The Toledo Times
March 13, 1961
Adventurer, Aide
Buried in Crypt Following Execution As Traitors
HAVANA, March 12 (AP)—The adventures of William A. Morgan ended today with burial in the soil of his adopted country, which once hailed him as a hero but then convicted him of being a traitor.
A Castro firing squad executed the 32-year-old former paratrooper from Toledo and his aid Maj. Jesus Carreras, last night in the gloom of a moat in ancient La Cabana fortress.
As the shots rang out, thousands of persons were dancing and singing less than half a mile away on the next to last night of the annual carnival.
Major Morgan and Major Carreras were convicted yesterday of conspiracy against Prime Minister Castro’s regime in the Escambray Mountains. They were the 598th and 599th victims of Castro firing squads, by unofficial count.
Major Morgan faced death calmly and with his revolutionary boots still on, his defense attorney said. The attorney, Luis Carro, said he was told the chunky Cleveland-born soldier of fortune embraced the official in charge of the firing squad and joked with its members before he was shot. He was comforted by a priest on the way to the execution wall.
In his trial, Major Morgan denied betraying the Castro revolution and told the court: “If I am found guilty I will walk to the execution wall with no escort, with moral strength and with a clear conscience.”
Major Morgan and Major Carreras were buried at noon in the same crypt at Colon Cemetery, which is to be taken over from the Roman Catholic Church by the government.
A number of relatives of Major Morgan’s Cuban-born wife and her friends attended. A priest officiated. Major Morgan’s wife and her two small children had been in asylum in the Brazilian embassy, but left several days ago for an unknown destination. She was tried with her husband, in absentia, convicted and declared a fugitive from justice.
Mr. Carro said he talked by phone last night with Major Morgan’s mother, Loretta Morgan in Toledo, but “She was so upset she couldn’t finish the conversation.”
The mother’s appeal for clemency to President Osvaldo Dorticos, delivered by a member of the Swiss charge d’affaires to the foreign ministry, was ignored.
Major Morgan’s adventures in Cuba began in 1958. He said he came here to join Mr. Castro’s forces to seek revenge against the Fulgencio Batista government for the killing of a friend.
He fought in Escambray with the so-called Second Front, a group of Castro supporters which has been discredited by the regime.
Major Morgan was one of two foreigners to rise to major in the Castro forces. The other was Argentine-born Ernesto (Che) Guevara, the present economic czar. According to Major Morgan, Mr. Guevara did not like him.
Major Morgan was stripped of his American citizenship in September, 1959, for fighting in a foreign army. He was enjoying a hero’s stature here at that time for his role as a decoy and breaking an alleged plot against Mr. Castro by the Trujillo regime of the Dominican Republic.
But Major Morgan soon was demoted to operating a government frog farm.
“I don’t know how long I’m gong to last,” he said.
He was given a dishonorable discharge from his U.S. paratrooper unit in Japan for slugging a sentry and going AWOL to keep a date.
The prison warded said Major Morgan’s last requests were for permission to call his mother, his wife and Mr. Castro. Major Morgan’s purpose in calling Mr. Castro was “not to ask for clemency,” the warden said.
Seven of the co-defendants in the Morgan trial were sentenced to 30 years imprisonment and three were acquitted. Major Morgan’s former driver, who turned state’s evidence, was given 15 years.