Spycraft - Melton [147]
With the press conference ended, Wally was put in one section of the facility and Andy in another. Dave was sent to a military base called “Columbia.” In all, the three men would spend twenty-nine days undergoing middle-of-the-night questioning, being shuttled between steaming holding cells and freezing interrogation rooms. Their stories did not change.
During the twelve weeks leading up to the mid-December trial, relations between Cuba and the United States continued to worsen. The U.S. Embassy advised all American nationals to leave the country and Castro was hosted by a Russian delegation while visiting New York. After delivering a speech of more than four hours at the UN—setting a new all-time record—Castro discovered his plane had been seized as collateral against Cuban debts. The Soviets, eager to solidify their relationship with the Cuban leader, obligingly provided a plane.18
At CIA Headquarters, the arrest of the three officers caused a major flap. According to one memo circulated at the time, the situation was not hopeful. “The tourist cover used by the technicians was very light,” the memo read. “The cover [asserted by the techs] could not be expected to hold up if the Cubans conducted a thorough inquiry and intensive interrogation.”19 For example, a check of the New York City address Wally used for his cover story belonged to a woman he was dating. If questioned, she would not have known an “Edmund Taransky.”
In late October, the three were transferred to La Cabana, an ancient Havana fortress converted into a prison. Issued prison garb with a large P (for prisoner) stenciled on shirts and pants, the techs were again fingerprinted and then escorted to separate cells filled with common criminals, anti-Castro elements, and American adventurers caught in the revolution.
“At La Cabana they got serious about the interrogations. They had Dave back in the same facility where we were, but in different quarters,” said Andy. “I never saw him except sometimes during interrogations, he’d be coming out and I would be going in. They’d bring you out of a hot room, put you in a freezing cold room, and threaten to pistol-whip you. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to shoot you.’ They had me convinced they were going to shoot me. I really thought it was going to happen. They said you have to cooperate or this is it; we know all about it. Once when the interrogator told me about our being in that sandwich shop, I thought, holy cow, we were dead before we went into the apartment.”
Sometimes the questions would vary, with the interrogators accusing them of working for the FBI.20 Bad Teeth would often claim that the other two prisoners already confessed, so not telling the truth was pointless. During one session, a young guard incessantly played with his gun, flipping the cylinder open and then pulling the trigger. “Tell him that men don’t play with guns,” Wally ordered Bad Teeth. “Only kids do.” Bad Teeth obliged and the guard looked suitably chastened.
“Our attitude was that we didn’t know what our fate would be. I was convinced I was going to be shot. I figured I’m expendable, but I’d never do anything to disgrace my children or the Marine Corps,” explained Andy, who had served in the Marines from 1944 to 1946 and again between 1950 and 1952. “I made my peace with God, but it never happened, thank God.”
The possibility of execution was, as the three learned at La Cabana, not an idle threat. Firing squads were busy day and night