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Home , Frank Sturgis

10 June 1975 -

Z.TEMORANT;U:.f FOR: Director of Secuiity NTA I . SU3JECTS STURGIS, Frank Anthony aka: PIORINI, }:rank

Forr...... Evere.tt Howard, Jr.

1. The attached menweandum, datod and above, resulted from a review of Office of Securitycaptioned material as . concerning Frank Anthony Sturgis, aka: 'Frank Fiorini, to further substantiate the. Agency's recent public statement the: nsve.^.' with thAgfrilzr- The writer found no information in the material reviewed vhich would contradict the Agency's public statentnt; how apparent that anjunknown'group.has backed some of -ever,Sturzis's it is activities.

- 2. The attachment is designed as a lead paper unly- it should not be consideved definitive—to sho4 a line of investigation that can he pursued. The writer will attempt no further official research into this matter without approval from higher authority.

v ,••s ,I'M- -cr:- """' t 4,...!...% 1 . ,•,_ r ; ; OA... —t ,IS Document Number

far FOR Review oft 19,77

- Attachment 10 June 197S

M::ORAY.:".:L7.1 FOR THE RECORD SUBJECTS: STURGIS, Frank Anthony aka: FIORIN1, Frank

HUNT, Everett Howard, Jr. /.

1. in his book, Give Us This Day ('The Inside Story of- the CLN and the Bay of Pigs Invasion_ .."), on pages 93-103, Everett Howard HUNT, Jr., gives an account of some of the activiti::s of Pedro Luis DIAZ LANZ who defected from Castro CJ. 171 r_LZ, 7.9:9 of Castro air force. HUNT points out that in October 1059 DIAZ LANZ piloted a small plane dumping hundreds of anti-Castro leaflets over Havana. DIAZ LA Z's copilot on the flight is identified as Frank FIORINI, aka: Frank STURGIS. HUNT goeS on to describe what would appear to be -personal contacts with DIAZ LANZ La the area, utilizing the services of : in his contacts with DIAZ LANZ and other Cubans. HUNT further describes his attempts to involve DIAZ LANZ with the Agency in the invasion, but HUNT's overtures were not accepted by Headquarters. The concluding paragraph of this account states: "After the invasion the Kennedy Administration could not do enough for Manuel RAY. A cozy post was secured for him in Puerto Rico as Chief of Munoz Marin's housing projects. I am sure that no equal effort was made in be of. Pedro Luis DIAZ LANZ, for our national tradition has become one of shabby diScrimination against known anti-Communists." 'NOTE: • HUNT's contacts with DIAZ LANZ occurred .during the period circa October 1960 to circa 'November 1961 while PUNT was assinmed tol Miami. 2. Office of Security files/ and concern Pedro Luis DIAZ LANZ but reveal no use of DIAZ LANZ in the Cuhan invasion or other Agency operational matters. File! concerns Marcos DIAZ LANZ, the brother of . Pedro Luis DIAZ LANZ. The file reflects that Marcos DIAZ LANZ was the Deputy Chief of Castro's_air force until his _. defection in. July 19E9"

There iq slloWinq the'mutual involvement of Frank FIGRINI with the DIAZ LANZ brothers ia aati7Castro,activities until at least the summer of 1963. 3. Information in the file of Frank Anthony STURGIS, aka: Fran4 reflects that from circa May 1960 to at least January 1961, STURGIS was living' 1n the Miami area training a group of Cuban and American volunteers_ for a military invasion of . 1

—) [ • Reportedly, sluto.GIS' invasion. group in January 1961 was calling itself, ''Brigades Internacionale," wit:t variations of "International Anti-Communist Brigade" and "Anti-Communist International-Brigada.' One of the sub-units of the "Brigade" was identified in the press in July 1961 as being a paratroop unit called "Intercontinental Penetration Force" or iINTERPEN4 The Commander of INTERPEN was identified astgerald Patrick Jr.,; . The Office of Security file of STURGIS contains nothing further until October 1963, when his arrest was announced in October 1963--while still heading the "International Anti-Communist Brigade"--for his .

2 involvement in a group attetpting to enter to "clean out anti-Guatenalan guerrillas." At that tim e FIORIMI claimed that two men who were sponsoring his operation were Bob HOwILL, allegedly a friend of the Kennedy family, and a General SIDDLZ, member of the (John) Birch Society. 4. To retUrn to the-events of the early 7.06 s, in. July 136Z an article appeared in the New Orleans States Item by Bill STUCKEY, concerning an anti-=Ca...stini.ng base establ4shed on the north shore o-E Lake Pontchartrain. This urit waQ. identified as INTERPEN, headed by Gerald ;Patrick ITEMMING, Jr. The article inferred that INTERPEN was still- Frank FIORINI's (STURGIS) 'Internatioaal Anti-Communist PartBrigade. of This particular unit received nationwide publitity 967 -then New Orleans District Attorney GARRISON allege& Si President inthat 1 INT-T.:PEN was involved in the assassination 'ENN,DY and that INTERPEN members were connected with John F. :4. CIA S. The above noted Bill STUC7ZEY'who wrote the July 1962-h,... '. 3 article about INTERPEN and HE2VING is identical with 1 . avvey OSWALD .during a public Axes `f who inter7iewed Lead incr. to re9timonv WIlliam S'7:Cv-:-- ust 1:,63. ,c.:7.- broadcast in New Orleans in ,11%- -LW and Carlos in the Warre:t Connission hearings by William STUCK TyRINGUIER (Cuban Student Directorate delegate in New Orleans).ER's in early August 1963, came to BRINGUIwas a - New Orleans clothing store announcing that he, OSWALD, farmer Marine trained in Who wanted to join an anti-Castro guerrilla group in New Orleans. (NOTE: !any of the INTERPEN group were ex-Marines, as was Frank FIORINI.) BRINGUIER claims he stalled OSWALD and several days later en- rj New Orleans passing out' countered OSWALD on the streets of - "Fair Play for Cuba" leaflets. The encounter led to a disturb ance, and OSWALD and BRINGUIER were arrested. BRINGUIER subse- quently alerted STUCKEY to OSWALD which resulted in the broadcas interview. It is of note that BRINGUIER inferred 4e was know- fledgeable of the anti-Castro guerrilla group traiaing on the north share of Lake Pontchartrain and even collected funds for ,the travel of two of the tethers to niani when the group was ;the • 6. The individual in INTERPEN of host interest to GARRISC: was1Loran• Eugene HALL., aka: Lorenzo PASCILLO, aka: Skip HALL ostensibly arrived in Dallas, Texas; ici Octob i0,5i- - 1 - ' -. . , 1

.•■••••• 1963, remaining until after President K321NaDY was shot. GARRISCIS also alleged that HALL was involved with the "Minutemen." The HALL file reflects that in August 1963 HALL as in SouZhitrn California, where he spoke before Inumerous meetings of the John Birch Society attemoting to `raise f=nd.s. for as anti-Castro planned invasion of Cuba rscheduled for 'pia-September 1953. . 7. In prank STURGIS, E. Howard HUNT, Bernard axamiR, and others were arrested while burglariming the headq,..larters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate, Washington, D.C.

4 ! l!ce ST,A.TP,S

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1. Off: :c .ested contained in the e::clo:;:i ar_ :1.a by B111 3tuckey. appeared in afffagazine p'.:bli5:1ed in Crleaas. A'co:; • ;a has been forwarded to if

2. Any questions mertaininft to tl-is memorandum Shou1:1 be directed tc/

Ar: stated abs—..

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T 1-EcLrAiN) ANL) Ii-ft AMERICAS k di'ilenturer Works Hard to Establish.

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•: 7*-1-2- .= BT.BILL-STUC•KEY: VV . - . Local, Cubans and • a shadowy -American ad- militia trona important sabotage missions. venturer have been working feveri3hly—but un-' ;Lou,. is,Habell,,local delegate to the Cuban Revolutionary successfully—for over a month to set up an anti- CounciLhowever, confirmed that last week the Miami cowl., Castro guerrilla training base near Covington. cil headquarters nixed the Covington base for undisclosed reasons. The American soldier...of-fortune. The States-Item learned, : is Gerald Patrick Hemming, who goes by the nomme •Who is this Patrick? de guerre of Jerry Patrick. He claims to be an ex-Marine. _ , Patrice nrst RABELL DESCRIBES HMI as a rangy, six-foot-seven popped into the Miami newspapers found he was trainingnews last anti-Castro summer when gun type who can shoot two heavy machine guns from the rillas in the Everglades. He called his band the Inter- hip at the same time, cowboy style. Miami sources say he , continental Penetration Force. Both he and "Interpen," wears- an Australian bush hat,' sports a neat beard and wears.his hair however, dropped out of sight last tali after the FBI began long and wavy. He's been described as an checking to see if Erroll Flynn type in appearance, a French musketeer he was violating U.S. neutrality laws. and as the "biggest, strongest and Last February, Patrick showed up in New Orleans, type apparently at the invitation of local Cuban Revolutionary Interpen. handsomest" man in Council leaders and other Cubans who Although he claims his group has little money, local wanted to take direct action against Cubans guess that he has extensive financial backing. His- Castro. With the help of anonymous U.S equipment is of the latest model, and the power boat he brings here periodically is ,"at least a $20,000 job." Patrons, the Cubans began supplying Pat- - rick with machine guns, explosives and Patrick tells Cubans he wants to topple Castro because• • .her military supplies. the Fidelista regime imprisoned his Cuban 'wife on charges of "counter-revolutionary activity." Patrick made regular trips here, slip- to 30 years.• She has been sentenced ring in and out of the port secretly in fat, • . modem, well-equipped PT boat About 30, Patrick claims to have served with the Marine Last spring, another anonymous U.S..' Corps for more than four years, including a stint in the . atron offered the Cubans and Patrick' Far East as a sergeant. with the Marine Air Wing, How- large tract of land—complete with air ever, when Patrick first began to get headlines there, Miami . . rip on the north shore of Lake Pante/rat sources said Marine records show no trace of either a Patrick or a Hemming. ain. Patrick , siTUCKeY agreed to set up a training base, handling Patrick also says he was a paratroop Instructor with Asses of 50 or so Cuban recruits at a time. After com-' etion of the training, the guerrillas would be like their Castro in 1958, and stayed on with the .erglades counterparts, transported to Cuba secretly to August, 1960. About the time he left CubanCuba, heregime was untilalso involved in an "invasion" intended to topple the Somoza ,rk with the anti-Castro "Clandestinaje" (underground). regime in . The men would also have been used to make lightning .is on the Cuban coast to divert the attention of Castro's Estimates of the size of his organization' rang. from 30 to 100 men—Cubans, Americans. Latins, Canadian and others.;

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• "We weed out all the crackpots and bums,.!Zhe has:said.. here -wouldgo something like this— Interpen :is,-conneeted with the International: Anti-' ' ''CarlosGard.Z sesta- certainly misses that grocery store back mmunist Brigade headed by Freels. Fiorini, another Amer- -on -Miro; - in who fought with Castro (and who was rewarded by Other: local landmarks are also referred. to .in the broad- -coming overseer of Havana gambling operations after casts. • itista's fall). Now at odds with Castro, Fiorini claimed And in -Miami a tremendous wave of optimism has .rlier this month that 20 of his men had landed in swept the large Cuban colony there, according to Girard° stanzas province. - Abascon of the highly respected and informative Trutt! ; • - . • • About Cuba Committee. (Abascon, former owner of a BOTH FIOREVI AND PATRICK at one time had con- distillery In Cuba- before Castro, was here recently.. He ctions with Sanchez keno, former minister' of foreign and other committee workers translated important tenons and education under pre-Batista President Cer- news - items from Castro news media ar.d circulate ; Prix Socarras. It's an educated guess.. that Patrick's printed form throughout this country,), • them in 4, 1:Acker might be Prio, who reputedly left Cuba with -.. AU this comes on the eve of a .significant Castro an- huge- fortune. • - • - • 'niversary—July 26. On that date nine years sago, Castro '. Although the Patrick guerrilla bast plan fell through • first burst into Cuban headlines when more than 100 of re,. -there is enough happening to- whet 'the- appetite of his followers made a suicidal assault on the aloncada .y invasion-rumor connoiseur. racks, a Batista army base in Santiago, Oriente province. .,Last April, The States-Item confirmed for the first AT HIS TRLIL FOR THE alonceda assault. Castro de- ... ee that Cubans were trained here, at the old Algiers livered an eloquent address otulining his program for a . imunition'. dump, for the Bay of Pigs invasiem Their "democratic and socially just" Cuba—an address admired ,ban.leader, an ex-Castro officer named Nino Diaz, re- by many of his anti-Communist followers. .-ned to Miami'When the New Orleans force was unable The upshot of the whole affair is that Cattio's political land: • . . group was named the "?..lovirrilento 26 de Julio."' Latest reports now are that Diaz and a group of from to 100 men returned to Cuba within recent weeks, and Abascon reports that Cuban press says Castro plans • • a tremendous demonstration in Santiago on fighting now In the Sierra alaestra mountains of the 26th in honor of the anniversary. It might be Interesting to know what .ente province. kind of demonstrations • • • the anti-Castro underground are plane - ning the same day. AT LEAST EIGHT OTHER refugees who lived in _ - New Interestingly enough, a newly-arrived refugee, Eduardo — !r, :earls are now in Cuba with the underground, Rabeil Dominguez, told The States-Item he was in on plaataing that Tne only f. such refugee whose name he remembers, 1963 Moncada assault.. He said he had known Castro as a .1 said, is Carlos Lazaraba, a pilot. student in the University of Havana '(where Dominguez Broadcasts !min the three underground radio trans- studied accounting). tars inside Cuba, which are occasionally received here . Ah, but reliable old fate stepped in and D short wave, also indicate the presence of New Orleans .oraniquaz didn't get to go on the aloncada assault. Reason? ions on the island. A favorite code message to relatives "I lost my pistol," he said. -

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