Search of Cuba cemetery leaves question of Castro’s involvement

By MICHAEL D. SALLAH
BLADE NATIONAL AFFAIRS WRITER

When the widow of William Morgan asked the Cuban government to allow his body to be returned to the United States last month, workers at the Colon
Cemetery in Havana were certain they knew where he had been laid to rest.

The Toledo soldier of fortune, who had been executed by a Cuban firing in 1961, was one of the most celebrated rebel fighters of the revolution, his grave
attracting visitors for years after he died.

But four decades after his highly publicized death, Morgan’s corpse - like a Cold War secret - has vanished.

After searching for the last month, cemetery workers say they are unable to find the grave of the charismatic tough man known as the Yanqui
Comandante.

The missing corpse is expected to add more mystery to the memory of the high school dropout who stunned his family in 1957 by leaving his Toledo
home to join a revolution 1,400 miles away.

"I just can’t believe this," says his widow, Olga Goodwin. "They are playing games. I know he’s still there."

The Cuban-born woman, who lives in West Toledo, says she will continue to push for the return of his body to his hometown.

Another person who is just as perplexed over the whereabouts of the remains is Theresa Del Pino, whose relatives allowed Morgan to be buried in their
mausoleum.

The 60-year-old woman attended the burial service for Morgan and her husband, Jesus Carrera, in Colon Cemetery on the morning after they were
executed. She says she knows precisely where Morgan was interred.

"I was there. I saw his body. How do you just lose a grave?" says Mrs. Del Pino, who now lives in Miami.

Luis Fernandez, a press attache for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The news is a blow to the cause of Morgan’s 65-year-old widow, who has been petitioning the Cuban government for the last month to return her former
husband’s corpse to Toledo.

Her story has drawn the attention of Miami’s exile community - where Morgan is still revered - as well as ardent supporters of Fidel Castro in Cuba, where
Morgan is considered a traitor.

Though the American fought on the same side as Castro during the revolution in 1958, he was openly critical of the bearded leader after the war for
forging ties with the Soviet Union.

Two years after the revolution, Morgan crossed the line by running guns to the anti-Communist guerrillas - crimes for which he was shot by a firing squad
on March 11, 1961.

Olga, his widow, says she believes her former husband’s remains are still buried at the historic cemetery, but others are skeptical.

"Castro does not permit the veneration of his dead enemies," says Dr. Antonio de la Cova, a college professor in Indiana who has studied Morgan’s life.
"There are many cases where the bodies of his enemies have been dug up, discarded, you name it. It’s a well-known practice."

Dr. de la Cova believes the Cuban government deliberately discarded the grave to destroy the memory of the blond-haired guerrilla who was raised in
Toledo’s Old West End.

"I firmly believe the day that Olga asked for that body, it was thrown out," said the professor, a Cuban native who teaches at Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology in Terre Haute, Ind.

Though there is no proof the corpse was thrown away, the graves of other Americans accused of treason in Cuba have been destroyed, according to
their relatives.

In 1961, the remains of American Bobby Fuller, who was accused of plotting against the government, were never buried.

In another case, the corpses of U.S. citizens Howard F. Anderson, 41, and Angus McNair, 25 - buried side by side - were dug up and tossed away at a
cemetery in Pinar Del Rio.

Mr. Anderson’s daughter, Bonnie Anderson, visited her father’s grave in 1998 when she was a CNN correspondent covering the Pope’s visit to Cuba. At
the gravesite she discovered an empty four-foot-deep hole in the ground and burst into tears.

"It was done out of spite," claims Ms. Anderson, 46.

Twenty years earlier, she visited the grave while she was a reporter for the Miami Herald, and everything was intact.

She believes her father’s corpse was destroyed because she wrote critical articles of the Castro regime for the Miami Herald after her 1978 visit.

"He even responded to my articles in Gramna [the state news agency]," says Ms. Anderson. She and her family took her case a step further in December
by filing a $16 million wrongful death suit in a Florida court against the Castro government.

With the help of cemetery workers, British and American reporters began searching for Morgan’s grave after The Blade published a three-day series
about his widow last month.

They learned the corpse had been in the marble crypt belonging to Mrs. Del Pino’s family but was moved in April, 1971.

When they went to the second grave site, it was gone.

Cemetery workers said they were convinced they knew the location of Morgan’s remains. But when they opened a crypt containing 14 boxes, Morgan’s
body was not there, according to a Dallas Morning News correspondent in Havana.

The reporter, acting on information and sources from The Blade, did not turn up the body anywhere else.

Morgan’s widow says she recalls visiting her husband’s grave after her release from a Cuban prison in 1972. "It was there with his name on it," she says.

Experts say if anyone qualified as a traitor to Castro’s government, it was Morgan - and that could account for the mystery.

According to several published accounts, the 32-year-old rebel was upset about the revolutionary government’s ties to communism and began delivering
guns to hideouts in the Escambray Mountains of Cuba.

Though Morgan’s widow believes her husband’s gun running was done solely to ensure her and her husband’s protection from Castro, Cuban scholars
say he may have been planning a coup. "He very well could have been preparing to overthrow Castro," says Dr. de la Cova.

Others say there’s a chance the corpse is still buried in Colon Cemetery, but it may take years to locate since it may be in a crypt.

With its ornate mausoleums, columns, and sweeping boulevards, the 132-year-old cemetery is covered with more than 500,000 graves. Set in the heart
of Havana, it remains a repository of Cuban history, with the graves of generals, poets, and even peasant rebels who fought with Castro.

On a bright morning on March 12, 1961, the bullet-riddled bodies of Morgan, 32, and Carrera, 27, were carried to the cemetery for a brief service.

"It was a very sad day," says Mrs. Del Pino, who attended the event with former rebels who fought with Morgan and her husband.

A Spanish priest at the service recalls the sight of sobbing men and women.

"I remember it very vividly because of how emotional it was," said the Rev. Jose Luis Via Corta in a telephone interview from Spain. "I remember grown
men crying around the graves. It was a very difficult period in Cuba."

Morgan’s widow was hiding in the mountains at the time but was arrested two days later.

She says she’ll continue asking for help to find her former husband’s resting place, even if it means pressuring the Castro government.

The Toledo Hispanic Affairs Commission sent a letter last month to the Cuban government seeking help in returning Morgan’s corpse. Now the
commission says it will ask for help in finding the grave.

"I am going to ask questions until I get a response," said Baldemar Velasquez, commission chairman.

Ms. Anderson, whose father’s remains were tossed away by the Cuban government, says "Olga should not get her hopes up too high. I understand what
she’s going through, and my heart goes out to her," said Ms. Anderson.

"I still remember seeing the deep indentation in the ground where my father was buried -and crying."