T WAS AN HOUR TILL DAWN. memorial service for his guerrillas who I The moon had gone out and the Carib- were killed in heavy fighting around bean was a pool of black ink. Santiago during the revolution. In that dark, still hour on a November The large graveyard was decorated morning, a flashlight blinked three times with red flags and huge photos of the from the shore of a tiny bay on the north Maximum Leader, Despite the downpour, coast of . A few minutes later, a more than 3,000 persons turned out .for black-painted speedboat slipped quietly the ceremony. THE CIA At 8:50 AM, a motorcade of five jeeps into the bay and dropped anchor off the palm-lined beach. came roaring along the road to the ceme- The 36-foot boat, Violynn III, was tery. "Here he comes," whispered the owned and skippered by Alexander execution squad's lookout, watching the Rorke, Jr., 36, a handsome, wavy-haired PLOTS road through powerful binoculars. American adventurer whose wife was The first jeep, bristling with guns, the daughter of the late Sherman Bil- was full of soldiers. The lookout trained lingsley, the society saloonkeeper who his binoculars on the second jeep and hosted New York's famed Stork Club. spotted a familiar figure seated beside Rorke's heavily-armed crew consisted TO KILL the driver. It was Captain Alfredo Gamo- of an American college student and five nal, Castro's chief bodyguard. Cuban exiles, two of them survivors of A tall man in green fatigues was riding the Bay of Pigs disaster. Their mission: in the back seat. Because of the driving Kill . rain, the jeep curtains and the two burly Rorke and his execution squad planned CASTRO figures in front, the lookout was unable to ambush the bearded dictator at San- to get more than a glimpse of the man in tiago de Cuba, the island's second the rear seat. But he assumed it must largest city. be Fidel Castro. As a free-lance reporter and He raised his right fist, two fingers photographer in Cuba, Rorke held aloft. At the lookout's sig- had covered Castro's revolution nal, machine guns opened up. from its start in the Sierra Bullets sprayed the jeep, kill- Maestra Mountains to the ing the driver, bodyguard triumphal march into Hav- Gamonal— and the superin- ana on New Year's Day, tendent of cemeteries, who 1959. But he fell out of was riding in back. The favor with Fidel when he jeep swerved off the road reported that the revolu- and crashed into a tree. tion was turning Red. Fidel Castro, riding in the One of the first newsmen fourth jeep, was unhurt. to spot this trend, Rorke Soldiers swarmed out of was jailed by the Castro the jeeps, searched the regime. in 1959 and again in woods and threw up road- January. 1960. after a radio blocks all over the area, but broadcast in which he charged the execution squad got away. that several of Castro's top A few weeks later, the Violynn aides were Communists. III made a midnight raid on After his second stretch in a harbor, shot up a Soviet Cuban prison, Rorke was kicked off freighter and escaped to Florida after the island. He vowed to return, and he a running gun battle with Cuban patrol did. He made at least 15 clandestine trips boats. to Cuba in Violynn III and several other Several months later, British auth- visits by plane. orities seized the Violynn III when it Some, if not all, of these mystery "There is an assassin arrived at Norman Cay in the Bahamas missions were sponsored by the Central with 17 Cuban exiles aboard and a cargo Intelligence Agency. But whether the in every shadow, a CIA agent of arms and ammunition. Rorke was CIA sent him on the assassination as- questioned by Bahamas security police signment will probably never be known. behind every tree: says but was released when his CIA contacts When Rorke and his crew anchored in vouched for him. the small bay, they were met by two a former comrade of Castro. Shortly before 9 PM about a month members of Cuba's anti-Castro under- later, a twin-engine Beechcraft appeared ground. They pulled the speedboat onto "He's led a charmed life in the sky above Havana, setting off the beach and covered it with canvas air-raid alarms all over the Cuban capital. and palm leaves. Then the assassins set so far—but he knows his luck The mystery plane roared in from the off for Santiago in the back of an ancient sea at an altitude of about 150 feet and truck owned by one of the underground can't last forever:" dropped five homemade napalm bombs members. on an oil refinery in the Nico Lopez dis- As dawn broke and a heavy rainfall trict: the bombs failed to explode. e. began, they hid in the woods near a As Cuban air force pilots rushed to cemetery on the outskirts of Santiago. by MORTON PETERSON their MIG fighter jets, and Castro re- Castro was scheduled to arrive at the treated to his basement air-raid shelter, cemetery around 9 AM to speak at a the Beechcraft took off and vanished continued on next page

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• 51,7 VI "4, M11 MO PLOT TO KILL CASTRO continued

in the dark. In Washington, two days later, Alex Rorke admitted he was responsible for the air attack. He said he was ac- companied on the flight by "a major Cuban underground figure, a student at Massachusetts Institute of Techno- logy and a U.S. freedom fighter tech- nician." Rorke also confirmed that he had carried out several missions for the CIA, including smuggling guns and anti-Castro agents into Cuba, but he insisted the oil refinery raid was his own idea. The following September, Rorke and his Beechcraft took off from Florida on another mysterious flight. With him were a pilot, Geoffrey ,Sullivan, and a Cuban freedom fighter, Enrique Molina Garcia. Before leaving Fort Lauderdale, Castro says Alpha 66 members, shown here training in Caribbean, are landing teams Florida, Rorke filed a flight plan to of assassins in Cuba. Ten members now face death sentences in La Cabana Prison. Panama, but after refueling on the is- land of , off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, he sent a radio message Despite official denials. CIA agents Nye admitted there was an assassin- saying he was changing course to are still trying to get Castro. So are ation plot, but he claimed he had gone Honduras. several Miami - based Cuban exile to Oriente Province to warn Castro That was the last anyone ever heard groups, including the revolutionary or- that Batista was trying to murder him. from the swashbuckling adventurer. ganization Alpha 66. Small, fast boats Throughout the 105 days he spent in The Beechcraft and its crew vanished from the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico Cuban prisons, Nye insisted he was on without a trace. The Coast Guard con- bring armed men and shipments of Castro's side. ducted a massive air-sea search of the guns and ammunition to the island. A military tribunal found him guilty Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico but Ten members of Alpha 843, 113 to 30 and sentenced him to death, but the failed to find any sign of the missing years old, were captured by Cuban sentence was suspended on condition plane—not even any wreckage. troops last year. The guerrillas, wear- that he leave Cuba. "I knew that someday he might not ing military uniforms and armed with As Castro tightened his grip on the come back," said Rorke's pretty wife, Belgium-made pistols and carbines, island and took over American indus- Jacqueline. were among two infiltration groups tries, the CIA decided he had to go. Though the mystery of Rorke's dis- that landed in April and September. Several top-level, top-secret confer- appearance almost 10 years ago was Charged with plotting to assassinate ences were held on this subject and it never solved, investigators hinted that Castro and overthrow the Red Regime, was finally agreed that the only sure he and his companions were the vic- the 10 prisoners were locked up in La way to neutralize Fidel was to assas- tims of foul play. There were uncon- Cabana prison, where they were beat- sinate him. firmed rumors that Castro agents en and tortured. During their months The assassination was to take place 1 either sabotaged the Beechcraft, blow- in prison, they were not allowed to hortly before the Bay of Pigs in- ing it to bits over the water, or hi- consult a lawyer or communicate with asion. The CIA reasoned that a lead- jacked it to Cuba where its passengers anyone in the outside world. Finally, erless Cuba would be thrown into such were quietly executed in retaliation after a secret trial before a military a state of panic that the invading force for the plot to assassinate Castro. tribunal, they were sentenced to death. would meet little resistance. There have been at least a dozen The Castro government, in its only The plot took shape in the late win- such unsuccessful plots. Several of mention of the case. announced the er and early spring of 1961. It involved them have been secretly supported and death sentences March 8, 1971. motley assortment of conspirators, financed by the CIA. The facts about including American racketeers, mil- these cloak-and-dagger machinations THE first assassination plot involving 4lionaires, soldiers of fortune and gov- have been revealed only recently. an American occurred in December, ernment officials, Cuban exiles and 1958—while Castro and his guerrillas seven some high-ranking members of were still holed up in the mountains of astro's revolutionary regime. Alleged CIA plotter Alex Rorke (I.) and Oriente Province—when a tall, lean According to Washington columnist Geoffrey Sullivan vanished on mission. Chicagoan namedr“&,11..Nye ar- Jack Anderson, the CIA enlisted Robert rived in the Oriente toviii-OT-Bayamo Maheu, a former FBI agent and Wash- with a rifle and revolver in his ington wheeler-dealer who later be- suitcase. came manager of billionaire Howard Nye told several townspeople he had Hughes' Nevada operations. Also as- come to join Castro's rebels. Flashing signed to the murder mission were CIA a fat bankroll, he offered to pay for agents William Harvey and James information about where the guerrilla "Big Jim" O'Connell. camp was located. He was told what he wanted to know—and the rebels IAA AllEU reportedly introduced the were alerted. CIA agents to John Roselli, a suave, Carrying his guns, Nye set out for '.'silver-haired'silver-haired gambler with extensive Castro's hideout on foot. He was quick- ,contacts in the American and Cuban ly intercepted by bearded guerrillas , Underworlds. And Roselli jumped at who took him to their headquarters for lithe opportunity to help Uncle Sam. questioning. Roselli, now 65, began his under- After the rovolutionary government world career in Chicago as a member took over a few weeks later, the 31- of the Al Capone mob. As a Prohibi- year-old Nye was formally charged tion rumrunner, he made many trips with plotting to kill Castro for a fee between the U.S. and Cuba and became of $100,000. His trial was held in the an expert at smuggling men and mer- officers' club in La Cabana Fortress, chandise ashore. In the 1930's he emi- across the bay from Havana. grated to California, married movie Government witnesses testified that actress June Lang and went to work Nye was hired by deposed President for Hollywood labor racketeer Willie Fulgencio Batista in a desperate, last- Bioff. ditch move to stop Castro. It was In those days, Roselli was known as charged that General Francisco Taber- the West Coast representative of the nilla, head of Batista's joint chiefs of Chicago crime syndicate. He and five staff, arranged to bring Nye to Cuba other racketeers were sent to prison in and paid his hotel bills in Havana. 1944 for their $1,000,000 shakedown of 28

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a overheard a woman complaining about movie producers and labor unions. in Guatemala. CIA strategists figured a ▪ military revolt inside Cuba was just the long lines and short supplies at a Paroled in 1947, the handsome, debon- grocery. The boy, whose parents be- air Roselli returned to the good life of what was needed to insure the success CDR, informed Hollywood and Las Vegas, where his of the . longed to the militant Contact man between the Cuban con- the security police. A two-man militia pals included movie moguls, stars and patrol was sent to pick up the woman Mafia mobsters. spirators and the CIA was Miami mil- In March, 1961, Roselli flew to lionaire Alberto Fernandez, a former for questioning. Cuban sugar king. Fernandez was the She was in her home in Havana's Tampa, Florida, and conferred with his Miramar suburb when the soldiers ar- old friend Santo Trafficante, rackets owner of Texana III, the converted sub boss of Florida's West Coast. chaser, which was equipped with a pair rived in a jeep. Frightened, the woman During the Batista dictatorship, Traf- of small speedboats and enough weapons picked up her baby daughter and ran ficante held the lucrative franchise to to stock a small arsenal. to the home of friendly neighbors, a operate Havana's gambling casinos. During the early months of 1961, the retired engineer and his wife. Castro had closed the casinos and Terana III made so many runs between The soldiers saw her go out the back kicked the American gangsters out, so Florida and Cuba that it seemed as if door and followed her to the engineer's Trafficante welcomed the chance to the CIA was running a ferry service. On large yellow house. The engineer and help exterminate Castro. He put Ro- one occasion, it actually brought several his wife were playing cards when the selli in touch with his underlings who of the Cuban conspirators to Florida woman ran in, crying and pleading for were running the Cuban lottery racket for a conference with CIA agents. The help. She had picked the worst pos- 'n Miami Cubans returned home that same night. sible moment to come calling. They, in turn, recruited an anti-Cas- A dozen leaders of the anti-Castro tro Cuban, whose cousin was a cook on X-CON JohnRoselli personally de- conspiracy were in the back room of Fidel Castro's household staff. E livered the death squads to Cuba's the engineer's home. It was to have CIA Agents Harvey and O'Connell shores, using the Texana III and its been their last meeting before the up- flew to Miami on March 12, 1961, and twin speedboats. One night, during a rising. Spread out on a table were mili- checked into Miami Beach's swank gun fight with a Cuban patrol boat, tary maps of Havana, pinpointing the Fontainebleau Hotel under assumed gunfire sank one of the speedboats, government buildings to be seized by names. Roselli also was staying at the dumping Roselli and his crew into the the rebels. A large X marked the spot Fontainebleau. Posing as representa- water. They were picked up by the where Castro was to be slain in his tives of a large American oil company second speedboat and whisked to the headquarters. whose Cuban holdings had been seized comparative safety of the Texana III, Major Sori Marin was discussing the by Castro, the CIA agents outlined their whose powerful engines quickly out- assassination plan when the door burst plan to the cousin of Fidel's cook. distanced the Cuban vessel. open and the militia patrol charged in, The Cuban was given capsules con- By the end of March, Castro knew looking for the woman. Thinking the taining a powerful poison. an invasion was imminent. But he plot had been discovered, Sari Marin wasn't sure when or where the task yanked his pistol from its holster and AACEE if you can persuade your cous- force would strike. Suffering from pre- backed toward a window overlooking 0 in to sprinkle the contents of these invasion jitters, he ordered his security the rear garden. capsules in Castro's food," he was told. cops to grab everyone suspected of dis- The soldiers cut him down with two "The poison works slowly but thor- satisfaction with the Red regime. Police short bursts from their Czech-made oughly. He will be dead in three days. dragnets went out all over the country. machine guns. With Sari Marin dead, By that time, there will be no trace of Anyone caught outdoors after curfew his companions surrendered without a the poison in his system. An autopsy was considered a probable saboteur, struggle. They were hauled off to prison, and chemical analysis will detect noth- traitor or spy. interrogated, tortured and eventually ing unusual." Neighborhood vigilantes, armed with executed. The Cuban agreed and reportedly re- machetes, clubs and flashlights, pa- Four of them were Cuban exiles who ceived a down payment of $10,000 cash. troled every city street and country lane. had been sent back to their homeland Committees for the Defense of the Rev- by the CIA to get Castro. On the night of March 15, he left for Ironically, neither Castro nor his Cuba from Marathon Key, Florida, in olution turned neighbor against neigh- a converted submarine chaser, the bor, children against parents. Communist advisers knew a thing about Terana III. Roselli and several Cuban On April 7, 1961, a Havana schoolboy the plot until (Continued on page 50) freedom fighters were aboard. Two nights later, Fidel Castro be- Havana court sentence him to firing squad for reportedly plotting came violently ill after a supper of Alan Nye hears chicken and rice, He was not hungry to kill Castro for $100,000. Sentence was commuted later provided Nye leave Cuba. and had consumed only a small portion of the meal. When he started vomiting, a doctor was called and his stomach was pumped out. Castro immediately suspected that someone had tried to poison him. Police questioned the kitchen staff and the terrified cook immediately confessed his part in the plot. The cousin was shot trying to escape from Cuba. Several other suspected plotters also were rounded up as the CIA anxiously awaited word of Cas- tro's demise. When it became apparent that Fidel was alive and well, the agency acti- vated an alternate plan. It called for a military uprising, during which Cas- tro and his Communist advisers would be killed. Leader of this plot was Major Hum- berto Sori Marin, a hero of the Castro revolution and one of Fidel's most trusted aides. Among the others in- volved were Major Aldo Vera, chief of Castro's secret police; Commandante Julio Rodriguez, deputy commander of the Cuban air force base at San An- tonio de los Banos; several other high- ranking army, navy, and air force officers; the military commander of Camaguey Province; the head of the Cuban Sugar Institute and the Cuban undersecretary of finance. When the CIA first learned of the discontent among Castro's top brass, it was training its own Cuban rebel force -1,1".".","1:6M7C=1-nerLIVAiT%Z.:

into the house earlier that afternoon. On the night of July 21, 1963, the Rex Plot to Kill Castro Slowly, painfully, he struggled to a landed several heavily-armed Cubans sitting position and aimed the pistol on Cayo Verde, a small island off Las (Continued from page 29) at Castro. There was a moment of com- Villas Province, scene of the Bay of plete silence during which everyone in Pigs invasion. Militia patrols spotted . the militiamen stumbled onto it by the cottage—Castro, his bodyguards, the infiltrators and captured them after : accident. But once the conspirators the wounded captives—were still as a brief gunfight. Three members of the were in custody, Fidel quickly learned statues. infiltration group later were executed what had been going on almost under Gasping for breath, Williams tried to by a firing squad. his whiskers. squeeze the trigger. But the effort was Described by the Castro regime as Hundreds of Cubans were arrested too much. His right hand shook and the "CIA agents," these men had been sent and thrown into jail. Military officers gun lowered although he tried to keep to assassinate Fidel Castro on July 26 suspected of disloyalty were promptly it steady. Then a militia captain stepped when he delivered a major speech in shot. And by the time Brigade 2506 to his side and grabbed. the pistol. 'Wil- Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion. The struggled ashore at the Bay of Pigs, liams fell back on the mattress, com- assassination, to be carried out by sev- Castro W85 ready and waiting. pletely exhausted. eral gunmen using high-powered rifles On several occasions before the in- He closed his. eyes. When he opened and grenades, was to coincide with a vasion, the CIA landed assassination them again seconds later, Castro was "major uprising" that was to be set off teams equipped with two-way radios, standing over him. "What are, you try- in Pinar del Rio Province by a CIA- high-powered rifles, grenades and ing to do. kill me?" the dictator in- supported group called Citizens Com- bombs. But none of them reached their quired without anger. mittee for a Free Cuba. target. "That's what I came here for," Wil- Unaware that the execution squad The Bay of Pigs fiasco was Castro's liams replied. "We've been trying to do had been captured in Cayo Verde, 50 greatest military victory. Within 72 that for three years." members of the. Free Cuba Committee hours, his forces had smashed the CIA- Williams recovered from his wounds gathered at a mountain hideout near backed forces 'that landed at 'Playa and was released, along with other Bay San Diego de Nunes, about 40 miles Larga and Playa Giron. Then, in his of Pigs prisoners, after a year in prison. west of Havana, on the morning of July moment of triumph, Castro had his Of all the people who tried to knock off 26. Their revolt was to start in a few closest brush with death. Fidel Castro, he came closest to suc- hours. The invasion began on April 17. Two ceeding. The committee chairman, a young days later, Castro arrived in the seaside The rash of assassination attempts anti-Communist named Ernesto Guerra, town of, Playa Giron to take personal that preceded the Bay of Pigs landings was delivering last-minute instructions command of his troops and interrogate came to an abrupt halt when the inva- when his words were drowned out by prisoners, He . visited a ramshackle sion was crushed, For almost two years, the roar of motorcycle and truck en- wooden cottage that was full of there were no new efforts to murder gines, A convoy of 30 trucks, transport- wounded members of battered Brigade Castro. But in 1963, amid reports that ing some 400 Soviet soldiers, surrounded 2506. the United States was preparing for the rebels' meeting place. The mountain One of the captives was Enrique another Cuban invasion, the CIA re- road was sealed shut. For the commit- Ruiz-Williams, 40, a mining engineer sumed its shipments of arms and agents tee members, there was no escape. who was second-in-command of the to Cuba. As they raised their rifles and pistols, Brigade's heavy gun battalion. Wil- Many of these missions were carried the Russian troops opened fire with liams, known to his friends as Harry, out by the Rex, a 174-foot converted machine guns. All 50 Cubans were had been blown into the air by an ex- U.S. Navy patrol boat, Operating out, slaughtered. This incident, kept secret ploding Then. Hit by more than 70 of West Palm Beach. Florida, the Rex by the Castro government, was the first pieces of shrapnel, he was covered with flew a Nicaraguan flag and carried a use of Soviet combat troops to massacre wounds from his scalp to the soles of Spanish-speaking crew who had strict Cuban insurrectionists and to crush an his feet.. He had major wounds in the orders not to talk to strangers. The ves- attempt to exterminate Castro. chest, near his heart, and the neck. sel was equipped with the latest radar The raid was led by Colonel Yosif Both feet were smashed. He also had and sonar gear, plus other electronic Lutzenko. commander of Soviet army several broken, ribs and was unable to surveillance devices. • forces in Pinar del Rio. use his left arm. On the night of October 21, 1963, a Williams had never met Castro, but The Rex carried two 20-foot speed- mystery ship appeared off the western he recognized him as soon as the Maxi boats, each armed with two .30-• tip of Cuba. It was the Rex again, run- mum Leader entered the cottage. Al- caliber machine guns. The Rex's own ning without lights to avoid detection. though barely able to move, Williams armament included a 75-mm. cannon, Its two launches were lowered and they reached under his thin cotton mattress two 57-mm, cannon, five twin 20-mm. set off for shore with six men in each and found the A5-caliber automatic he cannon and as many tommy guns as the- boat. had hidden there when he was carried crew could handle. As the first speedboat scraped the sand of a secluded beach, a high-pow- ered spotlight was switched on by a Cuban militia patrol. Shots rang out. A Cuban gunboat appeared and sprayed the second launch with machine-gun slugs as it raced back to its mother ship. he first launch was captured along T with its six-man crew. The second launch sank about 50 yards from the Rex. which picked up the dead and wounded and drove off the Cuban boat with a cannon shot. Next morning, a U.S. submarine sur- faced off the coast of Cuba. Five Cubans —four dead and one wounded—were transferred to the sub by the Rex. which then sailed home to West Palm Beach. A few hours later, Castro staged a TV talkathon in which he announced the arrests of "six CIA agents." He accused the CIA and the United States of "waging an undeclared war on Cuba." "No comment," the CIA replied. One month after the Rex raid, Presi- dent Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, a' Castro sympathizer who had made a mysterious visit to. the Cuban embassy in Mexico City and had belonged to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a pro-Castro group, in New Orleans. It may never be known whether President Kennedy was aware of the

h. 717h:Mr1%,.1?-17.....,F--: ti CIA j:flot; to assassinate Castro or On his return to Havana, he was given found the rifle and several other whether these plots resulted in his own a high-powered rifle with telescopic murder, Stitt some investigators are weapons. sights. He held secret meetings with Cubela, GuM and five other men convinced that the Kennedy assassina- several other plotters, including Cuban tion was triggered by the bungled plots were arrested. Charged with plotting army Major Ramon Guin. After months to assassinate Castro, they went on trial against Castro. of searching for a good spot to carry In late 1984, a year after the Kennedy before a military tribunal in La Cabana out the assassination, they rented a Fortress, where the mass trials and ex- murder, the CIA scored a major intelli- vacant apartment in downtown Havana gence coup. American agents in Paris ecutions of Batista henchmen were held overlooking the entrance to Castro's in 1959. The state prosecutor, Jorge were contacted by Major Rolando Cu- headquarters in the Presidential Palace. bela, 35, a hero of the Castro revolution Serguera, had' sent hundreds of Cuban Finally the preparations were com- men and women before firing squads. and a top-ranking officer in the Cuban pleted. The conspirators received word army. Cubela, a medical doctor before in February, 1966, that the invasion Cubela and his co-defendants seemed he became a guerrilla, served as Castro's army was ready. Cubela' moved into headed for a similar fate. Then a letter personal physician during the rebel the Havana apartment and crouched by from Castro was read, asking the court campaign. After Castro took power,' the window each day with the rifle be- to spare their lives. When the plea for Cubela was named president of the side him. leniency was heard, the 500 spectators Federation of Students at the Univer- Late one afternoon, a black Zim jumped to their feet and cheered. sity of Havana. Later he became head limousine—a gift to Castro from Nikita Cubela and GuM each were sentenced of a large Havana hospital Khrushchev—pulled up to the Presi- to 25 years in prison; three other de- dential Palace. As Cubela watched, fendants got from 10 to 20 years; the ut he was not a Communist. And as three men in green fatigue uniforms remaining two, who had confessed their B Castro was surrounded with Latin came out of the palace and walked to- part in the plot and implicated the Reds and Russians, Cubela began to wards the car. Peering through the others, were set free. have serious doubts about Cuba's future. telescopic sights, Cubela saw the famil- Though another assassination plot While attending an international iar face of Fidel Castro. The cross hairs had been failed, there was no freedom health conference in Paris, Cubela de- of the sights centered on Castro's skull. for Fidel Castro. He had become a cided to defect to the United States. The rifle barrel protruded from the prisoner of his own regime and still is Two months later, in a Madrid apart- open window of the third-floor apart- today. He seldom appears in public ment used by the CIA as a "safe house," ment. Cubela could feel the sweat roll- anymore. His comings and goings are he conferred with two CIA agents and ing down his cheeks and into the open kept a secret, so that no one knows in three Cuban exile leaders, including collar of his shirt. Keeping his eye advance where he will appear. His food Manuel Artime. one of the commanders glued to the sights, the burly, balding and drink is sampled by security guards of the Bay of Pigs invasion. major squeezed the trigger. as a precaution against poisoning. The CIA now dusted off its old assas- His bodyguards have become so jit- sination - uprising - invasion plot. The othing. The assassination weapon tery that they sometimes fire on inno- script was virtually unaltered. Castro N failed to fire. Unaware he had just cent passersby in the mistaken belief was to be killed; then loyal Cubans had another narrow escape, Castro that they are assassins. would throw off their Communist chains climbed into the bulletproof limousine "Castro sees an assassin lurking in and support an invasion force, led by and drove away. every shadow, a CIA agent behind Artime, whi,ch would quickly take over. A few days later, his secret police every tree," says one of his former lieu- Cubela, 'Oho knew little about all the received information about the plot. tenants who now lives in Miami. "He previous attempts that failed, became Cubela was asleep in his comfortable has had a ,charmed life so far, but he convinced that the plot could succeed. home near Havana University when the knows his good luck can't last forever." He even agreed to serve as the assassin. cops called at 3 AM. In the house, they So does the Castro-stalking CIA. •

Motorcycle Gan wore his colors proudly, even sported FBI," he says briefly. "Their informa- g a five-inch steel cross riveted to his tion now .is that Breed members are (Continued from page 19) leathers. But he knew inside him he heading this way from at least five was getting too tired, too old maybe, Eastern states." for long-distance runs and blood feuds. It isn't the first such report. The his unforgivable insult to a biker's There's gonna be a showdown, he police department intelligence unit has colors; his friend got it because he was thought. There's gotta be. witness Well, maybe already been warned by agents of the to the abduction. Nine bullets he'd have quit by then. Lately he'd Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dan- into the Weasel, nine stab wounds .. . gerous Drugs that bikers in considera- That was March, 1970. ble numbers„ riding an assortment of Meanwhile, bikers' groups in the CARTOONS vehicles ranging from pickup trucks to New York-New Jersey area had fought FROM THE EDITORS OF MAN'S funeral hearses, are converging on outside the National _Hot Rod and Cus- Cleveland for the Fourth Annual Motor- tom Car Show at Manhattan's Coliseum NOSE JOBS RR PEACE Is KLMA IINNY cycle Custom and Trade Show. A gory return bout two weeks later in Times Square scared hundreds of hief Coffey contacts the Fourth Dis- straights into vanishing like scared CNITO r rabbits down the subway entrances. C trict, relays the FBI tip. "There's no But by now the battling bikers weren't concrete evidence that they mean trou- ble," he adds. "And we can't stop the so readily identifiable as Pagans, Aliens, Outlaws. Many were shedding their old show on the basis of rumors." But he identities, combining into one of two promises a fleet of tactical unit cruis- main forces in the Eastern U.S.—Hell's ers to patrol the neighborhood, then Angels and Breed. outlines his precautionary strategy. The Angels were toughly arrogant, Around noon, Chief Coffey gets a copying the lifestyle of their West Coast call from Clayton Crook, police chief parent body. The Breed was attracting of Brunswick, 20 miles south of Cleve- younger recruits, cocky kids eager to land. Chief Crook advises him that a couple of local Breed members have carve a name for themselves . . . like rented a big, ramshackle barn, telling the kid with the spray gun who charged into a Cleveland tavern and wrote in L ••-• - .t.DI HIS MA, the owner that they need it for a re- two-foot letters on the mirror behind pair shop. And all morning, trucks and 131.1R1019n. cars have been arriving at the barn, the bar Bann—n.s. smuts's:as. IMF MOOSE WORM 02 WIDOW OF spilling over on the parking lot of St. Insolent challenges began to fly. BLOOPERS ante 511. LMISI Throughout the fall of 1970 skirmishes Ambrose Catholic Church next door. Coffey listens, staring gloomily out were sporadic—the bikers' power strug- even been thinking of how it would be gle was measured in terms of relative the window at the rain-swept streets if he owned his own gas station .. . of downtown Cleveland. He asks, "How recruiting figures. But the very fury of The showdown. Within 24 hours Dum the recruiting drives made a major many of them do you estimate have Dum Fidel was riding a pickup truck shown up so far?" confrontation inevitable. on his way to Cleveland. The East just wasn't big enough for At least 175," replies Chief Crook. It is 9:30 AM, March 7, 1971. Cleve- The Breed rendezvous is a two-floor both of 'em, Duni Dum Fidel told him- land Police Chief Lewis Coffey listens crumbling barn on Pearl Road in Brun- self soberly on March 8, 1971. He was on the phone, brow creased in a frown. swick. It's flanked by vehicles parked a dues-paid member of the Breed now, He hangs up and turns to an aide. "The bumper to bumper, bearing license 52

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