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URVIVE? A Special Report by Ken W. Purdy

EXCLUSIVE! The Story Trujillo Doesn't Tell: WHY GERRY MURPHY WAS REALLY MURDERED THE E-=:KCrrrLNC;- MAGAZINE

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Real October 1957

Startling, new findings indicate that the American pilot who knew too much was murdered for reasons other than his part in the Galindez disappearance

by ANDREW ST. GEORGE

ATE on a shimmering, sunny November after­ II ,jnoon in 1955, a thin, bespectacled young d ..fts­ man in wrinkled suntans and a cheap polo shirt coaxed his sagging Plymouth into the parking lot behind the Club Zanzibar, just off Miami Beach's Gold Coast. He unrolled a sheet of cardboard and wedged it under the windshield wipers so that the scrawled letter­ ing faced the street: 4 SALE NEED $$ SACRIFICE GOOD MOTOR SEE ATTENDANT Then he climbed back into the front seat and dug into a brown paper bag containing a sandwich and a small bottle of ginger ale. It was dinnertime, and he had no place else to go. Almost precisely a year later, in November, 1956, the same fellow stopped by the Club Zanzibar on what was perhaps a brief, sentimental visit. This time he reclined in a sparkling $5,000 convertible, displaying with equal ease a handmade Irish linen suit that cleaners seldom as­ sessed under 200 smackers, a set of monogrammed saddle­ leather bags and the devoted companionship of a chic brunette. "Coming or going, Mr. Murphy?" grinned the club's night man, who had limped up to handle the door-an honor he usually denied guests. (Continued on next page)

~ "NIGHTMARE EMPIRE" of Dominican dictator Trujillo "II1II (opposite page) swallowed Murphy, shown in happier day.

13 MIAMI

. CUBA DOMINICAN ~ REPUBLIC The Dominican Republic: lust 800 miles from Miami, on the isle ~HAITI

Gerry Murphy Continued

"Both," said the man in the handmade suit. And Democrat suspects, he suspects loud and clear-that his though he never knew it, he was dead right. Gerry Mur­ constituent Murphy was rubbed out on Trujillo's direct phy meant to say that he was just passing through Miami orders. Beach that evening; but he had, in truth, come a long And why? way in a very short time, and his journey was already Once a man is gone his past must supply the answers. pointed beyond the dark horizon. In fact, on that Novem­ Gerry Murphy was born in North Dakota in July, 1933. ber evening in 1956, Gerald Lester Murphy, 23, had just At 16, a shy, thin-faced lad with a shaky little smile, he 17 days left to live. became the first Eagle Scout in the peaceful little town­ Considering that the cause of Gerry Murphy's death ship of Gnlnville. His parents still recall with sad pride has mushroomed into the biggest international crime con­ the speech he delivered on that occasion. troversy since Mata Hari, it is remarkable that the At 17, Gerry had known the .intoxication of his first consensus regarding the manner of his death is just about solo flight. He had become, in fact, plane-struck. His unanimous: he was murdered. room had been turned into a hangar for scale models of But how? flying machines, and he spent his nights boning up on The government of the Dominican Republic, in the their wingspan and engine displacement. He spent every stilted phraseology of its Attorney General, the august free moment out at the airstrip with the fellows who ran Dr. Elpedio Beral, states that Murphy was killed in a the local air-taxi outfit, known as Greene's Flying Service. drunken cliffside brawl. That is the official explanation, By the time he was ready to graduate from high school, the one Murphy's family and girl friend were fed. But he held an instructor's and ground-school teacher's rating opponents of the mail-fisted Dominican regime say it did at Greene's. By then, Gerry knew unerringly what he not quite happen that way. They insist that Murphy wanted from life: flight. knew just a little too much about a lot of dirty doings However, tragic heroes-and Gerry was destined to be­ and was pitched off the cliff into shark-filled waters by come one-traditionally possess a tragic flaw that trips the underlings of aging Dominican dictator Rafael them up. Gerry's was in his eyes: he was myopic. Trujillo. The Air Cadets turned him down when his sight test Rep. Charles O. Porter, a' jut-jawed Democrat from failed to measure up to minimum requirements; then the Oregon's Fourth District, calls the official Dominican Air Force refused to induct him at all; and finally the statements bushwah; he suspects--and when an Oregon commercial airlines rejected him for the same reason.

HE BEGAN, IT The cast 01 characte,.,: three can', ',peak, one won't ,peak, and one is battliR& to discover . who did what to whom

MISSING Prof. J....de GaHndez WM POITUNE.MUNTI. Murphy pi Wdaaped ..,. Dombaiaia aceDIa IUld Ieeret jolt after GaIiDdes aft-.-. .own oat of eOaIatr7' .7 Murphy. Jut ...... espWv_ batoCUe.

14 where Columbus is buried, began a strange tale of intrigue, kidnaping and murder

Gerry toyed with the idea of becoming an aeronautical of the Dominican Republic-a tropical land only four engineer. By this time his family had moved to Eugene, hours removed from Miami and reportedly so small that Oregon. Gerry attended classes at the University of Ore­ it is entirely covered by the iron fist of Rafael Trujillo. gon and Oregon State College, but flight-the sound and For several reasons-though Col. Cobian cared to admit sight and smell of planes-kept beckoning him irresisti­ none of them aloud-Gerry Murphy looked like a likely bly. In November, 1955, he moved to Miami, where lad. friends had promised him a chance at occasional air-taxi Colonel Cobian was visiting Miami in November, 1955, jobs and perhaps a coveted co-pilot's opening with Riddle in pursuit of a strange and savage project. The , project Airlines. happened to be a pet of his master, Rafael Trujillo, and To pay his room rent on SW 9th Street, Gerry worked this automatically made it a top-priority, do-it-now opera­ as an aeronautical draftsman, but it wasn't much of a tion as far as the Dominican Government was concerned. living. He had to sell his car for a grubstake, and the And thus Cobian happened to be sipping Bacardi anejo promised chance at a big-time job with an airline seemed in Miami and keeping an eye out for likely lads when he farther off than ever. stumbled into Gerry Murphy. Then, in one of the sleazy but hau·ghtily expensive' Soon afterwards, Gerry Murphy was introduced by passion pits around Flagler Street, Gerry Murphy made Colonel Cobian to a four-dollar steak in an expensive a new friend. The identity of this man has been veiled in Miami restaurant; and by the time the steak had gone mystery fbr so long that' a couple of false suspects have the way of all meat a third man had joined Murphy and been stuck with the role--false ' suspects who are, how­ Cobian at table. ever, innocent of very little except this particular opening He was a tall, slender, disdainful chap with a pencil gambit. Actually, the man who met and marked Gerry in mustache and eyes as cold as a reptile's. He introduced a downtown Miami nightclub was a veteran Caribbean himself as Arthur. As Murphy soon learned, his real name intelligence officer, the sort of hardboot Sunday supple­ was His Excellency Brigadier General Arturo Espaillat, ments usually call "spy-master"-Colonel Salvador Co­ and he was, among a great many other things, Colonel bian. Cobian's indisputable boss. In a way, Salvador Cobian was an Eagle Scout, too, During the next couple of months or so, Gerry Murphy although a very special kind. He had advanced to the did very little except submit to a series of shrewd little exalted rank of chicken colonel in the intelligence service personality tests adminis- (Continued on page (1)

HE PLANNED IT .•• HE WAS BLAMED FOR IT ••• HE IS. INVESTI6ATlNG IT

WIST POINTII Amaro &paiDat, IIMIDALID me.. Oetaylo de I...... slew­ SEEKING ,... oa iDtrIpe, Rep. f__ Do_lnlan ~ ill N.Y., M1II'PhT iD . ~t, SlIT Dom'..... poD., Char.. POI'ter of 'OncOD Ce18 eolcl reeralted M1II'Jth7 f.. dirty WOI'L 1._ IwIpd hbueIf iD ...... eeIL ehOaId. ' ~ DeadnIam ~.

15 WHY GERRY MURPHY WAS REALLY MURDERED continued from page 15 tered by his two new friends. He took a Here Gerry Murphy had a strange of ; author, lecturer and couple of trips to Ciudad Trujillo, the sun­ rendezvous. a member of Columbia University's teach­ baked, fervid little Dominican capital. His He took aboard some gas, then went ing faculty, Dr. Galindez, who was trapped flight fares were "defrayed in advance," as back to the flight log to sign out. He was and strong-armed on March 12, 1956, by the term goes, by Colonel Cobian; and \IP­ alone in the room. The line of his own agents of Dominican dictator Rafael Tru­ on arrival, Gerry found himself accommo­ handwriting stared him in the face: jillo, had committed a singular crime: he dated, somewhat to his surprise, in an Pilot: Gerry Murphy ' had written a learned doctoral thesis about expensive suite of the Hotel Jaragua, the Owner: Same the Trujillo regime which displeased the Republic's leading hostelry, where room Home Base : Miami, Fla. dictator. . rates run up to $30 a day. Plane: Beech We know today that Dr. de Galindez It was a good thing that an unseen Registration : 68100 paid the price of that scientific explora­ benefactor's hand picked up all the Arrival: Local tion by suffering abduction in midtown checks, including drinks at the plush bar Departure: Miami by agents of a foreign tyran­ and fresh flowers on the night table. "The Arrival Time: 10:30 A.M . ny. We also have reason to believe that onIiest thing I had to do was wave," Ger­ Departure Time: he finally paid the price of a slow, tortur­ ry once told a pop-eyed friend. Without hesitation, Murphy wrote un­ ous death at the hands of the senile, der the bracket headed "Departure sadism-twisted dictator. Time:" 11 :30 A.M . This would give him, "I am a believing Catholic," Dr. Galin­ RADUALLV, it developed that Gerry for the record, exactly one hour on deck dez had said in his last will and testament, G was expected to do a few other things, at Zahn's Airport-no more. And then written before his abduction, "God," a too. Gerry Murphy, instead of getting ready Columbia chaplain remarked recently, Colonel Cobian had great plans for his to leave, settled down 'to a long, hard, "whose own Son suffered torture while new-found norte-america1W friend. But silent wait. Well after nightfall, a heavy ambitious Roman careerists stood by first, there was a little favor to be taken ambulance swept up to the darkened main washing their hands, God cannot have care of for the fellow who had become gate of Zahn's Airport. There were only forgotten Jesus de Galindez in his hour Gerry's closest chum in Dominica-Gen­ two men within sight : the tautly waiting of extremity." eral Arturo Espaillat. Murphy and the night watclunan; an easy­ Just exactly what Gerald Murphy did Early in March, 1956, Gerry Murphy going caretaker named Anthony Frevele. after delivering the drugged Jesus de flew north from Ciudad Trujillo. He The ambulance jumped forward and . Galindez into the hands of Trujillo's tor­ popped up in Linden, New Jersey, where spun to a stop on the runway. There was turers at the Dominican Republic's Mon­ he rented a yellow, 'twin-prop Air Force a mufiled stir of panting, hurried move­ tecristi Airport on the morning of March surplus Beechcraft plane with a closed ments and a man on a stretcher, covered 13, 1956, is not recorded. But it is known cabin from a rental agency called Trade­ with a dark blanket, was lifted from the that the Hotel J aragua provides hot and .Ayer. He want:ed, Gerry-explained, to take car and hoisted aboard Murphy's Beech­ cold running water and scent-ed 50ap for some businessmen on air junkets. craft. visitors who feel an urge to wash their When the time came to dis.cuss the A heavy-shouldered, felt-hatted figure hands. rental, Murphy remarked that he'd pay climbed into the plane after him. The Later, after Gerry Murphy's own dis­ it in advance and in hard cash. He pulled man on the stretcher gave off a peculiar, appearance in December, 1956, when his a heavy wad of C-notes from his pocket sharp stench; he seemed to be half-con­ name was linked with the Galindez scan­ and flipped off eight bills. The agency scious and groaned brokenly. dal, those close to the young flier made an man swallowed, but said nothing ; what­ attempt to protect his memory-in all ever else he'd done, Murphy hadn't print­ probability, the memory of a dead man. ed the C-notes himself. They were sound F GERALD Lester Murphy, the erstwhile Thus the legend was born and grew that enough. And so a couple of days later, I Eagle Scout and eager student, thought Gerry Murphy did n ot realize at first what Murphy flew his new ship to Newark. or felt that anything was wrong, he gave was going on. "Gerry thought," said a From Newark, Gerry hopped over to · no sign of it. He swung behind the wheel friend, "that he would be flying a charter Staten Island in the late afternoon of and pulled on his gloves. He was a pilot run to Florida with some sort of invalid." March 10. Next day, a couple of gasoline now, a fUll-fledged airman captaining his Though this happens to be a nobly in­ drums connected to the main tank by way ship. If the man in back in the cabin, tentioned theory, this reporter cannot of a special ,hand pump were installed in the man strapped on the stretcher, was · lend a hand to its propagation for one place of the rear cabin seats. When asked .in trouble, that wasn't the pilot's concern; reason alone : it happens to be untrue. the reason for these long-distance flight the pilot's concern was the plane. fIxings, Gerry explained dryly that he The engine spat and sprang to life. By planned to tour the Azores non-stop. midnight, Gerry Murphy and Beech HERE IS the damning evidence of Ger­ At eight in the morning of March 12, #68100 were airborne. The man on the , T ry's behavior in preparing for the fatal 1956, Gerry Murphy sauntered into the stretcher, struggling against unconscious­ flight of March 12: he lied and falsified Flight Control Room at Newark Airport ness, sobbed out-for help? Gerry Mur­ entries about it not once but a dozen and casually checked himself out in the phy fixed his eyes on the dark windshield times, log. For "Destination" he put down "Mi­ and kept his back to the man on the To Trade-Ayer he told a tale of "busi­ ami, Fla." stretcher. nessmen's air tours." To the Staten Island At 9 : 44 Gerry set his wing flaps, revved He had heard those sobs, though, mechanic who installed his spare tanks up his twin bombs and took off grace­ Months later, Gerry~ very different and the pump designed by Murphy him­ fully from Runway 7. But, out of the Gerry-told his fiancee: "Why, I knew self, he spoke of "flying to the Azores." control tower's sight, he veered away from that fellow wasn't sick, He was drugged. Of his log entry at Zahn's airport only the his course, settled the plane low over the I knew it right away, He kept mumbling . signature seems to have been in good highway and began to navigate by ter­ and muttering, just kept on, ..." faith. Here Gerry falsified the "departure ram. Gerry Murphy also knew "that fel­ time" entry in advance, indicating that he At 10:30 he landed at Zahn's Airport, low's" name. had been warned to provide himself with an out-of-the-way, little-frequented aerial The man on the stretcher was none an alibi for the evening, backwater near Amityville, Long Island. other than Dr. JesUs Maria de Galindez At no time did Gerry Murphy declare 61 WHY GERRY MURPHY WAS REALLY MURDERED continued or admit-as law, custom and flight regu­ evidence, even more somber and startling. traveled to Havana, Cuba, with a suitcase lations require-that his destination from The truth is that Gerry Murphy's dis­ containing $30,000, a few charges of a Zahn Airport was Montecristi Airport in appearance and presumed death were not secret plastic explosive called hexite the Dominican Republic. the consequence of bis participation in (kneaded inside some large hard rolls) Murphy's friends speak fervently of the Galindez snatch, but of something and a set of glass time fuses resembling his consuming "love for flight." In this far more ominous. oven thermometers. He .delivered these they are largely correct. But that, of True. Murphy conversed a bit too goodies to a fellow pilot, trusted Trujillo course, merely points up that Murphy casually about his part in the Galindez contact and underground revolutionary must have known in advance the nature venture. If these babblings ever reached leader : 31-year-old Calixto Sanchez of his "charter flight" from Zahn's Air­ tbe ear of Dictator Trujillo, they must White, secretary general of the Air W ork­ port. Otherwise, why should a dedicated have kicked up something of a storm in er's Union in Cuba. pilot embark on a series ' of misstatements the Presidential Palace. But there is little and forgeries that could lift his license? indication that Trujillo took these indis­ There is, evidently, no other explanation. cretions seriously. " TEM Three: About ten days later. Rafael Trujillo had nursed, over the I Colonel Antonio Blanco Rico, Chief of years, such a consuming hatred for Dr. the SIM, Cuba's military intelligence ,lND IF there is little doubt about Mur­ Jesus de Galindez that he is said to be service, was murdered in front of a ~ phy's foreknowledge of his lethal ad­ wholly unable to comprehend why anyone Havana nightclub. Several other impor­ venture, there is no doubt whatever as to in the U.S. should consider his disappear­ tant Cuban officers were wounded, but his post facto awareness of what he'd ac­ ance a loss. the assailants were after Blanco. They got complished. He told Sally Caire, the pert, There are numerous small incidents him cold. The dead colonel, it turned out, petite brunette Pan American 'flight pointing unmistakably this way. We will had been among President Batista's most hostess to whom he became engaged . in quote only one. influential henchmen and a personal enemy September, 1956, about it. And he told at In the summer of 1956, S8.Ily Caire of Gerry's boss, Colonel Cobian. Pin­ least two friends. thoughtlessly mailed to Gerry in Ciudad pointed as having purchased the cars and "I've seen Galindez," Gerry boasted to Trujillo a stuffed folder of New York expensive contraband arms used in the Sally in November, 1956. "I tell you, he's clippings about the Galindez case. Tru­ killing with "recently obtained Dominican alive as you or me. They didn't kill him. jillo's mail censorship is airtight, and money": Calixto Sanchez, Gerry's Havana There's no need to, They're going to make Sally's missive was duly spotted. Yet contact. an example of him." Gerry got off with a dictatorial warning Item 4: Somewhat later, Gerry re­ The word "they" in these remarks re­ not to let Sally clutter up the mails with turned to Havana with his saddle-leather fers, it should be noted, to Rafael Tru­ such trash. carry-all. This time, he brought along a jillo and his secret service stalwarts, who Trujillo's smothered cackling is almost somewhat larger bundle of dough-it has have been known on occasion to inject air audible behind the boards in this scene. since been estimated as high as $500,000, into a prisoner's testicles, or tie off his Although the folder was damning evidence but more probably about $150,000--for wrists until the bands, sbapeless and pur­ that Gerry betrayed his secret to at least the revolutionary group patronized by ple like dangling eggplants, reacted with one outsider, a foreigner at that-Sally­ Rafael Trujillo. Calixto Sanchez White blinding pain to the tap of a pencil-to Trujillo had apparently dismissed the let it be known that he could use the have done these things to citizens who matter with the Dominican equivalent of money ; things were going to boil in were mere run-of-the-mill recalcitrants, "boys will be boys"! Havana. perhaps lacking in appreciation of Dir­ By this time Gerry Murphy was deeply Item 5: Then Calixto Sanchez did · tator Trujillo's benefactions. embroiled in the sinister Trujillo project something Gerry considered plain un­ What should they have done to Jesus for which he had been originally talent­ friendly. He made a request to have · de Galindez, who was to be made an scouted by Colonel Salvador Cobian. The Gerry sent to Cuba again in late October, "example"? Perhaps it is just as well that project was aimed, quite simply, at doing this time on a surveying job. The Cuban we don't know. away with President FulgencioBatista y revolutionaries had just for Ger­ But we do know, on evidence volun­ Zaldivar, the strong-man of nearby Cuba, ry: first off, they wanted him to find a teered by Murphy's friends, something and at replaci!lg him with a revolutionary place for landing a C-46 near Havana. no other publication seems to have told group spOnsored by Trujillo himself. The plan was as follows: with Gerry at its readers : that if Gerry had not vanished Sounds a bit . too strong? Impossible, the controls, the C-46 would take off from in Ciudad Trujillo, he would be a prisoner even? Too dangerous for Ciudad Trujillo, dive down over Havana ' in the Federal detention block of New security, for Latin American democracy, and bomb the Presidential Palace in broad York County today and under indictment to consider seriously? That's what this daylight, preferably killing President Ba­ for complicity in forcible abduction. Forc­ reporter thought-till he learned better. tista. Then Gerry would land the C-46 at ible abduction means kidnapiilg, and even Consider these items: the prearranged airstrip and unload some under U.S. law-which, of course, makes Item One: By May, 1956, Gerry Mur­ revolutionaries from Trujilloland, who allo~ances for judge, jury, solid evidence phy had been hired as a co-pilot for would join in the general free-for-alL and similar accoutrements ignored by Dominican Airlines, at a salary of almost This was too much even for an adven­ dictator's-kidnaping brings the same ul­ $400 per month. He lived, however, on a turous Eagle Scout, and Gerry resigned timate penalty: death. $4oo-per-week scale. The job with Do­ from all his posts in the Dominican Re­ Although tbere are some who regard minican Airlines was, in fact, partly a public, from co-pilot to courier, on Gerald Murphy's disappearance and prob­ reward for the Galindez kidnaping-Ger­ Thanksgiving Day, 1956. He went briefly able death as Biblical justice in ' the ry wanted to chalk up some big-time flight to Miami, but returned to Ciudad Trujillo Galindez case-remember the eye due for credits-and partly a cover for his secret on December 2 to dispose of his car and the eye ?-new evidence indicates that activities. Three-fourths of Gerry's in­ sundry belongings prior to leaving the they, too, are wrong. For the truth, as come-with various bonus and expense island for good. REAL can now exclusively reveal it from payments, well over $1,200 per month~ . Sally Caire was the last person to see this reporter's investigation in Havana, in came from his operations as a secret him alive : they met briefly at Ciudad Santiago de Cuba, in Miami and in New agent for Trujillo. Trujillo airport on the afternoon of De-. York, seems to be, from all the gathered Item Two : In October, 1956, Gerry cember 3. Gerry was on his way to the 62 i'

MIAMI: Gerry lived , in this house ~n CIUDAD TRUJILLO: At posh Jaragoa Ho­ PRESIDENTIAL PALACE: Through these SW 9th Street while working for Guthrie. tel he lived life of luxury on huge salary. portals he went, never to be seen again.

Presidential Palace to answer a special Recently, when the Murphy affair came have cut loose from the deal quick. But summons from Trujillo himself. Sally, under the scrutiny of the Senate Foreign these were foreigners. Their troubles were who had only a 20-minute stopover be­ Relations Committee, the Dominican ver­ alien troubles; nothing they did, nothing tween flights in Ciudad Trujillo, took off, sion of Octavio de la Maza's death took 'that happened to them seemed real to and Gerry drove his squarish little English another bad beating. The Dominicans said Gerry. He got to feel that this was a for­ Ford out of the airport and slowly down de la Maza had died by hanging. Yet two eign world where American standards the cobblestoned streets toward the pal­ U.S. Embassy officials 'insisted they had simply didn't apply-and he had no oth­ ace. He was seen entering it' a little before seen "whit looked like a wound" on his ers to apply. So he didn't apply any." 3 P.M. But no on'e saw him leave. In fact, corpse. Where did that {'wound" come "He just went along with the gag, you no one has seen Gerry Murphy since. from if de la Maza had indeed garroted , mean?" asked ,someone. A few weeks later, the Dominican Gov­ himself into oblivion? "Yes," said the investigator. "Except ernment produced a report on the where­ Since Murphy was a native-born U.S. that it wasn't a gag. It was real and abouts of Gerald Lester Murphy, U.S. ,citizen, his death precipitated an uproar. damn sad." national. Gerry, the report said, had been Those who knew Gerry described him as The saddest part, at least so far as a homosexual, and had gotten into a a "good boy," a "sweet kid." In Congress" Gerry Murphy is concerned, may be the drunken fight about it with a large, lout­ he was the subject of an angry address by real circumstances of his disappearance. ish Dominican fellow-pilot named Octavio Rep. Porter and of heated debate. Mur­ It is generally assumed that Gerry "got de la Maza. De la Maza hit Murphy, and phy was identified variously as "gentle," lost," as they say in Trujilloland, because ' since the entire hassle had taken place "conscientious," "honest," and a "splen­ he tried to cut loose from ,the Dominican conveniently near a sheer cliff over a did young man." The aching pity of it dictator. But recent evidence indicates shark-infested stretch of sea, Murphy was that Gerald Lester Murphy had been that there ' may have been an entirely staggered backwards, fell into the sea all these ' things to people, and 'perhaps different motive for it. and was seen no more. more. He had been, certainly, a fine air­ Gerry may have vanished, not because , How did the Dominican Government man, a loving husband-to-be and an he wanted to leave Ciudad Trujillo, but know all this? Why, very simple. De la obedient son. because he didn't leave soon enough"! Maza had conveniently killed himself in What happened to Gerry Murphy to By the middle of November, 1956, Tru­ a police detention cell--""-he had reportedly tum him into an agent~and then a vic­ jillo had suddenly decided to reverse his garroted himself with a piece of mosquito tim--of what re­ foreign policy and patch things up with netting-after leaving a carefully calli­ cently called "the world's most complete his arch-enemy, Cuban Dictator Batista. graphed confession of his deed. tyranny"-Trujillo's nightmare empire? And this meant that those involved in the It was all too slyly stupid, too brutishly Part of the explanation was furnished planned assassination of Batista had to banana-fingered for even the State De­ recently by an exceptional 'radio docu­ be silenced. partment's stiff "see-no-evil" outlook. No mentary entitled "A Chronicle of Ter­ Colonel Cobian was the first to go. Ear­ one believed Trujillo or his stately At­ ror." Assembled by Jay McMullen, the ly in November, 1956, his "sudden" death torney General. The whole tale, from Columbia Broadcasting System's enter­ was announced in the official Dominican homosexuality to suicide, seemed like a prising young writer-producer, the record­ press. For the foreign reporters there was carefully concocted alibi on Trujillo's ed voices of living witnesses threw a a more elaborate version: Colonel Cobian part. sharp light oli every. facet of the Galindez­ had gotten into a fight with his senior FBI handwriting experts made quick Murphy case. assistant; they drew in the same instant. mincemeat of the combined confession "Gerry's tragedy,", said a perceptive ob­ Now both were dead from each otber's and suicide note allegedly left by Mur­ server after the broadcast, "was the trage­ fatal bullet. phy's "killer." Octavio de la Maza had, dy of any American kid swept up in a Gerry, had he been addicted to reading it is true, killed before, and at least once maelstrom of intrigue and terror. Gerry obituaries, could have sensed a warning he'd killed a friend over an argument. had little moral perspicacity. He was like ' there. But Gerry had never been n1uch But he'd been known to feel no remorse the GIs who end up in trouble on over­ of a reader, over killing, and was not the suicidal kind. seas posts-he couldn't judge for him­ In contrast, Arturo Espaillat-who had, His alleged confession, it turned out, was self." ' according to Murphy, "masterminded" a not very successful product of Trujillo's "To Gerry," said another investigator, the Galindez kidnaping-continues to court counterfeiter, the usually depend­ who'd come to know the missing airman prosper. After a stint as Dominican ' Con­ able forger, Alonzo Alonzo. through 'months of work on his case, "to sul General in New York-an appoint­ "The Dominican Republic," reported Gerry it probably didn't soun,d real from ment which reflects Trujillo's grisly sense New York columnist Murray Kempton, the outset that his passenger on that first of humor-he was recalled last spring to "is forging ahead on all fronts." Said a 'charter flight' from Zahn's Airport would Ciudad Trujillo and promoted to cabinet dry official note: "The U.S. Government be an 'invalid.' If he'd been dealing with rank. The United States State Department considers the Murphy case unsolved." Americans, fellows like himself, he w.Quld has repeatedly asked General Espaillat to 63 WHY GERRY MURPHY WAS REALLY MURDERED continued waive his diplomatic immunity and sub­ compensation for the loss of their son'. mit to questioning about the Galindez­ Only four days later, on March 27, Murphy incident. The reply from the Gerry's parents turned over the untouched Dominican Republic has been a thunder. Dominican check to a special trust fund , 'OUS silence. Trujillo has not even had the created "to further a thorough investiga­ courtesy to acknowledge the State De­ tion into the disappearance of. Gerald L. partment queries, an attitude almost un­ Murphy." precedented in diplomatic circles, especial­ And since among the fund's trustees, lyon the part of a ' suPPOsedly friendly along with Mr. and Mrs. Murphy and nation.. their minister, appears the name of Rep. Mr. and M-rs. Lester MurPhy, G.erry's Porter, the bulldog CongreSsman who had bereaved parents, received a curious mis­ first brought Gerry's disappearance to sive in the mail last March 23, however. national attention, it may be safely as­ It was a Dominican Treasury check in sumed that the Galindez-Murphy affair is the amount of $35,000, an award paid as noLyet over; it's just begun. END GERRY ean't speak; and Trujillo won't.

th~ size of the one in the window and filled the jar with peas. The jar was a PHIL SILVERS: little smaller than the jar in the -store, but the sergeant knew he still cowdn't be TV'S LOVABLE LOUSE continued from page 35 more than 200 peas off. So he put 200 of his soldiers in line in front of the store at four in the morning. When the store opened at nine, nobody else cow.d get in line. Each soldier filed in with a number One is the quality of affection which Sil­ not unhappy about it. Aside from a .few until the one with the number that cor­ vers imparts to the role of Bilko. No old-timers such as retired officers who responded to th~ amount of peas in the jar matter how audacious his schemes may complain about its being detrimental to . won the television set for the platoon." be, you can't get mad at the guy, "I'm a the service, the squawks have been few A primary factor in the widespread lovable louse," Silvers says happily. Fur­ and far between. Silvers once enthusi­ popularity of the show has been the happy thermore, when the chips are down and astically estimated ttu:t since the show marriage of Silvers and Hiken. Both someone seems likely to get hurt by his began, it has trebled enlistments. An have much in common, including a love· shenanigans, Bilko either backs off or re­ unofficial Army source will not substanti­ for sports and off-beat characters. Hiken, verses his field to aid the unfortunate. In ate this claim, but will say that the show this season, will take a vacation from the one episode when a couple of minks Bilko has had no adverse effect on recruiting. show ; he will be replaced by Ed Mon­ had purchased (with the platoon's sav­ In some cases, kids even came in to taigne, who had been its assistant director ings) for the purpose of breeding had enlist because they were impressed by ftom the time it started. turned out to be non-breeding, Bilko and life in the Army as depicted on the show. Phil respected Hiken's judgment from his cohorts prepared to put them to sleep One of Sergeant Bilk9'S admirers, ac­ the beginning; the writer-producer had ceremonially' in a gas chamber. But just cording to Sid Garfield, Silvers' press had a long and extensive radio-TV back­ as the switch was about to be pulled, the agent, is the Commander-in-Chief of the . ground, having worked with Fred Allen, Sergeant broke down and ordered a stay Armed Forces. "Last 'year Phil went to Jack Carson and other first-rate comics. . of execution. Baltimore to receive an award from an' Hiken was the one who conceived the "The things we do might seem a little advertising club, One of the speakers was notion of casting the fighter Rocky Grazi­ snide if we did them on the outside," says GovernorMcKeldin of Maryland, who is ano on the old Martha Raye show. Rocky , who created the show and, a good friend of President Eisenhower's; later returried the favor by bringing fight­ until recently, was its writer, producer, He told Phil, 'I know it's . the absolute .. game characters into the Bilko platoon. director and tribal chief, "but Bilko, after truth that every Tuesday night the White In 'addition to such seasoned personalities all, is in the Army." House watcbes the Bilko show.' Ike says, as Harvey Lembeck, Billy Sands and In spite of the show's largely irreverent" 'I want to see what that rascal's up to Herbie Faye, the Bilko motor pool also attitude towards Army life (Bilko's com­ now.''' includes Walter Cartier, an ex-middle­ manding officer, for instance, is depicted Silvers gets a tremendous amount of weight with 60 fights to his credit; Maxie as a complete dolt), the Pentagon has mail from servicemen and veterans .. The Shapiro, an ex-lightweight; and Graziano's never been known to complain about the letters are almost invariably favorable. old fight manager, Jack Healy. goings-on. In fact, the Army even lends "Most of the mail that comes from vet­ "I wanted a regular bunch of guys. the show its complete cooperation, passing erans," Silver says, "is along the lines of, Army mechanics," says Hiken. "That's on all scripts and very seldom tinkering 'You must have known our. sergeant.' They what we got, 'a lot of guys banding to­ with them. "I get an idea for the show," all had sergeants who were promoters like gether and coming through in the clutch." Hiken says, "I take it to the Captain and Bilko. Some of them write about expe­ . Hiken has an enormous regard for Sil­ he tells me the rules. Once, I asked him riences that are even more fantastic than vers' ability . to come through in the how would a monkey get into the Army. the ones we cook up. . clutch, too. "I think he~d be great in any I outliIied to him how I thought it could "One veteran wrote in about a fantastic part. He stays logical and honest. He's be done. It was ludicrous but he said scheme a sergeant of his had cooked up. an honest comedian, a great 'actor." go ahead." That Particular show turned In a small town outside of camp, a store Silvers brings to the role a know-how out to. be one of the most hilarious in the had put a large jar of peas in the window. that can only be described as instinctive. series. You had to guess the number of peas in His only brush with Army life came on The Army, of course, will not come the jar to win a television set. The ser­ USO tours' during World War II. "1 never right out and endorse the show, but it is geant decided he'd like the set for his got anything specific from those tours," pretty obvious that even the top brass is platoon's day-room. He got a jar about Phil says, "but things stick with me." 64