Talked to the cop, and he motored off.

Butch

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Indeed the Toppinos remain a very prominent Key West family.

Ditto the Spottswoods. It was Sheriff Spottswood who helped select the island where "PT109" was filmed.

Query, sir, whether you ever met Cesar Diosdado?

I don't recall that name.

I made an error on the last post. It was Big Tonys' boat being brought to Miami, not Rips. Sorry.

Butch

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Interesting posts, all. Another ripping question....

Did Colonel Robertson ever mention any work with ROTC at Georgia Tech, mid to late 50's?

Thx

Chris,

No, I never heard anything about that.

Butch

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