John Simkin on Bernardo De Torres
Bernardo De Torres was born in Havana, Cuba, in
1934. He moved to the United States in 1955 and later worked as a private
investigator in Miami. De Torres was a strong opponent of Fidel Castro and
during the Bay of Pigs Operation was Chief of Intelligence for Brigade 2506
where he worked under David Sanchez Morales. During the invasion he was
captured and was held in captivity until 24th December, 1962. On his release he
joined his brother Carlos in Miami.
According to his daughter: "He (De Torres) was
already working with the CIA against him (Castro) in 1959. After he came back
from the invasion he was in critical condition for a of couple months. He was
shot in the back of his head beneath his cerebellum and the bullet broke into
five pieces. He went under surgery and had four of those pieces removed. One
had to stay because it was too close to an area that if accidentally harmed
could make him paralyzed."
In 1963 De Torres resumed work as a private investigator.
According to Gerry P. Hemming De Torres worked for Charles Siragusa, who was
involved in foreign assassinations. Hemming had established Interpen
(Intercontinental Penetration Force) and De Torres became associated with
several of Hemming's Interpen members, including Loran Hall, Roy Hargraves,
William Seymour, Lawrence Howard, Steve Wilson, Howard K. Davis, Edwin Collins,
James Arthur Lewis and Dennis Harber.
Tom Bethell, who worked for New Orleans district
attorney Jim Garrison, interviewed Hemming about Interpen and he claimed that
in 1963 there were "numerous teams with paramilitary inclinations out to
'get' Kennedy. Some of these teams had been approached by wealthy entrepreneurs
of the H. L. Hunt type, (though not, I think, in fact H. L. Hunt) who were
interested in seeing the job done and even provided financial assistance."
After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, members of these teams "have
been returning to their sponsors, taking credit for the assassination, and at
the same time requesting large additional sums of money so that they won't be
tempted to talk about it to anyone. In turn, the sponsors have apparently been
hiring Mafia figures to rid themselves of these blackmailers."
Odio later told the FBI and the Warren Commission
that on 25th September, 1963, while living in Dallas, she received a visit from
three men who claimed they were from New Orleans. Two of the men, Leopoldo and
Angel, were Cubans, said they were members of JURE. The third man, who they
named as Leon Oswald, was introduced as an American sympathizer who was willing
to take part in the assassination of Fidel Castro. After she told them that she
was unwilling to get involved in any criminal activity, the three men left.
Odio later identified Leon as Lee Harvey Oswald.
The following day Leopoldo called her on the
telephone. He told her it was his idea to introduce the American into the
underground "because he is great, he is kind of nuts". Leopoldo also
said that the American had been in the marine corps and was an excellent shot,
and that the American said the Cubans "don't have any guts because
President Kennedy should have been assassinated after the Bay of Pigs, and some
Cubans should have done that, because he was the one that was holding the
freedom of Cuba actually."
A report carried out by the FBI suggested that the
three men may have been members of Interpen (Loran Hall, William Seymour and
Lawrence Howard). Hall admitted they "had gone to the apartment of a Cuban
woman who lived in a garden style apartment located on Magellan Circle in
Dallas... and said that he could not picture this woman in his mind now. He
said that her name was possibly Odio. He said that he seemed to recognize this
woman's name as Odio because of the association with the name of the Cuban professor
who had the same name."
Angelo Murgado was another member of the anti-Castro
Cubans who was associated with Bernardo De Torres. He was a member of a group
led by Manuel Artime. In August 1963, Murgado and Artime had a meeting with
Robert F. Kennedy. Murgado warned the attorney general about the behaviour of
some anti-Castro Cubans: "I told him that we have to keep a sharp look on
those Cubans. I was afraid that one of our guys would go crazy... The same way
that a lot of people are trying to hit Castro, there are a lot of people trying
to hit the president of the United States... We have a lot of crazy sons of
bitches and they're willing to pull anything."
Joan Mellen, has carried out extensive research into
the Odio incident. She claims that in an interview with Angelo Murgado she
claimed he was "Angel" and "Leopoldo" was Bernardo de
Torres. In an article published in 2005 she claimed that "Bernardo de
Torres, who testified before the HSCA with immunity granted to him by the
C.I.A., so that he was not questioned about the period of time leading up to
the Kennedy assassination, as the C.I.A. instructed the Committee on what it
could and could not ask this witness. Both the Warren Commission and the HSCA
buried the anti-Castro theme, and never explored what Bobby (Kennedy) might
have known."
Bernardo De Torres was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1934. He
moved to the United
States in 1955 and later worked as a private investigator in Miami. De Torres
was a strong opponent of Fidel Castro and
during the Bay
of Pigs Operation was Chief of Intelligence for Brigade 2506 where he
worked under David
Sanchez Morales. During the invasion he was captured and was held in
captivity until 24th December, 1962. On his release he joined his brother
Carlos in Miami. (1)
According to his daughter: "He (De Torres) was
already working with the CIA against him (Castro) in 1959. After he came back
from the invasion he was in critical condition for a of couple months. He was
shot in the back of his head beneath his cerebellum and the bullet broke into
five pieces. He went under surgery and had four of those pieces removed. One
had to stay because it was too close to an area that if accidentally harmed
could make him paralyzed." (2)
Gaeton Fonzi points
out in a memorandum to Robert
Tanenbaum: "Torres was among a group of ten Cubans who helped Secret
Service men protect President Kennedy when he visited Miami four days before
his assassination. The latter is interesting because the only one who ever had
a story of localities assisting Secret Service men here in Miami on Kennedy's
visit was Jerry Patrick Hemming, who says he also was involved in that security
effort. Miami Police reports list Torres as an associate of Anselmo Leon
Alliegro, an old pal of Hemming's. Police once found a quantity of explosives
and weapons in Alliegro's home. Alliegro said they belonged to Torres."
(5)
Tom Bethell, who worked for New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison,
interviewed Hemming about Interpen and he claimed that in 1963 there were
"numerous teams with paramilitary inclinations out to 'get' Kennedy. Some
of these teams had been approached by wealthy entrepreneurs of the H. L. Hunt
type, (though not, I think, in fact H. L. Hunt) who were interested in seeing
the job done and even provided financial assistance." After the
assassination of John F. Kennedy,
members of these teams "have been returning to their sponsors, taking
credit for the assassination, and at the same time requesting large additional
sums of money so that they won't be tempted to talk about it to anyone. In
turn, the sponsors have apparently been hiring Mafia figures to rid themselves
of these blackmailers." (6)
Bernardo De Torres and Silvia Odio
Silvia Odio was
a member of the anti-Castro group Junta
Revolucionaria Cubana (JURE). Her father Amador Odio, was among Cuba's wealthiest men, the owner of
the country's largest trucking business. However, he had fought Cuban dictators
and helped to overthrow General Gerardo
Machado in 1933. He was an early supporter of Castro, but had turned
against him when "Fidel betrayed the Revolution" and along with Manuel Ray, had helped
form one of the first anti-Castro groups within Cuba. (7)
Odio later told the FBI and the Warren Commission that
on 25th September, 1963, while living in Dallas, she received a visit from
three men who claimed they were from New Orleans. Two
of the men, Leopoldo and Angel, were Cubans, said they were members of JURE.
The third man, who they named as Leon Oswald, was introduced as an American sympathizer
who was willing to take part in the assassination of Fidel Castro.
After she told them that she was unwilling to get involved in any criminal
activity, the three men left. Odio later identified Leon as Lee Harvey Oswald.
(8)
The following day Leopoldo called her on the
telephone. He told her it was his idea to introduce the American into the
underground "because he is great, he is kind of nuts". Leopoldo also
said that the American had been in the marine corps and was an excellent shot,
and that the American said the Cubans "don't have any guts because
President Kennedy should have been assassinated after the Bay of Pigs, and some
Cubans should have done that, because he was the one that was holding the
freedom of Cuba actually." (9)
A report carried out by the FBI suggested that the
three men may have been members of Interpen (Loran Hall, William Seymour and Lawrence Howard).
Hall admitted they "had gone to the apartment of a Cuban woman who lived
in a garden style apartment located on Magellan Circle in Dallas... and said
that he could not picture this woman in his mind now. He said that her name was
possibly Odio. He said that he seemed to recognize this woman's name as Odio
because of the association with the name of the Cuban professor who had the
same name." (10)
Angelo Murgado was
another member of the anti-Castro Cubans who was associated with Bernardo De
Torres. He was a member of a group led by Manuel Artime. In
August 1963, Murgado and Artime had a meeting with Robert F. Kennedy.
Murgado warned the attorney general about the behaviour of some anti-Castro
Cubans: "I told him that we have to keep a sharp look on those Cubans. I
was afraid that one of our guys would go crazy... The same way that a lot of
people are trying to hit Castro, there are a lot of people trying to hit the
president of the United States... We have a lot of crazy sons of bitches and
they're willing to pull anything." (11)
Photo : Bernardo De Torres is fourth from the right
(Miami, September, 1963)
Joan Mellen, has
carried out extensive research into the Odio incident. She claims that in an
interview with Angelo Murgado she claimed he was "Angel" and
"Leopoldo" was Bernardo de Torres. In an article published in 2005
she claimed that "Bernardo de Torres, who testified before the HSCA with
immunity granted to him by the C.I.A., so that he was not questioned about the
period of time leading up to the Kennedy assassination, as the C.I.A.
instructed the Committee on what it could and could not ask this witness. Both
the Warren Commission and the HSCA buried the anti-Castro theme, and never
explored what Bobby (Kennedy) might have known." (12)
John F. Kennedy Assassination
According to his daughter Bernardo De Torres was
employed by the CIA to
investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy:
"Yes, he worked for several years with the CIA at uncovering all the
possible people that were on the their list. At one time, they put him under
the spot light and he was proved with out a doubt that he had anything to do
with it. He was actually in Florida with my stepmother at the time of the
assassination and was working on his other job as military coordinator for
Brigade 2506. It's located in Miami in Little Havana.... I think he came to a
conclusion in his investigation and thinks he knows who were the people who
killed JFK but doesn't like or want to deal with what he found because all of
sudden he stopped researching and never spoke about it again. Normally he
doesn't stop until he has found the answers." (13)
In 1966 Bernardo De Torres joined Jim Garrison in
his investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy. William Turner, the
author of Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at the FBI, the CIA and Other
Tails (2001) has argued: "A veteran of the Bay of Pigs, De Torres
showed up on Garrison's doorstep early in the probe, saying he was a private
detective from Miami who wanted to help, and dropping the name of Miami DA
Richard Gerstein, a friend of Garrison's, as an opener. In retrospect, Garrison
remembered that every lead De Torres developed ended up in a box canyon. He
also learned that De Torres was forwarding reports on his investigation to the
Miami CIA station." (14)
Garrison asked Bernardo De Torres to find Eladio del Valle so
he could be interviewed about the assassination. Del Valle, a wealthy former
Cuban congressmen under Fulgencio Batista,
had headed the Free Cuba Committee in Florida, and reportedly had links
to Santos
Trafficante. (15) He was also a close friend and associate of David Ferrie, another
man who Garrison was investigating. "In the course of checking out all
possible associates of Oswald's in the city, we discovered that the alleged
assassin had been seen during the summer with a man named David Ferrie. I got
my people on the telephones right away to investigate a possible Oswald-Ferrie
relationship." (16) Del Valle had reportedly paid Ferrie $1,500 a mission
to make air raids against Cuba. (17)
Dick Russell,
while researching his book, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins (2008)
interviewed Fabian
Escalante, the former chief of Cuba's G-2 intelligence agency. According to
Escalante: "Del Valle was in charge of narcotics in a town south of
Havana, where he had business dealings with Santo Trafficante... We managed to
penetrate this organization. We came to know a lot of plans for exile
invasions, secret overflights to provide arms to internal rebel groups. David
Ferrie was the pilot for some of these flights. One of our agents talked on
many occasions with Del Valle, who in 1962 told him that Kennedy must be killed
to solve the Cuban problem." (18)
Another member of this group was Herminio Diaz Garcia.
He arrived in the United States in 1963 and that September the CIA considered
recruiting him as an agent because of his ties to Efiigenio
Amejeiras Delgado, Castro's vice-minister of the armed forces, who was
reportedly conspiring with Rolando Cubela.
As David Kaiser pointed
out: "It is not clear from available files whether he was in fact
recruited." (19) Diaz Garcia was killed on a penetration mission into Cuba
on 29th May, 1966. (20)
Garrison became suspicious of De Torres and on 7th
January, 1967, he ordered his staff "under no circumstances" to offer
any information to him. Four days later he wrote at the top of one of De
Torres' memos: "His reliability is not established." Garrison became
convinced that De Torres was working for JM/WAVE, the Central Intelligence Agency station
in Miami.
Declassified documents show that De Torres gave the CIA's final report on Jim
Garrison on 2nd March, 1967, According to Gaeton Fonzi, De
Torres's CIA handler was Paul Bethel. (21)
Another researcher, Larry Hancock, has
argued that "It certainly appears that De Torres’ role in the Garrison
investigation is suspicious, and it supports Otero’s remarks to HSCA
investigators that De Torres had ‘penetrated’ Garrison’s investigation. It also
shows that De Torres had an agenda of his own in addition to getting
intelligence about Garrison’s investigation and investigators. That agenda
involved once again shifting attention to Fidel Castro and a Cuban hit team
rather than the activities of the Cuban exiles." (22)
On 17th February, 1967, The New
Orleans States-Item reported that Jim Garrison was
investigating the assassination of Kennedy. It also said that one of the
suspects was David
Ferrie. Five days later Ferrie's body was found in his New Orleans
apartment. Garrison pointed out that "suddenly the newspapers, the
television, and the radio people had decided that Ferrie's death - and the
possibility it may have resulted from suicide or foul play - may have validated
my investigation." Although two suicide notes were found, the coroner did
not immediately classify the death as a suicide, noting there were indications
Ferrie may have suffered a brain hemorrhage. Eventually the coroner announced
that Ferrie had died of "natural causes". (23)
Eladio del Valle was
murdered in Miami on 22nd February, 1967. He had been shot in the heart at
point-blank range, and his skull was split open. (24) Diego Gonzales Tendera, a close friend, later claimed Del
Valle was murdered because of his involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
(25) It has been suggested by Garrison's chief investigator, Louis Ivon,
that Bernardo De Torres was involved in the killing. "Eladio del Valle's
body was left in the vicinity of Bernardo De Torres's apartment." (26)
Larry Hancock has
suggested that "Bernardo De Torres... diverted Garrison to a certain
extent as well as aggressively re-introducing Castro suspicions. He did that
with his insistent media promotion of a story pertaining to Secret Service
fears of a Castro hit team in Miami during Kennedy's visit there shortly before
the Texas trip. Between February 18 and February 22, the Garrison investigation
received considerable unwanted publicity, much of it based upon inquiries
within the Miami Cuban community as well as the involvement of Bernardo De
Torres. De Torres was quite visible in his comments and declarations,
eventually leading the whole matter off in a direction pointing at a threat
against John Kennedy from Castro agents." (27)
CIA Activities
After leaving the Garrison investigation De Torres
went to work for Mitch
WerBell as an arms salesman in Latin America. During an investigation
of Juan Adames it was discovered that he had links with De Torres: "One of
the areas Adames is talking about involves individuals who conspire to rob
armouries in order to sell or exchange the weapons for narcotics, small time hoods
with indirect connections to organized crime... When investigators asked him
how he got involved with the gang, Adames said that one of the members happened
to see in his apartment some documents which belonged to a close friend of his
in the armaments business, Bernardo De Torres. They deal with the sale of
weapons to the Mexican and Columbian governments and to the DEA in Mexico City.
Torres is listed on one of the documents as 'Director of Operations for Central
and South America' for the Military Armament Corporation. The Chairman of the
Board of Military Armament Corporation is our old friend, Mitchell Livingston
WerBell III. The pieces are coming together." (28)
According to Peter Dale Scott, De
Torres also worked for Miguel
Nazar Haro, the head of the powerful Mexican intelligence agency, Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS). De Torres
reportedly provided Nazar's death squad with weapons. "In fact, it was
common knowledge that when De Torres went to Mexico he was picked up at the
airport by Nazar's personal limousine - without having to go through customs or
immigration - and swiftly taken to Nazar's office." (29)
Gerry P. Hemming claimed
that Bernardo de Torres offered him $25,000 to murder José ElÃas de la Torriente. "De Torres set up a lot of
hits, and the problem was that they mostly favored Fidel's people. He
approached me to take out Torriente but I said that domestic work on
noncombatants wasn't my line - and moreover, I questioned exactly what was, and
who had, the beef against this guy? (30)
Torriente was in fact murdered on 12th April, 1974:
"José ElÃas de la Torriente was sitting in his home in Coral Gables,
Florida, when he was shot and killed by an unknown assailant firing through the
living room window. Torriente, a prominent local businessman, had crossed
Miami's Cuban exile community after failing to follow through on plans to
invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro. His death marked the start of a period
of political violence that would lead the FBI to call Miami the terrorist
capital of the United States." (31)
In December 1975 it was reported: "De Torres
recently returned to Miami, Florida from Panama and Costa Rica. De Torres is
picking false press cards, written in English for use in Latin America. De
Torres claims to have access to over $450,000 to make an investment for a quick
profit. De Torres is planning a trip to Columbia on 7/12/75.... De Torres is
suspected of arranging for the illegal importation of about 400,000 worth of
contraband from Columbia, through Venezuela into the Florida area." (32)
Bernardo de Torres was due to appear before
the House
Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) on 2nd May, 1978. The
previous day, G.
Robert Blakey called a meeting to discuss Bernardo de Torres "who
is purported to be a potential assassin and who was purported to be in Deadly
Plaza on 23rd November." Blakey opened the meeting by "criticising
the FBI for not notifying him (redacted) until 1 May even though De Torres had
been subpoenaed for the last 30 days." Blakey also complained about the
poor response to his request to see all De Torres' FBI files. (34)
William Turner claims
in his book, Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at the FBI, the CIA and Other
Tails (2001), that in 1977 the House Select Committee on
Assassinations came to the conclusion that De Torres might have played a role
in the death of John F. Kennedy. He quotes a HUCA report that said: "De
Torres has pictures of Dealey Plaza in a safe-deposit box. These pictures were
taken during the assassination of JFK". When he appeared before the HSCA
De Torres denied any involvement in the case. (35)
Gaeton Fonzi, was
employed by the HSCA as a staff investigator. This involved him
interviewing Rolando Otero, one of the most violent of the anti-Castro
Cubans: "Otero said his source had told him that Lee Harvey Oswald was
sent to Russia as a CIA agent. The decision to kill Kennedy was made before
Oswald's return to the United States. Otero said he had no specific knowledge
of the number involved, but his training led him to guess there were between
thirty and thirty-five CIA operatives in Dallas on the day Kennedy was killed,
including the actual hit team.... Otero said he understood that most of the
final planning and coordination took place at meetings held in the Dallas YMCA
Building, and he gave me the names of five Miami men who, according to his
source, were involved in the plot. He said he didn't know the roles that four
of them played, but the fifth, the one called Carlos, was in contact with
Oswald and was posing as a photographer in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd."
(36) Fonzi later admitted that Otero told him that "Carlos" was
Bernardo De Torres. (37)
Bernardo De Torres became involved in the drug trade
in Miami. Owen
Band became one of his associates: "Bernardo de Torres was my
friend, mentor, and at times my surrogate father. We met when I was
floundering, a year after I had been dropped off the wait list at Harvard Law
School and suffered a nervous breakdown.... Soon I was dabbling in the drug
business to support my habit. I was even recruited to help unload a freighter
full of marijuana anchored out in the Gulf Stream.... Bernie and I sat
together, kept a room in the hotel above the club, womanized, snorted cocaine,
and hung out with whichever cocaine trafficker or celebrity was visiting the
club. He liked that I was college educated and Jewish like his son. I'd
befriended several members of Brigade 2506 while working at Club Alexandre,
especially Rafael Villaverde and the son of the former president of Cuba."
(38)
Photo Bernardo De Torres with his son (c. 1985)
Bernardo De Torres retired to Florida.
According to his daughter (August 2006): "He lives a peaceful life in
sunny Florida with his sister,a cat named cookie and his military trained
German Shepard. That dog is seriously licensed to kill. He is divorced and has 4
children who are all spread out over the globe. We all get along even though
most of us are from different mothers. He likes to drink his Coca Cola and bet
at the dog track occasionally. He takes extremely good care of his health. He
works out and even injects himself with vitamins. He is the leanest 72 year old
you will ever know. I don't know why people think he lives in South America. He
hates those places because to him they are third world countries. Granted he
loves to travel but he won't waste him money there." (39)
In his final years De Torres became homeless and
slept in Barnes Park. His friend Owen
Band later recalled: "I could only speculate about how he came to
this tragic situation. Bernie spent lavishly money on his friends. He didn't
save much. Many of the people closest to him had died or, like me, moved on
with their lives." De Torres was hit by a car in May 2018 while out
walking and "stayed for six months in hospice care before dying in
December." (40)
Primary Sources
Eladio del Valle's body was found in a Miami parking
lot twelve hours after Ferrie's was discovered in New Orleans. The DA
investigator who was searching for del Valle, Bernardo De Torres, turned out to
be a suspicious character in his own right. A veteran of the Bay of Pigs, De
Torres showed up on Garrison's doorstep early in the probe, saying he was a
private detective from Miami who wanted to help, and dropping the name of Miami
DA Richard Gerstein, a friend of Garrison's, as an opener. In retrospect,
Garrison remembered that every lead De Torres developed ended up in a box
canyon. He also learned that De Torres was forwarding reports on his
investigation to the Miami CIA station. In 1977 the House Select Committee on
Assassinations (HSCA) came to believe that De Torres might have played a role
in Dallas. "De Torres has pictures of Dealey Plaza in a safe-deposit
box," a HSCA report states. "These pictures were taken during the
assassination of JFK." When hauled before the committee, De Torres denied any
implication.
It all began when Rolando Otero said he was going to
tell me how President Kennedy was assassinated. This was shortly after I began
working for the Assassinations Committee and Otero was in the Okaloosa County
Jail in the Florida Panhandle. Otero wanted to talk, but he wanted me to know
that his knowledge was based on only two factors: secondhand information, and
what he had learned about the CIA's tactics and procedures when he worked for
the Agency.
Otero said his source had told him that Lee Harvey
Oswald was sent to Russia as a CIA agent. The decision to kill Kennedy was made
before Oswald's return to the United States. Otero said he had no specific
knowledge of the number involved, but his training led him to guess there were
between thirty and thirty-five CIA operatives in Dallas on the day Kennedy was
killed, including the actual hit team. He figures there was a minimum of three
on the hit team, at least one stationed in front of, and another behind,
Kennedy. Otero said he understood that most of the final planning and
coordination took place at meetings held in the Dallas YMCA Building, and he
gave me the names of five Miami men who, according to his source, were involved
in the plot. He said he didn't know the roles that four of them played, but the
fifth, the one called Carlos, was in contact with Oswald and was posing as a
photographer in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd.
I met with Rolando Otero because his attorney, Bob
Rosenblatt from the Miami Public Defenders Office, had called and told me Otero
wanted to talk with me. I knew of Otero because he had gotten major headlines
when he was accused of placing bombs in Federal buildings in the Miami area. I
also knew of his association with the most violent anti-Castro terrorists, so I
thought it might be worth the trip. A wiry, intense young man, with a wild crop
of black curls, Otero burned with an almost visible fervor when he spoke of his
hatred for Castro. But he believed that any attempt to blame Castro for the assassination
was part of the CIA's ploy to throw the investigation off track. The Agency did
the same thing, he said, when it injected the Mafia scenario at the time of the
Garrison investigation.
Bernardo De Torres is not a name mentioned
previously in this work. De Torres is known to have associated with several of
Hemming's Interpen members and he was well acquainted with Frank
Fiorini/Sturgis. De Torres also had strong operational contacts in Mexico City
all the way up to Miguel Nazar Haro in Mexican police intelligence. Haro was
later revealed as a key individual in drug trafficking into the U.S. and has
been associated with both Sam Giancana and Richard Cain. An FBI report on De
Torres from the 1970's refers to his "high level contacts" with the
CIA, but this is otherwise unsubstantiated (unexplained is perhaps a better
description).
De Torres was not actually investigated in regards
to the JFK investigation until the time of the House Select Committee on
Assassinations when he came to the attention of Gaeton Fonzi due to the
revelations of Rolando Otero. Otero was one of the sources quoted earlier
describing an individual representing himself as CIA who was spreading
information about President Kennedy within the Cuban community in Miami:
"But prior to that they had a rumor in the Cuban community, like Kennedy was
a Communist. Another Cuban would come to you who was working for one of those
intelligence groups, and he would tell you Kennedy is a Communist, he's against
us, he's messing up the whole cause."
Otero believed there was a non-Castro conspiracy
behind the assassination and he gave Fonzi some solid leads on possible
participants. These are presented in detail in Fonzi's book The Last
Investigation, including the orders from Fonzi's supervisor that killed his
effort to obtain solid incriminating evidence by running surveillance on
suspects. One of those suspects was an individual still actively operating in
the anti-Communist, anti-Castro affairs of the 1970s, one Bernardo De Torres
aka "Carlos." De Torres was even reputed to have had photographs
taken in Dallas on November 22.
De Torres was a Bay of Pigs veteran who had been
held prisoner until December of 1962 (released at virtually the same time as
John Martino). De Torres went on to become the military coordinator for Brigade
2506 after the assassination.
However, according to Jim Garrison, De Torres became
involved in the Garrison New Orleans investigation (as did Roy Hargraves and
Gerry Hemming) and apparently diverted Garrison to a certain extent as well as
aggressively re-introducing Castro suspicions. He did that with his insistent
media promotion of a story pertaining to Secret Service fears of a Castro hit
team in Miami during Kennedy's visit there shortly before the Texas trip.
Between February 18 and February 22, the Garrison
investigation received considerable unwanted publicity, much of it based upon
inquiries within the Miami Cuban community as well as the involvement of
Bernardo De Torres. De Torres was quite visible in his comments and
declarations, eventually leading the whole matter off in a direction pointing
at a threat against John Kennedy from Castro agents.
According to the FBI report, Hector Serrano, told
the Bureau that Antonio Gonzalez had been in touch with Arturo Cobos, described
as "a Cuban known to have contacts in the CIA."
This is what the FBI, report then says: "Cobos
furnished the name of Bernardo Torres... as the man to call with contacts on a
high level with the CIA in Washington, D.C. Torres advised Gonzalez that he
contracted his source in the CIA and learned that the FBI is aware that Rolando
Otero did commit the bombings, and that Otero's three friends, Ciro Orizondo,
Tony Gonzalez and Hector Serrano are going to be framed by the FBI for the same
bombings...
What we have so far on Bernardo de Torres is this:
"He showed up in New Orleans very early in Garrison's investigation
claiming he had important information. He said he was a private detective in
Miami and wanted to help. Garrison recalls he mentioned the name of State
Attorney Richard Gerstein as an entree. Miami newspaper clippings at the time
describe Torres as the "military coordinator of Brigade 2506." He
refused to comment to reporters on his role in Garrison's investigation.
"He said some of the angles were "classified," such as reports
of an Oswald visit here." (My personal opinion is that, from my experience,
anyone who comes up with a story putting Oswald in Miami is a source of
misinformation.) However, according to the clippings: Torres was among a group
of ten Cubans who helped Secret Service men protect President Kennedy when he
visited Miami four days before his assassination.
The latter is interesting because the only one who
ever had a story of localities assisting Secret Service men here in Miami on
Kennedy's visit was Jerry Patrick Hemming, who says he also was involved in
that security effort. Miami Police reports list Torres as an associate of
Anselmo Leon Alliegro, an old pal of Hemming's. Police once found a quantity of
explosives and weapons in Alliegro's home. Alliegro said they belonged to
Torres.
Torres also has a connection with a boutique that is
owned by another Otero lead, Norman Diaz. Diaz is the father-in-law of Miami
City Commissioner Manolo Rebozo, a close associate of Manuel Artime's and a
former member of Operation 40 himself...
Today Garrison feels that Torres was one of his
early sources of misinformation. He hasn't yet checked his files on him, but
from recollection he says whatever information Torres provided never went
anywhere. The latest clipping I have on Torres reports that he was going to be
summoned to testify before a Federal grand jury in Washington investigating the
assassination of Chilean Foreign Minister Letelier. That was early this year.
I don't plan to approach Torres until I run the full
circle around him. It's the little things that make me feel he may be
important. Otero, for instance, told me that the source of his information,
Juan Adames, the fellow he was in the Broward County Jail with for a brief
period, visited his, Otero's girlfriend when he was out for a short while last
summer...
I finally found Juan Adames... He is in the Dade Correctional
Institution, a State prison in Florida City, about 35 miles from Miami. He was
arrested in Fort Lauderdale in June, 1976, on forgery and worthless check
charges. So Otero's story about meeting him in the jail there checks out...
One of the areas Adames is talking about involves
individuals who conspire to rob armouries in order to sell or exchange the
weapons for narcotics, small time hoods with indirect connections to organized
crime... When investigators asked him how he got involved with the gang, Adames
said that one of the members happened to see in his apartment some documents
which belonged to a close friend of his in the armaments business, Bernardo De
Torres. They deal with the sale of weapons to the Mexican and Columbian
governments and to the DEA in Mexico City. Torres is listed on one of the
documents as "Director of Operations for Central and South America"
for the Military Armament Corporation. The Chairman of the Board of Military
Armament Corporation is our old friend, Mitchell Livingston WerBell III. The
pieces are coming together.
I'm following up, planning to approach Adames
undercover. As soon as I get a chance, I'll send you copies of all the key
stuff I have on WerBell. The latest word I have is that our old 544 Camp Street
buddy, Gordon Novel, is living on WerBell's estate in Georgia. Small world.
On 1 May 1978, G. Robert Blakey called a meeting to
discuss Bernardo de Torres, who is purported to be a potential assassin and who
was purported to be in Deadly Plaza on 23rd November. De Torres was scheduled
to appear in executive session before the HSCA on 2 May 1978. Mt Blakey opened
the meeting criticising the FBI for not notifying him (redacted) until 1 May
even though De Torres had been subpoenaed for the last 30 days... Mr Blakey
then turned his attention to the Agency's response to his written request for
any and all files on De Torres.
De Torres recently returned to Miami, Florida from
Panama and Costa Rica. De Torres is picking false press cards, written in
English for use in Latin America. De Torres claims to have access to over
$450,000 to make an investment for a quick profit. De Torres is planning a trip
to Columbia on 7/12/75. Headquarters HPDS is requested to place De Torres on
INS Soundex and Customs TECS to monitor his return.
S.A. Joe Doredant. De Torres is suspected of
arranging for the illegal importation of about 400,000 worth of contraband from
Columbia, through Venezuela into the Florida area.
Oliver Stone's JFK seems to have achieved a double
objective of being a moneymaker and a political activity stimulus, one of the
movie's directors avers.
Although he denies any spooky associations, it's
going to be interesting to see if future release of classified files on the
Kennedy assassination pinpoints new intelligence community involvement, Roy
Hargraves, a man with some shadowy past connections, acknowledges.
Hargraves denies any "contract CIA agent"
links, although he was involved in military training of Cuban exiles in Florida
and Louisiana. British author Anthony Summers hung the contract agent tag on
members of the International Penetration Force in his book, Conspiracy.
Summer's book on the JFK assassination cites an FBI
raid and the closing of a training site near Lake Ponchatrain several months
before Kennedy's death as a possible contributing factor in the assassination.
Hargraves recalls there are many unanswered
questions in the Cuban exile aspect of the Kennedy case. Early in New Orleans District
Attorney Jim Garrison's probe, "Garrison accused us of training the
‘triangulation team' of three alleged snipers at No Name Key."
No Name Key was the principal Florida training site
for the IPF freelance volunteer instructors. "We testified before Garrison
and convinced him he was wrong," Hargraves recalls, "and we went to
work for him for about a month" early in Garrison's late 1966 and early
1967 investigation.
Garrison's, whose two non-fiction books, A Heritage
of Stone, and On the Trail of The Assassins, were the basis of Stone's JFK said
in them that Kennedy's "ordering an end to the CIA's continued training of
anti-Castro guerrillas at the small, scattered camps in Florida and north of
Lake Ponchatrain "added to the disenchantment which contributed to the
President's murder.
Another interesting aspect of the Garrison
investigation, is that, according to Hargraves, a Cuban exile investigator
hired by Garrison" ripped off half the budget" to handicap the probe.
Bernardo de Torres, a Bay of Pigs veteran, "was working for the CIA",
Hargraves said, during the Garrison investigation.
De Torres, who has since disappeared from his former
Miami haunts, also served as a security consultant to local and federal law
enforcement units during President Kennedy's visit to Miami after Fidel
Castro's release of the prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion.
I identified Bernie de Torres even after both Gene
Propper & Gaeton Fonzi [held to NDAs they signed] used code-words when
referring to him. [see "Labyrinth" ("TB") & "Carlos"
(The Last Investigation) for reference] One of our guys was dispatched to
Dealey Plaza that week by Colonel Arturo Espaillat, who was then based in
Montreal. A month later, he recounted said "mission" to me after too
many beers, and was furious at having been used once again by Robert Emmett
Johnson, the "Raul" of the MLK, Jr. matter.
As Mrs. Odio testified before the Warren Commission,
she was told the next day by one of her visitors that Oswald had remarked,
"President Kennedy should have been assassinated after the Bay of Pigs,
and some Cubans should have done that.... it is so easy to do it."
The Warren Commission lacked a context to evaluate
this incident because it had not been informed of the C.I.A.'s attempts to
assassinate Fidel Castro, now a matter of public record, and a matter to be
concealed, unlike today when a Pat Robertson can openly advocate the
assassination of a foreign leader. Had the Odio incident been explored fully,
some uncomfortable truths might have emerged, truths that could have modified
the conclusions of the Warren Report, just as Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer's
information, tested, might have altered the findings of the 9/11 Commission,
and the biography of Mohammed Atta been more thoroughly researched.
In my own study of the Kennedy assassination for my
book, "A Farewell to Justice," I discovered that parallel to these
secret efforts by the C.I.A., Robert F. Kennedy was organizing his own
clandestine plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. The sources are the released
minutes of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the Church
Committee papers, and the Cubans who worked closely with the Attorney General.
Bobby's instruction to his special team was twofold.
It was to discover a means of ridding the Kennedy administration of the
Communist thorn in its side "ninety miles from home." It was also to
protect his brother from the murderous impulses of an anti-Castro Cuban
incensed by John F. Kennedy's refusal to support the invasion of Cuba at the
Bay of Pigs.
Among those closest to Bobby Kennedy was a man still
living in Florida today, Angelo Murgado, who, during the summer of 1963,
traveled on Bobby's behalf to New Orleans. Moving among, as he puts it,
"Castro's agents, double agents, and Cubans working for the C.I.A., he
hoped to "neutralize" a future assassin.
In New Orleans, Mr. Murgado met Lee Harvey Oswald,
who resided there in the city of his birth from April to September 1963.
Hitherto unreported is that Bobby Kennedy became aware of Oswald - before the
assassination.
Bobby even discovered that Oswald was working for
the F.B.I., a fact brought to the attention of the Warren Commission as well,
and subsequently confirmed for the House Select Committee on Assassinations in
the late 1970s by an F.B.I. employee, William Walter, who viewed the Bureau's
copious files on Oswald at the New Orleans field office when Oswald was
arrested that August for a staged fracas on Canal Street where he was handing
out "Fair Play for Cuba" leaflets.
"If the F.B.I. is controlling him," Bobby
reasoned, according to Mr. Murgado, "he's no problem." Operating
alone, covertly, suspecting a threat to his brother, Bobby underestimated who
Oswald was and ceased to make him a major target of his concern. Bobby knew
"something was cooking in New Orleans," Angel Murgado says, New
Orleans that harlot city now destroyed by flood in a catastrophe of Biblical
proportion, New Orleans that sin city where the Kennedy assassination
incubated. But Bobby held back. He urged "caution," and apparently he
did not share what he knew about Oswald with those who should have been
expected to help him protect the President.
Angelo Murgado and a fellow veteran of the Bay of
Pigs, in September, were the men who traveled with Oswald from New Orleans to
Dallas where they visited Sylvia Odio. (Mrs. Odio testified that the three traveled
together although Angelo says that when he and Leopoldo, who drove from New
Orleans together, arrived at Sylvia Odio's, Oswald was already there, sitting
in the apartment. That "Leopoldo" and Angelo both knew Oswald, there
is no doubt). Their objective, or so Angelo thought, was to search for help in
their anti-Castro efforts; they talked to Mrs. Odio about buying arms to
overthrow Castro. Angelo believed he could trust his companion, referred to in
the Warren Report as "Leopoldo," because not only was he a fellow
veteran of the Bay of Pigs, but his brother was running for mayor of Miami. He
was respectable.
Out of Angelo's hearing, "Leopoldo" phoned
Mrs. Odio the next day to tell her how "Leon" Oswald had talked about
the need to murder President Kennedy. "Leon" is "kind of
nuts," Leopoldo said, a conclusion reflected in the Warren Report.
Placing Oswald in the company of so close an
associate of Bobby Kennedy, in an incident that points to foreknowledge of the
assassination, created a trap that would silence Bobby forever, rendering him
powerless to make public what he knew about the death of his brother. He asked
his aide, Frank Mankiewicz, whether "any of our people were
involved," and, Mankiewicz told me, he thought, did you think there might
be? The conversation stopped there.
Angelo had been betrayed by a companion he believed
he could trust, a man not so much dedicated to the overthrow of Fidel Castro,
as Angelo believed, as involved in arranging for Oswald to be blamed for the
murder of the President, what the Odio visit was really about. The men who
visited Mrs. Odio are identified here for the first time in print.
"Leopoldo" was Bernardo de Torres, who
testified before the HSCA with immunity granted to him by the C.I.A., so that
he was not questioned about the period of time leading up to the Kennedy
assassination, as the C.I.A. instructed the Committee on what it could and
could not ask this witness. Both the Warren Commission and the HSCA buried the
anti-Castro theme, and never explored what Bobby might have known. It might be
that the assassination of President Kennedy could have been prevented, just as
the apprehension of the people uncovered by the Able Danger team, aided by the
F.B.I., had it been granted the opportunity, might have altered the course of
the 9/11 tragedy.
That Robert F. Kennedy not only knew about Lee
Harvey Oswald, but also viewed him as a danger, is alone shocking. That Bobby
put Oswald in New Orleans under surveillance, only to conclude that Oswald
posed no threat because he was "just" involved in assassination plots
against Fidel Castro, is a chilling precedent for the disasters we may continue
to expect from a freewheeling approach to public accountability by government
commissions that appear to be willing to keep the citizenry ignorant, and hence
vulnerable to attack.
De Torres set up a lot of hits, and the problem was
that they mostly favored Fidel's people. He approached me to take out Torriente
(José ElÃas de la Torriente was murdered at his home in Coral Gables, Florida
on 12th April, 1974) for $25K, but I said that domestic work on noncombatants
wasn't my line - and moreover, I questioned exactly what was, and who had, the
beef against this guy? On April 12, 1974, José ElÃas de la Torriente was
sitting in his home in Coral Gables, Florida, when he was shot and killed by an
unknown assailant firing through the living room window. Torriente, a prominent
local businessman, had crossed Miami's Cuban exile community after failing to
follow through on plans to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro. His death marked
the start of a period of political violence that would lead the FBI to call
Miami the terrorist capital of the United States.
He did NOT call Sylvia ever, and Angelo never hinted
at same. Mellen alleges that the call was made behind Murgado's back. Who is
the source. Not one of the compartmented guys & gals on the Odio matter
have ever talked to anybody, save their "cutouts" to RFK's teams.
These folks refused to discuss these matters with anybody else but me (and on a
limited basis). They didn't even want to speak with others they knew or
suspected to be amongst the compartmented elements. And they dogmatically and
absolutely refused to talk to talk to any reporter, writer - even if the party
was from the CIA/I.G.s office, and especially not with any CIA elements!!
So where does this "Bernie called back to
Sylvia" really come from?
The inside scoop of Sylvia, et al. and especially
any relationship with a young priest - can't be clearly answered, not by her or
the others. And moreover, she wouldn't be interested in finding out either.
Even when people believe that they are participating in something patriotic and
noble - when the final results are kept secret, most non-operators feel used -
and/or betrayed. They have a hard time grasping that it is safer for all
concerned - NOT to know intricate details. However, they sure as hell feel that
it is not normal when when the "Mushroom" syndrome arrives.
De Torres taking on a JFK type task, not likely -
even if it was a logistics, commo, or coordinator tasking, he likes living too
well - and he would avoid an Op which either might go sour, or as happens in
the drug trade, you expect to be paid in Silver [Plata] but in the end you are
paid in Plomo [lead]!
When an asset doesn't have a clue as to what is
really going on, later on and down the road, they lose interest in finding out!
Discovering that you have been "used" is a bitter experience.
Mellen wouldn't take NO for an answer, and just
couldn't (or wouldn't) comprehend that most of these folks have no interest in
rehashing the unknown/uncertain past. This is primarily due to a fear that:
they will be linked to something bad, or worse, discover that they had been
used like a goat. And they sure as hell don't want those close to them to
discover their past (good or bad). It causes rifts, jealousies, and
recriminations within the extended family - especially when there exist
distinct opposing beliefs.
Angelo is of the same mind set as the rest, and if I
hadn't believed that it was time to set history straight, and give some overdue
credit - I would have never pounded him to open up just a little bit. Only on
two occasions has he ever done so. Now look at what the response has been. A
bunch of "Bookies"; who have never been there nor done that.
"Talking the Talk, without ever having even been close to The Walk
!!"
Don't bother asking a veteran grunt; they don't talk
"outside of class" - and operators - If you ever find a real one,
he/she won't be a conversant one.
(11) John Simkin, email
interview with Bernardo De Torres' daughter (August 2006)
Q1: Did he visit Silvia Odio in September, 1963. If
so, who were the other two men?
A1: I don't know this one.
Q2: Did he hear any rumours about who might have
been responsible for the assassination of JFK?
A2: Yes, he worked for several years with the CIA at
uncovering all the possible people that were on their list. At one time, they
put him under the spot light and he was proved with out a doubt that he had
anything to do with it. He was actually in Florida with my stepmother at the
time of the assassination and was working on his other job as military
coordinator for Brigade 2506. It's located in Miami in Little Havana. Every
time I've been there I see pics of him and he looks so different, I almost
never recognize him. I think he came to a conclusion in his investigation and
thinks he knows who were the people who killed JFK but doesn't like or want to
deal with what he found because all of sudden he stopped researching and never
spoke about it again. Normally he doesn't stop until he has found the answers.
Q3: What does he think of the Gene Wheaton story
that Carl Jenkins and Chi Chi Quintero were involved in the assassination?
A3: I don't know this one either.
Q4: Was he involved in any anti-Castro activities
before the Bay of Pigs? Did he go on any missions in 1962-1963?
A4: Yes. He was already working with the CIA against
him in 1959. After he came back from the invasion he was in critical condition
for a of couple months. He was shot in the back of his head beneath his
cerebellum and the bullet broke into five pieces. He went under surgery and had
four of those pieces removed. One had to stay because it was too close to an
area that if accidentally harmed could make him paralyzed. About four years ago
he started having fainting spells and headaches and it was determined the piece
was being pushed into his brain by surrounding tissue that had formed so it was
removed successfully then. He pretty much rested for a while and told stories
about being imprisoned in Cuba after that.
Q5. Is it true that he has got locked away some
important documents and photographs concerning the assassination?
A5: No comment. I mean come on. Do you really think
i would say yes to this question.
Q6: What has he been up to in recent years?
A6: My father has long since retired from all his
investigating but still takes part in the Brigade 2506 association. He lives a
peaceful life in sunny Florida with his sister, a cat named cookie and his
military trained German Shepard. That dog is seriously "licensed to
kill" LOL! He is divorced and has 4 children who are all spread out over
the globe. We all get along even though most of us are from different mothers.
He likes to drink his Coca Cola and bet at the dog track occasionally. He takes
extremely good care of his health. He works out and even injects himself with
vitamins. He is the leanest 72 year old you will ever know. I don't know why
people think he lives in South America. He hates those places because to him
they are third world countries. Granted he loves to travel but he won't waste
him money there.
Q7: Would he be willing to be interviewed on camera
for a BBC documentary on anti-Castro activities in the 1960s?
A7: No. Unfortunately he is camera shy and doesn't
like to talk about his work in the past. He tell us his stories because he
loves us and we are his family but he really isn't a people person. If you
would bumped into him in the street you would think "Goodness, what a mean
looking old man". I haven't seen him smile in years.
At first, no one knew the name of the 84-year-old
homeless man who slept in Barnes Park, was hit by a car, and quietly died in a
hospice in the dead of winter. Every death is a tragedy; every life has a
story.
But days after his death this past December 2, he
was identified as Bernardo de Torres, once the head of intelligence for Brigade
2506, the Cuban patriotas who landed at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 with hopes of
overthrowing Fidel Castro. Bernardo was taken prisoner and was only released
after the personal intervention of President John F. Kennedy.
If his story ended there, his life would have had
some historical importance. But there was more. So much more.
My friend Bernie was a subject of investigation by
both the House Select Committee on Assassinations and by the Warren Commission,
which probed Kennedy's murder. He worked for New Orleans District Attorney Jim
Garrison as an investigator in a separate probe of Kennedy's killing and
funneled information back to his handlers at the CIA. Even today, the FBI and
CIA have classified files on Bernie.
Bernie’s resume, if he had one, would have included
his career as an arms dealer in South America with ties to the head of Mexican
police intelligence. He might have left out the number of times he was
questioned in homicide cases in Dade County, Florida.
And then, there were the rumors. Bernie was an
international assassin and a high-level federal informant, they said. In
reality, no one knows everything about Bernardo’s story. I’m reminded of that
line from the Jimmy Stewart movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance:
"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
Bernardo de Torres was my friend, mentor, and at
times my surrogate father. We met when I was floundering, a year after I had
been dropped off the waitlist at Harvard Law School and suffered a nervous
breakdown...
Bernie concluded it was time for me to move on with
my life. I was never cut out for drug dealing, he said, and I was smart enough
to make it legitimately. He had never told me this before, he added, because I
wasn’t ready to listen. And then Bernie calmly pulled out a copy of a file on
me. I glanced at the information and was shocked. There was grand jury
testimony about me going back to 1978. There was also a list of my known
associates and a report on my near arrest in New Orleans two months before.
When I asked him where he got it, he wouldn’t answer.
So who was Bernie really? He told me once he had
photographs of Dealey Plaza during the Kennedy assassination tucked away in a
safe deposit box. He also admitted to a close friend of mine that he knew Lee
Harvey Oswald. It has been reported that he showed up at Silvia Odio’s house in
Dallas with Oswald. His list of connections included mafia dons Santo
Trafficante and Carlos Marcello, who were both linked to the Kennedy
assassination. Bernie took his secrets to the grave. His fall from grace wasn't
poetic. It was, for the most part, his own fault. I am sorry for not reaching
out to him in his later years. His death now haunts me.
After reporter Roben Farzad contacted me about
rumors surrounding Bernie’s situation and subsequent death, I called the
Miami-Dade coroner, who sent me the records. He was hit by a car last May while
walking and then stayed for six months in hospice care before dying in
December. I could only speculate about how he came to this tragic situation.
Bernie spent lavishly money on his friends. He didn't save much. Many of the
people closest to him had died or, like me, moved on with their lives.
I never again resorted to crime and gave up cocaine,
thanks to Bernie.
Student Activities
References
(2) John Simkin, email
interview with Bernardo De Torres' daughter (August 2006)
(10) FBI agent, Leon Brown, interview with Loran Hall (16th
September, 1964)
(13) John Simkin, email
interview with Bernardo De Torres' daughter (August 2006)
(26) Louis Ivon,
internal memo (26th February, 1967)
(39) John Simkin, email
interview with Bernardo De Torres' daughter (August 2006)
