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Virgilio (Villo) Gonzalez was born in Cuba. He worked as a driver for Felipe Vidal Santiago. Both Gonzalez and Santiago moved to Miami after Fidel Castro gained power in 1959.

Gonzalez became an active member of the anti-Castro Cuban movement in the United States and associated with the Interpen (Intercontinental Penetration Force) group.

In the winter of 1962 Eddie Bayo claimed that two officers in the Red Army based in Cuba wanted to defect to the United States. Bayo added that these men wanted to pass on details about atomic warheads and missiles that were still in Cuba despite the agreement that followed the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Bayo's story was eventually taken up by several members of the anti-Castro community including Nathaniel Weyl, William Pawley, Gerry P. Hemming, John Martino, Felipe Vidal Santiago and Frank Sturgis. Pawley became convinced that it was vitally important to help get these Soviet officers out of Cuba.

William Pawley contacted Ted Shackley at JM WAVE. Shackley decided to help Pawley organize what became known as Operation Tilt. He also assigned Rip Robertson, a fellow member of the CIA in Miami, to help with the operation. David Sanchez Morales, another CIA agent, also became involved in this attempt to bring out these two Soviet officers.

In June, 1963, a small group, including Gonzalez, William Pawley, Eddie Bayo, Eugenio Martinez, Rip Robertson, John Martino, and Richard Billings, a journalist working for Life Magazine, secretly arrived in Cuba. They were unsuccessful in their attempts to find these Soviet officers and they were forced to return to Miami. Bayo remained behind and it was rumoured that he had been captured and executed. However, his death was never reported in the Cuban press.

Some researchers believe Gonzalez was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. One source claims that Gonzalez was the gunman in the Dal-Tex building and Eugenio Martinez was his spotter.

On 17th June, 1972, Gonzalez, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker and James W. McCord were arrested while removing electronic devices from the Democratic Party campaign offices in an apartment block called Watergate. The phone number of E.Howard Hunt was found in address books of the burglars. Reporters were now able to link the break-in to the White House. Bob Woodward, a reporter working for the Washington Post was told by a friend who was employed by the government, that senior aides of President Richard Nixon, had paid the burglars to obtain information about its political opponents.

In January, 1973, Gonzalez, Frank Sturgis, E.Howard Hunt, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker, Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping.

 

Members of Operation Tilt.

 

Operation Tilt: Photographs

Open Debate on the Kennedy Assassination

 

 

 

 

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