Jump to content
The Education Forum

Larry Hancock: Someone Would Have Talked


Recommended Posts

Larry,

This is pretty loose but I'll run it anyway.

Virgilio Gonzalez enters the United States on July 21, 1954 as a permanent resident. He leaves the U. S. in 1959, goes back to Cuba and ends up as Felipe Vidal Santiago's assistant and personal driver while Vidal was Chief of Maritime Police.

Vidal defects on March 7, 1960 and goes to Bogota, Colombia. Nothing here about when Gonzalez heads back to the States but he's back in time to train and participate in the Bay of Pigs. One would have to think that he's back on American soil by the summer of 1960. This is the beginning of the assassination attempts against Castro and both Vidal and Gonzalez would be of some initial interest to the CIA.

So what if Vidal and Gonzalez were both involved with those early unproductive discussions with the CIA? Morales keeps tabs on this and decides to stay in touch. Moving ahead, Gonzalez and Martino were pretty chummy during Operation Tilt and Morales signs off on the mission. Everybody is friends at this point.

Could Gonzalez have been the one to introduce Martino to Vidal at the end of 1962? It doesn't explain where Martino and Gonzalez come together but maybe it's a start.

James

Edited by James Richards
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 264
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Ron, I don't know this for certain but I suspect that that the Rita Wilson mentioned is Steve Wilson's daughter - I'm pretty sure she had photos from the camps. (Larry Hancock)

Hi guys. Sorry this has taken so long but I must have missed this bit. Rita Wilson was Steve Wilson's wife.

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Vergilio Gonzales.

He was with Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis, Martinez, McCord and Hunt at the Watergate break in, May 19, 1972.

From what I understand he defected out of Cuba, had the opportunity to meet and mix with Big Indian Dave Morales and John Martino while working with Felipe Vidal Santiago, and this core group was activated for the Dallas effort.

Morales and Martino had deniability out the yinyang....while you have identifed the tactical group, I still think it was all a joint agency operation with orders stemming from the 8f Suite, if not the Joint Chiefs and Cabinet ......

\Thanks for the scenario, very compelling.

(ps James-did you see my post on J. Ligget as a suspect in DeMorenschildt's murder?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

John, all the first edition chapters have been edited and updated with new information and research obtained over the past two years. Fortunately a number of people in the research community have jumped in to pursue some of the leads listed out in the first edition and have developed significant information on several of them. An example would be research on the DC-3 incindent out of Redbird airport, where we did manage to obtain the full FAA records on the plane and document virtually all the core elements of the January story.

Extensive new information has become available on David Morales and other individuals including specific details on their activities before and after the Bay of Pigs; this includes details on a number of paramilitary operations which were unknown up to now including some Castro assassination projects. It's becoming clear that the CIA was indeed expecting other things to happen which would make the Brigade invasion successful, it really was not supposed to work by itself. All of this becomes important in regard to the assassination given some new source material I'll be talking about in Dallas.

We also know a great deal more about the autonomous group projects of 1963 and their related personnel and crypts. This becomes very important in following what was going on in the last half of 1963 in regard to several of pur "persons of interest".

In addition we will be adding several new appendices which will present new information and these will be supporting those with several hundred pages of new documents.

Sample appendice topics include:

Crossing Paths in The CIA (greatly expanded)

The Way of JM/WAVE (JMWAVE operations 1961-1964)

Barnes and company

The Kirknewton Incident

The HSCA and Victor Hernandez

Rose Cheramie revisited

Sylvia Odio revisited

Echos from Dallas/ARRB leads pursued

We will be adding an index and a variety of new social diagrams/charts and an index - both of which will make coping with the content a good deal easier.

-- Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just read Dicks remarks on his book thread and saw that he has mentioned the following:

"I believe the most important aspect that remains to be delved into, regarding the assassination, focuses on the CIA and relationships between certain of its employees with the Cuban exile community. Besides the well-known David Phillips, I'd look into a fellow named Henry Heckscher."

It just so happens that Hecksher is a major part of the appenndix I've done on CIA personnel and I think it will definitely corroborate Dick's remark.

Just as a clue, Heckscher was operating out of both Miami and Mexico City in the fall of 1963 and even had a couple of discussions with our friend Mr. Phillips. Which fortunately is even recorded in the new documents. Oh, and he was also in Japan in the late 50's....but that's enough clues for now... grin.

-- Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It definitely seems that the second edition will be worth buying. Will this edition be like a normal paperback or will it be like the original binding?

Will you be adding any extra photographs? Have you seen the picture of Fred Black I posted today? Will that one be included.

Will you have anything on E. Grant Stockdale?

I suspect the members of this Forum have provided a lot of information for the second edition. If so, it could be one of the first times this has happened. I believe that forums like this could herald a new development in publishing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John, we are currently estimating the second edition to be something like a third longer than the first; it will be published either as a commercial grade book paperback or light hardcover (not sure yet) and as such will have a much broader distribution plus the ability to get into bookstores or libraries. It will not be spiral bound as the first edition.

There will be additional photo pages...I'll have to check on the Fred Black photo, don't recall for sure.

Nothing on Stockdale I'm afraid, not that I don't think it is important. One area that I am intentionally avoiding is the involvement of RFK and Kennedy family damage control. I'm also avoiding larger scale concepts such as what I personally consider the very probable connection of the JFK murder to Robert Kennedy's murder. I'll leave that to other authors, hard enough for me to stay focused as it is...

As a side comment, some of the key new findings to be included in second edition will be included in my Lancer presentation next month.

-- Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just read Dicks remarks on his book thread and saw that he has mentioned the following:

"I believe the most important aspect that remains to be delved into, regarding the assassination, focuses on the CIA and relationships between certain of its employees with the Cuban exile community. Besides the well-known David Phillips, I'd look into a fellow named Henry Heckscher."

It just so happens that Hecksher is a major part of the appenndix I've done on CIA personnel and I think it will definitely corroborate Dick's remark.

Just as a clue, Heckscher was operating out of both Miami and Mexico City in the fall of 1963 and even had a couple of discussions with our friend Mr. Phillips. Which fortunately is even recorded in the new documents. Oh, and he was also in Japan in the late 50's....but that's enough clues for now... grin.

-- Larry

Larry, it sounds like you're all over Heckscher, but I just wanted to make sure you knew he was heavily involved in the Guatemalan operation as well. He was the undercover op who posed as a German businessman in Guatemala and actually recruited a few of Arbenz's generals. I believe some have mistakenly assumed this was Droller. Heckscher later went on to Laos I believe and Chile. Wherever he went bodies piled up.

Edited by Pat Speer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Pat, it seems that Hecksher also was the one to take Dave Phillips in country

for a little fact finding for his radio broadcasts. As I recall, in his book, Phillips

uses the name "Peter" for Hecksher.

It seems very likely that Hecksher was the officer who brought Morales into

PBSUCCESS as well, both had been serving in Berlin where Hecksher was

Deputy COS at that point.

Their careers crossed many times, the last probably being in Chile where

Morales may have done some final services for him; especially (according to

Reuben) the removal of a key Chilean general.

It's pretty clear that Henry was one of the cadre who played for keeps.

-- Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I apologize if this has previously been covered on this forum, but a correction for any upcoming edition would be the assertion that "...Robertson was the only American to actually go in with the exiles - against orders." Wyden's Bay of Pigs book asserts that Grayston Lynch actually fired "the first shots at the Bay of Pigs."

Tim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Their careers crossed many times, the last probably being in Chile where

Morales may have done some final services for him; especially (according to

Reuben) the removal of a key Chilean general. (Larry Hancock)

Larry,

Would that Chilean General have been Rene Schneider?

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It would indeed James, Trento devotes a good deal of space to affairs in

Chile and discusses Hecksher's attitude toward Schneider - who was of

course "mysteriously" killed.

Trento mentions a CIA operative named "Felix" working for Hecksher, not

that the name relates to Morales but the name "Felix" does show up in some

interesting places.

Anyway, The Secret History of the CIA by Trento has a fair number of

references to Hecksher at various points in his career.

-- Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Larry.

I know the Schneider family were not amused and brought a lawsuit against Kissinger for his alleged role in the death. The family claimed there was a CIA plot to kill the General.

That was a few years ago but I don't know what the outcome was.

As to Felix, is there a chance that was Felix Rodriguez?

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

James, I don't have any real feeling on that but it seems unlikely that the CIA would

be disclosing a real name in this context.

I can say however that we have the debriefing document on Che's capture

and execution and the name being used for CIA "contract employee" in the field with Che

is Benton H. Mizones.

Mizones worked along with another Cuban in Bolivia but their CIA case officer was

back in DC...

Afterwards Mizones and the other employee were flown out of Bolivia by C-130 to Panama and both

employees were documented as GS-16's so they could board an over booked

military flight back to Charlotte.

-- Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...