The Toledo Blade
March 13, 1961
Placed Beside Major Executed With Him; Lawyer Says Ex-Toledoan Calm At Death
HAVANA, March 13 (AP)—William A. Morgan, American soldier of fortune who fell from national hero to traitor in the eyes of the Fidel Castro regime, was buried yesterday in a crypt beside the Cuban major executed with him.
Friends of Major Morgan’s Cuban wife attended the rites in Colon cemetery, and a Catholic priest officiated. Mrs. Morgan, in hiding to escape captivity, did not attend the funeral. She and 10 others were convicted of treason along with her husband last week, and she was declared a fugitive.
The five-man court at La Cabana Fortress sentenced Major Morgan and Maj. Jesus Carreras to die Saturday after convicting them of aiding anti-Castro rebels in the mountains. A firing squad shot them in a dry moat outside the ancient fortress a few hours later.
The military tribunal acquitted three of the defendants, Saturday, gave Major Morgan’s former driver 15 years in prison after he had turned state’s evidence, and ordered seven defendants to 30-year jail terms.
Luis Carro, the Cuban lawyer who defended Major Morgan, described the final moments before Morgan and Major Carreras became the 598th and 599th unofficially listed victims of revolutionary firing squads.
Major Morgan wore his military boots and faced death calmly, Mr. Carro said. Withnesses told the lawyer that Major Morgan joked with his executioners and embraced the soldier in charge.
Mr. Carro said he telephoned Major Morgan’s mother, Loretta, in Toledo but “she was so upset she couldn’t finish the conversation.” The mother had appealed to Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticos for mercy. He ignored the request
MIAMI, March 13 (AP)—A Cuban celebration of a revolutionary anniversary turned into a shooting, rock-throwing uproar.
Among missiles flying in the donnybrook on South West First Street yesterday were chunks of cement building block and folding chairs from the meeting site, the hall of the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front. Two shots were fired, but no one was reported hit.
Former Cuban president Carlos Prio Socarras, a speaker at the meeting, didn’t take part in the fight.
Several persons were cut and bruised, none seriously. Police arrested seven men and women for disorderly conduct.
Mr. Prio’s group was observing the fourth anniversary of a Cuban student attack on the palace of Mr. Batista.