Frank Sturgis - Run By US Military not CIA

New Book "Gangsterism" shows Frank Forini Sturgis was not run by the CIA but US military.

As for Sturgis, his real name was Frank Forini, he was born in Philadelphia and enlisted in the USMC and like L. H. Oswald, Sturgis basically fit the “Covert Operative” Personality Profile, soldier-of-fortune drawn to Cuba for the adventure, and after being caught as a Watergate burglar, exposed a whole network of covert subafuge that was operating domestically in the political arena.

A few days after the assassination of the President in Dallas, Sturgis was quoted in the Florida newspapers by CIA Mockingbird asset Thomas Buchanin, who Sturgis told he knew Oswald had been to Florida with the anti-Castro commandos, but then backed off that claim a few days later.

After Watergrate, one of the things I found strange was the CIA’s basic acknowledgement of E. Howard Hunt’s previous employment as a CIA officer, but categorically denying Frank Forini Sturgis was ever an employee, contract agent, operative or asset in any way, which made me wonder whether they were still just plausibly denying the obvious, or what?

Then when Strugis’ 201 file and official CIA file was released under the JFK Act, as it had been reviewed by the Rockefeller Commission and Church Committee, the official CIA file seemed to indicate the CIA was being truthful, and Frank Sturgis, of Watergate burglary fame, was NOT a CIA agent, former CIA agent or directly affiliated with them in any way. In fact his CIA file indicated they often got “trace” requests from CIA officers and operators in the field who really wanted to know if Frank Sturgis was “with them” or not, and the answer was inevitably NO, Sturgis was not CIA. In fact the CIA officers who kept track of him and added comments to his 201 file, thick with news reports of his self-promoted Soldier of Fortune fame, disparaged him for making too much news.

If not the CIA, who then was “running” Frank Sturgis?  

And the answer, at least I didn’t know it before, the answer is when Frank Sturgis was in Cuba supporting Castro and pulling off the gun running, Cuban Air Force and Havana casino Shennigans, was reporting to the US Military Attache at the US Embassy in Havana, Colonel Erickson Nichols. There’s also a mention of Robert Van Horn.

This information comes from the newly published book, Gangsterismo – The US, Cuba, and the Mafia: 1933 to 1966 by Jack Colhoun  (OR Books, NY, London, 2013)

p. 57-60 - “When Virginia Beach nightclub owner Frank Fiorini arrived in Cuba, he was on a mission for former President Carlos Prio. Prio told Fiorini, ‘Go to Cuba, join Castro’s army and let me know what he’s doing.’ Fiorini met Prio through his uncle’s Cuban wife, who worked for Prio in Miami. In 1957 Fiorini traveled to the Sierra Maestra mountains, where he met Fidel Castro and volunteered his services. He served as a courier for the July 26th Movement, relaying messages between the guerrillas in the Sierra Maestra and the underground in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. He also organized arms shipments to the Sierra Maestra.”

“In the 1970s, Fiorini testified about his Cuba-related gun running to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller’s Commission on CIA Activities within the United States. By the time he testified, Fiorini had gained notoriety, using the name “Frank Sturgis,” as one of President Richard Nixon’s “Watergate burglers.” 

“As Fiorini was leaving Santiago de Cuba, he was given the names of two men to look up in Havana: ‘Colonel Nichols’ and ‘Major Van Horn.’  Erickson Nichols and Robert Van Horn were air force attaché and assistant air attaché at the U.S. Embassy.” 226

Note: 226: “The name of the person who advised Fiorini was redacted. Memorandum for the Record by Chris Hopkins, “Frank Fiorini - Frank Sturgis,” October 4, 1973, JFKAC,

HSCA, Segregated CIA Collection, Box 8, Folder Frank Sturgis - Unsanitized.

227 Frank (Fiorini) Sturgis, JFKAC, Church Committee, Box 36, Folder 4; Testimony,

Rockefeller Commission, 52–54, 180; Memorandum from Legat, Havana, to Director,

FBI, “Santo Trafficante, Jr.,” December 10, 1958, JFKAC, HSCA Subject: Salvatore

Granello, Box 2; Memorandum from Major Van Horn, Assistant Air Attache, to

Ambassador, U.S. Embassy, Havana, Department of State, Bureau of Inter-American

Affairs, Box 4, Folder Cuba - Air Incursions; CIA Memorandum from Chief, Latin

American Division, to General Counsel, “Geraldine Isabella Shamma,” April 6, 1976,

JFKAC, HSCA, Segregated.”

“Fiorini told the Rockefeller Commission that he met with Colonel Nichols ‘quite a number of times’ at the U.S. Embassy. At their first meeting, Fiorini agreed to supply intelligence on the Cuban revolution. Nichols encouraged Fiorini to get ‘in a good position’ to gain access to intelligence in the Cuban air force. 227  Shortly thereafter, Air Force Chief Pedro Diaz Lanz appointed Fiorini head of security and intelligence of the Cuban air force, and supervisor of training for the Military Police. Diaz Lanz and Fiorini became friends through their work in the July 26th Movement arms-procurement network….”

p. 69 - “In testimony to the Rockefeller Commission, Frank Fiorini confirmed that (Commandante of Cuban Army in Camaguey Huber) Matros did meet with the Diaz Lanz group in the Cuban air force and discussed ‘communist infiltration into the military forces.’ Fiorini said that he reported this to Colonel Nichols, who ‘was very interested.’” 266

Note 266: “Frank Sturgis Testimony, Rockefeller Commission, April 3, 1975, 55, JFKAC, Church Committee, Box 46, Folder 4; Hunt, Give Us This Day, 98-99.