Frank Sturgis

Early Life and Education

Frank Anthony Sturgis, born Frank Angelo Fiorini on December 9, 1924, in Norfolk, Virginia, was the son of Angelo Fiorini and Mary Vona. His family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when he was a child, where his mother married Ralph Sturgis in 1937. On September 23, 1952, Fiorini legally changed his name to Frank Anthony Sturgis, adopting his stepfather’s surname, possibly inspired by the fictional hero Hank Sturgis in E. Howard Hunt’s 1949 novel Bimini Run, which mirrored aspects of his life. Sturgis attended Norfolk Catholic High School but left in his senior year to enlist in the military, reflecting his early penchant for action over academics. He later studied briefly at Virginia Polytechnic Institute but did not complete a degree, prioritizing a life of adventure.

Military Service and Early Career

On October 5, 1942, at age 17, Sturgis joined the United States Marine Corps, serving in the First Marine Raider Battalion under Colonel Merritt A. “Red Mike” Edson in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He saw combat in New Georgia, Guam, and Okinawa, rising to corporal and earning a Purple Heart for wounds sustained, though claims of fighting at Guadalcanal with Edson’s Raiders are unverified and disputed. Honorably discharged in 1945, he joined the Norfolk Police Department in 1946, uncovering a corrupt payoff system but was rebuffed by superiors, prompting his resignation.

In 1948, Sturgis managed the Whitehorse Tavern in Norfolk, followed by owning the Top Hat Nightclub in Virginia Beach. He served in the U.S. Army (1950–1952) during the Korean War era, though not in combat, and worked as a private investigator. His early career was marked by restlessness, setting the stage for his later covert activities.

Cuban Revolution and CIA Involvement

In 1956, Sturgis moved to Cuba, traveling to Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and Honduras, immersing himself in Latin American revolutionary circles. In 1957, he relocated to Miami, where his uncle Angelo Vona’s Cuban wife introduced him to former Cuban president Carlos Prío Socarrás, who was plotting against dictator Fulgencio Batista. Sturgis joined anti-Batista exiles, smuggling arms to Fidel Castro’s July 26 Movement in Cuba’s Sierra Maestra Mountains, alongside friend Richard Sanderlin, a Norfolk native who trained Castro’s rebels in military tactics.

In 1958, Sturgis made contact with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the U.S. Consulate in Santiago, Cuba, working as an informant under control officer Sam Jenis. He joined Castro’s forces, serving as a rebel captain and later as Air Force security and intelligence chief, overseeing Havana’s casinos in 1959. However, Castro’s intentions to break from the US's presence in Cuba confirmed by Raúl Castro and Che Guevara’s affiliations—Sturgis defected in July 1959 with Air Force chief Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz, joining the anti-Castro exile opposition in Miami. A 1959 photo shows him atop a mass grave of executed Batista supporters, highlighting his early revolutionary zeal.

Anti-Castro Activities and Alleged Operation 40

Sturgis claimed membership in Operation 40, a CIA-sponsored counterintelligence group of Cuban exiles formed to seize control of Cuba post-Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961), operating from Mexico and Miami. He trained exiles for the invasion, which failed disastrously, and was linked to assassination plots against Castro, though the 1975 Rockefeller Commission report stated he was “not an employee or agent of the CIA either in 1963 or at any other time.” Declassified CIA memos, such as one from Commander Anderson to Robert Trumbull Crowley (January 9, 1961), confirm Sturgis’s role as a “power behind the scene” in exile groups, it is not unusual for the CIA to deny someone works for them. They have hundreds of front companies that employee their agents so they have plausible deniability.

In the 1960s, Sturgis associated with anti-Castro figures like Orlando Bosch and Antonio Veciana, informing on groups like the MIRR (Movimiento Insurreccional de Recuperación Revolucionaria) for the CIA. He was arrested in 1958 for illegal arms possession in Florida, though prosecution was declined, and in 1968 faced charges for stealing cars with Max Gonzalez and Jerry Buchanan, reflecting his ties to organized crime.

Watergate Scandal and Imprisonment

On June 17, 1972, Sturgis was one of five burglars—alongside Virgilio González, Eugenio Martínez, Bernard Barker, and James W. McCord Jr.—arrested during a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate complex, Washington, D.C. Recruited by E. Howard Hunt, a former CIA officer, and G. Gordon Liddy, the team installed listening devices and photographed documents for Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). Sturgis, wearing surgical gloves and carrying surveillance gear, was caught after an earlier successful entry weeks prior. The discovery of Hunt’s White House phone number in the burglars’ address books linked the operation to Nixon’s administration, triggering the Watergate Scandal.

Sturgis pleaded guilty to conspiracy, burglary, and wiretapping, receiving a 1-to-4-year sentence. He served only 13 months in a Florida federal prison, released in January 1974, and was denied a pardon by President Jimmy Carter. In 1977, he and co-burglars sued CREEP, claiming they were misled into believing the operation was government-sanctioned, reflecting their sense of betrayal. Sturgis later told The Washington Post (1973) he believed he was serving the country, a sentiment rooted in his anti-communist zeal.

Alleged Involvement in JFK Assassination

Sturgis was repeatedly linked to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1963, journalist Jim Buchanan reported in the Florida Sun Sentinel that Sturgis met Lee Harvey Oswald in Miami, alleging Oswald attempted to infiltrate Sturgis’s International Anti-Communist Brigade. Sturgis denied this, claiming Buchanan misquoted him, and FBI interviews found no corroboration. Marita Lorenz, a former associate, testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1978 that she drove from Miami to Dallas with Sturgis, Bosch, and others, including Oswald, days before the assassination, claiming they were part of Operation 40. The HSCA dismissed her testimony for lack of evidence, supported by Sturgis’s claim he was in Miami on November 22, 1963, backed by his wife and her nephew.

In 2004, E. Howard Hunt, in a taped interview with his son Saint John Hunt, alleged Sturgis, David Atlee Phillips, Cord Meyer, and David Sánchez Morales organized Kennedy’s assassination at Lyndon Johnson’s behest. Sturgis’s 75,253-page FBI file, noted by MuckRock (2016), reflects extensive surveillance.

Later Life and Other Allegations

Post-Watergate, Sturgis remained a controversial figure. In 1976, he appeared on ABC’s Closeup series, discussing his CIA and Watergate roles, and in 1977, he was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly for WFAA, denying JFK assassination involvement. He testified in the 1980s about Cuban drug smuggling, staying at the Watergate Hotel during Washington visits, a nod to his past. In 2013, José Esteves and Fernando Farinha Simões told a Portuguese parliamentary commission that Sturgis paid $200,000 for a firebomb used in the 1980 Camarate air crash, killing Portuguese Prime Minister Francisco de Sá Carneiro.

Sturgis’s health deteriorated in the 1990s due to lung cancer. Despite pain, he flew to Washington in November 1993 to discuss his latest exploits, per The Washington Post. He died on December 4, 1993, at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Miami, Florida, aged 68, survived by his wife Jan and daughter Autumn. He was buried at Miami Memorial Park Cemetery.

Personal Life

Sturgis married Nora Odell Thompson in 1947 in Camden, North Carolina, but the marriage ended in divorce. He later married Jan, with whom he had Autumn. His anti-communist fervor, described as a “substitute for the priesthood” in a 1977 High Times interview, drove his life of risk, from Cuban revolutionary to Watergate burglar. Sturgis used over 30 aliases, including Attila F. Sturgis and Edward Joseph Hamilton, reflecting his shadowy existence.

Legacy and Critical Perspective

Frank Sturgis’s life was a whirlwind of adventure and controversy, from Marine hero to Cuban revolutionary, anti-Castro operative, and Watergate burglar. His role in the Watergate Scandal, detailed in The Senate Watergate Report (1974), contributed to Nixon’s downfall. His CIA connections, as an informant are substantiated by declassified memos.