Cryptonym: AMSOUR-1
Mary Ferrell Database entry for: LUNT, LAWRENCE K.
Mary Ferrell's comments include: "Imprisoned in Cuba 5/6/65 for 14 years. Former CIA contract employee. Released Mon, 9/17/79, with Claudio Rodriguez Morales, from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico; Juan Tur, 62, of Tampa, FL; Everett Dennis Jackson, 38, Chicago. Lunt has Belgian wife, Beatrice, and 3 sons. His brother is Dr. John Lunt of Saratoga, Wyoming. Lawyer is John Wainright, Washington, D.C."
"Fourteen Years in Castro's Prisons"
Circa 1959-1965: Lunt's duties for the C.I.A. began with the establishment of clandestine political cells: "a foreman in construction, a voice in the restaurant syndicate, a naval officer, a man in Protocol, and another in the foreign office." He later became involved in the "coordination of airdrops of arms and ammunition and explosives, counterfeit pesos, medicines, and on one memorable occasion, the hysterical novia (girlfriend) of an anti-Castro guerrilla chief." It was not a massive espionage operation; Mr. Lunt did it part time. Mr. Castro's Committee for the Defense of the Revolution eventually became convinced that the six-foot Yankee was up to something. Yet despite periodic harassment and menacing visits, the Cuban security forces did not summarily arrest Mr. Lunt. He continued to carry out his agency assignments." Go to http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/27/books/fourteen-years-in-castro-s-prisons.html 1/27/91 book review in New York Times on Lawrence Lunt's book Leave Me My Spirit.
"Warnings from the Cuban Missile Crisis"
Circa 1962: Lunt had been recruited and trained by the CIA before moving to Cuba. Under the agency’s guidance, he bought the farm as a base for secret operations. In his book, Lunt described running numerous Cuban agents who were in a position to provide intelligence. His ranch covered hundreds of acres and was ideal for air drops of saboteurs, arms, explosives and ammunition. He had provided early reports that the San Cristobal missile site photographed by U-2’s in October 1962 was a Soviet intermediate-range missile site. Each month, Larry relayed a report from one agent who was an engineer at the Matahambre copper mine near his ranch. The mine produced 20,000 tons of copper a year, mostly for export to the Soviet Union. The CIA in its “Operation Mongoose” unsuccessfully tried to sabotage Matahambre 25 times. Even during the October crisis, two agents who had planted bombs at the mine were captured by Castro forces. See Don North, Consortium News, 10/14/12: https://consortiumnews.com/2012/10/14/warnings-from-the-cuban-missile-crisis
1994.06.17.11:35:23:750005: Reel 47, Folder I - DIR 81367 - 85975 CABLES.
11/27/63 cable DIR 85390 inquiring re status of DIR 82500 CIA officers involved appear to be the same ones as in the previous letters. Some redactions.
104-10101-10171: CABLE:PLEASE ADVISE WHETHER MEXI MAILED LETTER TO AMSOUR/2
12/8/63 cable DIR 88030 from SAS/EDE Ruth Lehman to Mexico City re 201-354405: Please advise whether MEXI mailed letter to AMSOUR-2 as requested in the DIR 82500 cable.
104-10217-10097: CABLE RE: FOLLOWING IS RUN DOWN RANSOM CASES AS GIVEN BY AMECRU-1 ON 1 MARCH
3/3/70 memo from Madrid to Director: Interesting primarily because figures for ransom are given for a number of American and Cuban prisoners - AMSOUR-1's family is told that they need to have about $100,000 to pursue it.
June 1970 memo, with AMSOUR on slugline. AMSOUR-1'S sister said that meeting would be pointless under the present circumstances. The bios referenced included Lunt's 201-325064. The other bio numbers referred to Reynoldo Gonzalez, AMCALL-1 201-275949 and Guillermo Alonso Pujol, AMECRU-1 201-061063.
1970 meeting between Guillermo A. Pujol (GAP)/AMECRU-1 and the Government of Cuba (GOC) to negotiate the release of various prisoners. The case of Lawrence Kirby Lunt (201-325064) has no solution. Fidel Castro considers the Lunt case as a direct betrayal of a personal relationship. Castro frequented the home of Lunt. When Lunt was caught with microfilm, which reported Castro's movements on a detailed basis, Castro took it as a personal affront and betrayal of their friendship.
The Secret History of the CIA by Joseph Trento (2001)
Pages 215-216: ..."Another unhappy memory for Harvey and Sherwood was Lawrence Lunt, a Cuban rancher who owned a finca outside Havana. Lunt met Chip Bohlen, a Kennedy State Department official, at a party and offered to spy for the CIA in Cuba. Bohlen asked Harvey to handle Lunt, and Harvey assigned Sherwood. 'I knew from experience that the guy was way out in the country, a hundred miles from Havana. What the hell could he do? Our Man in Havana (the Graham Greene novel) says it all.' Despite Sherwood's misgivings, he recruited Lunt. The two men communicated through a very complicated system of secret writing. Sherwood - known to Lunt as 'John Brighteye' - instructed his new agent to do nothing and wait until he got instructions from the CIA. To Sherwood's surprise, Lunt wrote back that he was busy recruiting people. Harvey and Sherwood agreed that they had a potential lunatic on their hands, and they decided to decommission their new spy. Sherwood learned that Lunt's very rich wife was on a shopping tour in Europe and was going to return to Cuba through New York. In the Oak Room of the Plaza Hotel, Sherwood told Mrs. Lunt that the CIA was cutting off its relationship with her husband. Several months later, a special private telephone rang in Sherwood's office, and a man asked for John Brighteye. To Sherwood's shock, it was Lunt. They met at Blackie's House of Beef in downtown Washington, D.C., and Sherwood told Lunt directly that he was no longer a spy. He asked Lunt why he was staying on in Cuba. Lunt told Sherwood he must come down to Cuba to see for himself...Not long after Lunt returned to Cuba, he was arrested for spying for the CIA. His Cuban girlfriend had turned him in. He ended up serving more than a decade in prison..."