[00:00:00] Since the Dawn of civilization, spies of every nation and culture have worked to infiltrate their adversaries and glean the information that will give their side. The advantage, the stakes are sky high, the strategies varied and imaginative, and the ultimate sign of success is that no one ever even knew you were there.
In each episode, we will explore the moral and ethical gray zones of ESP espionage, where treachery and betrayal go hand in hand with cunning and courage. This is the Spycraft 101 podcast. Welcome to your clandestine classroom. This is episode number 56 of the Spycraft 101 podcast. Today. I'm joined by Michael Salllah, a veteran investigative journalist who has worked for the Miami Herald Washington post and USA.
Today. He's currently a deputy managing editor for [00:01:00] investigations at the Pittsburgh post Gazette. In 2004, he was awarded the Pulitzer prize for investigative reporting along with two of his colleagues for their revelations of war crimes carried out by an army unit in Vietnam and the subsequent coverup by the Pentagon three years later in 2007, he led an investigative project at the Miami Herald that exposed public housing corruption and won the Pulitzer prize for local reporting.
I reached out to Michael to discuss another book. He co-wrote with his frequent collaborator, Mitch Weiss, which was published in 2015. That book is the Yankee command. Dante the untold story of courage, passion, and one American's fight to liberate Cuba. It's the almost unbelievable story of an American named William Alexander Morgan, who traveled to Cuba to join the revolution against president Batista in 1958.
And who rose from the position of distrusted outsider to one of the senior commanders in the second front, [00:02:00] before his inevitable fall from grace, he was both a brave and capable fighter and a restless troublemaker running from his past Morgan's years in Cuba. Sound more like fiction than reality. But as Michael has documented, he really did lead an incredible life at the nexus of revolutionaries mobsters gun runners, the FBI Fidel Castro, and the Kennedy administration.
If you've been following me on Instagram for a while now, then you've probably already seen me mention the Yankee Komen as I've been fascinated by his story for a long time now. So I'm really, really happy that I was finally able to talk with Michael, who knows his story better than just about anyone.
But first I wanna say a big thank you to everyone listening, who is also supporting me on Patreon, including Christian C and Sean B your monthly contributions there. Help me keep this podcast going week in and week out as a way of thanking my patrons. I offer a lot of great freebies and promotions, including free and discounted books and products from the Spycraft 101 store patrons.
Also get [00:03:00] exclusive access to long form articles of mine that aren't available anywhere else. You haven't signed up for my Patreon yet, but you want to just click the link in the show notes on whatever podcast platform you're listening to right now, Michael, thank you for making time for this interview.
Hey Justin. Glad to be here. Wonderful. I understand that this is a story that you began writing about nearly 20 years ago. So how did you first learn about William Morgan? Yeah, it's actually um, it was about 20 years. we had been visited by historian from Harvard who was researching the life of William Morgan.
And most of us looked around to ourselves. You know, he had come to the Toledo blade looking for ways. He basically clips our files, our morgue, if you will, to unearth some of information that he thought we might have. And as we talked about him more, I thought I knew everything about Toledo's history.
Captains of [00:04:00] industry. It's organized crime just about everything else, but I knew nothing about William Morgan and I started researching him and I was blown away, Justin, by the amount of number one, I'm finding all these articles in national newspapers and magazines about him fighting in the Cuban revolution.
And it was just, I, I had never heard of him. So that was the start. And then as I researched his life more, I discovered that his widow that he had married in Cuba was living in Ohio Toledo. And so on a cold wintry day after researching enough to get my arms around. Amazing character who fought in the Cuban revolution, became a hero to the Cuban people and, and, and made national news.
He was in the New York times, he was in life magazine. He was in time magazine. He had just slipped through the [00:05:00] cracks of history, literally, and I found out later why, and we can talk about that, but, you know, the records were all basically classified for at least 30 years after his death. And Che Fidel Castro, Fidel largely buried his history in Cuba.
So long story, short, cold wintery day, I showed up at Olga's door. I had found the most recent address. I didn't call cuz I find as a journalist, it's much easier. To try to get people to talk when you're at their door, looking at them eyeball to eyeball. And as I said, it was snowing. I went to the door, it was January or February of oh two, 2002, this little woman comes to the door and she, she definitely looked as if she could have been from Cuba.
And it turns out, she says, yes, I am Olga. And I asked [00:06:00] her if I could talk to her, are you the widow of William Morgan? She said, yes, but she got a little bit, you know, standoffish. I don't think I wanna talk to you. I don't think I know you. I don't think I know you well enough. I was fortunate enough to get my card out in time and hand it to her granddaughter, who seemed to be a lot more amenable to me, standing in the freezing cold at the door.
And she took the card and I went back to the newsroom, just hoping and praying that Olga Morgan would call me back. And about two days later, Olga had checked me out. She had talked to various community leaders, people that she knew in her world. And they said, he's okay. And that's how it all started.
And I went into her house for the interview, with a tape recorder. Then I turned it on and I I'm telling you for two days, three days, I just listened to her. I listened to this incredible story of her life [00:07:00] in Cuba, meeting William Morgan in the mountains and this incredible journey that they were both on together.
And she had never talked to anybody since she had arrived. Very little, very little that I think there was a few scatterings of people that had tried to reach out to her. But other than that, this was a story that she had kept close to her. And unfortunately for me, she opened up and I can tell you at the end of it was two and a half days, I like had tears in my eyes, just listening to this woman from history, talked to me about, you know, Fidel Castro, Che and her love of her life.
William Morgan.
It's hard to imagine. And you know, her, her words really shine through in the book because it's a story of, you know, to me, it's adventure and betrayal, but it's, it's a story of romance as well, you know, an incredible time and place. And, you know, it's so good that you were able to get it all firsthand from her because I don't think it could have come out that [00:08:00] way, you know, hearing it from anyone else.
Yeah. That's a great point, Justin. And also she brought out these letters like the last letter he wrote her before he was executed at the wall at LA cabana in. In Havana and also the letter, the last letter we were able to eventually get the last letter. He wrote his mother, but the photos, these powerful photos that nobody had ever seen were been published like that one very iconic photo of them arm and arm with rifles standing on a, a peak of the SBRI mountains in 19, 58 and showing them together even after the revolution was won.
And then marching through the streets of Havana with FIAL and Che ARA and Eloy gut mano. It was just incredibly powerful stuff I was seeing for the first. That she had just taken out of this scrapbook and shared with us. we were able to eventually publish [00:09:00] these photos and they've since spent published numerous times, but we were the original ones to publish them.
And we were the only ones to ever get the, the, the letter that he wrote to her. So heartfelt, so powerful. As he was waiting his execution pure bravery. I mean, the guy had no fear and she did not get this letter until she was out of prison. Remember after he was executed, she was thrown in Castro's prisons and spent many years in solitary confinement.
And she did not get this letter until she was out in um, yeah, 1971 when he was, when she was finally released. Wow. Wow. Through a United nations commission, she was released. And she eventually got the letter and just hit it in her clothes for many years before she got on a boat during the Mario boat lift and ended up in Miami in 1980.
So we were fortunate to be able to get these documents from [00:10:00] her and use them for the story. Absolutely. Yes. Incredible what she went through. And so fortunate that you were able to find her and that she was willing to talk about it because it is, it is truly something else. You know what that, that couple went through.
You know, if they're very brief years together there in the late fifties and early sixties, So Michael can you just kind of go back to the beginning and for any listeners who are not, you know, totally familiar with the revolution, can you explain, you know, how, what happened there? Like why did Fidel and Che and the others revolt in the first place?
Like what were the conditions in Cuba that let that sure, sure. You know, Cuba's a funny place, Justin. It, they have to go through these revolutions. They were going through them every 30 years or so. They had one during president Machado's time in the 1930s and they call 'em the cult of the pistil, which is, you know, the, the every 30 years or so, the young generation rises up against the old, and then they take over, they [00:11:00] become the leaders and then a new generation comes up.
But in 19, in that period, in the fifties, Batista had seized power, I believe in 52. And then eventually once again in a coup a military coup a few years later and, and solidified his, his time as the president, he promised, you know, all the great things that, that, that others had said that there would be, this would be the constitution, the country built on the constitution and not some, you know, kangaroo administration, there would be freedoms, there would be upward mobility.
He was gonna help the people in the mountains and in the poor, you know, Cuba a at that time, an amazing level of technology unparalleled in Latin America, no other city in the Caribbean or in south America was advanced in terms of the number of television sets and radios. , but [00:12:00] those were mostly in Havana, in the larger cities, in the Hiland, the people were pretty poor and there wasn't really a trickle down.
And then he started, basically using his secret police. He's Batista had a whole army of secret police and they resorted to torture. They resorted to violence, terrorism tactics to hold the people at bay whenever they wanted their rights restored. He basically ripped up the constitution and created his own dictatorship.
And the United States supported him. Look, he was anti communis. That's all they needed at that period in time to be able to support him. So Batista had a free reign. It was a very corrupt government. Most of the, if you remember the scene from the godfather, when they're all sitting around this table American tele and Telegraph.
Of the mining companies, the American mining companies the casinos, the mobsters, they all had basically were paying homage [00:13:00] to Batista. He accumulated enormous wealth during his time as the president and the young people were very idealistic and they rose up against it. FIAL Castro and his brother Raoul and others started leading these protests in these drives and Castro was imprisoned for a while became kind of a hero to the, to the Cuban people working class and a populist hero.
And eventually Batista release him there was an intercession by a Catholic Bishop at the time they got Fidel released and they, he and his brother and others eventually ended up in Mexico. Where they gathered there, there were a lot of areas of Mexico city then that were all alive in this whole populist revolutionary movement that was kind of sweeping parts of Latin American elsewhere.
And that's where they team up with Chava. And they ended up going back to Cuba and leading this revolution. [00:14:00] They started getting farmers and others in the mountains to take part. They settled in the Sierra Mica, and that's where they built their base and they started attacking camps and things. And that was really just a populist movement against a very corrupt president.
And that was what was playing out in Cuba during that period.
Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. I see Soche came from Argentina originally. I think he and he and Fidel met in, in Mexico.
Okay. Yeah. And so back to Morgan, you know, none of this has anything to do with Morgan at this time. He was a young man that had like a very troubled youth, I guess you would say a restless youth, I guess, would be the best way to put it. Don't you think? Oh, totally. You hit the nail on the hat. I mean, he was a a never do well, he was born and raised in [00:15:00] a upscale, I would say upper middle class neighborhood of Toledo.
His father was a engineer and a financial chief in a Toledo Edison, the local, a power company. he grew up in a very privileged way, but he was a, never do well. He never settled quite right. He was always getting in trouble getting in fights. He got thrown out of at least four schools growing up Catholic schools largely.
Just didn't do well. And he ran away from, he was, he got arrested at one point for armed robbery and a kidnapping. He was like in his teens. And so they didn't know really what to do with Billy Morgan. He was just a wild kid. Idealistic had his own visions of things. I mean, love being kind of an army, always playing kind of army sitting in back of dark theaters, watching army movies.
And he would jump off these high Victorian homes in the old west end of Toledo. He, he was really quite a [00:16:00] character he joined the army at. And he eventually went AWAL he got in fights. He never, once again, that restless spirit carried with him and he got thrown in prison for a couple years.
ended up in Mylan at prison in, in Michigan. His parents would go up and see him. Eventually he gets released and he can't really find a job. His mom gets him a job as a janitor at rosary cathedral in Toledo. And he eventually just throws the way the broom and everything else and goes on a bender and eventually becomes a runner for the local mob.
Toledo had a very developed organized crime network that was tied into Detroit and C. and he became a member of the crime family in Toledo, and he became a runner. Toledo was known to have a lot of gambling clubs, big ones where gamblers would come from all over the country, gambling there because it was right in the know law enforcement was [00:17:00] paid off and they had literally, there was a place called the club, Devon, and it was one of the most opulent.
It was looked like a modern day casino illegal of course. So he ran for these guys collecting bats, running, whatever he needed to do. They called him two gun Morgan. He would carry two guns and just continued his restless ways. got married. He, so he goes to Florida and he joins a circus. He, again, once again on the road, I believe he got out ofdo cuz he was gonna end up getting arrested.
So he goes to Florida, he joins a circus. And he becomes a fire eater and he marries, he meets a woman. Who's the snake charmer and they get married and he ends up working in Miami then. And he starts finding a network of Cubans there who are loading up guns and running them to Havana on boats at night.[00:18:00]
And he joined with them in their cause and he started getting involved and started getting really for him. It was always adventure. You know, these were all army surplus weapons that ending up in Castro's armies. for him it was largely adventure. Eventually he goes back to, to try to save his marriage and it's just not working out and on new year's Eve, 1958, he leaves back to Florida.
And he joins and he, and he hooks up with the Cubans again, who are gathering raising money in arms in Miami. And he ends up going over to Havana on a plane. And they steered him instead of going into Morgan's into cast rose army. He ends up with these young Kunos. These are all 15, 16 year old kids, basically.
He's the oldest one he's like in his late twenties by then he ends up going with them to the ESRY [00:19:00] mountain. So there's another group of rebels fighting there called the second front SAUG Ferente. And this second front was a bit different than Castro's army. They were very pro-democratic. They were very open.
They were not, they had no, basically no communists in their ranks where Castro did. I mean, Jay GAAR was an about communist. Raoul was leaning that way. Castro kept his own sediments, very quiet, but they were filled with different people while they had vast differences. They set aside any differences to fight the common enemy of Batista.
It's funny though, when Morgan shows up in the mountains, they thought he was CIA or FBI, they got really suspicious of him. So they figured they'd get rid of him by running him up and down these Hills. And for days and days they would run him back and forth. And he kind of went there a little pudgy, overweight.
He showed up in a white sea sucker suit. Like he was like a, [00:20:00] a, a tur, a fat cast tourist arriving in Havana and they were running up and down the Hills, this, this gringo. Right. And, but he wouldn't give up. He would never lay down for them. And finally in the end days and days later, he screams out I am not a mule and they finally visit all right.
All right. He's with us. He's gonna fight with us. Let's see how good of a fighter he is. So they go through target, they go through target practice and he's stunning. He's hitting to targets that even they can't hit. And they're realizing now, whoa, this guy is really amazing. And then in the first battle Manno that he meets the leader, Eloy GRE's mano, Manno told them, and Morgan didn't quite understand it.
Don't fire until I tell you, they could see these army and army unit coming up the road. Well, Morgan didn't hear him quite correctly, opened up [00:21:00] fire. All of a sudden they're in a fire fight and mano was pretty upset about this, but Morgan, when they realized he won't retreat. He keeps moving forward when everybody else is moving backward, he, and they would call this crazy grain do, but he's brave as hell.
And he won't back down and that became emblematic of the way he would fight for over the next year. He would become a warrior for them saving lives and, leading them in battles. Hmm. Yeah, it seems so obvious. You know, in hindsight that he was searching for purpose all this time and he finally found it in Cuba, I guess.
Oh totally. He, he, when you think about it, he was restless. He was a, never do well, but he goes to Cuba and he finds a cause a reason to. He sends up a letter back to his mother, the first letter, he would write her after he had ran away and left her with their two kids. By the [00:22:00] way, I missed that. I should have left that out.
When he left his wife at their house with the father Alexander Morgan and LA out the mother, he left their two children there too. He finally writes her and he tells her about this passage. He says, I know you feel like I'm a, an you know, I've been an F up all my life and I'm this and I'm that. But mom, I found a car I've really found a reason to fight.
These are all men. He knew this would impress his mother. They're all wearing rosaries around their necks. His mother was about. And so they're all, and all these are, these are all very you know, they're all raised in that faith. They're all wearing the rosaries.
They're all out there in battle. But he said, I, I witnessed something one day and he wrote this in the letter where he had been to a village and in the village he had witnessed Patista soldiers, torturing these peasants for harboring these these rebels, and they were feeding them and they found out and they tied one of these old man up and they dragged him by the car and basically hung him [00:23:00] to death.
They, it was horrifying. They had to watch cuz there were so many soldiers. They had to wait until the soldiers dispersed and, and, and he wrote this to his mother. He says, I finally realized why I'm here and what I'm doing. And then of course he meets Olga. She had to leave because she was a revolutionary rebel and she had to get out of the city, she was living in Santa Clara.
And she had been the leader of the, the, the student movement and Batista's secret service, secret police were after her. So she took off to the mountains on a, on a, on a horse with two other riders helping her. And she meets Morgan and it's love, I mean, there's this beautiful young Cuban woman.
And she sees this guy looks, you know, this, this muscular blonde haired guy with a beard. And she had heard about him, but it was love at first sight. And eventually they start to become very close. So, you know, as you say, he found his cause [00:24:00] and he found his love, his real love in Cuba. And he told his mother in this letter, I'm never gonna turn away again.
I'm not gonna run away again. Those days are over and he kept his work.
Wow. It's, you know, it's, it's amazing that it turned out initially, at least so well for him considering he went down there with, you know, that very poor army career that wound up with him in prison and not speaking any Spanish, not really knowing hardly anybody down there. It could have gone, you know, south immediately, but somehow he winds up with, you know, a bunch of brave guys, just like he was searching for.
He finds himself a beautiful woman who loves him almost immediately. I mean, he proves himself in battle. It's, it's pretty incredible stuff. Yeah, it really is. And, and that letter speaks volumes and he was interviewed by the New York times when he was up in the mountains. Herbert Matthews, the correspondent for the New York times who was covering the revolution.
And they, they, they, he did an entire piece and Morgan sent [00:25:00] a letter why we're fighting here. What's the reason why, and Mor and Matthews published it in the times. Morgan kind of got on the big board that all of a sudden the magazines and newspapers, the United States started write writing about this Americano who's over there fighting.
Eventually he's made a co Dante, which is the highest rank you can achieve in the rebel army. Castor did not believe in generals because all the generals with Cuba were corrupt, but they were, they would become command co Dantes and they became co Dante Morgan serving under Manuel and another Dante Jesus, they became very close and Morgan was amazing in these battles.
as I said, he never backed down. He and OGA became very close. Eventually. They married in a farmhouse in November of 1958 in the mountains, a farmer, the last name of Hernandez [00:26:00] married them. And there were witnesses to this marriage that was his, the beginning of his life with Olga.
eventually they start wearing down Batista's army slowly. You know, they're again, I, I hearken back to the godfather, one of my favorite movies, godfather part two, when Michael cor Leon watches a rebel blown self up along with the captain of the guard, as well as the soldiers. And he points out to who's then the person is really Meyer Lansky.
And he tells him, you know, it seems to me that the rebels could win this war. This guy's. The soldiers are being paid. They're there, but this guy's not, and he's blowing himself up to win this cause that tells me the rebels can win this war. And that's what it really came down to is they had the will, they had the will to win.
And so, and the, and Batista's soldiers were very defeated by [00:27:00] then. They had gotten, they didn't like killing other Cuban soldiers or Cubans fellow Cubans. And they could see where Batista was really just a corrupt dictator. So they were kind of going through the motions and in the end they win the revolution.
Morgan, you know, Shaar often gets the credit for sweeping across the central Highlands and taking the city of Santa Clara. But honestly it was Morgan and Menno in the second front that cleared the way for Castro's soldiers. Cast Castro's men to be able to sweep through and make those kind of advances.
But you know, Fidel always takes away. He erases the history of those who opposed him, and it was easily erased the exploits and the successes of the second front to make himself look better. The 26th of July movement, his, his army, [00:28:00] but it was really Morgan and Lia, right. Those groups. So that was confusing to me.
So these rebel groups, they were somewhat in competition with each other. Like they were not on good terms, although they were both fighting to overthrow a Batista or they were not on good terms initially. Right. They were, they were competing for weapons and foreign support and all of that. Why is that exactly?
What was the, I think the difference was philosophy. I think that, that the second front. First of all, Shaar caused a lot of that. He comes over after there's multiple successes by the second front Shaar Castro, dispatches him from the Sierra Misa oh. To the central Highlands which is the, the ESCA Brian mountains to basically say, Hey, we're gonna come in and take O take you guys over.
You're gonna become a unit of our army. And they said, the hell you are, this is our territory. Really stood up to them was, Hey Suada who will become a significant figure. Later [00:29:00] in this narrative, he stands up and they have a, they have a, they almost come to blows eventually Che gives up and realizes we're not gonna take this army.
They're gonna stand on their own. Their differences were largely, they were not communist. They didn't embrace. Communis. At all they fought like everyone else for the promises of free elections and everything else, but also to preserve the system in Cuba. And so there were differences there, but I think the differences were largely fanned and augmented by, by the insulin, in the arrogance of Cheva wanting to basically take them over and then refusing to give up their territory to the July of 26th movement.
So when they eventually, when the revolution and the all March into Havanna, they're still, even though they're, they're not fighting each other. There's friction and there's tensions. [00:30:00] And those would manifest themselves after the revolution in a couple episodes between these groups including Morgan.
But they were civil enough to set aside their differences and fight at the end to finish the revolution, finish it off. Batista leaves on a plane with his treasure, his money and his wife and family. And those that would, you know, basically hang on his coattails and Fidel would basically take over as a defacto leader.
So when they all, what was the, like, what was the, the tipping point exactly in the revolution? Cuz these guys started out as, you know, small rag tag groups and I mean, they obviously eventually overthrew the, the government and the military, which was much better armed. So was it just a slow build of momentum and small victories or was it something?
Yeah, they were inching away. They kept beating back Batiste to soldiers until they cleared out of critical areas. They [00:31:00] were no longer controlling the geography of the country. And then the military, they couldn't sustain their assaults on the rev, the rebels, the rebels were winning at every patch they were in in fact for a while, the Eski the, the second front won all their skirmishes.
They won all of them. A lot of them were at battles. They would call 'em more like skirmishes and they would win 'em all though. And then they would just keep beating them back and eventually the army didn't wanna fight anymore. And then Batist saw the writing of the wall. They're, they're marching in they're coming in.
They're gonna come into Havana. And that's when Batista flees. And once he left, that was it. It was basically over, they had taken key cities. SANOS they had taken Santa Clara, they had taken a bunch of other major cities and, and they started winning the port cities. Like SANOS. Which was a port city, some of these other places.
So they [00:32:00] were cutting the cutting off areas where Batista was hoping to get arms coming in. Also the United States stopped supporting Batista. They pulled out, they said that this is not smart. It's not good. You, you can't support him anymore. He doesn't have the will of the people behind him anymore.
And he talked he basically talked Eisenhower into not supplying them arms during a very critical period that last six months. So he knew that that his time was up. Oh boy. Yeah. That would do it. Losing your biggest benefactor. I'm that, that was really critical. So in the, in the overall revolution, how significant were Morgan's contributions?
I mean, you said he was, he was a command Dante, obviously he was the Yankee command Dante, but I mean, was he, , a decisive factor in the war? Well, certainly with the second front, he was a leading, he was more of the leading commanders and he was feared by the [00:33:00] soldiers. There was a great scene when he gets in a dual with one of the more respected members of Batista's army.
And these, this was like a, a shootout between these two guys and neither one went down, but Morgan clearly established himself as a leader among them. I would say his significance to the revolution or the, what he contributed major contributions was with the second front and that the second front cleared the way for Castro's army.
Which was a bit bigger, quite to be able to come through and make that March towards Havana that they wanted to do. If not for that, it would've slowed it down. If not for the second front that would've slowed down significantly and it may have given Batista more time. I think it was inevitable. The Batista would've fell, but I think he [00:34:00] may have been able to sustain himself for longer, if not for the success of the second front in that territory and what they were able to do.
They were much closer to Helen than Castro. Castro was the far Southeastern part of the island where Morgan and his group was in the middle. Right. Dad smack in the middle, much closer to, to Havana, so. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I gotcha. Yep. Wow. Yeah, that's really something else. This guy, he just came, he found his purpose and then he played such a, a major role.
In the conflict. And then, I mean, they're, they drove over, they marched into Havana victorious and he just achieved everything he wanted to is, is what I would imagine. Yeah. And, and he was getting a lot of press by then. The American press was like fawning over him. Everybody wanted to interview him this Americano.
And I mean, that's a big story. So here, you're reading about this revolution in this place, which is at the center, we're in the cold war. There's a lot of [00:35:00] significance to that area, that geography at that time Cuba particularly. And here's this Americana, the one that's actually leading it. So he ends up in, you know, the New York times, his hometown paper, that Toledo blade was all over the story.
And then AP associated press was picking up all these stories. So he kind of became a very well known figure. The Miami Herald was writing about him and by the time he arrives, he's a hero to the Cuban people and they mob him. You know, he is the yo co Dante ante Morgan and the women, the women loved him much to Olga's chagrin.
They actually, you know, we trade their kids in this country. They trade baseball cards. Back then, and the youngsters in Cuba had trading cards of the co Dantes and, and Bo was on there. He was like a, this hero and he would be mobbed wherever he went. People wanted his autograph.
And I think there was a lot of jealousy in the part of [00:36:00] Castro. And that group, especially Che Guevara at one point, there was a, yeah, yeah. At one point there was kind of a showdown, but Che was the commander of LA when they were starting to do a lot of the executions and that really bothered. Olga and Morgan and mano, they felt that look, we've won the war.
You don't need to kill everyone now, but they were Che and Raul were leading all these execution squads against people that were locked up. A lot of these former Batista loyalists. And that was bothering that really bothered them to no end though. That was one reason. Yeah, I can imagine. That's not the way we fight wars, you know, in America.
No that's. And then on top of that, there was the showdown at like Kaban where they all gathered the second front and the July [00:37:00] 26th movement. And they wanted to, once again they wouldn't recognize the Komen Dantes in the, in the second front. They didn't wanna recognize the leadership there. and that's when there was another confrontation this time between Jesus gut Morgan and the others, and everybody had their hands on their guns and eventually cooler heads.
Yeah. Heads did prevail. This happened a couple times. So you could tell there was bad blood there. eventually they laid down their lives. They, they weren't gonna, they, they realized we gotta look. We fought together. They won a big segment of the Cuban population, loved the second front and especially Morgan.
So Castro wasn't gonna do anything foolish at that point. And they eventually did Morgan and his people, the second front settled in the Capri hotel, which was built by the mob back then. And they basically, that was their [00:38:00] headquarters. Morgan and Olga lived there. they set aside, they figured, all right, let's just set aside.
We're gonna try to get some positions in the government now, but they didn't Castro would not appoint any of the second front to keep positions in the government. Oh. That really bothered them. Cuz they risk their, they, they lost, you know, their blood was spilled as well in the mountains during the revolution and they deserved it, but they didn't get it.
Yeah. Nobody can deny their contribution. And so that was, that was troubling to them. interestingly enough, Morgan got visited one night by a well known mobster, kind of more of a, I guess I'd call him a fixer for the mob. And he said, look would you be willing to kill Fidel? On behalf of the mob, Fidel was not allowing the casinos to fully [00:39:00] open.
They were concerned about whether he was gonna allow them to continue to have their bounty and make the kind of money they made do the same things. Fidel was not, he felt that the casinos were very symbolic of Yankee, imperialism and corruption, which, which is true. And so yeah, that is accurate. Right? So but Nelson said to Morgan, you know, a million and there's backing for this.
And one of the backers was a D the dictator of the Dominican Republic. Rafael Trujillo. Now Trujillo was a really bad guy. He was as bad as Batista, but he was our bad guy. The us, he was anti communist. And so he was our, he was our thug, you know, he's a thug, but he is our thug at the time. And, but so, so he was behind it.
He was gonna supply the arms and the guns. They knew that [00:40:00] Morgan had the confidence of enough people and won over enough of the popularity of the people to be able to raise his own army in the ES CBRI. So Morgan met with mano and met with others at a restaurant in Havana and, and they talked about it and they decided they were gonna kind of play along.
They weren't sure what they were gonna do. Let's talk about it. Let's dwell on it, but I think at some point they knew it was risky. They knew they had trepidation about doing it because. You know, at least we have a new government now. And at that point, Fidel had not canceled elections. He had not done anything to show that he was, you know, going to be the dictator that he was going to be.
So eventually they decided they [00:41:00] talked to some people that were kind of in the know and they said the best thing you can do is go to Fidel and just tell 'em what's going on. So Fidel, so Morgan met when Olga went to Fidel's home, then he was living with his secretary Cecilia Sanchez then and Olga still describes laying on the bed, newspapers around him, smoking a cigar reading in incomes Morgan in Olga.
And they meet and they gather, they talk and they tell FIAL, he's fascinated by this. He said, well, look, play along, draw 'em out, draw. 'em all out. Let's let's you go, you play, you play double agent here. So Morgan, he said, we're gonna put you up in one of these big homes in the Miramar neighborhood, the million dollar home was a lot back then.
And Morgan did, he moves in, moves [00:42:00] in with his group, also with some Fidel's people are with him now and they put tape recorders and all the rooms and everything else. They taped everything. They had everything wired. And Morgan started having these on short wave communicating with trhe in others who were plotting this.
And how they were gonna carry it out and what they were going to do. And they built it up. I mean, Morgan made trips to Miami, won over many of the pro Batista people there who wanted to come back in power. He got money from them. He got guns, he got everything. Meanwhile, Jager, Hoover, and the CIA is watching very, very carefully now.
So now the American government knows what's playing out. They're thinking though that Morgan is going to work with Batista. I'm sorry. Tru heal to overthrow Fidel. [00:43:00] So he's won everybody over. He's got the us government watching him, FBI agents. He was interrogated by the FBI during a couple of his trips to Miami.
They, they see what he's up to. They know what he's doing and he's playing along quite well. Rough time for Olga. They have their first child. It's a very difficult period for them. She's got all these people in her house. There's no freedom, no security. He keeps telling her, look, this is for us, Olga it's for our future.
We'll solidify our future here. Fido will probably give us something as a result of this, let me just continue to play along. And he does so eventually they, they tell them when they play along, bring in the guns, bring in the arms, bring in the planes. And they do a landing down in Trinidad, the city of Trinidad in my, in Cuba.
This is where the revolution's gonna start. And they think it's [00:44:00] all playing along. Tra was on the other end of the short way with Morgan and others. And they're talking, Hey, we're gonna do this. We're gonna pull it off. And the coup was smashed immediately. Castro's armies waiting. Everybody else is waiting.
And they, they smashed the coup. They imprisoned all the people that came in on the planes and the arms were all confiscated, the money, everything. And that became a big splash. Morgan is now an international figure, completely upsets the, the FBI J. Edgar Hoover is enraged, cuz he wanted to overthrow cast. He wanted to overthrow feed.
It's a major event in their lives. It's got the press there, the international press. And they, I mean, you talk about now Morgan is like this rock star in Cuba. But he said something happened at this press conference that bothered him and he [00:45:00] realized Fidel, the kind of person that Fidel was, there was $84,000 that was seized on one of the planes.
And he turns to Morgan. During this press conference with the cameras rolling, and you made your mortgage. Now, this is your gift. This is your trophy for doing what you did. The mortgage was mortified because number one, he didn't do this for money and he didn't do it for whatever Fidel thought. And he thought Fidel was playing me off is on some sort of a a, a soldier or fortune or something than doing this for the money or whatever.
And it, and it pissed him off to no end, but he kept it to himself. Didn't say anything, but he realized then this is not, you know, and it, at that point while Morgan has hailed as a hero, Castro always looked at him very literally out of the corner of his eye, cuz he knew how popular he was and Fidel did not like that kind of anybody up staging him.
[00:46:00] So they continued to move along and live along and live. But, and then Morgan was appointed to this position in the conservation department there, the department of environment for Cuba to run these farms, conservatories and frog farms, where they would raise about millions of these frogs because they become delectable in, in American restaurants to sell.
And he basically basically became this conservationist and he thought, okay, this is the best I can give. I'll live with it. I'm not happy about it, but I got something outta this and they gave him trucks and soldiers to work with him and this and that. But something happened along the way. Cuba is at the crossroads and the cold war.
And you got the us on one side and the Soviet union on the other, and they're both vying for Castro's attention. And power. They want that base. Cuba [00:47:00] wants a strategic location, close enough to the United States of America. We're in the middle of this horrific, very tense, tens field, cold war. Castro starts to make host members, the Soviet union who are coming over and it really bothers Morgan Castro.
Eventually cancels elections starts breaking up. The unions, starts breaking up the newspapers and that's really enrages him. And at one point the arrest Jesus SCADA, his fellow com Dante and Morgan goes to the prison and orders them to release him. And they do because he's a co Dante, but that didn't settle well.
So he's got a guy he's in power. But he's vying for power now. And Castro is looking him rarely saying, what do I do with this grain? Do you know? And so they [00:48:00] start talking about a counter revolution and Morgan starts leading a drive to take back Cuba again at quietly. And now the CIA is also training men expats to come over and carry out the Bay of Pigs Operation and Operation Mongoose.
And so they were counting on people like Morgan to ment an insurrection on the middle of the island so that they could invade Cuba and win. The, the win around, take over Castro's army badly miscalculated by Kennedy. Who's now the president. I should tell you this I don't wanna, I that, as a result of Morgan becoming the double agent, smashing the coup, he was stripped [00:49:00] as citizenship, his U.S. Citizenship by very anticommunist leaders in the Congress who thought that he was a traitor and Morgan of course went on, was interviewed by the American press.
He says, I'm not I'm I'm. This is what we fought before we fought for freedom. We fought for democracy. The problem was Keer was not taking the regime into a democratic government. He was going in the opposite direction. So Morgan was kind a man, right at that point, he's a man without a country and he's kind of caught in the middle.
Man, it's just one thing after another with this guy. I mean, there's so many twists and turns in his story, and this is all in a fairly short period of time too. It's it's really stunning. Yeah. In fact the Trujillo conspiracy the smash coup occurs in August of 59, just eight months after the revolution was won.[00:50:00]
And then by 1960, Morgan is plotting to overthrow the government about the middle of the year, June or so after he sees enough of Fidel realizes Fidel is not being true to the revolution for they risked their lives and lost men lost blood and where blood was spilled on behalf of this cause. And so they're enraged over all of this.
And then, so Morgan. Starts to his trucks. He uses the trucks and the conservation movement to start to carry arms to the ESCA. Bri they're now moving guns to the mountains and they're getting ready and he's starting to train his men. They're working out, they're going through rigorous training now and he's leading it.
in August of 1960, there were two members of his detail [00:51:00] who were spies planted there by Fidel and they turned on Morgans. And so Morgan went to the Department of Agriculture to give a gift to the Secretary of Agriculture since that's where he's working under that group.
And he's arrested And they did it with great respect, Dante, please. You're coming with us, lay down your weapons, lay down your arms. He did. And at that point he gets arrested and he sent to Laia prison. Olga takes her two children and goes in hiding she's caught and she's sent under house arrest.
And in one of those great little episodes, Olga puts new year's Eve, 1960, the beginning of 1961, she puts sleeping mess, sleeping pills. She crushes them and she puts them, melts them in chocolate and she makes hot chocolate for the soldiers who are guarding her [00:52:00] and they drink the hot chocolate.
Thank you, Olga. Thank you, Olga. And they fall asleep. And she takes her children and she goes into the night and she hails a car and they take her to the Brazilian embassy and she ends up there. And the ambassador brings her in and gives her protection with her two children. Morgan is at Laman and he is largely basically he knows basically where his fate is going and Castro at that point was executing people.
And in March, 1961, he is brought before a trial court, really a kangaroo court. We had the original records of this trial as well, He had a, great Lawyer who was representing all of the prisoners then for the war. I'm sorry. Prisoners, who were in LA Kaban he tried [00:53:00] his hardest.
He and Carra were both they were both tried together Morgan makes this plea before the court that I never, never, ever betrayed this revolution. I believed in it and I lived in it and I interviewed a uh, journalist named Henry Raymond. He would then work for United president international, U P Henry visited Morgan's cell.
And he said that Morgan was like completely, like, there was absolutely no fear in him. He had already realized he was gonna be executed. He had accepted his fate. There was, he said it was just amazing. I absolutely no fearing him whatsoever. And he wrote a letter to his mother and gave it to Henry, Raymond to please pass on to his, mother.
And she would not get that for, [00:54:00] for, we're not sure she ever got letter because he eventually gave it to me in Olga years later, after he read our stories. The Luis Gato. Luis Gato was the defense lawyer. And he eventually became the Dean of the law school, university of Cincinnati. He eventually came to the United States, but then he was basically the lawyer for the damn.
And he pleaded his case, but to no avail, I mean, at the end of the day, Morgan was, you know, delivering arm to the Escara. Right, right. He was, he was guilty of what they were accusing him of, but I think the odds were stacked against him. No matter way. No, there's no question. And he wrote this beautiful letter to Olga and it said like, since the first time I saw you in the mountains until the last time I saw you in prison, you've been my love, my happiness, my companion in life.
And then my thoughts during my moment of death. And it was just really [00:55:00] powerful. He goes, Olga, I have never been a trader or have I done any damage to Cuba? I'll tell you this because you know, this is the truth. I ask you to please never allow that my name, the girls, yours, the girls being his two children and yours get utilized for political reasons, for those who would use them for hatred wrongs, or to attack you or its people, or to represent things that I could never represent.
And he went on caution her to not feel like revenge. He said is not the answer. It's better than I die. He said, because I have defended lives. I only ask that someday the truth will be known that my daughters will be proud of their father. And that was his last letter to her. And the judges cast their lot and they found him guilty.
he was visited by Juan MCIF, who was a priest who was heard his last confession. We believe we don't know this for a fact. He gave him last final rights and last communion[00:56:00] first gave him his communion. And then he walked with him to the wall that night, the car, they would've a car pick up these prisoners from their cells and they made it really loud.
They took the muffler off. So it would scare all the other prisoners. This was the death car and it took Morgan to, and he was with father McNiff the whole way in the car, praying, just praying to himself. And they arrive at the wall. Morgan gets out, and this was all written and mu much of the details were written by father McNiff in the letter that he then sent to Miami, which we have a copy of as a witness to this event.
And he hugged the head of the fire wings squad before he died. And basically said, I tell the boys, I forgive them for what they're about to do. And you, oh my gosh. And then he took off the rosary that was around his neck, handed it to father McNiff. [00:57:00] And stood me for the wall. Now we've never confirmed this, but we have heard, and I can't confirm it, which I never did include it in my book, but there was some somebody passed on the word that he had been ordered, Y Neil and be for your life.
And Morgan yelled back. I kneel for no man. And he was shot in the kneecaps and eventually he fell and then the captain and the fireman squad came up and shot him and killed him. And that was, that was basically the end and father McNiff and his letter said he was just incredibly brave, just the whole way until the end.
I believe he, he refused to be blindfolded or to be handcuffed, but again, we don't know that we don't have any documentation on that. What we do know is what in father MCs and he was buried. I remember interviewing the priest that presided at his burial at uh, LACO alone [00:58:00] cemetery in Havana. He was buried with Jesus Guarada the fellow comandante who was also shot and killed that night executed.
And they were both in the, they were interned in the their family, the CADA, their family had a Masum small, tiny little Masum there. They were buried. They were interned there. And the priest, I remember I interviewed, he was in Spain at the time. He spoke English, we described the burial, so everybody was just, just crying.
They were beside themselves. And that was the end. That was basically his end Olga. She fled the Brazilian em embassy. She left her children there. She fled and she went. To try to meet William. she thought that he would end up in Santa Clara that he would be able to escape, but he obviously did not.
She was arrested there in Santa Clara eventually. And she was put in prison for tenure. That's where, as, as I said, she, [00:59:00] she served in prison. She served 10 years largely in, I mean, you know, a lot of people say, you know, William being a hero, but he was taken out of his misery in 1961, March of 1961, Olga lived on largely, she was in solitary confinement.
She remembers like, you know, rats crawling over her. When she's trying to sleep at night, she was forced to basically go to the bathroom in a hole, in a, in the floor and then a hole in the ground. She would get crumbs of bread shoved under the, you know, the the cell. But she survived. And for 10 years and then eventually was released and she lived in a convent in Havana because every time she went to Santa Clara, the girls were raised, the two daughters Wereta INTA were raised by Morgan's mother.
And Olga basically stayed away from there. Cuz every time she went there, cast her a secret police would show up and they [01:00:00] hassle the family. So they thought it was just best to stay away. So she lived Inana in a, in a convent, she made clothes and different things and, and to sell with the nuns that would sell them.
And that's how OGA basically survived for many more years up until the end until she escape. Through the Peruvian. Embassy's never a dull moment with this, this wonderful lady. she gets in a boat, one of the last boats. So you have to understand the Mario bolt with Castro is letting out people out of the prisons.
And he is letting people out of the Peruvian embassy to leave on boats to go to Miami. No, no, you know, he didn't want him, he, you know we don't want him, you know, mm-hmm so they end up on boats and Olga was on one of the last boats leaving the Harbor, Mario Harbor and the Cuban Navy shot out into the hall so that it was linking and it barely made it to key west.
It was boats to go to Miami, but end up going to key west cause it was gonna sink or, and so she [01:01:00] prayed the whole way. She said until they got to key west in 1980 and she said she got out of the ground and she kissed the ground when she got there. And that became her journey here that became her journey to the United States.
My gosh, unbelievable what that poor woman went through in her life. Yeah, incredible. She eventually settled to Morgan had always said in Ohio, she, you know, if you, if you get out, if you ever get out, my mother will take care of you, just get out and go there and she'll be there. And that true to her word.
She got to Toledo. Loretta was there for her. They became very close, almost like a daughter mother relationship, and O eventually got her own place. She got a job as a, as basically with is a kind of a social worker with them working with the migrants there. And she met a, she met a gentleman named Jim Goodwin, who was a local welder, a little bit younger than her.[01:02:00]
And they got married in 1984. Olga was in, I believe in their late forties. And her children were re reunited with her and in, in America. And her mother and father came over and live with her and they both died there. The children are fine. They're still living. And Olga is now in her mid eighties, 85, 86.
When I found her, yeah, when I found her, it was like 20 years ago. So she was in her late sixties.
Wow. What a story? Incredible stuff. So William is still buried in Cuba right now. Is that right? Yeah. She's been trying to bring his body home. There are two things. Loretta asked her before Loretta died in 1988. The. She said, and she asked her on her, in, on her death bed, basically in a nursing home to Olga.
I think she had talked [01:03:00] about it earlier, but she had asked her finally, please don't forget William, that she wanted his body returned to United States for burial and a funeral. And also a Rite of Christian burial, which is the Catholic version of the funeral. And also she wanted Morgan's citizenship restored.
She always felt that was wrong. And I must tell you this Loretta staged vigils for William when William was at trial during those trial and he was in prison, she had people praying. She had gone to everyone to try to stop this thing all the way to the highest echelons of the Catholic church, the Vatican, nobody could stop his impending death.
She had gone to members of Congress. She had written, she had all, she had gone. I mean, everybody, she had written the white house trying to get them to stop this, this execution. So when Loretta died, she made, she asked OGA two things, citizenship restored bring his body back for rebar on [01:04:00] here. So Olga accomplished did accomplish one thing after we wrote our series of stories in 2002 March Marcy captor, the, the us Congresswoman who's still the us Congresswoman by the way, from that area represents Salito in, Cleveland's the longest serving woman to ever serve in the house.
She's been in there since 1982. Yeah. 1982. She went to Cuba to meet with Fidel. She met with Fidel her and Charlie Rangle, former Congressman from New York. But that nothing, they never released a Castro ETT and said he would, but they never did release the body, but she was able to get the citizenship and tur, there was a local attorney in Toledo named Gerardo Reon Rison is his name's first name.
He was able to get the state department to review the [01:05:00] case and say, we never had a legal authority to do this, to begin with. Therefore we're rescinding, whatever we said earlier that his citizenship effectively was never properly stripped. Therefore he is still an Amer posthumously. He is a us American citizen.
So Olga for all intents and purposes was able to get that black little mark removed from her late husband's name. And he is indeed a us citizen. So that was one thing that she did do on behalf of Loretta, the mother, the body is still a work in progress. I mean, Mr. Rollison continues to appeal to the state department.
He's written, they've written to Pope Francis. they've written Jo George W. Bush. They've written to Obama. They've written to Biden. I believe Biden. I, I don't quote me on that. I, I, but I know Obama and I know GW [01:06:00] Bush, they tried in both instances to get them to intercede and do whatever they could to turn this body back to America for re burial nothing yet.
Hmm. So yeah. Well, That's really? Yeah. That's unfortunate that it hasn't worked yet and it's taken so long, but you know well you might not know this, Michael, but one of my previous podcast, guests was Janet Ray, who you might be familiar with. Her father's body was in Cuba for about 18 years. Pete Ray, he was shot down during the pigs invasion and they did eventually.
I know Janet well, by the way, too. So yeah. That's wonderful. Yeah. It's not impossible. Okay, great. Yeah. She and I still communicate, even now. She's a great lady. She's not impossible. Many ways has suffered her own fate, you know, obviously, and has lived this life. But with some success she got believe she got some compensation too.
If I'm not mistaken for the years of pain, whatever else that happened. If I'm not mistaken, I don't, I don't [01:07:00] recall. Right. I'll go back and listen for that episode. Yeah. Again, honestly, I'm not sure she mentioned that, but her focus was on her father. Of course. Yep. Well, I'm, I'm very hopeful that eventually William will be brought back.
Do they have plans? Do they have a, like a spot in Toledo? I, there cemetery something is there? I believe so. I believe Mr. Robinson had looked into that and, and I believe if not, they do have a plot for him. They actually even had planned to do DNA. Obviously when they bring the remains back, they're gonna wanna do DNA.
Oh, of course. To ensure that that is indeed remains of, of the ante. So I believe that's underway as well. Yeah. So he's gotten all those assurances. That's wonderful. And he still remains vigilant on this quest. And I know Olga would love to see the day when that happens and she would be there, you know, at his, at his burial that ever happens.
That'd be a huge, huge story if that ever happens. [01:08:00] Oh yeah, I'm sure you'd be, I'll be writing about it. And. Knowing it's been a long journey for her from, you know, starting mm-hmm in the mountains, in, in Cuba, that's where it all began. Oh yeah, yeah. What a journey she's been on. Hopefully she gets that closure and that, you know, catharsis from getting him back, you know, sometimes soon, hopefully.
I mean, that would be, that would be such a wonderful end to such poignant story. Yeah. Yeah. So Michael, after you're reporting, you know, since you started reporting 20 years ago now, is he, is he better remembered in Toledo? Is there in, you know, like a, I don't know, a Memorial in a park or any, or a, anything like that at all, or, you know, more feature stories of is he well known?
They're very well known fact. 1st of Olga's daughters a granddaughters or great granddaughter. Was, she was protesting. It was a wide protest about police abuse. I think she got arrested. There was a huge story on her, says she's a granddaughter of the Yankee comandante. And I pretty [01:09:00] sure she was released right away is a local celebrity there.
And she's also well known. She's also well known in Miami. You know, there are still many, many of if you talk to any elderly Cuban person, whether in Miami though they will remember the, ya com Dante and many of the younger ones remember because their grandmothers and their parents have talked to comandante and Morgan.
So some thought he was a mythical figure, this like this, this Americano, you know, that became one of them. He became a martyr, you know? But mm-hmm, , it's powerful stuff and it never quite goes away. It remains. When you think about it, Cuba became such a critical point in the cold war.
I mean, when you, you know, after The Bay of Pigs, there was a Cuban Missile Crisis and we never we've come that's as close as we ever came to nuclear to a nuclear confrontation, you [01:10:00] know, and that was all absolutely. That was all during that same period. So his part in history is etched in stone and all the records by the way, have been released by the national archives, the FBI records.
And thankfully now we can rewrite and, you know, heartened that I could help rewrite bring back this very fascinating character who slipped through the cracks of history, but will no longer be forgotten. And as you know there is a option right now with Olga. To for the movie entertainment Clooney, George Clooney, originally optioned the rights held them for five years, but never did anything with it.
And so Olga's lawyers kind of took it out of his hands, smokehouse production, and they moved it and sold the option rights to imperative entertainment, which is another movie making [01:11:00] company. And they have assigned Adam driver to play Morgan. And then Jeff, Daniel, I believe is the director, but that's been almost a year or two years now since that's happened.
And I don't think anybody has said action yet, but this is made, this has got, this is the power of this is gonna be in a movie. It really is. I I'm, I'm grateful that I was able to do the book. But I really do think that the movie is gonna be powerful. You know, one, I left this out, we have Ogas diaries.
When she first met Morgan, he was when she first, she, she met him in the mountains, briefly flirt, you know, they kind, he kind of flirted with her that was love at first sight, but she didn't stay there. She stayed in a farmhouse, not far from there. And she couldn't wait to see this man again. And one day the, the sun is setting over the mountains and [01:12:00] here comes this man riding a white horse and this William Morgan, and he's coming to see her.
You can't make this stuff up, you know, and it's like, my God, if they don't have enough to, you know, make a movie out of this, I mean, J. Edgar Hoover, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro. You know, then, , might as well, find another part of history to write about, because this is just made for the silver screen.
It really is. Oh, truly. Yeah. People who haven't read your book, they'll go see it and think, you know, typical Hollywood embellishment of this guy, you know, none of there's no way he did all of this, in three years or so, but it's all documented. Yeah. And then so amazing. Amazing. Well, thank you, Michael.
This has been incredibly informative. Like I said, I've, been wanting to get to this story in depth for a long time, and I I'm really glad that we connected. Are you working on another book right now? I mean, is you've written a lot more than just this story over the years. So do you have anything else coming down?
No books. You [01:13:00] know, we get involved in these deep investigative projects. We're kind of steeped in a couple good ones right now. Could, could one of them lend themselves to a book potentially you know, books are, I've had two books now and they're, they're, they're grueling. It's gotta be the right book.
So I'm just kind of waiting for that next one to pop up, but it'll get there. I, I can't wait to dive into my next one. Good, fantastic. I'm glad to hear it. I'll be there to pick it up when you do. So is there anywhere that the listeners can connect with you? Do you have like an author website or anything like that that you wanna recommend?
You know, look, you can certainly email me way four, seven w a V E F O R C E. The number seven, gmail.com. It's great. If you wanna order the book, you can go on Amazon. If the movie's made, I think they're coming out with a paperback edition. so they've talked about that the, the, the folks at lion's press.
So I believe that that could very well be in the cards [01:14:00] as well. But that would be the way to contact me the best way to get ahold. Yep. All right. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Michael. This has been wonderful. I appreciate it. Same back at you. Thank you very much. Keep up the good word. Yep. okay. I definitely plan to take care.
If you are interested in more of Spycraft 101. Look for my pages on Instagram at Spycraft 101 and at cold dot war dot stamps, you can also find more great articles on my website. Spycraft one oh one.com. Thank you all for listening. And I hope you'll stick around because there is lots more to come.
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