30:Bayo, Pawley & CIA TILT Against JFK

Shortly after Groundhog Day of 1963, E. Howard Hunt wrote a memorandum about his conversation over lunch with his close friend, Manuel Artime, the Bay of Pigs invasion Brigade 2506 leader. Artime arrived “with a heavy cold and an appearance of dejection." Artime "and others (presumably San Roman and Oliva) had been guests at a luncheon tendered them the day before by the Robert Kennedys at Hickory Hill." While appreciating the Attorney General’s attention, "Artime was upset by the suggestion that Brigade members should consider "joining the U.S. Army" and "continuing their academic careers" which Artime felt "had little to do with overthrowing Fidel Castro. Artime opined that Mr. Hurwitch of State was profoundly hostile to him, for reasons he could not fathom.”1

Two months later, Hunt and Artime would meet again along with “Manolin Hernandez, his one-time deputy in the MRR,” to celebrate Dorothy Hunt’s birthday at Hunt’s home. Artime, who “was wearing the shoes that he had put into the barracks bag when he last packed it in my operational quarters in Coconut Grove” was going to deliver “a message from Luis Somoza for Attorney General Robert Kennedy” and was scheduled to appear on NBC’s Today Show. He then planned to visit Generalissimo Franco in Spain to request support in getting his parents out of Cuba and into Spain which Hunt thought would be a fruitless because Franco was too busy negotiating the renewal of U.S. air bases in Spain which Pawley had originally negotiated with the country’s fascist leader, Franco.

The discussion then turned to the “capture of 17 raiders at Norman Cay ... the exiles restricted to the Dade County area” and “Pedro Diaz Lanz whom we agreed had for some time been so uncontrollable as to raise serious doubts as to his mental stability.” Diaz Lanz, in a speech on November 3, 1963 accused President Kennedy “of being a commie.”2

Hunt then “asked about Jose Perez San Roman and learned from Artime that Pepe had suffered a mental breakdown, that the Robert Kennedys had rented a home for Pepe, his wife and two children in the McLean area and that Artime had been with them during the day when Mrs. Kennedy had come to the San Roman home and seen Artime. Artime learned that the San Roman children were driven to and from school by the Kennedys. (It turns out that the Kennedy children, my three children, and Pepe's two all attend the same parochial school on MacArthur Blvd., so it is not unlikely that Pepe's children will seek mine out as the only other Spanish-speaking children in the school.)”

Pepe’s breakdown was the result of conflicts in his marriage, the U.S. government’s pressure on him “to persuade the Brigade to enlist in the U.S. Army” and his guilt over allowing the Brigade to be captured. San Roman also resented “that his psychiatric bill was being paid by Miro Cardona, regarding it a way of making him indebted to Miro ... I judged Pepe viewed Miro as a symbol of the CRC.”

Manolin Hernandez let Howard Hunt know that Jose Miro Cardona and Jose Ignacio Rasco (MDC) had queried “as to whether I (“Eduardo”) was still in the U.S.” and that Hernandez had not revealed anything to them. By “2 o’clock in the morning,” Hunt, Artime and Hernandez “had downed a fifth of Scotch and we regrouped in the kitchen where I prepared breakfast for all. Before leaving Artime said he would call me after he had seen the Attorney General.”

During the night, Hernandez had asked Hunt about “‘Colonel Earl Brennan’ ... who was moving through the Cuban exile community looking for dark-skinned Cubans to be used in Haiti against Duvalier” which he claimed was supported by Ambassador David Bruce and the White House. A successful coup would make Haiti a great base for activity against Castro, Brennan claimed. Hunt denied knowledge of Brennan’s role in the OSS but acknowledged “that Dave Bruce had been Chief of our operations in the ETO” (European Theater of Operations in World War II).3

Col. Brennan, in fact, was recruited into the OSS by David Bruce and Allen Dulles and served as Chief/SI (Secret Intelligence) in Italy and Albania4 long before becoming “the registered representative of a Haitian political party, the Parti Nationals” which had met multiple times with the CIA to discuss a coup against “Papa Doc” Duvalier—arriving at a target date in May 1963. Individuals in multiple countries supported the move, and Trujillo’s assassination “resulted in the development of an effectively placed action center in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)” supported by Juan Bosch.5 Brennan’s coup fizzled out and “Papa Doc” remained in power for eight more years when heart disease and diabetes took his life.

On June 28,1963 the CIA Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division revealed to the “Chiefs, Certain Stations and Bases” that Manuel Artime had moved to Nicaragua as leader of operation AMWORLD—the U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy initiative that launched commando raids on Cuba despite President Kennedy’s American University commencement speech.6

Between William Douglas Pawley’s pro-Goldwater speech about the troubling times and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s speech of hope for the world, Pawley embarked on his second effort to discredit JFK as the President prepared to run for a second term. 

It would take more than a decade before the American public learned about the Bayo-Pawley Affair (aka Operation Red Cross). Documents declassified decades later showed that the project--as it was happening--was known within the CIA as Operation TILT.

In 1976 the Kingsport Times reported that Francis Ford Coppola's City of San Francisco magazine had published an article in which Pawley in Miami “confirmed that in 1963 he navigated his personal yacht to the Cuban coast with a raiding party bent on spiriting two Soviet missile technicians off the Communist island.” Article authors,Warren Hinckle and William Turner, had begun interviewing people about the operation in 1973, including Pawley, Gerry Patrick Hemming and Robert K. Brown whose Soldier of Fortune magazine provided more details complete with many photos of some of those involved in 1976.  

On board Pawley’s Flying Tiger II was a motley crew of CIA agents, armed Cuban exiles, an organized crime associate, John Martino (left in photo), Eddie Bayo (far right) and a Life magazine Miami reporter, Richard Billings who claimed such raids were commonplace and denied Life was financing the project as Pawley asserted. Loren Hall, after reading Hinckle's article called the author and claimed Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana put up money as well as Tampa Mafia head Santos Trafficante who had spent time in Cuban prison with John Martino. Their release was expedited by Rauol (aka Raul) Villamia, a Cuban-born minor league baseball player whose brother Mario had founded Accion Civica Cuban to support Castro by obtaining weapons along with Howard Davis as Castro was mounting his revolution against Batista. Mario convinced Rauol in 1955 to start fundraising in Tampa for Castro's 26th of July Movement which he did until Castro declared himself a communist.7

Although Pawley denied involvement of CIA agents in the actual TILT raid, members of the CIA hierarchy were not only aware of Pawley’s Flying Tiger II mission, but internal documents showed the CIA financed it along with other “angels” and tracked it from the launch through its mysterious failure—and there is no hint that they attempted to prevent him from causing an international incident or from attempting to discredit the sitting president prior to his upcoming re-election campaign. 

A 1999 declassified CIA cable reported “Pawley 65 foot yacht Flying Tiger will depart Miami 1800 hours 5 June. Aboard yacht will be Pawley’s captain Luis Park Guerra who [was a] Cuban National but long time trusted employee. KUBARK will have Donald F. Mazutis alias Mike Kelley and Marvin A. Laurenkus alias Alan Barton on Board Pawley yacht.”8 Barton had been an aircraft factory engineer in India and was probably Rudolf “Rudy” A. Enders.9

Operation TILT was launched after more than a month of planning. The exfiltration from Cuba was scheduled for June 10th, coincidentally the same day of President Kennedy’s call for peace at American University. In its aftermath, CIA Chief of Station Andrew K. Reuteman sent a cable on June 28th about a Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC) invasion eight days earlier. Reuteman stated that “WAVE initiated inquiries throughout exile community designed [to] establish what exile PM types were missing from Miami or had temporarily dropped out of sight. It was believed acquisition this type info would facilitate cross-checking on size CRC sponsored invasion. Additionally view timing Op TILT, i.e. infiltration 10 men north coast Oriente 9 June. We were concerned that Op TILT might be part of CRC invasion force particularly since ... Cadick impression TILT team did not plan exfiltrate.” 

Cadick is believed to be William ("Rip") Robertson, who headed paramilitary operations during the CIA’s Arbenz overthrow in 1954 and was part of the ZRJEWEL paramilitary-training program with Lucien Conein and Grayston Lynch in 1961. Robertson and Lynch were the only two Americans involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion brigade, marking the landing beach. At the time of TILT, Robertson was an aide to David Morales JMWAVE’s operations chief.

AMBIDDY-1 (Manuel Artime Buesa) provided the agency with the names of some members involved in the CRC invasion including “Eduardo Perez Bayo” (aka Eduardo Perez Gonzalez aka Col. “Eddie” Alberto Bayo) whose name became linked with Pawley’s when reports of the project began to surface in newspapers and magazines. MRR member Rolando Cabezas and Carlos Bandin of a dissident faction helped Artime identify Luis (Jimenez) de Castro; Rolando “Guajacon” Rodriguez, Tomas Vaquero, Dennis Regal, Bayo, Rene Lamar, Alfredo Mir, and “four unidentified Cubans who recently arrived in Miami from Ft. Jackson.”

Reuteman drew the conclusion that “current info makes it evident TILT participants had no Soviet contacts but they parlayed notional Sov contacts into sharp con game designed attract angel, i.e. QDDALE [Pawley], Life, Sourwine, et all [sic] who could facilitate their exit from PBPRIME [U.S.] as well as give them some arms equipment. Their con game worked because Soviet defector bait could not be passed up by angels or KUBARK [CIA]. While facts which currently available tend indicate con game worked and KUBARK invested circ 4000 dollars in con game, continue believe OP TILT was a long shot which could not be rejected. Additionally believe there are fringe benefits from OP TILT which have accrued to KUBARK’s credit despite fact we were outmaneuvered.”

Among the “fringe benefits” was “QDDALE has gained renewed conficence [sic] KUBARK ability handle PM infil ops. He is currently most vocal but secure defender KUBARK and his public relations effort on our behalf has merit and impact in some circles. Additionally QDDALE has learned you cannot work with press on clandestine ops.” Specifically, “Life reps are now actually aware difficulties inherent in clandestine PM ops against Cuba and are less likely knock intel agencies in future.” Congressional hawk “Sourwine of Senate Internal Security Committee aware KUBARK will take offbeat risk on unorthodox op for worthy target.” Moreover, “Ten well armed men have been put into Cuba. They should be short term irritant to Castro even if they rolled up in short order.”

Reuteman saw another major benefit of the failure: “Valuable experience was gained in coordinating vessel and PBY [flying boat] movements in Caribbean. This live training will serve WAVE well in mounting its unilateral ops. But not everyone in the CIA wore his rose-colored glasses. On top of page four of the above the so-called fringe benefits was a critical handwritten note by a recipient of the document: “Highly developed bureacratis circumspectly & justification of some pretty big gaffes.”10

The failure of TILT lead to the postponement until December 1963 of Operation CHALICE V and AMSPARK, which appear to be part of JFK/RFK’s AMWORLD plan to infiltrate and spark a coup in Cuba (which years earlier Pawley had suggested might be the best approach for creating an excuse to send in Marines).11

The following spring, the Chief, Special Affairs sent a dispatch to the Chief of Station, JMWAVE with additional information about Operation TILT organizer John Martino, the man who had worked in security at a Mafia-run casino in Havana and was arrested after Castro came to power. “On 19 February 1964 ODENVY [FBI] reported that they had received information to the effect that John Martino was supposed to be involved with KUBARK in an operation to bring out three or four Soviet Scientists from PBRUMEN [Cuba]. ODENVY requested Headquarters to comment on the information.”

CIA Headquarters informed the FBI that an unnamed “American industrialist [Pawley], well-known to KUBARK came to KUBARK with the story” of the “four Soviet soldiers” in Cuba. “Although we believed that the likelihood of such an operation being a success was very small, in view of the fact that the industrialist intended to use his own boat and own crew, and in light of the importance of the Soviet target in PBRUMEN, KUBARK contributed to the operation to the extent of providing some technical and logistical support. It later developed that Martino had generated the operation with the industrialist. KUBARK advised the industrialist of Martino’s reputation. The industrialist decided to proceed anyway. KUBARK had no connection or contact with Martino. The operation, which was a failure, demonstrated the fact that Martino was making up the story out of whole cloth.” The FBI was satisfied by this insight.12 Bold emphasis added by D.P. Cannon.

A status report “for your information and files” on Operation TILT prepared just before the response to the FBI has considerably more depth of details.

1. Introduction: The origins of operation TILT were outlined in Reference D. In summary, however, it is believed that it should be pointed out that Operation TILT was essentially an operation designed to see if it would be possible to exfiltrate from Cuba four Soviet military officers who had allegedly defected from a Soviet Missile sight in Banes, Cuba. Operation TILT was not KUBARK-controlled, but it did utilize QDDALE as KUBARK's window into the operation. Operation TILT involved a strange cast of characters and this resulted in the operation following patterns of implementation which are not typical of KUBARK-controlled operations. The Cubans who were infiltrated into Cuba on Operation TILT were put into the target area on 9 June 1963. It was anticipated that the Cuban infiltrees would exfiltrate from Cuba on 10 June 1963. This exfiltration did not take place as scheduled on either the primary or alternate date; therefore, the search for the TILT exfiltrees was discontinued as of 13 June 1963. Since 13 June 1963, JMWAVE has received a number of fragmentary reports relative to the current status of those Cubans who infiltrated into Oriente Province on Operation TILT. These fragments are reported in the following paragraph. Bold emphasis added by D.P. Cannon.

2. Fragmentary Reporting on the Current Status of Operation TILT: The following chronological presentation outlines those details which have come to JMWAVE's attention relative to Operation TILT in the period 24 August 1963 to 20 January 1964.

24 August 1963: As outlined in Reference D., Luis Cantin was one of the individuals who infiltrated into Cuba on Operation TILT ... AMARGO-1 learned from Cantin's three sons that Cantin had gone to Cuba in June 1963 on an operational assignment. It was at this point that JMWAVE was able to determine that the Luis *Cantin of Operation TILT was identical with Luis Mario *Cantin de Nacimiento ... [On August 24, 1963] at 520 S.W. 1st Street, Miami, Florida. Cantin's sons advised AMARGO-1 that they had not heard from their father since June 1963; therefore, they presumed he was dead ...
... On 26 August 1963, AMCRAG-1 reported that he had been contacted in Miami by Laudelina *Perez, the wife of Eduardo *Perez Gonzalez, aka Bayo, the leader of the Cuban infiltrees on Operation TILT ... Mrs. Perez told AMCRAG-1 that she knew her husband had gone to Cuba on some operation which involved John *Martino, born 3 August 1911 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but Mrs. Perez made the point that she did not know the details of the operation.13

As the Fall of 1963 began, John Martino contacted William “Rip” Robinson (aka Irving Cadick) to report he had “received a letter from a Victor Garcia,” an employee at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, which he had been sent to Andres Venegas. Garcia not only claimed Bayo was alive but “his men had recently caused the death of a number of militia men and some Russian officers in a firefight ... in Oriente Province.” Two of his men were killed. JMWAVE was unable to confirm this firefight and wondered if the letter was a fabrication by Martino to try to convince Robertson to help infiltrate Angel Luis Castillo, Bayo’s brother-in-law, and other reinforcements for Bayo’s TILT team. Robertson declined.14

Oddly, Luis Angel Castillo was arrested in the Philippines in 1967 trying to connect to communists there and claiming he was a Cuban communist. Equally bizarre, he “admitted while under truth serum and during ‘hypnotic grilling’ that he was in Dallas at the time of the [JFK] assassination and had been given a rifle by an unidentified man and told to shoot ‘a man in an open car’ during a motorcade.” But someone else shot first. “Castillo claimed there were 15 other men stationed along the motorcade route.” However, he was evasive about details when questioned by reporters except to proclaim that “he did not know anyone named Lee Harvey Oswald.”15

One other strange layer to Castillo is that earlier, as a juvenile delinquent, he was sent to reform school in Bordentown, New Jersey in 1964 where LSD experiments were being conducted from 1955 to 1964 as part of the CIA’s clandestine MKULTRA program exploring chemical, biological and radiological materials to control human behavior under the guidance of pharmacologist Dr. Carl Pfeiffer who received $25,000 a year through the Geschikter Foundation.16

News of Castillo’s arrest came on April 24, 1967. The next day, the New Orleans State-Item a third of the world away announced, “Mounting Evidence Links CIA to ‘Plot Probe’” regarding the New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s investigation of the death of a president in Dallas and anti-Castro connections including those of David Ferrie who years earlier was fascinated by hypnotism.

Soldier of Fortune magazine and the long-defunct City of San Francisco magazine ran stories in 1976 that claimed that the Bayo-Pawley operation was an attempt to discredit JFK prior to the 1964 election by proving there were Soviet missiles still in Cuba after Kennedy was assured by Khrushchev that the weapons at the center of the Cuban Missile Crisis were removed. Another theory, offered by Dick Russell in the Village Voice, is that the plot was actually the final joint CIA/Mafia attempt to kill Castro, but documents released 23 years later in 1999 seem to indicate otherwise.17

Pawley’s boat, Flying Tiger II, was provided to transport the group of CIA-trained Cuban exiles. Behind the scenes, according to Soldier of Fortune, were a group of businessmen such as 70-year-old New York CPA, Theodore Racoosin; government officials including the head of Radio Free Europe; Florida media executives; former prisoner in Cuba and consultant to Mafia- run casinos, John Martino; and the Luce-run Life magazine, which provided $10,000 for the project through managing editor George P. Hunt. A year earlier, Racoosin, President of International Broadcasting Corporation had come to the attention of the FBI. He and William Hillman were approached by the 30th November group hoping they could influence the U.S. government to provide funding for its anti-Castro activities.

While the project was known within the CIA as Operation TILT, prior to release of the CIA’s declassified documents, writers referred to TILT as “Operation Red Cross” and the “Bayo-Pawley affair.”

Richard D. Mahoney wrote in Sons and Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy an account of the origins of Operation TILT that declassified documents would later contradict. He asserted “Martino and Bayo pitched the idea to Pawley,” who took it to the CIA’s JMWAVE chief  Ted Shackley. “Pawley told Shackley that he had gotten a call from the chief counsel to the Senate Internal Subcommittee, Jay Sourwine, promising that committee chairman Senator James O. Eastland of Mississippi would launch hearings if the Soviet officers were sprung.” Shackley considered Martino a “‘lowlife’” and the chance of success equally low but “if it panned out, a career maker. It might also serve to rehabilitate Shackley's demoted mentor, Bill Harvey.”

Mahoney explored links between Mafioso Johnny Roselli and John Martino and whether they “actually believed in the Bayo-Pawley mission” or whether they saw it as money-making scheme offering Life a cover story of “the raid in exchange for $15,000. Loren Hall, a Trafficante associate later investigated for his contact with Oswald in Dallas, claimed that the Mafia, not Life, had in fact put up the $15,000.”18 Declassified documents painted a different financial picture of TILT.

William Harvey was a colorful, heavy-drinking, heavyset senior officer in the CIA’s Clandestine Services who was Chief of Task Force W from April 1, 1962 to January 15, 1963. Edward Lansdale called him “America’s James Bond.” But being at frequent loggerheads with Robert Kennedy, Harvey was transferred from Task Force W to Rome to be Chief of Station, a position he had when an Italian-made rifle was used to assassinate President Kennedy.

Harvey had spent seven years in Berlin and was “thoroughly grounded in the tradecraft of clandestine activities, and has brought to each and every assignment an ‘intelligent; thorough, and uncommonly conscientious approach: His qualities of leadership are attested to by the loyalty and devotion of those colleagues who have worked under his direction.” His CIA Fitness Report continued “there has tended to grow up within the clandestine services a coterie of officers who have come to regard themselves as ‘Harvey men’” which Harvey “has not encouraged.” Harvey had the task of organizing and developing a large operational team devoted to the acquisition of intelligence and the handling of special operations directed at Cuba. He was obliged to work within a complicated bureaucratic framework, a fact which made the clearing of actions a laborious and time-consuming exercise. Under his direction, the Task Force grew substantially in size and in professional competence with the result that when the Cuban crisis arrived in October intelligence assets were in place to make a significant contribution to the overall intelligence picture. Mr. Harvey devoted considerable ingenuity, long hours of personal time, and great energy to this enterprise, arid, although certain aspects of the intra-governmental coordination of the operations had rough sledding, his net achievement was the establishment of an effective, going concern with momentum which carries on to the present.” Based on his “strong performance as Chief, TFW,” Harvey was assigned as Chief of Station in Rome. The recommendation was signed April 23, 1963 by Richard Helms, Deputy Director of Plans, and Thomas Karamessines, Assistant Secretary of. Plans.19 (In 2023, the “Godfather of Harlem” on the MGM+ cable TV channel portrayed the death of Harvey at the hands of Bumpy Johnson in 1963; Harvey actually lived to 1976.)

Pawley, an expert in publicity and a friend of Clare Boothe Luce could have easily enticed Life to provide media coverage. But he wasn’t looking for publicity until the Soviets were firmly in the hands of Sourwine and Eastman. Pawley learned of the Life-Martino agreement as TILT planning unfolded and he became irate. But Life addressed his concerns and drew up a formal contract with a cover letter addressed to Pawley to assure him the CIA’s involvement would not be mentioned. Both documents were found in Pawley’s CIA files finally declassified 36 years later in 1999.

The cover letter from Life at DuPont Plaza Center in Miami sent on June 3rd to Pawley at Room 1400, First National Bank Building, Miami assured him “that in preparation of the story referred to in Mr. Hunt's letter, no mention will be made of participation by an agency of the United States government.” Signed by Richard Billings, Southern Regional Editor.

The contract asked Pawley to “grant to us the exclusive right first to publish, in the various editions of Life Magazine, your first person account of your flight from Cuba to the United States, and of your experiences in Cuba, including your account of Russian personnel, activities and installations in Cuba.” It also wanted him “to cooperate with our photographers and reporters in relating your account to them” and “you will not relate any of your experiences to anyone, except under subpoena from an authorized governmental agency, until such time as an article giving your first person account shall have been published in Life ... under your by-line, and consent to the use of your name and photograph in and in connection with the publication of that first person account.”

CIA declassified documents, released after Mahoney’s book, show that that Pawley had numerous contacts with Life about the project as early as May 14, 1963. In fact, Pawley had spoken about the exfiltration project to the head of JMWAVE as early as April after speaking to Jay Sourwine. Apparently, Sourwine learned of the Soviet nuclear technicians via Nathaniel Weyl, author of Red Star Over Cuba, co-author with John Martino of I Was Castro’s Prisoner: An American Tells His Story about Martino’s 40 months of captivity in Cuba, and years later briefly, for five months, a co-author of Pawley’s unpublished autobiographical manuscript, Russia Is Winning. Pawley was told by Sourwine that Martino had more details. It is possible that Martino heard about the missile techs from Eddie Bayo who had been circulating to Congressional members a letter purportedly written by one of them.20

The CIA memorandum stated:

1. On 18 April 1963 Andrew K. Reuteman received a telephone call from QDDALE who asked if Reuteman could visit QDDALE’s office in the near future. Reuteman agreed to drop into QDDALE’s office and meeting arrangements were agreed upon for 1430 hours on 18 April 1963. This meeting subsequently took place as scheduled. QDDALE started the meeting by saying that he had developed a great deal of trust and confidence in Reuteman and as a result QDDALE was going to discuss a matter which QDDALE wanted to handle on an off the record basis. Reuteman indicated he would be willing to listen to QDDALE’s comments on an off the record basis; however, if the subject matter being discussed involved intelligence matters Reuteman would have to reserve the right to judge for himself whether the activity was or was not in the best interests of either ODYOKE or KUBARK ... QDDALE then went on to state that he had been approached on circa 16 April 1963 by Mr. Jay Sourwine of the Senate Internal Security Committee who had asked that QDDALE participate in an operation which was designed to bring several Soviet military defectors into the United States. Mr. Sourwine indicated that the main reason behind his involvement in this operation was his desire to obtain the testimony of the Soviets before the Senate Internal Security Committee as soon after their arrival in the United States as possible. In view of this objective Mr. Sourwine was prepared to give QDDALE several blank subpoenas from the Senate Internal Security Committee which could be filled out by QDDALE and served on the defectors as soon as they came within the United States three mile limit. QDDALE claims that he told Mr. Sourwine that he would be interested in the defection operation as he thought the surfacing of Soviet military defectors from Cuba in the United States before an open public forum would contribute to the national security of the United States. Armed with this commitment from QDDALE Mr. Sourwine indicated that he would arrange for author, Nathaniel Wyle [sic; actually Weyl] to visit QDDALE within a few days in order to discuss the operation in detail. Mr. Wyle subsequently contacted QDDALE on 17 April and stated that he and his unidentified associates had an opportunity to bring four Soviet military defectors to the United States ... a captain and three lieutenants from a Soviet SAM missile site. It was Mr. Wyle’s contention that these Soviets had pictures of underground missile storage sites in Cuba. QDDALE indicated that he would be glad to participate in this operation and would put the facilities of his organization at the disposal of the operation. Armed with this response Mr. Wyle suggested that QDDALE contact John Martino of Alton Road, Miami Beach, Fla. for further details on the operation. At this point QDDALE state that he realized that he was becoming quickly immersed in a rather complex operation. As a result QDDALE decided to call Reuteman in order to discuss the operation with a KUBARK representative. QDDALE then asked for Reuteman’s advice as to how the Soviet defectors could be brought into the United States and turned over to the Senate Internal Security Committee.

2. Reuteman indicated that there were essentially three ways ... coordinate all aspects of this operation with Reuteman ... the Soviets would be picked up in international waters ... Once in the custody of QDDALE or a KUBARK instrumentality the Soviets could be brought into the United States under KUBARK auspices ... transferred by air as soon as possible from Miami to Washington. In Washington the Soviets would be subjected to a thorough debriefing. This debriefing would be designed to establish their bon fides and would include such things as a psychological assessment and polygraph examination. Reuteman made the point that the bona fides issue was understandably a time consuming process and it could take up to thirty days before any arrangements could be made for making the defectors available to the Internal Security Committee ... Reuteman expressed the opinion that it was imperative that any knowledgeable Soviet defectors with access to missile information be placed in the appropriate intelligence channels and exploited in a professional manner. QDDALE agreed with this but stated that he felt he had made a commitment to the Internal Security Committee to make the men available to them in less than thirty days after they exfiltrated Cuba. As a result QDDALE wanted to know what were alternate courses of action. Reuteman pointed out that a second course of action could be implemented by QDDALE and his associates picking up the Soviets and bringing them into the United States where that could be turned over to ODURGE [U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service]. QDDALE was advised that in accordance with existing National Security Council Directives ODURGE would turn the defectors over to KUBARK ... ODURGE would make the point that they had not been admitted to the U.S. and thus subpoenas were not valid ... a highly technical point of law [that needed to be checked] ... QDDALE indicated that he did not like this solution ... another alternate solution would be ... bring the Soviet defectors into the U.S. “black”. Once in the United States the defectors could be transported by air by QDDALE to Washington where they could be turned over to the Internal Security Committee. The point was made that this solution had its undesirable aspects because facilitating the “black” entry of aliens into the U.S. would put QDDALE in violation of existing U.S. laws. Reuteman ventured the opinion that QDDALE could not obtain immunity from prosecution for the violation of these laws through any intercession of the part of the Senate Internal Security Committee. At this point QDDALE stated that it was obvious that his only course of action was to cooperate fully with Reuteman as KUBARK’s official representative.

3.[QDDALE pressured Reuteman to permit the Soviets to be turned over to Sourwine and Senator Eastland’s committee in 36 hours.] Reuteman stated that he was not in a position to make this kind of commitment on KUBARK’s behalf. [Pawley then contacted Sourwine.] At the end of the telephone discussion QDDALE had convinced Mr. Sourwine that QDDALE could work successfully with KUBARK on the operation. [But the 36-hour contingency was still unresolved.]

4. [Reuteman told Pawley he would outline the project to Headquarters.] Once this was done QDDALE would probably be well advised to personally contact Brent or Todhunter in order to obtain firm commitments relative to the period of the time which would elapse between the Soviets’ entry into the U.S. and their referral to the Internal Security Committee. [After contemplation, QDDALE chose] to contact Todhunter directly and not have any record of this transaction in normal KUBARK cable channels. [Reuteman could not dissuade QDDALE from this decision.”] 

Bold emphasis added by D.P. Cannon. While many memorandums seem to be written by CIA and FBI personnel as a way to cover one’s ass as much as just proper procedure, Pawley appears to either not want this matter on the record and/or avoid bureaucracy.

5. ... Reuteman asked what QDDALE knew about John Martino. QDDALE stated that he knew nothing about him but he was under the impression that Martino was in some way involved in acting as a middleman between the Cuban underground in Cuba and Wyle who was the U.S. front man for the transaction. Reuteman then suggested that QDDALE contact Martino and obtain all available information on the operation from Martino. In this connection Reuteman stated that Martino was known to KUBARK and that available information indicated that Martino had spent time in Cuban prisons and could best be described as an unsavory character. In this same context Reuteman pointed out that Martino had previously claimed to have leads but none of these had ever been substantiated once they were put to the test of producing results. QDDALE then agreed to contact Martino [and made arrangements to visit him on 18 April.]

6 .... [After he met Martino] QDDALE state that he was impressed with Reuteman’s accurate characterization of Martino, i.e. he was an unsavory low life. [Pawley then informed Reuteman of the details of the operation according to Martino and that Pawley still intended to pick up the defectors] off Mangrove Key in QDDALE’s boat. At the same time QDDALE outlined to Martino those precautions that he would take in order to prevent his being sucked into a trap. These precautions would include arming the crew on QDDALE’s boat. In addition, QDDALE intended to fly over the area prior to authorizing his boat to pick up the defectors. QDDALE claims that Martino was impressed with these precautions. Martino indicated, however, that he felt that there was no need to fear a trap. Martino told QDDALE that the Cubans feared that KUBARK and the U.S. Coast Guard might trap them and as a result their only concern was to deliver the defectors safely to the West and then return to Cuba. QDDALE also reported that he learned that a Mrs. Lapham, a reporter for a newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, was also involved in the operation. QDDALE asked Martino to have Mrs. Lapham contact QDDALE in order to fill him in on what she knew about the operation. Martino agreed to do so and he then parted company with QDDALE.

7. [Todhunter tells Pawley he was] glad he was cooperating with Reuteman as this would insure that the operation would receive proper intelligence guidance. [But Pawley still balks at putting it into] normal communications channels. [Todhunter indicated he would discuss with Brent 36-hour contingency.]

8. [Pawley reports on his contact with Mrs. Lapham on April 19 at his office.] Mrs. Lapham was a friend of Mr. Wyle’s [sic] and was interested in the defection operation solely as a means of obtaining a story. In this connection QDDALE stated that he learned from Mrs. Lapham that an individual by the name of FNU Bayo was apparently involved in the operation. QDDALE did not know what role he played in the operation ... he thought Bayo was a Cuban but was not certain. Bold emphasis added by D.P. Cannon.

9. [Pawley detailed his April 19 conversation with Weyl recapping what had transpired]. Initially this infuriated Mr. Wyle [sic] as he claimed he did not want to cooperate with KUBARK, and as this was his operation he was incensed that Mr. Sourwine had made a decision on this operation without consulting Mr. Wyle ... QDDALE claims he convinced Wyle that the operation was now on a sound footing and there was no alternative but to cooperate with KUBARK. Mr. Wyle apparently ultimately accepted this position and promised to keep QDDALE informed on all developments in the operation. QDDALE in turn advised Reuteman that he would keep Reuteman informed on all developments.21

          ###

Obviously, TILT was quickly known at the CIA’s highest levels. Pawley chose to contact Phineas Todhunter—pseudonym for his friend, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Lieutenant Marshall S. “Pat” Carter, rather than Thomas Brent pseudonym for CIA Director John McCone whom President Kennedy appointed after dismissing Pawley’s longtime friend CIA Director Allen Dulles following the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs, which Pawley blamed on Kennedy. Normally, Pawley preferred phone calls because he could record them and have them transcribed verbatim, but this indicates he was trying to avoid having a written record of the operation that may expose it before it achieved the goal of exposing JFK’s misplaced trust in Khrushchev.

On May 24, 1963, George B. Hunt, Managing Editor of Life in Washington, DC, wrote Pawley at the First National Bank Building in Miami. “To follow up our conversation of yesterday evening, I wish to inform you that I agree to conditions you suggested; namely that we will not publish the story in question until receiving permission from you...that your decision is not whether Life runs the story, but when. I enjoyed meeting you and will remember for many days to come the stimulating and hospitable time I had in your lovely home.”22

On May 31st a letter to The Honorable William D. Pawley arrived from the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, Washington, Lieutenant Marshall S. “Pat” Carter. The “Dear Bill” letter noted that Carter had received the letter from Life “that you sent me dated May 24th.” Carter was confused by it. “I do recall your telling me you had had refused to have any part of the ‘defector’ operation if it involved a story by Life.* This was one of the considerations which made our participation in assisting you an agreeable one.” Carter emphasized “you know we do our best to operate in an atmosphere of anonymity and I am sure you would want us to continue this way.” He then mentioned that he did have “the good fortune to get away for four days to trout fishing.” The asterisk was a handwritten note: “Or any other public media (as far as CIA is concerned).23

The next day “Pat” Carter sent a personal note to Pawley regarding their subsequent phone call. “I find that while I was away my people, both here and in Miami, had gone along with the idea of a Life photographer accompanying you on your upcoming boat trip. This is agreeable with me since the people you are involved with were so adamant, and we must prepare to take a few risks in order not to lose what might possibly be a golden opportunity even though I think the chances are slim.” Carter implored Pawley to “please make sure that my people who accompany you are not identified with the Agency, and that the Life people do not know—or in any event promise not to mention the Agency in any way, shape, or form in the operation.”24

An operational log for the project written in early June by Reuteman covers the activity from April 28th through May 27th.

1. QDDALE was contacted by Andrew K. Reuteman by telephone on 28 April 1963. Reuteman asked for a status report on the operation. [Pawley relayed information about his conversation with Martino who had no new details.]

2. Miss Anita Pawley contacted Reuteman by telephone on 30 April and stated that she had just finished talking to QDDALE in New York City. As a result of this conversation QDDALE had asked that Miss Pawley contact Reuteman and pass on to him the most recent development in the Soviet defector operation ... Todhunter had talked with Mr. Sourwine ... and had indicated that KUBARK could not give the Committee any assurance that the defectors would be made available to the Committee with 36 hours ...

3. QDDALE contacted Reuteman by telephone on 14 May in order to report that QDDALE had talked with John Martino ... QDDALE learned that Life Magazine was financing certain aspects of Martino’s operation to exfiltrate the Soviet defectors ... each Soviet would receive $2500 from Life. QDDALE state that he told Martino that he was unhappy to learn at this late date that Life Magazine was involved in the operation. QDDALE asked Martino if Life Magazine could be excluded from the operation. [Martino responded only if someone else paid the $2500. Pawley asked Reuteman how to proceed and Reuteman favored cutting “Life Magazine completely out of the operation.” He asked QDDALE to front the money which “would be reimbursed by KUBARK if it ever became necessary to pay out any funds.” [QDDALE agreed.]

4. Reuteman arrived at QDDALE’s residence at 1800 hours on 15 May 1963. [Martino had told Pawley the defectors were “hiding at a sugar plantation” but Pawley was concerned because “Martino apparently did not know all of the facts relative to the exfiltration.” Reuteman gave QDDALE a set of maps and asked him to get as many details as possible.]

5. [On May 23 Pawley reported to Reuteman that he had been visited by “Martino and Mr. Richard Billings of Life Magazine, Dupont Plaza Center, Miami,” who “refused to be excluded from the operation.” Pawley was “infuriated by Martino’s unilateral decision to bring Billings to QDDALE’s office.” He learned that George P. Hunt, Managing Editor of Life, had gotten involved in the project through Weyl and “had a commitment from Wyle [sic] and Martino to obtain an exclusive story.” Pawley said his commitment was with the Senate Internal Security Committee, but Billings felt things could be worked out. Pawley stated that the primary objective was having the Soviets “exploited by the intelligence community.” Billings then pressed for inclusion of “Wyle, Billings, Martino and an unidentified Life Photographer on QDDALE’s boat at such time as it would be prepared to pick up the Soviets.” QDDALE balked that it was developing “into a three ring circus” not a “clandestine operation” and “in view of the comic opera bent which the operation was now taking, he did not intend to participate any further. This shocked Martino and Billings and they asked that QDDALE make no final decision on the matter until he talked to George P. Hunt.” Reuteman said he “should continue to take a hard stand” but “meet with Mr. Hunt in order to ascertain fully Life’s involvement in the operation. QDDALE was advised that although the operation was a thousand to one long shot, it had to be pursued.”]

6. [QDDALE called Reuteman to discuss the lengthy discussion he had on May 23rd with George P. Hunt, Billings and Martino. He had gotten agreement to control the timing of the article but “had been unable to obtain any details as to the who, when, where, how and why of the operation.” QDDALE in the absence of Todhunter had discussed details with Walter Elder who had discussed it with DAINOLD.]\

7. [Pawley advised that he was going to Stuart, Florida on the 28th of May so nothing would happen then. He also stated that he would forward an agreement letter he had received from Life.]25

Walter Elder was an executive assistant to CIA Director McCone. DAINOLD was Desmond Fitzgerald who was chief of Special Affairs Section (SAS), the successor group to William Harvey’s Task Force W, which focused on eliminating Castro. Fitzgerald was involved in three plots to assassinate Castro.

During the above-mentioned trip to Stuart, Florida, Pawley delivered a scathing speech about Kennedy’s handling of Cuba and declared that the nation’s only hope was Goldwater.

According to Mahoney, the operation at sea began on June 5th and took its final step on the 8th. Pawley’s Flying Tiger II yacht carried Rip Robertson, a Life photographer, ten raiders including Bayo whom a suspicious Pawley locked “in the center cabin” until the fighters were ready to take a 22-foot craft to the Cuban shore where they would rendezvous with two of the Soviet technicians at a sugar plantation then bring them in two days to the Flying Tiger II. “But Bayo and his comrades were never heard from again.” And “Cuban army documents relating to the capture or killing of anti-Castro raiders” that were reviewed in June 1997, revealed no record of Bayo.”26

The declassified CIA TILT records spanning June 5th through the 8th indicate there was “engine trouble” on the later date delaying the operation. In between, Pawley with the help of Anita Pawley attained a Russian translator named Max. “Miss Pawley would like to know if we could arrange to have a telegram sent to Mr. Pawley from Washington tonight. Mr. Pawley needs the telegram tomorrow. Miss Pawley was going to have a friend in Washington send it but he was out of town. The message should read: “Have secured Max as your translator as requested.

He will arrive Miami tonight and will call you from the Columbus Hotel on arrival. The message should be signed with a first name, any first name. Paul was the name they were going to use.”27

A message sent by Reuteman to CIA headquarters on the 8th states that the Agency and Pawley had taken significant precautions and indicates that Reuteman’s plan two—using the Immigration and Naturalization Service—was now in effect. Pawley communicated to Reuteman that if no contact could be made with Bayo’s team by June 10th, the operation would be aborted. He also wanted to assure CIA Headquarters “all known safe guards have been taken to minimize possibilities any type flap, compromise, hijacking, etc. KUBARK involvement while extensive is not visible per se and fits into pattern those assets which Pawley able acquire due his wealth and/or contacts. Pawley has played tough game with Cubans and indicated that while he desires help he will not risk his life, life his employees, or loss his property. View this Pawley has laid our rules of conduct which WAVE suggested and which gives cover for op but insures we have maximum possible security our personnel and assets.”

The memo outlined the process of moving the Soviets from Miami to Washington, DC.28 But the long-shot operation proved too long. TILT failed to successfully exfiltrate the Soviets or the team that went in. Search efforts were made, and periodic reports would be requested on any progress and why it failed, and about the Agency’s relationship with Pawley.29

One of the lynchpins in the Pawley-Martino-Bayo relationship was author Nathaniel Weyl who wrote Red Star Over Cuba and Encounters With Communism. As interest in the enigma of Operation TILT rose between 1975 and 2008, researchers called on Weyl to explain his relationship with Martino. Weyl wrote in 2003 that he had been introduced to Martino by Miami radio commentator Alan Courtney. Weyl was fascinated by Martino’s story of helping “set up gambling devices in Cuban hotels under Batista” then being arrested when he returned to

Cuba “to get his employers' money out.” Weyl assumed it was “mob” money from the casinos but he also agreed to help Martino write his book because it would provide an “account from the inside of the experiences of his fellow prisoners, mostly political dissidents, as they faced execution.”

Weyl pointed out that the U.S. Embassy provided no help to Martino during his prison ordeal, which was more proof positive to Weyl that there was “pro-Soviet infiltration of our Latin American foreign service” in the State Department.30

According to Weyl, “John Martino and I had had a pleasant and friendly collaboration, the relationship more or less ended when he used the John Birch Society to popularize his book despite my advice to the contrary.” Weyl also assisted Pawley “for several months on his autobiography, but the collaboration didn’t work out.” His recollections were posted on the Internet based on an email Weyl sent to a Pawley researcher, John Simkin.31

The relationship between Pawley and Weyl came despite the fact that in his 1960 book, Red Star Over Cuba, Weyl misspelled Pawley’s name as “Pawling.”32 Pawley’s book was not published; the manuscript for his Russia Is Winning was given to The George C. Marshall Research Library.

As Sen. Eastland, Sourwine, Pawley and Luce tried to show that JFK had failed to eliminate the communist threat from Cuba, segregationist Governor Ross Barnett from Eastland’s State of Mississippi tried to link Kennedy’s proposed civil rights bill to communism—putting him in the same category as Castro and Khrushchev. Gov. Barnett addressed the Senate Commerce Committee in July 1963 to chastise John and Robert Kennedy based on them encouraging “demonstrations, freedom rides, sit-ins, picketing and actual violation of local laws. Gentlemen, if you pass this civil rights legislation, you are passing itunder the threat of mob action and violence on the part of Negro groups and under various types of intimidation from the executive branch of this government.” Barnett ranted that “the Kennedy brothers were aiding a ‘world Communist conspiracy to divide and conquer’ the U.S.”

Time magazine stated Barnett made a callback to an earlier decade’s redbaiter—Joseph McCarthy who always claimed to evidence in his pocket—by pulling out a poster that “showed Negro Leader Martin Luther King Jr. at the ‘Highlander Folk School for Communist Training, Monteagle, Tenn.’” The progressive school had been cleared by U.S. investigators of communist ties.33

John M. Patterson, who was elected Governor of Alabama in 1959, supported the freedom of the White Citizens Council and white-hooded KKK to intimidate the black Freedom Riders in Montgomery who were seeking equality. Governor Patterson even “blamed the victims for the beatings inflicted on them by a white mob” and “threated to arrest federal marshals” trying to enforce integration despite having endorsed JFK for President in 1960 and in 1961 having committed to him six Alabama National Guard B-26 bombers in support of the Bay of Pigs invasion.34

The racial hatred spawned by the southern demagogues exploded on September 15, 1963, in the bombing of a Birmingham church that left four young Black girls dead. It took decades to bring the guilty members of Klu Klux Klan to trial, although FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew who they were. Hoover despised Martin Luther King who gave the eulogy for the victims to some 8,000 funeral attendees.35

Senator Eastland himself was also politically at odds with the Kennedy administration over civil rights. His thoughts on segregation resonated in the Senate a decade earlier while Republican General Eisenhower was President. “The southern institution of racial segregation or racial separation was the correct, self-evident truth which arose from the chaos and confusion of the reconstruction period. Separation promotes racial harmony.” Eastland further asserted that “Free men have the right to send their children to schools of their own choosing, free from governmental interference and to build up their own culture, free from governmental interference.” 36

While Bayo and his team members were never heard from again, Pawley himself was safely ensconced in the United States following Operation TILT. Shortly afterwards, he was listed among the many dignitaries who responded to an appeal for funds to help in the construction of the George C. Marshall Research Library in Lexington, Virginia. Secretary of State Dean Rusk was the ranking current government official listed among the contributors. Others who donated included former Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett for whom Pawley had served; and former High Commissioner to Germany John J. McCloy, whose partner, Morris Hadley, had been with Pawley on the Doolittle Committee.37

For decades, the CIA was reluctant to reveal information about its relationship with Pawley and TILT. Katherine M. Stricker, CIA DO/IRO, on April 7, 1993 recommended against the Historical Review Group’s desire to release the information. A document following her recommendation noted “Op participants had no Soviet contacts but they parlayed notional Sov contacts into sharp con game designed to attract Angel (Pawley etc) who could facilitate their exit from U.S. as well as give them some arms equipment. Apparently, this whole episode has been kept rather quiet, and in the past the DO has denied any relationship with Pawley. A sanitized version of the Ops report was prepared for House [Select Committee on Assassinations] staffers to read, but they were not allowed to take notes or possess a copy ... a check of Sylvia Meagher's index does not reveal the names of any of the Cubans denied ... For these reasons, with the additional fact that the episode has no direct bearing on the JFK assassination, I recommend that we deny in toto the folder, and protect the names of the parties involved.”38

FOOTNOTES:

1 NARA 104-10162-10164 ~ 2/4/1963 Memorandum For: C/SAS/PROV/PAP. Attention Mr. Seymour Bolten. “Subject: Contact with Manuel Artime. “From: Howard Hunt, Chief DODS/R&P.

2 NARA 180-10143-10225 ~ “CIA Files; Sanchez, Carlos; Lanz, Pedro Diaz; Cuba.” HSCA CIA Segregated Collection. Page 5 of 28. Mary Ferrell Foundation website: MaryFerrell.org

3 NARA 104-10162-10143 ~ 4/2/1963 Memorandum for the Record. “Conversation with Manuel Artime and Manolin Hernandez 1 April 1963 Chief DO/OPRE” Prepared By: Howard Hunt, Chief DO/SOPRE.

4 Periscope Newsletter of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, Volume XXIII, Number 3, September/October 2000.

5 4/2/1963 CIA Memorandum for: Mr. McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President, The White House. “Haitian Exile Activity Against Duvalier Government.” From: CIA Deputy Director of Plans Richard Helms. Single copies to: CIA Director John A. McCone and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Edwin M. Martin.
https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2012-111-doc3.pdf

6 NARA 104-10315-10004 ~ 6/28/1963 CIA “Book Dispatch: AMWORLD—Background of Program, Operational Support, Requirements and Procedural Rules.” To: Chiefs, Certain Stations and Bases. From: Chief, WH Division.

7 “Former Diplomat Tells Of 'Private' Cuba Raid.” Kingsport Times, January 8, 1976. Page 2A. 

>> One year before Pawley’s suicide to end the pain of shingles that had developed over the length of his body. 

Warren Hinckle and William Turner, The Fish Is Red: The Story of the Secret War Against Castro (Harper & Row, 1981). Chapter 5

“Former Envoy Confirms 1963 Cuba Raiding Party.” The Washington Post, January 9, 1976. Page C3.

"Obituary: Raul Villamia, November 30, 1925-December 2, 2020." Blount & Curry Funeral Home at Garden Memories.  

Raul Andres Villamia, Rhonda J. Villamia, Paul J. Guzzo, For Cuba--for Freedom!: An M-26-7 Leader Aiding the Castro Revolution from America 1955-1961 (McFarland, December 11, 2023)

8 NARA 104-10312-10361 ~ 6/5/1963 CIA “Cable: Op Involving Soviet Defectors Which Mr. William Pawley Has Discussed.” To: OPIM Director. From: JMWAVE.

9 NARA 104-10312-10362 ~ (Undated) CIA “List Of Names: William (Rip) Rutherford.” Op TILT; Pawley, W.D.

>> Rutherford was Rip Robertson.

10 NARA 104-10312-10178 ~ 6/28/1963 CIA Cable “When CRC Made Its Invasion Announcement 20 June WAVE.” To: Director. From: JMWAVE. Subjects: Op TILT; Pawley, W.D. From: JMWAVE (Chief of Station, Andrew K. Reuteman. To: Director (John McCone).

        1. When CRC made its invasion announcement 20 June WAVE initiated inquiries throughout exile community designed                establish what exile PM [paramilitary] types were missing from Miami or had temporarily dropped out of sight. It was                believed acquisition this type of info would facilitate cross- checking on size CRC sponsored invasion. Additionally                    viewing timing OP TILT, i.e. infiltration 10 men north coast Oriente 9 June. We were concerned that OP TILT might be             part of CRC invasion force particularly since per para[graph] two ref it Cadick impression TILT team did not plan to                 exfiltrate.

2. AMBIDDY-1 claims Rolando Cabezas MRR member with access members Carlos Bandin dissident faction MRR had established for AMBIDDY–1 that following individuals were involved with one aspect of CRC invasion:

   1. Luis (Jiminez) De Castro

   2. Rolando “Guajacon” Rodriguez

   3. Tomas Vazquero

   4. Dennis Regal

   5. Eduardo Perez Bayo

   6. Rene Lamar

   7. Alfredo Mir

   8. Four unidentified Cubans who recently arrived Miami from Ft. Jackson. These four knew areas around Sagua de Tanamo Oriente.

3. Individuals listed para 2-B through F were OP TILT infiltrees. Individuals mention para 2-H cannot be positively identified with OP TILT participants but Sagua de Tanamo area ties into OP TILT. This adds additional circumstantial evidence to assumption OP TILT was part of Blandin’s claim of CRC invasion force.

4. Reviewing of OP TILT in framework para 3 info tends clarify some aspects of OP TILT Believe current info makes it evident TILT participants had no Soviet contacts but they parlayed notional Sov contacts into sharp con game designed attract angel, i.e. QDDALE, Life, Sourwine, et all [sic] who could facilitate their exit from PBPRIME as well as give them some arms equipment. Their con game worked because Soviet defector bait could not be passed up by angels or KUBARK. While facts which currently available tend indicate con game worked and KUBARK invested circ 4000 dollars in con game, continue believe OP TILT was a long shot which could not be rejected. Additionally believe there are fringe benefits from OP TILT which have accrued to KUBARK’s credit despite fact we were outmaneuvered. These are:

            a. QDDALE has gained renewed conficence [sic] KUBARK ability handle PM infil[tration] ops. He is currently most                    vocal but secure defender KUBARK and his public relations effort on our behalf has merit and impact in some                            circles. Additionally QDDALE has learned you cannot work with press on clandestine ops.

            b. Life reps are now actually aware difficulties inherent in clandestine PM ops against Cuba and are less likely knock                    intel agencies in future.

            c. Sourwine of Senate Internal Security Committee aware KUBARK will take offbeat risk on unorthodox op for worthy                 target.

            d. Ten well armed men have been put into Cuba. They should be short term irritant to Castro even if they rolled up in                    short order.

            e. Valuable experience was gained in coordinating vessel and PBY [a flying boat] movements in Caribbean. This live                     training will serve WAVE well in mounting its unilateral ops.

        5. There are no identifiable WAVE traces on Luis Jimenez de Castro who mentioned para 2A. UFG 02592 dated 25 March             63 identifies one Alfredo Mir Viana as action member L-66. Suggest this Mir I/w subj para 2G.

Cryptonym Project. MaryFerrell.org

11 NARA 1993.08.04.16:50:14:750028 ~ 12/14/1963 JMWAVE Cables. “Subject: WAVE 9000 – 9096.” Pages 67, 75 & 102 of 111). Mary Ferrell Foundation website.                                       

Also see Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann’s Legacy of Secrecy on AMWORLD, Kennedy Administration plan to spark a coup in Cuba in December 1963.

NARA 104-10265-10310 ~ 9/15/2009. “QDDALE Notes Contained with Letter Dated 15 September 1960.”

>> QDDALE note: “... there is an officer of experience who is willing to go to Cuba at any time to organize within the country a group of men under him ... providing he can get the following materials [a list of weapons].

12 3/6/1964 Dispatch [Handwritten comment: OP Tilt 201 File]. 12 March UPOW 3375. Subject: TYPIC/Operational/CI John Martino. To: Chief of Station, JMWAVE. From: Chief, Special Affairs Staff. References: A. DIR-02726 C. WAVE-2478.

1. On 19 February 1964 ODENVY [FBI] reported that they had received information to the effect that John Martino was supposed to be involved with KUBARK in an operation to bring out three or four Soviet Scientists from PBRUMEN. ODENVY requested Headquarters to comment on the information.

2. Headquarters informed ODENVY that:

   "An American industrialist, well-known to KUBARK came to KUBARK with the story that four Soviet soldiers could be infiltrated from PBRUMEN. Although we believed that the likelihood of such an operation being a success was very small, in view of the fact that the industrialist intended to use his own boat and own crew, and in light of the importance of the Soviet target in PBRUMEN, KUBARK contributed to the operation to the extent of providing some technical and logistical support. It later developed that Martino had generated the operation with the industrialist. KUBARK advised the industrialist of Martino’s reputation. The industrialist decided to proceed anyway. KUBARK had no connection or contact with Martino. The operation, which was a failure, demonstrated the fact that Martino was making up the story out of whole cloth."

3. ODENVY said this answer would satisfy their request, and no further information would be required.

13 March 6, 1964. Dispatch “Subject Status Report on Operation TITL.” To: Chief, Special Affairs. From: Chief of Station, JMWAVE, COS Andrew K. Reuteman afr.
Date typed 26 Feb 64. Action required: None; for your information and files. References: A. WAVE-0438, dated 28 June 1963; B. UFGA-9733, dated 29 June 1963; C. WAVE-9712, dated 13 June 1963; D. WAVE-9342, dated 5 June 1963.

        1. Introduction: The origins of operation TILT were outlined in Reference D. In summary, however, it is believed that it                should be pointed out that Operation TILT was essentially an operation designed to see if it would be possible to                        exfiltrate from Cuba four Soviet military officers who had allegedly defected from a Soviet Missile sight in Banes,                    Cuba. Operation TILT was not KUBARK-controlled, but it did utilize QDDALE as KUBARK's window into the                        operation. Operation TILT involved a strange cast of characters and this resulted in the operation following patterns of                implementation which are not typical of KUBARK- controlled operations. The Cubans who were infiltrated into Cuba                on Operation TILT were put into the target area on 9 June 1963. It was anticipated that the Cuban infiltrees would                        exfiltrate from Cuba on 10 June 1963. This exfiltration did not take place as scheduled on either the primary or alternate             date; therefore, the search for the TILT exfiltrees was discontinued as of 13 June 1963. Since 13 June 1963, JMWAVE                has received a number of fragmentary reports relative to the current status of those Cubans who infiltrated into Oriente                Province on Operation TILT. These fragments are reported in the following paragraph.

        2. Fragmentary Reporting on the Current Status of Operation TILT: The following chronological presentation outlines                     those details which have come to JMWAVE's attention relative to Operation TILT in the period 24 August 1963 to 20                 January 1964.

a. 24 August 1963: As outlined in Reference D., Luis Cantin was one of the individuals who infiltrated into Cuba on Operation TILT. Reference D. indicated that as of 5 June 1963, JMWAVE did not have any traces on Luis Cantin. This lack of trace material is attributed to the fact that we did not have sufficient identifying information on Cantin with which to make a meaningful trace. This situation was rectified on 20 June 1963 when AMARGO-1 reported to JMWAVE that one Luis Mario Cantin de Nacimiento was a port pilot who was knowledgeable of the south coast of Oriente Province and could be recruited as an area guide. AMARGO-1 was advised to obtain further information on this Cantin, and on 21 July 1963 AMARGO-1 learned from Cantin's three sons that Cantin had gone to Cuba in June 1963 on an operational assignment. It was at this point that JMWAVE was able to determine that the Luis *Cantin of Operation TILT was identical with Luis Mario *Cantin de Nacimiento. On 24 Augut [sic] 1963 AMARGO-1 was to check with Cantin's sons to see if they received any recent word on their father's whereabouts. This action resulted in AMARGO-1 contacting Cantin's sons at 520 S.W. 1st Street, Miami, Florida. Cantin's sons advised AMARGO-1 that they had not heard from their father since June 1963; therefore, they presumed he was dead. This negative reporting did not give JMWAVE any insight into the status of Operation TILT, but it did reveal that at least one member of the infiltration group had not returned to Miami or communicated with his family as of 24 August 1963. (Field Comment: JMWAVE traces on Luis Mario Cantin de Nacimiento reveal the following: Luis Cantin de Nacimiento, UFGA-7424, 28 January 1963; Luis Cantin, UFGA-12817, 10 December 1963 and AMOT Report DD-368, 26 August 1963 states Subject one of the men who left Miami for Cuba in the first days of June 1963 on a clandestine operation.)    

3.   26 August 1963: On 26 August 1963, AMCRAG-1 reported that he had been contacted in Miami by Laudelina *Perez, the wife of Eduardo *Perez Gonzalez, aka Bayo, the leader of the Cuban infiltrees on Operation TILT. AMCRAG-1 stated that Mrs. Perez had contacted him because she was aware of the fact that he had just recently arrived in Miami from YOACRE [Guantanamo Naval Base]. In view of this, Mrs. Perez felt that that AMCRAG-1 might be able to give her some news relative to her husband. AMCRAG-1 told Mrs. Perez that perhaps Benito *Quevedo, a Cuban employee at YOACRE might have knowledge of her husband. Mrs. Perez asked that AMCRAG-1 question Quevedo upon his return to YOCARE; and, if this produced any information on her husband, she would appreciate AMCRAG-1 forwarding this information to Mrs. Perez in Miami. Mrs. Perez told AMCRAG-1 that she knew her husband had gone to Cuba on some operation which involved John *Martino, born 3 August 1911 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but Mrs. Perez made the point that she did not know the details of the operation.

14 NARA104-10057-10102 ~ 2/26/1964 CIA “Status Report on Operation TILT.” To: Chief, Special Affairs Staff. From Chief of Station, JMWAVE.

>> Lucien Conein joined the OSS in 1943 and served in China. His career would take him to Germany, Iran and Vietnam a decade before it became a divisive issue in the United States, and he later returned there in the 1960s. At the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Conien became a controversial. In 1961, he gave General Edward Landsdale as one of his references.

Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation, Volume I: Air Operations, March 1960 - April 1961 Section: Part IV: Where Cuba Was Lost. Page 330.

15 FBI 62-109060 JFK HQ File, Section 128. Page 89 of 155 (UPI 4/21 Washington Capital News Service 4/21/1967 dispatch).

16 Dick Russell, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins (Skyhorse, 2008), Chapter 2: The Programming of Luis Castillo 

17 “The Bayo-Pawley Affair.” By Robert K. Brown and Miguel Acoca, Soldier of Fortune, 1975, Pages 18-19.

Warren Hinckle, editor. City of San Francisco.

>> Hinckle co-wrote with William Turner, The Fish is Red and Deadly Secrets.

18 Richard D. Mahoney, Sons and Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy (Arcade Publishing, 2000).

After having shilled the project around reactionary circles in Florida, Martino and Bayo pitched the idea to Pawley, who in turn took it to JM/WAVE chief Ted Shackley. Pawley told Shackley that he had gotten a call from the chief counsel to the Senate Internal Subcommittee, Jay Sourwine, promising that chairman James O. Eastland of Mississippi would launch hearings if the Soviet officers were sprung. When Shackley learned from Pawley that Martino was involved, he was not pleased. He called Martino a "lowlife." Shackley nonetheless signed on. The operation was a long shot but, if it panned out, a career maker. It might also serve to rehabilitate Shackley's demoted mentor, Bill Harvey. CIA headquarters at first balked at the proposal ...

It is possible Rosselli and Martino actually believed in the Bayo-Pawley mission. It is equally possible that they were developing an elaborate alibi for another murderous contingency. On June 4, the day before the mission was to be launched, Martino and Bayo told an astounded Pawley that they had agreed to let Life magazine cover the raid in exchange for $15,000. Loren Hall, a Trafficante associate later investigated for his contact with Oswald in Dallas, claimed that the Mafia, not Life, had in fact put up the $15,000.

>> Contrary to the funding outlined in the long-withheld CIA documents, Dick Russell also asserted the money for TILT came from Mafia figures Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli. Sam Giancana was murdered in 1975 and John Martino died that year. In 1976, Johnny Roselli was murdered, and William Harvey, the CIA agent who had worked on Castro assassination plots with the Mafia died of a heart attack. The next year, Pawley died by suicide and Giancana’s right-hand man, Charles Nicoletti was murdered.

19 NARA 104-10193-10076 ~ Memorandum For: Director of Personnel [CIA]. “Subject: Fitness Report – Mr. William K. Harvey April 18, 1963.” Title: Harvey, William K. OP File. Page 50 & 51 of 113. Mary Ferrell Foundation website: MaryFerrell.org

>> A similar recommendation was signed by W. Lloyd George, CIA Chief of Foreign Intelligence, who praised William Harvey as “one of the few distinctly outstanding officers in the DD/P.

NARA 124-10226-10458 ~ 7/2/1962 FBI Airtel Memo “Re: CIA Operations—Miami Area.” To: Director, FBI (105-89923). From SAC, Miami (62-3573) (P).

        On July 1, 1962, Theodore Racoosin met with Miami Daily News editor William Baggs who was said to be serving as                JFK’s investigator looking into what was happening within the CIA’s JMWAVE operations. Present in addition to                      Racoosin, Baggs, his editorial writer Ralph McGill, and FBI informant MM 639-S (Howard K. Davis) were:

• GERALD PATRICK HEMMING, a soldier of fortune, and a mercenary.
• AGIMIRO FONSECA, a Cuban national who formerly participated in CIA operations, who is now operating independently.
• EDDIE BATEZ (phonetic), and RAMON FONT, who formerly participated in CIA operations, friends of TONY CUESTA.
• LARRY LABORDE, a ship captain previously engaged in CIA operations; later discontinued by CIA for being unreliable. He is presently planning an independent unauthorized military action against Cuba. 
• TONY CUESTA, who formerly participated in CIA operations and is presently of operational interest to CIA.
• TONY FARINAS, naturalized U.S. citizen, works in the office of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, who is associated with FONSECA.
• MARIO FONTELLA, Cuban national, formerly of operational interest to CIA.

20 5/22/1963 “Soviet Defectors.” Subjects: Pawley; defector-USSR; Cuba. To: [None]. From: [None].
5/22/1963 Memorandum for Record “Soviet Defectors in Cuba-Pawley.” Subjects: Soviet defctrs. From: [None].

5/24/1963 Life mag. Letter to Wm Pawley. “Agreement to wait to publish story.” From: George P. Hunt. Subjects: Life mag\Pawley.

5/24/1963 Letter “re Life magazine promise to wait for permission to run story.” Subjects: Pawley, William; Life magazine. To: Pawley, William. From: Hunt, George P., Life magazine

5/31/1963 Letter “re Involvement of Life magazine in ‘defector operation.’” Life magazine. From: [None]. To: Pawley, William D. Subjects: defectors; Pawley, William.

5/31/1963 Letter from CIA to Wm Pawley. “About Pawley’s agreement with Life magazineTo: William Pawley. From: CIA.” Subjects: Pawley\CIA ltr.

6/1/1963. “Marshall Carter's Letter to Wm Pawley about trip to Cuba.” To: William Pawley. From: Marshall S. Carter, DDCI. Subjects: Pawley\CIA ltr.

6/1/1963 Personal Letter “re Boat trip and Life magazine involvement” To: Pawley William D. From: Carter, Marshall S., Lt Gen., USA. Subjects: boat trip; Life magazine; Pawley, William.

6/1/1963 Letter from Life “To William Pauley [sic] re Article.” To: Pawley, William. From: Billings, Richard, Life magazine. Subjects: Pawley, William; Life article.

6/3/1963 Life mag Letter to Wm Pawley. To: William Pawley. From: Richard Billings Life mag. Subjects: Life/Pawley.

[COVER LETTER]

LIFE 

DUPONT PLAZA CENTER 

MIAMI 32 FLORIDA

EDITORIAL OFFICES 

FRANKLIN 7-4537

June 3, 1963

Mr. William Pawley

Room 1400

First National Bank Building Miami, Fla.

Dear Mr. Pawley,

This is to assure you that in preparation of the story referred to in Mr. Hunt's letter, no mention will be made of participation by an agency of the United States government.

Sincerely yours,

Richard Billings 

Southern Regional Editor

___________ 

[CONTRACT]

LIFE

DUPONT PLAZA CENTER

MIAMI 32, FLORIDA 

EDITORIAL OFFICES 

FRANKLIN 7-4537

Dear _____________________:

This will confirm our understanding as follows:

1. You hereby grant to us the exclusive right first to publish, in the various editions of LIFE Magazine, your first person account of your flight from Cuba to the United States, and of your experiences in Cuba, including your account of Russian personnel, activities and installations in Cuba.

2. You will cooperate with our photographers and reporters in relating your account to them, in allowing photographs of you to be taken and published, and in checking for accuracy any story we may publish in LIFE.

3. In order to assure the fact that LIFE's rights are of an exclusive nature, you will not relate any of your experiences to anyone, except under subpoena from an authorized governmental agency, until such time as an article giving your first person account shall have been published in LIFE.

4. You hereby agree that your first person account may be published under your by-line, and consent to the use of your name and photograph in and in connection with the publication of that first person account.

5. In consideration of the foregoing, we shall pay to you, upon your confirmation of this agreement, the sum of $_______.

Please confirm the fact that the foregoing accurately and completely sets forth our understanding by signing and returning the enclosed copy of this letter.

Very truly yours,

LIFE MAGAZINE

A Division of Time Incorporated

By Richard Billings 

Southern Regional Editor

CONFIRMED AND AGREED TO: 

____________________________

21 4/22/1963 “Soviet Defectors.” Distribution: Orig QDDALE file w/att. Subjects: Pawley; defector-USSR; Cuba.

>> One of the more interesting points in this document is the concern of how to legally treat individuals who have no legal standing in the United States, an issue that had to be addressed in 2009 when bringing the alleged terrorist detainees into the United States for imprisonment so Gitmo Prison at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba could be closed.

NARA 104-10312-10379 ~ May 22, 1963. Memorandum for Record “Soviet Defectors In Cuba-Pawley.” Subjects: Soviet defectrs.

Anthony R. Carrozza, William D. Pawley: The Extraordinary Life of the Adventurer, and Diplomat Who Cofounded the Flying Tigers. Page 257.

22 5/24/1963 Letter. From: George B. Hunt, Life. To: William Pawley. 

23 5/31/1963 Letter To: The Honorable William D. Pawley, Miami. From: The Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, Washington.

Dear Bill:

I have just received the copy of the LIFE letter that you sent me dated May 24th ...

I have no knowledge whatsoever about what the story is, but I do recall your telling me you had had refused to have any part of the “defector” operation if it involved a story by LIFE.* This was one of the considerations which made our participation in assisting you an agreeable one.

... As you know we do our best to operate in an atmosphere of anonymity and I am sure you would want us to continue this way.

Everything else seems to be going along in about the same shape as when I last saw you. I did have the good fortune to get away for four days to trout fishing in ... 

*Or any other public media (as far as CIA is concerned) – [Note was handwritten]

24 6/1/1963 Letter. To: The Honorable William D. Pawley, Miami. From: The Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, Washington.

This follows up the letter I mailed you yesterday morning and your subsequent phone call.

I find that while I was away my people, both here and in Miami, had gone along with the idea of a LIFE photographer accompanying you on your upcoming boat trip. This is agreeable with me since the people you are involved with were so adamant, and we must prepare to take a few risks in order not to lose what might possibly be a golden opportunity even though I think the chances are slim.

In accordance with our unalterable plea for anonymity, please make sure that my people who accompany you are not identified with the Agency, and that the LIFE people do not know – or in any event promise not to mention the Agency in any way, shape, or form in the operation.

Best of luck and please keep in touch.

Faithfully yours,

25 6/4/1963 Memorandum for Record “Pawley-Soviet Defectors Operational Log 28 April to 27 May 1964.” Subjects: Pawley\Sov Defc. Ref 22 May 1963 Sub Sov Defct.

6/4/1963 “Pauley [sic] Soviet Defectors Operational Log - 28 April to 27 May 1963.” From: Chief of Station, JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley; Operational Log; defectors-USSR.

26 Richard D. Mahoney, Sons and Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy (Arcade Publishing, 1999).

On June 5, Pawley's yacht, the Flying Tiger II, towing a smaller craft, set sail for its rendezvous point off the coast of Oriente province. Three days later, Pawley himself, accompanied by the ever-ready Rip Robertson, a Life photographer, Bayo, and nine other raiders boarded a CIA flying boat. (Pawley was so suspicious about the intentions of Bayo and his raiders that he locked them in the center cabin during the flight.) Off Baracoa, Cuba, they joined up with the yacht. Robertson passed out a full complement of arms to the fighters before they piled into the 22-foot craft and headed for the Cuban shore. The plan was to meet up with the Flying Tiger II two days later with the Soviet officers in hand. But Bayo and his comrades were never heard from again. Station chief Shackley later determined that the Soviet defection story had been cover for a "free-lance strike" by Bayo and the others. A review of Cuban army documents relating to the capture or killing of anti-Castro raiders, research done in June 1997, revealed no record of Bayo.

But the Bayo-Pawley mission fit nicely with Roselli's later claim that President Kennedy was assassinated by an anti-Castro sniper team sent in to murder Castro, captured by the Cubans, tortured, and redeployed in Dallas. Through the handiwork of Roselli's assistant, John Martino, the CIA, Life, Pawley, and Senator Eastland were all variously implicated.

27 6/5/1963. “Ops involving Soviet Defectors-Pawley.” Subjects: Pawley\Sov Defc. To: OPIM DIR. From: COS.

6/5/1963. Cable re Soviet Defectors and William Pawley. Subjects: Pawley, William; defector-USSR. From: [CIA] JMWAVE. To: Director.

6/5/1963. “Details of op involving Soviet defector.” Subjects: BAYO-Pawley; Pawley, William.

6/5/1963. “Op involving Soviet defector and William Pawley.” Subjects: defector-USSR; OP; Pawley, William.

6/5/1963 “Op involving Soviet Defectors-Wm Pawley.” To: Director. From: JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley\Sov defc. 

6/5/1963 “News service article on Pawley activities.” Subjects: Pawley; Press report. From: Martime.

6/6/1963. “Note regarding telegram from Anita Pawley to William D Pawley re Translator.” Subjects: Pawley, William.

6/8/1963. “Pawley-Secured Max as translator.” Subjects: Pawley. To: Miss Anita Pawley. 

6/8/1963. “Engine trouble Mr. Pawley yacht.” To: Dir. Subjects: Ops delayed.

6/9/1963. “Pawley's insistence and arrival Tiger.” Subjects: Pawley. To: Chief Air Ops.

NARA 104-10312-10355 ~ 6/6/1963 Note “Miss Pawley Would Like to Know If We Could Arrange To.” From:CIA. Subjects: Op. TILT; Pawley, W.D.  

Miss Pawley would like to know if we could arrange to have a telegram sent to Mr. Pawley from Washington tonight. Mr. Pawley needs the telegram tomorrow. Miss Pawley was going to have a friend in Washington send it but he was out of town. The message should read:

    Mr. William D. Pawley

    1400 1st National Bank Building 

    Miami, Florida

    HAVE SECURED MAX AS YOUR TRANSLATOR AS REQUESTED.

    HE WILL ARRIVE MIAMI TONIGHT AND WILL CALL YOU FROM THE COLUMBUS HOTEL ON ARRIVAL.

    The message should be signed with a first name, any first name. Paul was the name they were going to use.

6/6/1963 “Pawley—Secured Max as translator.” Subjects: Pawley. To: Miss Anita Pawley.

28 NARA 1993.08.04.16:25:36:340007 ~ 6/5/1963 Origin: COS/Staff Officer. Subject: Crypts REDACTED. For: D/DCI and C/SAS. cc: Pawley 201. Folder Reviewed By HSCA re 'Bayo-Pawley Affair' Containing Ops CA" Page 99 of 254.  

        1. Op involving Soviet Defectors which Mr. Willian Pawley has discussed with D/DCI now appears on threshold                           implementation. View this factor believe it important outline [REDACTED] origins an scope of Op, identify                               participants, problems and extent CIA involvement. This being done in following paragraphs. ... [Page 105 of 254] (5)                Circa 0500 hours 9 June Cuban craft and Sovs due return point ... they will use WAVE furnished radar reflectors on way             out so Leda can identify and via Commo between Leda and CIA reps on Pawley yacht help Pawley yacht vector in                    returning Cuban craft. Once [REDACTED or SLOPPY COPIED] on Pawley yacht and PBY [the flying boat]. If no                    meet 9 June same schedule 10 June. If no show 10 June op aborts.

2. While above is skeleton presentation wish assure HQs all known safe guards have been taken to minimize possibilities any type flap, compromise, hijacking, etc. KUBARK involvement while extensive is not visible per se and fits into pattern those assets which Pawley able acquire due his wealth and/or contacts. Pawley has played tough game with Cubans and indicated that while he desires help he will not risk his life, life his employees, or loss his property. View this Pawley has laid our rules of conduct which WAVE suggested and which gives cover for op but insures we have maximum possible security our personnel and assets.

3. Have alerted aircraft and made arrangements for movement Sovs Miami to HQs soonest after they arrive Miami. Will coordinate Sovs entry U.S. with ODURGE when and if this occurs. While this op obviously long shot and not based on most solid foundations see no alternative but furnish it required support.

6/8/1963 “Engine trouble Mr. Pawley yacht.” To: Dir. Subjects: Ops delayed.

6/9/1963 “Pawley's insistence and arrival Tiger. Subjects: Pawley. From: [None]. To: Chief Air Ops.

29 JFK Assassination Archives.

6/12/1963 “Cuban Security Forces-Pawley.” Subjects: Search-Photos.

6/28/1963 “Pawley's operation in Cuba.” To: Dir. From: COS. Subjects: Pawley's ops.

6/29/1963 “Pawley's operation in Cuba.” To: Dir. From: JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley's ops.

7/25/1963 “Periodic activities report on JMWAVE'S relationship with Pawley.” Subjects: Pawley; Activity report.

7/26/1963 Dispatch “Operational periodic activities report on JMWAVE'S relationship with Pawley.” To: Chief, Special Affairs Staff. From: CIA Chief of Station, JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley, William; JMWAVE; Relationship.

30 Nathaniel Weyl, Encounters With Communism (2003) cited by him. http://www.Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

Alan Courtney, a commentator on Miami radio, introduced me to John Martino and persuaded me to help him write the story of his imprisonment for several years in Castro's prisons. John told me he had helped set up gambling devices in Cuban hotels under Batista and had been arrested for returning to Cuba to get his employers' money out. I knew that the mob had largely controlled Cuban gambling and assumed John worked for them in a minor capacity.

The Martino story seemed to me a fascinating account from the inside of the experiences of his fellow prisoners, mostly political dissidents, as they faced execution. John Martino turned out to be a mild, very likeable man whose ash-white pallor revealed years of deprivation and suffering.

Although he was an American citizen, Martino had received no help during his ordeal from the Embassy in Havana. Considering the long history of pro-Soviet infiltration of our Latin American foreign service, this did not astonish us. He felt bitter resentment toward the State Department and attributed its abandonment of him to pro-Castro American officials.

31 5/5/2004 Email. To: John Simkin. From: Nathaniel Weyl.

I worked with William Pawley for several months on his autobiography, but the collaboration didn't work out. I understand that he turned over the task to someone else and that a published book emerged, but I haven't seen it. [DPC: The book was never published.]

Re the Martino “confession”. I first ran across it about a year ago when checking a few items on the Internet for my Encounters with Communism book. Hadn't seen it earlier because I had long since lost interest in Cuba. While John Martino and I had had a pleasant and friendly collaboration, the relationship more or less ended when he used the John Birch Society to popularize his book despite my advice to the contrary.

My first impression of the confession is that it was fictitious. My impression was that John Martino had played a small role in political events and had a psychological need to magnify it and that he invented conspiracies. If he had any advance knowledge of the impending assassination of President Kennedy he of course did not share it with me.

32 Nathaniel Weyl, Red Star Over Cuba: The Russian Assault on the Western Hemisphere, (New York: Devin-Adair Company, 1960). Page 161.

33 “To Fulfill a Historic Role.” Time, July 19, 1963.

34 “John M. Patterson, Segregationist Alabama Governor, Dies at 99.” By Robert D. McFadden, The New York Times, June 5, 2021.

35 “Thomas Blanton’s role in the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls: ‘You have to have a meeting tomake a bomb,’ Blanton told his wife at the time.” By DeNeen L. Brown, The Washington Post, June 26, 2020.

36 James Eastland, Speech in the United States Senate (27th May, 1954).

>> The bombing victims were Addie Mae Collins (age 14), Carol Denise McNair (age 11), Carole Rosamond Robertson (age 14), and Cynthia Dionne Wesley (age 14).

The southern institution of racial segregation or racial separation was the correct, self-evident truth which arose from the chaos and confusion of the reconstruction period. Separation promotes racial harmony. It permits each race to follow its own pursuits, and its own civilization. Segregation is not discrimination. Segregation is not a badge of racial inferiority, and that it is not is recognized by both races in the Southern States. In fact, segregation is desired and supported by the vast majority of the members of both races in the South, who dwell side by side under harmonious conditions. The negro has made a great contribution to the South. We take pride in the constant advance he has made. It is where social questions are involved thatSouthern people draw the line. It is these social institutions with which Southern people, in my judgment, will not permit the Supreme Court to tamper. Let me make this clear, Mr. President: There is no racial hatred in the South. The Negro race is not an oppressed race ... Mr. President, it is the law of nature, it is the law of God, that every race has both the right and the duty to perpetuate itself. All free men have the right to associate exclusively with members of their own race, free from governmental interference, if they so desire. Free men have the right to send their children to schools of their own choosing, free from governmental interference and to build up their own culture, free from governmental interference. These rights are inherent in the Constitution of the United States and in the American system of government, both state and national, to promote and protect this right.

37 “Many Contributions To Marshall Center,” The Evening Standard, Union Town, Pa, June 27, 1963.

>> Among those named were: James Bruce, William Clayton, Clark Clifford, Walter S. Gifford, Gordon Gray, Anna Rosenberg Hoffman, Paul Gray Hoffman, Philip C. Jessup, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., Robert A. Lovett, Scott Lucas, John J. McCloy, Henry M. Morgenthau, Jr., William D. Pawley, Walter S. Robertson, Leverett Saltonstall, Stuart Symington, Bernard M. Baruch, General J. Lawton "Lightning Joe" Collins, General Matthew B. Ridgway, General Jacob L. Devers, Mark Ethridge, Roy Roberts, Edward R. Murrow, Walter H. Annenberg, Mrs. Agnes E. Meyer, Spyros Skouras; Harrison Jones, and F. Warren Pershing.

38 NARA 104-10332-10013 ~ 6/22/1993 Memorandum for: Deputy Director for Operations. “Subject: JFK Assassination Records; Release of William Pawley’s Name.” From: David D. Gries, Director, Center for Study of Intelligence.

>> Gries argued in favor of fully releasing the Pawley documents, which Katherine Stricker opposed.

4/7/1993 Memorandum For: Deputy Director of Operations.” Operational Status of William D. Pawley in JFK Collection.” Via: DC/Information Management Staff. From Katherine M. Stricker, DO/IRO. Folder 3 (hand dated 7/15). Stamped CIA Special Collections Release in Full 2000. Page 26 of 28. Mary Ferrell Foundation website: MaryFerrell.org