Pseudonym: Gorman, Max
FBI rap sheet (4145899) identifies his earliest known name as Armondo Sangeth Gonzalez.
10/22/68, FBI memo: "Carlos Prio is of operational interest to (USAFAD - US Army Field Artillery Station)...Frank Fiorini is not of operational interest to USAFAD...(p. 11) "Source said most Cubans active in anti-Castro organizations distrust Fiorini; many feel that he is interested only in publicity and in personal financial gains from fund raising efforts for projected military acts against Castro, which fail to materialize...Frank Fiorini (was) a salesmen for GM Used Cars on 36th St. NW, Miami, where Max Gonzalez was also employed... On October 15, 1968, Mrs. Geraldine Shamma, 2401 Wilson Street, Hollywood, Florida, advised that she had been associated with the IACB as Vice President, but only for the purpose of seeking to obtain the release of political prisoners in Cuba in exchange for medicine. She said that she had worked closely with Frank Fiorini in this regard and had visited several Latin American countries with him in an attempt to raise funds for this exchange...
10/26/68 FBI memo...(report on the ship) "El Amigo, arrived Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico, empty, on 10/14 last, took on load of frozen fish"...and proceeded to Miami. Jerry Buchanan...born 3/11/39, Brevard, North Carolina, height 5 foot 11, weight 150 pounds, Buchanan has previously been involved in fringe anti-Castro activities...Max Gonzalez aka Max Gorman has FBI number four one four five eight nine nine (4145899). Described in 1959 as five foot six, slight build, sharp facial features, irregular and discolored teeth...He was born 12/29 in New York City. Gonzalez is believed identical with IACB Captain Maximillion Gonzalez...(at a Miami meeting) Frank Fiorini addressed those who responded to (a newspaper ad) and told them that the 'army' would proceed in small groups to Mexico, then go to an unnamed Central American country for training, anti-Communist guerrilla operations, and to link up with Cuban exile groups, with ultimate objective to set up underground operation in Cuba, in approximately one year, from which a revolution would be launched...The Miami News, local newspaper, yesterday carried an article captioned "Miami 'Invaders' Held" in which it was set out that thirteen men claiming to be from South Florida were being held by authorities in British Honduras." Two of the men identified themselves as Frank Bonelli and Max Gorman, both of Miami. Bonelli was believed to be the same as Frank Fiorini/Frank Sturgis.
1993.07.02.11:06:04:930800: MAX FORMAN GONZALEZ AKA MAX GONZALEZ.
Undated CIA memo from "Sturgis 201 re the aforementioned operation: "Fiorini told the FBI the group on board was going to Guatemala to clean out anti-Guatemalan guerrillas and to set up a base of operations against Cuba. The operation was being sponsored by Bob Howell, allegedly a friend of the Kennedy family, and General Biddle, a member of the Birch society...After leaving Progreso, the boat stopped by a campsite in Chicxulub, Yucatan, to pick up some more people...According to the FBI, Fiorini (and Gorman) were involved in the International Anti-Communist Brigade, also known as the Secret Army Organization of the International Anti-Communist Brigade. Fiorini is Frank Anthony Sturgis...Bob Howell: There are four cards on different Bob Howells, all referring to the Office of Security...General Biddle:...There are a large number of cards on various Biddles. Several are the subjects of Office of Security files. One General William Shepard Biddle was Chief, Military Assistance Group in Japan in 1958. No further info..."
4/16/74 Jack Anderson column: Anderson states that he believes that the 1968 operation involving Max Gorman was not an anti-Castro action, but actually an operation to hijack a Soviet ship and hold it for hostage until the American ship Pueblo was released by the North Koreans. The mission failed when Sturgis' vessel hit a reef off British Honduras. Sturgis claims he only learned "later" that his undisciplined band was leasing cars and selling them in Mexico to raise money. Anderson quotes the Miami US Attorney William Northcutt, who stated that the car stealing ring charges of 1968 had nothing to do with Watergate.
1993.08.05.14:39:14:810028 - SECURITY FILE ON FRANK STURGIS
7/25/75: Memorandum for the Record discusses how Max Gorman Gonzalez stated publicly he plans to sue the CIA for involving him in what he charged was a plot headed by Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis to assassinate Castro in 1968. The memo states that Gonzalez is basing his suits on recent claims by Sturgis that he was a long-time CIA employee. "Sturgis' claimed Agency employment is not supported by Agency records." (See Sturgis' chrono at 1993.08.02.09:31:14:370053 - page 4 - Sturgis refers to this as "Operation Sword".) A routing sheet at the next page has a note from "GJK" of "D/Security" claimed that "Sturgis never worked for us - he did associate with people who did work for us." In Paul Meskil's 1975 NY Daily News story on Operation Sword - at 1993.08.11.16:43:05:930036 - Max Gorman is interviewed and described as the security chief who was unwitting that the goal of the mission was to free the Pueblo.