HAVANA – William
A. Morgan of Toledo, Ohio, who died with “extraordinary valor” before a
firing squad still swearing allegiance to Fidel Castro, was buried Sunday
in a traitor’s grave.
Premier Castro,
the only man who could have saved the 34-year-old onetime hero of the Cuban
revolution, was at a party tendered by Chinese Communist officials when
Morgan faced his executioners Saturday night. Morgan never got an answer
to his death cell request for a meeting with his former friend.
An appeal for
mercy from Morgan’s mother in Toledo went unheeded. The Swiss embassy delivered
her appeal. The United States could not intercede since it has broken with
Castro and Morgan had forfeited his American citizenship by fighting in
the revolution.
A hero to Cubans
until the Castro regime turned on him, Morgan was buried in Colon Cemetery
beside his aide, Maj. Jesus Carrera, who died with him “at the wall” in
La Cabana fortress.
An official observer
reported the last moments in Morgan’s adventurous life:
Just before 10
p.m. he was led into the grassy moat of La Cabana. Floodlights bathed the
bullet-pocked wall for the army marksmen holding high-powered Belgian rifles.
The sounds of
Havana’s Saturday night carnival could be heard drifting over the walls
of La Cabana.
The cheers of
other prisoners were in Morgan’s ears as he walked from the cell block
into the moat and to the wall.
Morgan, who received
spiritual succor and the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church from two
priests, embraced the captain of the firing squad who approached him.
To the end he
swore allegiance to the Castro regime which accused him of feeding supplies
to anti-Castro rebels in the Escambray Mountains. He maintained innocence
to the end.
“He died with
extraordinary valor,” said the official witness.
Observers predicted
Morgan’s execution will backfire and that, dead, he will become a symbol
of martyrdom for the rebels in the Escambray mountains—whom he steadfastly
denied ever helping.
As he awaited
the firing squad Saturday night, his words to Attorney Carro were:
“I am a believing Catholic and not afraid. Now I’ll find what’s on the other side.”