Argosy Interview: Gerry Hemming

Gerry Paired Ildraning luos come in from the cold. Lam ,Veen'. this Army mercenary and CIA contract agent (now a ithairo otivrittgahrr) .came to Senate orsoga- tors wah perhaps Mr most remarkable revela- tions erer ereekard about the ( .1.4 has, phut and plans. iNlow, in an exclusive ARGOSY interview, he has agreed to datiarate: • The INVIS.V11141114111 eV John 11 iscuitedy ii'a.i discerned anel planned—with 4:041 int the line—be a number arganced groups 111 /963. :It 11111411' 4IN /1111 dozen oilers were made 10 110,101101g .A prime mercenary army al assn-Caso Cuban eviles, the Internet- Mined Pow:anon Farce (Imerpen). • group pl unti-Castro (Whom in Floriekt, :cloth worked in dose harmony with the (LA, untie plans m.1971) to fire a nossile at Richard kcy Bunco presulentuil compound and make it appear to he art attack made hr 0151141. • MOT' Were plans concerveel h1 high gavernmetn circles- to lament Wain' at the I9 clorventions lie placi ng trummant :stratums 01 11,14' h111141% 111 eN11(01161. 101-$111M and mkt- iimg maw: SI111VIS. 4.1114. Ilion. House Plumbers unit, apparently planed a role in the .ottempt to obtain the ovapons, • tears of anh•Castro Urban (wk. naval cononatulfs, usal in inane Cbf (vow- tunes. Peel upon and sevdely 'ektinaged SpantshIship in 1964 when uhci mistook iffor the Castro vr.s.sel that the C Y.d had assigned them to soli.. • Daring the 19611s, hoemil Hughes' engarozalunt kept on finanual roamer a Callan ease arganizarain which attempted lo carry out tire 41.1:541M1111111411111116(hq ihrgires-kwini Bahamian esktud nests also ONO, as in mar-C'itson base of en:yawns Ilemmont, a six-Jinn-six es-,1Iarme Green Beret Ow /WOW perolltally Lee Ranee Oswald, Fidel Casa:), Frank %mei mid ("he Guevara, has aim identitiol several (tithe ''ha c011e-rianled 111 S1,11111e% report on CL-1-uttempted assassinations of JOrentn leaders; disciisseel the ma rncA An EX-CIA Man's operanoef ul norithi C1.4 contract raphreees in farming proprietary 4 0111pC11110% 1.0 len1Mier meow far Latin .4niernai assassonmons Stunning and analyzed the Atoli's imemy m mil:Vale OP Wino, House during the Kennedy years. Tire entessey al Gerry Ilrennong began at Revelations the mfninfants 1# where, ht.(' many Other adventurers nr the days before Castro turned to the COmomisis, he came to aid On "The Company," Fidel's rebels en their efloris to overthrow the corrupt Pedgencor Aroma Eventmelly, he was aNsoled he (awn to Ive»A UN 1111 officer- JFK's Murder, instructor en a pata(111110 fcg0111111, later as ailitotain ( -ohm; are bast' By t his tare, he was orally RA. I pt,i; axernr,r Ce1‘loe) ,60r And The Plot To Kill By Dick Russell Richard Nixon

APRIL, 1976 / 25 Grp • re...,. ..zowae...... :sItSt7aGna:9111■17.7A6?3,4,....1

American intelligence. In the fall of 1960, of conspiracy. l don't doubt that there are discovered by Fidel and facing possible execu- a dozen people out there that are sure they non, he escaped. are the ones who financed the Dallas job After contacting the CIA to tell them all he on Kennedy. knew about Castro's operations, Hemming ARGOSY: Were offers to assassinate settled in . There he started Interpen, Kennedy actually made to you and your a specialized group that named embittered group? Cuban exiles in special Florirkt camps .far HEMMING: Rather frequently. long-range penetration and guerrilla warfare ARGOSY: How many? against Castro's regime. He maintained a HEMMING: More than two dozen, by cadre of twenty-five instructors. And lie organized elements that had financial began a long friendly-adversary relationship backing within the . with the CIA, the Mob, the Hughes interests. ARGOSY: What kind of elements? The Congress. and many wealthy and influential right wing? Minutemen types? Americans. HEMMING: There might be a retired For the last ten years, since Interpen dis- armed forces type, a guy from the Klan. banded in 1964, Hemming has worked ,fin- a These would only be casual conversations. NASA project in Africa; as a paid investiga- When it came time to open up the tor on Jun Garrison's staff looking into the attachet case with the money in it, it was Kennedy assassination; and as part of a usually a mixed group. paramedic team that rescued survivors in the ARGOSY: You actually saw money on /970 Peruvian earthquake. the line? Gerry Hemming was around for the HEMMING: Oh yeah, more than once. tumult and the shouting, the hits and the Some of the cheapos talked about nus.ses. 1k was an insider who knew most of $100,000; one said they'd pay a million. the secrets and the locations of the skeletons ARGOSY: So what did you do? in the closet. Concerned that America may be HEMMING: About that point, we drifting perilously close to a Gestapo-type would gracefully back out of it. Then we state of mind, he has decided to talk. would later find out that they were trying to recruit our Cuban contacts for the same ARGOSY: You've told Senate investiga- purpose. tors that 1963 marked a startling change in ARGOSY: Do you think it's possible your liaisons with certain groups and cer- that the Kennedy killing involved some of tain wealthy American citizens. And this the Cuban exile community? change finally led to the dissolution of HEMMING: Yes, very possible. It your group, the International Penetration wasn't that hard a job. I've seen and been Force. Could you elaborate on what hap- on the scene for harder jobs than what pened then? happened in Dealey Plaza. You had a hard HEMMING: There were a helluva lot of core of characters in the Dallas Police and weird things going on. We'd begun to County Sheriff's Department that would encounter more and more organizations blow somebody's head off at a whisper. of people in different cities with one thing When you've got people running around on their mind—initially, taking care of who have friendships with organized Castro and then doing something about crime, Federal agencies, and have been in the other "problem," that "guy" in the bed with so many people—well, when the White House. You couldn't walk down assassination goes down, everybody's the street without running into some kind covering their tracks. ARGOSY: Can you be specific about the offers you received to kill Kennedy? HEMMING: Look, there are people who didn't have a goddamn thing to do with it, but they think they did because they were conned by other people. If they think somebody's gonna point the finger at them, they're gonna get 'em. And I'd like to stay alive. ARGOSY: You told the Senate in- vestigators that you believed in 1963 that Loran [Lorenzo] Hall was somehow involved. [Hall, an ex-CIA contract employee, right-wing politico and trainer of Cuban exiles for a Cuban invasion, was named by the Warren Commission as one of three men who may have been in Dallas with Lee Harvey Oswald in Sep- tember 1963.] HEMMING: Yes, the day of the assassination, I made a call to Texas from Miami. And I pointedly asked, is Lorenzo Hall in Dallas? I made the call about 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon. He was there. My contact had seen him in Dallas the day thought he was on the Naval Intelligence HEMMING: Consider that Castro was before. payroll at the time. faced with all these CIA-Mob hits; a lot of ARGOSY: Why were you suspicious of ARGOSY: What about Jack Ruby? Did people were coming down on him. At a Lorenzo Hall? you know of him? Supposedly he'd been lower echelon, people in his own circle, HEMMING: Because he left Miami with involved in Cuban gunrunning and smug- wanting to do the "big guy" a favor, the stated intent to get Kennedy. And he gling operations.... might've taken things into their own had my weapon, a Johnson 30.06 break- HEMMING: From what I understand, hands. I don't see Castro himself directing down rifle with a scope on it that had been Ruby was around way back in 1947 when the thing. It could've been like Jeb prepared for the Bay of Pigs. I'd left it with Claude Adderley — the Hiroshima pilot— Magruder and Gordon Liddy in Water- a private investigator who had previously got involved in a plan to bomb Havana. gate—you know, "we've got to get rid of worked under Agency [CIA] auspices on He also had a connection to an this Jack Anderson," so away Liddy goes the West Coast. Hall got the weapon when intelligence-Mob type in Mexico who was with a grenade in his hand. The thing is, we ran short of funds on a return trip from running the operation. They all got hauled you had so many people planning the L.A. to Florida, and we ended up using into Federal court, arms and equipment Kennedy thing, it was bound to come. Hall's car. were confiscated, and someone told me ARGOSY: Could one motivation have ARGOSY: You were working closely that Ruby had some kind of involvement. been to try to pin the blame on Castro in with Hall? HEMMING: He came out to work with our group in 1963. Then he ran afoul with some people, and immediately went to work with a group that I thought was infiltrated by Castro's agents. Hall ignored this. He siphoned off a couple of people who had worked with me in the past, and started organizing his own operation with [Frank] Sturgis and some other guys. ARGOSY: Hall left Miami again shortly before the assassination? Could you be more specific about his plans? HEMMING: He was gonna stop and look up a number of people. Some he'd met through me, others when he was in Cuba in 1959. One was Santo Traficante's brother in St. Pete, and some others who operated under Meyer Lansky's auspices. [Lansky is the boss of the National Crime And you can figure Ruby was acquainted Syndicate.] And there were still other con- with some of the people involved in the nections in Louisiana and Texas that had Kennedy operation in Shreveport, New expressed an interest. Orleans, and Texas. He worked with the order to justify an immediate invasion of ARGOSY: In eliminating Kennedy? mob and some Pittsburgh boys, Cuba? HEMMING: Yes. and was in good with the Lansky people HEMMING: There are people crazy ARGOSY: And you believe Hall was down in Havana. enough to think that that would be the directly involved ...? ARGOSY: So you see a definite role for outcome, If there had been enough HEMMING: He knew how to do the organized crime in the picture? fingers pointed in Castro's. direction, Lyn- job. We'd discussed various techniques as HEMMING: Look, going back to things don Johnson might've struck out at part of our schooling—techniques re- concerning the overthrow of Batista in Havana in the belief that it was a KGB quired for Havana, Port-au-Prince and 1958, the Mob was trying to get their boys [Russian intelligence]-Castro operation. other Latin American jobs. But I think into Cuba—Sturgis, Johnny Devereux, 'ARGOSY: Last year, you told Senate somebody was trying to put him there Jack Cannon, Herman Marx. They investigators about a similar situation in [Dallas] so he'd be one of the patsies. wanted people on both sides [with Batista 1970 when you discussed a plot by some ARGOSY: You've said you believe and with Castro]. Later they operated the anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami—who Oswald was a patsy. Did you ever have same way, trying to do the hits against worked closely with the CIA—to fire a contact with Oswald? Fidel through 1959 and 1960. missile at Richard Nixon's Florida presi- HEMMING: I ran into Oswald in Los ARGOSY: The Mob was actually pulling dential compound and make it look like a Angeles in 1959, when he showed up at those kinds of things in Cuba before the Castro-planned operation. Could you tell the Cuban Consulate. The coordinator of CIA's attempts on Castro's life? us what that was all about? the 26th of July Movement [a Cuban HEMMING: Well, let's say they all HEMMING: That was in the fall of organization] called me aside and said a know one another. They get along. Quite a 1970. Let me give you a little background. Marine officer had showed up, intimating few of the people who had worked for the This particular group of exiles was work- that he was prepared to desert and go to Agency and had gotten into a little trou- ing on a commodities exchange operation Cuba to become a revolutionary. I met ble, went to work for people that knew out of Florida. There's a tremendous with the Marine and he told me he was a Mob people or [Howard] Hughes people. shortage of commodities inside Cuba — noncommissioned officer. He talked about Everybody gets to know everybody else. coffee, flour, you name it. So the original being a radar operator and helping the And Castro was getting tired of the intent was to compromise some of Cubans out with everything he knew. He attempts on his life. And finally I think Castro's Cuban army types by getting turned out to be Oswald. some of Fidel's boys had people in Mexico them a few goodies now and then. There ARGOSY: What was your impression of monitoring the JFK thing in 1963. Their were a number of fishing boats moving him? Was he sincere? presence was indicated. out from Florida and taking commodities HEMMING: I thought he was a penetra- ARGOSY: You mean that Castro might down there—primarily ice, lard, used tor [of pro-Castro forces]. I told the 26th also have been involved in the Kennedy clothing, used shoes, and things like that. of July leadership to get rid of him. I imagsination? One thing led to another, and one of

APRIL, 1 976 / 27 the exile groups got absorbed by the CIA. were gonna get all their people out of boat whenever Nixon decided to take a The CIA started using this operation for Florida. They'd already acquired two cruise, pulled back. Nobody'd taken any getting agents in and out of Cuba. In many aircraft for that purpose. And they were precautions. cases they were even going inside small spending money. So here comes the president up the Cuban ports, escorted by Castro's PT I hesitate to say who knew about it or river [on Rebozo's boat], passing right by boats. They'd make their trades and pick approved it. But the thing was ongoing, this boat full of exiles. There was an up lobster. They could insert agents into and being monitored by the CIA. exchange of greetings in Spanish, and the Cuba that way as long as they didn't harm ARGOSY: What happened to stop it? Coco Lobo [Rebozo's boat] pulled over so that particular territory. They got a tre- HEMMING: Through my contact in the they could all shake hands! Those Cubans mendous amount of cooperation in the group, they approached me to get them a were drunk and there were automatic car- ports, so long as they weren't going in for pilot and backup aircraft to get them the bines lying on the bunks within six feet of A.P a commando operation, because every- hell out of Florida when the operation the president. All you needed was one guy ;.1 body was making a lot of money on this went down. So I took a little trip with my who wasn't in on the whole plan to say, commodities racket. contact to see the local Secret Service and "Okay, here I go," [take gun in hand] and About this time, one of my contacts we told 'em the story. There was a big flap spray the houseboat. There were Secret got into the thing. And before long, this about it, involving the Army and Navy Servicemen on board the houseboat, of group starts talking in Miami about having and everybody. But the CIA or course, but no deeper surveillance. the full cooperation of some Castro mili- Customs—or maybe both—put together a ARGOSY: But no incident occurred? tary types who were about to be issued a "personality memo" knocking me, and HEMMING: No. They exchanged greet- Russian Ossa patrol vessel, the kind that gave it to the Secret Service. Then a call ings and the boats continued on up the carries the Styx missiles. They said they comes from the Washington Secret Ser- river. It was ironic that they'd come also had contacts with some SAM vice, telling Joseph Gasquez of their together at this point. I don't know that [Strategic Air Missile] site people inside Miami bureau that the Army and Navy Nixon was in any real danger, but the Cuba with Castro's Air Force artillery. are on their ass. The guy wanted Gasquez potential was there. When I told Gasquez And the exiles were going to use those to quit meddling around. Gasquez says, of the Secret Service about this, he nearly people by putting together a simultaneous "These people are plotting to kill the hemorrhaged. plan. First, one of the SAMs would "acci- President of the United States! They've ARGOSY: What happened to the exile dentally" hit one of the aircraft heading got the weapons and the capability!" And group? into the U.S. base at Guantanamo and at Washington says, "Drop it." Gasquez had HEMMING: They're still in business. the same time, the presidential compound brought in some people to set up an illegal They shifted over to Chilean operations. on Bay Line in Key Biscayne would get hit buy of automatic weapons and explosives This same group set up hits in 1971 with a couple of Styx missiles. by the conspirators, so there'd be an against Fidel in Antafagasta and Santiago, Their patrol boat would innocently be excuse to arrest them. Chile, also in Lima, Peru. The attempt three or four miles out to sea—very easily About ten days went by. Then Gas- was heavily financed and might have identifiable with Cuban markings. They quez gets a hold of me and says, "Don't involved Howard Hunt and some other were gonna make sure to hit the com- worry, the CIA says they have it wired people. In Chile, I know a guy who carried pound when Nixon was in town. Maybe in." Well, of course they had it wired in— a camera with a built-in gun, but he they'd wait until he stepped out in his the guy leading the exile group had been chickened out about six feet away from helicopter. I don't know what the coor- in touch with the CIA continuously. But Fidel at the last minute, In Lima, they had dination was. I didn't get that close to it. now the CIA wanted my contact out of the an aircraft waiting with a large 20-mm can- But my impression was that there picture. I didn't go along with it. A few non in the door, waiting for Fidel to fly in. wouldn't be any survivors in the presiden- days later, a Customs and an FBI agent But Castro's plane pulled in with the door tial compound. approached the group where they had on the wrong side, and the American ARGOSY: And these exiles were work- anchored a fishing boat off the Flagler piloting the "hit" plane wouldn't move it ing for the CIA? Street Bridge in Miami. The FBI said down to a spot from which they could take HEMMING: Yes, they were monitored pointedly, "We have information that a shot. They were going to try something by the CIA. you're smuggling automatic weapons," in Bogota after that, with a pilot trying to ARGOSY: Was it specifically an assas- and glanced over at my man standing a knock down Castro's plane, but some- sination plot against Nixon? few feet away. They were trying to burn thing else went wrong. HEMMING: It could have turned into him, get him killed as an informer. ARGOSY: Was the incident in Key Bis- one. The people involved knew they were Anyway, the missile operation was cayne unusual? Surely it wasn't the kind art risking that among the fatalities could be blown. Whatever they were planning, they of thing that happened regularly? Richard M. Nixon. There wasn't any per- couldn't do it after all this. I doubt if they HEMMING: It was just one page in a big sonal animosity against Nixon. But it actually could've gotten an Ossa boat or book. I think there was quite a package didn't bother them in the least if it had to Styx missiles. If anything, they'd probably prepared. go that way. It was designed as a provoca- have been able to bring in a P-4 boat with ARGOSY: But by whom? tion. And what do you think Spiro Agnew a 3720-mm cannon on it. But this wasn't HEMMING: Who the hell could it be? would have done about six hours later, the end of it. About three days after the You've got enough factions, it could be thinking it was a Castro operation? FBI tried to burn my contact, he told me anybody. Everybody's had their little pri- la ARGOSY: So the plan was immediate what happened when Bebe Rebozo's vate CIAs for years—organized crime retaliation against Cuba by the U.S. houseboat started coming up the Miami people, Hughes people, not to men- government.... River with the president on board. tion Nixon's own little government within HEMMING: This was the group's ARGOSY: What was that? a government. thinking. They planned to have some HEMMING: First of all, the Secret Ser- ARGOSY: You told the Senate another "loyal" Castro types on board in the vice had been told by the CIA to stop any bizarre story about Frank Sturgis trying to patrol boat, the ones they'd contacted surveillance on the exiles' fishing boat. work out some kind of deal to obtain through the commodities operation, and The Agency said they had everything automatic weapons to disrupt the 1972 then the planners behind the real opera- under control, and that what I'd said Republican and Democratic Presidential tion would leave the boat. I imagine they [about the "accidental" missile attack] conventions. were gonna do something to the boat, or was all bullshit. So the Secret Service, HEMMING: This started when a former allow something to be done. Then they instead of standing on that goddamn exile continued on page 52

28 / ARBZY irk ,25,1%t.,,V01111Ed.1:7,7...KIWAVAU!..70

really a mezcal plant, and the only mez- cal that gives authentic tequila is the blue mezcal grown in the hot, volcanic soil of the town called Tequila. In this very high, hot country the mezcal plants take between eight and ten years to flower. Just before the plant shoots up to flower, there is a fantastic surge of juices in the core of the plant— called cabaa or pina. And this is harvest time. The plants grow in rows, looking like huge pineapples sticking out of the ground. A plant that is ready to flower can have a pina that weighs . anywhere from 40 to 250 pounds and is filled with juice. The jimadores (harvesters) begin their work long before the sun is up and burning hot. A good harvester can not only cut down 100 plants, but can also trim them of their leaves and shoots. The hearts are taken from the field and brought to the distillery where they are baked in pressurized ovens at a low tem- perature, until they are soft and brown. For This takes about nine hours. Year-Round After a day of cooling, the hearts are Leisure Living! crushed and shredded in order to extract Value and practicality combine P.O. Box 3244E Saginaw, Michigan 48005 all the juices, which then are collected in in this unique, build-it-yourself YES ...Rush a Leisure Home Planning Kit To: huge tanks. The sweet juice—called home from Wickes. To get addi- honeywater or aquamiel—is left to settle tional information on Grenoble in the tanks until it looks like melted and the many other componen- butterscotch. Not much later, a tized homes Wickes has available, "starter" is added from an earlier batch send this coupon and $2.00 for your Leisure Home Planning Kit. Do you have a lot available) of tequila and the juice begins to fer- Do it today! Located County State ment. The fermentation is swift and sure—usually taking about three or four days. Once fermentation is over, it's ready to be distilled. and forefinger and sprinkle it with salt. Moisten the rims of your cocktail glasses Tequila is distilled in pot stills—small Hold a wedge of lime between your with a wedge of lime and then spin them stills somewhat similar to those used to thumb and forefinger and the shot glass in a dish of salt. Refrigerate the glasses. distill cognac. They hold between 200 to in your other hand. The order of tasting Stir together the tequila, Triple Sec, and 300 gallons at a time. Most tequila is dis- the salt, lime and tequila is now up to lime juice. Pour into the salt-lined glasses. tilled twice. The "head" (that part of the you—lick the salt, pop the tequila, suck distillate that comes through first) and on the lime. Try any variation you like, the "tail" (that part of the distillate that but I guarantee you'll like it. SUNRISE comes through last) of each distillation If you find that method a little 2 oz. tequila are removed. The proof of the tequila, at difficult to pursue at a formal dinner this point, is a powerful 110. Depending party or at some strange bar, try mixing 4 oz. orange juice on what end result is desired, it is either your tequila. It mixes well and, like all Dash grenadine piped to lined tanks or to oak barrels. [fit other spirits, there's a classic cocktail is to be a white tequila—the most popu- that immediately comes to mind when Pour grenadine on the bottom of a tall lar—it is usually aged in lined or stain- you mention tequila's name—the glass. Fill with ice cubes. Slowly add the less-steel tanks for about three or four Margarita. Before I give you this recipe tequila and orange juice. The effect, with- months. Most times, however, it is bot- and one or two others, let me give you a out stirring or mixing, is that of a sunrise. tled immediately, and its proof is hint or two about using tequila in a reduced by adding distilled water before cocktail. Make sure everything you're And now for my favorite: it goes on its way to market. using for mixing drinks is freezer-cold, If the tequila is to be a gold (anejo) including your glasses. Perform all the BLOODY MARIA tequila, it is piped into oak casks and left functions (stirring, pouring, etc.) as to age for two or three years. Sauza quickly as possible. 2 oz. tequila Commemorative is a six-year-old 1 small can Snappy-Tom Cocktail tequila. It is almost like a brandy, and is MARGARITA just as expensive. In a tall glass filled with ice cubes, add Colorless, potent, and with a sweet 2 oz. tequila the tequila to the Snappy-Tom. Garnish smell, tequila is great, whether you drink 1 tablespoon Triple Sec with a wedge of lime. it in the traditional Mexican way or in a newfangled gringo way. If you strive for 2 teaspoons lime juice For more recipes using tequila, write to the authenuro, you must drink it straight Salt me in care of ARGOSY. Make sure you with salt and lime. Pour out a shot, then enclose a stamped, self-addressed en- moisten the area between your thumb I lime Nelope to insure a prompt response. II

APRIL, 1976 / 51 J...7./aart7TF,VrtaMVS'YY-'.? Itkatgarar.X=MIta

Hemming continued from page 28 ARGOSY: What stopped it from hap- big through "dirty" money and who were pening? under scrutiny by the IRS. They were associate of mine and I got together with HEMMING: 1 think some other people being approached by these same Agency some other people in the firearms busi- created enough heat to prevent the equip- employees, who said they had friends in ness, people who were legally manufactur- ment from falling into those hands. I think IRS and could get the heat off in exchange ing automatic weapons with silencers, [James] McCord was one who did some- for a small donation to the Watergate under government license in Georgia. We thing about it. I've been told [J. Edgar] Defense Fund. A lot of businessmen set up a Miami corporation called Hoover and certain Agency people were started playing ball. Parabellum, licensed for demonstrations upset that certain other people were trying Then, Andres Castro [of Bell and sales to the Latin American market, to create a private Gestapo in the U.S. So Mortgage] meets with these CIA people. By early 1972, we were also talking with they penetrated it, and took measures to They explain how he can double up on law-enforcement agencies about their stop it. My blessings are with them. mortgages and inflate the values on pro- acquiring some SWAT-type weapons, ARGOSY: What seems so incredible is perties while at the same time passing counterterror equipment, through our that so many groups with connections to some cash along to the CIA. firm. A tilde bit prior to this, I'd been the highest levels of government are able As time goes on, Andres is given some called by a local FBI agent who had asked to go off on tangents and plan terrible training in crypto-communications. They me to do a favor for a friend of Sturgis. deeds—right under the noses of the White put a hot-line in his office, a phone in his This aroused my curiosity somewhat. The House, the CIA, the FBI, and often car. They ask him to buy a more expen- next thing I hear is that Sturgis is running seemingly with their blessing. Or at least sive, faster aircraft—to fly wounded per- around to law-enforcement people giving with the blessing of a faction inside those sonnel out of Central America to them the same exact [sales] spiel I was! I government agencies. Can you cite any Bethesda Naval Hospital. Then they fly figured, at first, that he was trying to cut other examples of this kind of activity? him down to Nicaragua, where he meets into our market or something. He was HEMMING: Well, you've got the real with President Somoza, the CIA chief of fumbling around with chiefs of police in estate fraud involving Bell Mortgage. I've station, and Somoza's CIA-supplied little Florida towns, making promises to been working as an investigator for the bodyguard. Somoza confirms that the get them automatic weapons in return for attorney who filed Bell's suit against the mortgage money is to be used to finance a getting a bunch of his people [Ded as law CIA, It's a very complicated, very "Company" [CIA] operation involving enforcement people—reserve officers, involved situation. It starts with Water- Chile, Panama and Costa Rica — deputies—so they could carry the same gate, when you had a lot of CIA Cuban specifically, it was For getting rid of weapons, Then I picked up on a couple of and American contract operatives coming [Salvador] Allende in Chile and Torrijos right-wing types talking about how they under some pressure from [James] in Panama. [Allende was killed in the had a lot of automatic weapons, and when Schlesinger, who had taken over in the Chilean coup of September 1973.] Andres the political conventions came down to Agency. He'd started cleaning house, peo- is told to start replacing his employees at Miami .. , well, this started smelling a lit- ple were being fired left and right on short Bell Mortgage, one by one, with CIA tle bit funny. notice, and operations were being shut employees. He winds up having to deliver I had no idea at this time that Sturgis down. Then [William] Colby took over. $400,000 and then $900,000 to two CIA was working the Watergate Plumber He wanted summaries of everything that contacts in Florida, through a guy named thing. I did some checking with Alcohol, was happening. Guillermo Yglesias. Andres finally went to Tobacco and Firearms, and told them Now a helluva lot of [CIA] contract the CIA in Langley and told them what Sturgis wasn't working for us, and wasn't employees working Latin America were was going on. But the CIA had already licensed to sell firearms or mention our also working for other Federal agencies, been officially informed—and did particular brand name. Then I got the such as Internal Revenue and Drug absolutely nothing about it. Somebody word that I'd spoiled something, stepped Enforcement [DEA]. People like this start with a law background would call that on somebody's toes. What I'd done got under CIA retainer, but the CIA budget "misprision of a felony." But the CIA back to the Plumbers, apparently, and can't afford them full-time, so they get couldn't touch Guillermo Yglesias, some people started using influence from traded around. Then, when Watergate because he had something on them. He Nixon's White House and the State started crumbling and everybody was pull- had been in on an operation in 1964 when Department to cancel our export licenses. ing in their horns, these contract guys some Spanish seamen were murdered. They put us out of business. panicked and started setting up some new ARGOSY: What operation was that? ARGOSY: But what was Sturgis going to proprietary companies to fund Latin HEMMING: The CIA was using a group do with this scheme? Were there actually American operations. They might've of Cuban exile naval commandos, affili- plans in the works to disrupt the Miami looked for financial support through nar- ated with [Manuel] Artime and based pri- conventions in 1972? cotics, too. But primarily, the proprietaries marily out of the Dominican Republic. HEMMING: It's hard to pinpoint could supply enough funding to keep Many of the participants were listed as Sturgis. Who knows whether he knew things going and buried from the scrutiny Dominican Navy or Air Force officers, so what was going on? But, yeah, there were on Schlesinger and Colby until things if somebody ever nailed them in a big con- plans for the convention. I talked to some quieted down. One of these was Bell gressional investigation, they had their of the people participating in it, who later Mortgage. cover established. In 1964, one of the participated in the Watergate thing. Andres Castro developed Bell operations was to intercept and sink a ARGOSY: What were they planning? Mortgage in 1969. He was very successful. Castro cargo vessel called the Sierra HEMMING: Create a shoot-out, using Then he was asked if he'd be interested in Maestra. They'd had surveillance on it the Yippies and Zippies and the other talking to a couple of these local contract when it left either a Finnish or Russian "hard-core Commies" they were so wor- people because, they said, the CIA was port, and they had an ambush set up to get ried about. The people I spoke to were looking for patriotic citizens to help as it as it approached the Bahamas. But the gonna put some of this equipment in their fronts for laundering money and financing boats that were set up for the intercept hands, and some in law-enforcement operations. They told him a lot of banks were being hampered by bad visibility. hands, and use some of the local vigilantes were running scared because of Water- They saw this ship coming out of the fog, to start the shoot-out. This would finally gate, so [CIA] funds were frozen in cer- and the commander could make out the straighten out Washington as to where the tain banks in Florida and other places. word Sierra, so they fired. They killed the priorities were on overcoming the See, at the same time here in Miami, there captain and half the crew, and burned the "domestic Communist menace." were other big businessmen who'd gotten hell out of the ship. And it was a Spanish

52 / ARTS' ship—the Sierra Aranmzazu. All com- this Hughes network? Shelton, a Special Forces commander in mando operations were cancelled the next HEMMING: More than one. The group Panama. They got the okay from the Joint day. It was all published in the press— Moody had on retainer inserted numerous Chiefs to do the operation on Che. Once except for who did the job. Our govern- teams into Cuba, trying to do hits, and a they'd determined that Che was giving ment denied knowing a goddamn thing helluva lot of people got killed. In 1961, Cuban-type guerrilla training in Bolivia, about it. Well, there are murder warrants eighty-eight of their people were executed they took two teams down to Santa Cruz waiting in Spain for the CIA right now. by Fidel. Then I know of a job they were del Sur to train anti-Che Bolivian rangers. Any of these people—Captain Mateo, gonna do on Fidel in Miramar, Cuba, in This took about four months. Then they Second Officer Remigio Arce, Engineer- 1964. There was a bad scene in Key West went on the hunt, using special C-130 ing Officer Guillermo Yglesias—could all when one of the boats blew up and a guy aircraft—including U-2 overflights and be hauled to Spain tomorrow and garroted got killed. infrared photography—to locate Che for murder on the high seas. Some For another hit, Sturgis' buddy Diaz people. They finally nailed him. [Alonzo] Americans would get hung, too. Lanz was brought in to do the job, and he Gonzalez and a guy called Ramirez did the ARGOSY: Were you ever personally left for Cuba from Cay Sal. Cay Sal is tech- job on Che. [Gonzalez, a Cuban, was edu- involved In anything like this? nically part of the Bahamas, but the cated in the U.S., and worked for the HEMMING: Oh, In 1961, some Mob Hughes Tool Company has a ninety-nine- Office of Naval Intelligence in Guan- people wanted my group to do a couple of year lease on it. From Key West, Osmant tanamo.] jobs up in Canada. There was a ship that Moody oversees it and a Bahamian named All this was a kind of Operation was supposed to go out through the St. Robinson is stationed there. If strangers Phoenix [the CIA's Vietnam terror and Lawrence Seaway, carrying spare parts came on, he'd radio to Moody. You didn't assassination campaign] for Latin and aviation machinery to Cuba. They go near Cay Sal unless it was cleared, America. There's a guy in Miami who wanted us to hit it. Later, instead of doing either through Moody or the Agency. It worked on this more than once. Evidently that, they wanted us to beach it some- was really a launching area place to run to he's now had a falling out with some where in South Carolina. We kind of when people have a rough time getting Cubans involved in narcotics. He's a close frowned on that, because people call it out. Of course, others who wanted to get friend of Bebe Rebozo, and Rebozo's piracy. It would not have been in our best out just went to an intelligence ship—a interested in protecting him. interest to do some of the things they were Pueblo-type vessel called U.S.S. Oxford— ARGOSY: What kind of role does promoting. that moved up and down the coast. Nixon's friend Rebozo play in all this? And I was aware of a couple of the ARGOSY: Did you know Robert HEMMING: He's no more than a bag- attempts on Fidel. We [Interpeni felt Maheu, the Hughes man who served as man. He was the guy who had prime Castro was so clumsy that leaving him in the liaison between the CIA and the Mob responsibility for sifting through all the power suited our purpose more than on some of the other attempts on Castro? plots, schemes and connections—to find allowing Raul [Castro] or Che [Guevara] Or John Roselli, the Mob guy who was the ones that would best benefit "tricky or some of the more hard-core Com- one of Maheu's contacts? Dick." Some of the local Cuban exiles munists to take control. Even the KGB HEMMING: Names like Maheu didn't penetrated the Nixon circle and were [Russian intelligence] attempted a coup come up. John Roselli I knew—but I guests at the presidential compound, The against Fidel in '63 because they wanted didn't know who he was. He was using the Secret Service logs would show that—if the Party and not some wild-eyed guerrilla name Phil. These are guys who don't use you could find them. operation in control. their last names. ARGOSY: This connection between ARGOSY: Who was paying your way ARGOSY: Was the Hughes-CIA-Mob people in government and Cuban exiles or back then? link around Cuba a wedding or a rivalry? other Latin American operatives is amaz- HEMMING: There were dribs and drabs HEMMING: Convenience. You're not ing. Can you think of anything else along from people connected with organized talking about Hughes himself on a lot of those lines? crime, some from the right wing, and these things. But the interest of some HEMMING: The Trujillo thing in the even some from quite liberal sources. An tower- or middle-echelon Hughes people Dominican Republic, back in '61 and ex-dictator from Colombia sent us a was to provoke situations and lobby where before that. There was an American, an monthly stipend because he envisioned they could. There were things they could ex-Marine, who worked for Arturo someday using our [Interpen's] talents for all make a buck on. It's hard to say what Espaillat, Trujillo's chief of intelligence. his benefit. The same thing happened with kind of operations, though. He got involved in some of the Trujillo an ex-dictator from Venezuela. Our job ARGOSY: Anything else you can tell us operations—the Galindez kidnapping, an was mostly to introduce some Cuban ex- about anti-Castro operations back then? attempted assassination of [Romulo] iles to people who had money, and also to HEMMING: Well, if you want to get Betancourt of Venezuela, and some anti- show these exiles how to stay away from into the Senate's foreign assassinations Castro and anti-Haiti things. All through the suicide operations that other groups report, the "B-1" that they mention as a this, Trujillo was kicking some money in wanted 'em to do. CIA contact to assassinate Fidel is Manuel the right direction—to Congressman ARGOSY: You mentioned earlier that Artime. [Artime, a close friend of Howard Cooley, Senator [George] Smathers, and ' organization had its own Hunt, was among the exile leaders in the some others. A whole gang of congress- operation in Florida that concentrated on planning of the Bay of Pigs invasion]. And men got real friendly with those people. Cuba. Can you go into more detail on "AM/LASH," the guy the CIA gave the And this American ex-Marine was the that operation? poisons to for administering to Fidel, is ; he could get entree to those peo- HEMMING: Getting research on the Rolando Cubela. He's under house arrest ple. He did all the English publications Hughes operation is well nigh impossible, in Cuba now. Hunt was in on that, too. that Trujillo sent up to congressmen and but it was a sizeable organization. One Desmond Fitzgerald [CIA Western wrote pro-Trujillo articles for the Cuban exile organization was on a Hughes Hemisphere chief] and some of his boys Indianapolis Star, which Trujillo also retainer handled by C. Osmant Moody, were running the "Z-R Rifle" Castro kicked money into. But he knew it was who's now, I think, southeastern director assassination operation the Senate talks only a matter of time before Trujillo's end. for one of Hughes' larger insurance outfits about in its report. [The CIA helped ensure Trujillo's located in Miami. The guy's a millionaire ARGOSY: What about the tracking assassination in 1961.] Espaillat knew the himself. down of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967? whole scheme, and suggested to his ARGOSY: Do you know of any attempts Was that a CIA operation? American aide that it looked like to assassinate Castro that emanated from HEMMING: The team was under Major Washington was gonna "go all the way,"

APRIL, 1976 / 63 so why not just watch what happened? while somebody was trying to provoke a himself—that if I wanted to stay alive, I Espaillat tried to take over after the hit confrontation between Cuba and the U.S. had better never pass on anything that J went down. He died in an accident in We were more than willing to go along could be attributed to me. I should be an Lisbon a few years ago. His American with that—the night Kennedy went on anonymous phone caller. If I didn't cover friend went to work for a private CIA TV, we'd launched a boat on an operation my tracks, he told me, I would soak up operation in Baltimore called International from Marathon Key to Havana pro- some lead. Since that time, I have basically Services of Information. vince—but the crisis wasn't real. You look just stuck my nose into things to find out ARGOSY: When you talked to the at who benefited from such things and if other people knew about them. I'd later Senate, you also mentioned a remarkable you could see how they'd be engineered. I find [using this method] that some who situation around a former Florida gover- think Kennedy found out towards the were supposed to know didn't, and others nor named Ferris Bryant. end, and that's why things developed as did, but did nothing about it. In my HEMMING: Yes, he was governor they did. younger years, I felt they knew better than before Claude Kirk. Well, by early 1962 ARGOSY: It seems we're getting back to me, so I'd just keep my mouth shut. Now we'd [Interpen] established a very good the Kennedy assassination. One final that the years have gone by, I find out why relationship with some very influential thing that's surfaced in recent weeks—the things happened in a certain way. people in the United States. It had taken a Exner woman who had relationships with ARGOSY: Are there others like yourself lot of hard work, a helluva lot of talking both Kennedy and Mobsters Sam Gian- who'd now be willing to go public? and convincing. And some of this led us cans and John Roselli. HEMMING: There are some people to Governor Bryant's staff. He, along with HEMMING: Yes, this was the Mob who are a little perturbed. They saw how Senator [Kenneth] Keating and some penetrating the White House. When you the Cuban situation was used for personal others, were recipients of raw intelligence talk about the Mob, you're not talking gain by Nixon people, CIA people and about Cuba, prior to the missile crisis. about a homogeneous unit. The only everybody else. For a long time, they And he was concerned about the homogeneous part is Lansky's, but the believed this was one country that wasn't possibility of Florida suffering the first Mob is mostly feudal warlords in major like Latin America, where everybody's on damage in any encounter. During the cities. Quite a few have developed their the take. The Watergate thing really Southeastern Governor's Conference in own CIAs. This is right in line with their burned 'em. They're feeling low about it. September 1962, he'd planned to bring penetration of law-enforcement agencies, And they've got a pretty clear picture of some of the governors into our exile train- which gives them access to things like things. They know they were used. ing camps, go public and say he was judges and FBI documents. They've ARGOSY: Any final thoughts on the organizing a state militia to train American learned how to wire tap the FBI just like state of the union? and Cuban exile volunteers, in case of any the FBI wire taps them. Their program has HEMMING: I can still See the need for threat from Cuba. This was based on an always been, naturally, to penetrate at the covert operations. But I can't see FBI, old law instituted when Florida came into highest level. And they did. They did it CIA or other government employees the union, which said that the state could very well. There were Cubans up in the breaking the law, That's right around the have foreign dealings and its own small White House, too—select Cubans kept on corner from Gestapo. If guys can go out state department to conduct preventive government retainers, who knew every- and murder while they're carrying govern- warfare against the Indians. About this thing going on and at some point made ment IDs, what are they gonna do next time, James Meredith unexpectedly Mob connections. Some stayed at Bobby week? You always need that "snoopin' walked into the University of Mississippi Kennedy's house, and one dated Jackie's and poopin'," that's what the Agency was [creating a civil rights crisis] and this broke social secretary. They have since gravi- designed for. But keep covert operations up the governor's conference. The Ken- tated to good political positions in the U.S. separate. Go hire the goddamn mercen- nedy people moved in fast to get a hold of and elsewhere. They became part of the aries and let them do the dirty work. Then Bryant and brief him [tell him to keep political family up there. We [1nterpen] you're not involving the flag, and you quiet] about the imminent missile crisis. monitored them, and used them like the don't have government men running Afterwards, the Kennedy people got him Mob used them. dope and doing hits on the side for money. to Washington, D.C. as Director of the ARGOSY: Do you mind our asking how Look, every time you turn around, the Office of Emergency Planning. This gave you came to possess all this information? CIA is supporting one side or the other, or him a seat on the National Security Coun- HEMMING: It's a very small world in mucking around diplomatically, trying to cil, a place where you can brief somebody this business. We're all the same people. screw things up. And all the foul-ups they to death. They put him "on the team." You don't go outside a circle, you know? had would never have occurred if they'd ARGOSY: Then there was considerable If you're involved in arms supply or kept their fingers out. Allende didn't have advance warning on the missile crisis? whatever, it's always the same contacts. a chance in Chile until they started fight- HEMMING: My group had started get- We had guys constantly working with us ing him. Just supporting the right-wing ting information from Cuba indicating until they were picked up by the CIA. and giving them more than they had com- tighter security activity, more than just Then when the CIA dropped them, they'd ing, gave more support to Allende. If antiaircraft missile defense operations, come back to us. These Cubans' prime they'd stayed out, nature would have and enlargement of Russian facilities. belief was that we were the good CIA taken its course. Some disgruntled These later were identified to be the SAM guys. To stay in good with us, they'd even Chilean would've blown his head off. Or sites and mobile medium-range ballistic check with us prior to operations. So here I he would have turned into a Tito or some- missiles. But as far as we were concerned, was, sitting in the street with people pour- thing. Now it comes back on us. the missiles were never delivered to the ing in and out with all kinds of confidential They're always so worried about some island. Preparations were made, but our information. guy going Commie. To this day, Castro is information indicated there never was a ARGOSY: Why have you decided to talk not a Communist. He isn't about to take missile in Cuba. Kennedy was scammed. about it now? orders from somebody. He isn't stupid He was so suspicious of the CIA's photo- HEMMING: These last ten years have enough to follow anybody else's doctrine. interpreters that he insisted that the been a tremendous education. South of He's gonna listen to some Muscovite jerk Defense people take over. [CIA Director the border you learn a lot of things you're that's never been out in the [Cuban] John] McCone was away on his honey- not taught in school, and you can get past bush? Bullshit! moon, and then his son-in-law got into a the propaganda if you know how to read it. Yeah, all these people that are so wor- strange accident [keeping him away I learned from one of my early contacts in ried about conspiracies.... They're creat- longer]. All kinds of things were going on intelligence—a gentleman who later killed ing the conspiracies. •

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