• Comandante of the Revolutionary Forces William Alexander Morgan, 1928

 

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Morgan spent most of his life in Toledo, where he was often in trouble with the law. He is said to have been a martial arts expert, skilled with firearms, and is rumored to have been a Central Intelligence Agency operative. In April 2007, the US State Department, acting at the behest of Morgan's widow, declared that Morgan's US citizenship was effectively restored, nearly 50 years after the government stripped him of his rights in 1959 for serving in a foreign country's military.

Morgan apparently went to Cuba in early 1958. He was opposed to the Batista government, but he did not serve under Fidel Castro. Instead, he led a small guerrilla force of the Segundo Frente that operated against Batista's soldiers in the Escambray Mountains, near the city of Santa Clara. Morgan married a Cuban, Olga Maria Rodriguez Farinas, who was also a revolutionary.

In December 1958, Che Guevara appeared at the head of a column of troops. He had joined forces with Morgan's group and the Revolutionary Directorate guerrillas of the Escambray mountains. Together they captured the city of Santa Clara on 31 December. Twelve hours later, Batista fled from Cuba, and the revolution had succeeded. Morgan and his men occupied the city of Cienfuegos on 1–2 January 1959.

In August 1959, Morgan helped to foil a coup attempt orchestrated by the Dominican Republic's dictator Rafael Trujillo by pretending to cooperate and then betraying the plot to Fidel Castro.

It is sometimes claimed that Morgan orchestrated the massive explosion of the French arms ship La Coubre, but there is no evidence to support this.

Throughout the struggle against Batista, Morgan had been vocal about his anti - communist beliefs. When asked during interviews about Castro's political beliefs and where the new Cuban government was leaning, he remained firm in his belief that Castro was not a communist and that Cuba would return to capitalist parliamentary democracy.

As Castro began to reveal his leanings towards socialism, however, Morgan became distressed. So were other members of the SFNE (Segundo Frente Nacional de Escambray), who believed in a democratic and capitalist Cuba. Some of these members were US assets like Morgan, such as Huber Matos.

Morgan was arrested in October 1960 and charged with plotting to join and lead the counter - revolutionaries who were active in the Escambrays. Evidence had shown him to be a CIA agent, since documented by former head of Cuban state security Fabian Escalante.

The court also tried Morgan's wife in absentia, finding her guilty of co-conspiracy and sentencing her to 30 years in prison.

William Alexander Morgan was shot to death by a firing squad on 11 March 1961. He was 32 years old. Two months later, on 1 May 1961, Castro declared Cuba to be a socialist nation.

Olga Morgan was arrested and imprisoned for 12 years. She left for the United States during the Mariel boatlift. In a series of interviews with the Toledo Blade in 2002, Morgan's widow broke her silence of 40 years, revealing that she and her husband had begun running guns to anti - Castro guerrillas because he was disenchanted by Castro's pro - Soviet leanings. She also said she wanted Morgan's U.S. citizenship restored and his remains returned to the United States for reburial. The newspaper stories prompted two Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives, Charlie Rangel and Marcy Kaptur, to travel to Cuba to meet Fidel Castro and ask him to return Morgan's body and Castro agreed.