An ordinary looking, plump, late middle-aged woman wearing glasses would hardly make you think of a mysterious paramour of dictators or a CIA and FBI operative, but that is exactly the story that Marita Lorenz has to tell. In the documentary, Dear Fidel, Marita's Story, by Wifried Huisman, Ms. Lorenz weaves many very entertaining stories involving Fidel Castro, the CIA, Mafia agents Johnny Roselli and Santos Trafficante, the FBI, and, yes, Lee Harvey Oswald. Born to a German father and an American mother, at age 5, Marita and her mother were sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Upon her release, she was raped by an American soldier, and then fled with her mother to the United States. She spent many years sailing the ocean with her father who was captain of a German ship. In 1959, the 19-year-old Marita fell madly in love with Fidel Castro when the victor of the Cuban revolution came aboard the German cruise ship Berlin.
"I was very idealistic then," she told A Daily News Reporter, "I was going on an adventure and to my first job. I was going to help the new government. Instead I became Castro's plaything." Marita had a child by Castro after only eight months. Drugged and driven to a hotel and forced to have an abortion, Marita recounts the tale with horror and uncertainty as to whom was behind it, the Mafia, CIA, or Castro himself. She claims she was anxious to get out and when she was recruited by Frank Sturgis to assassinate Castro for the CIA, she agreed. Ms. Lorenz, however, says she saved his life by dumping poison pills given to her by the CIA down the bidet because of her love for him
Lorenz tells a story of a carload of CIA agents, including Frank Sturgis and Lee Harvey Oswald, carrying high powered rifles and sub-machine guns coming to Dallas just before Kennedy's visit. She claims that Sturgis, later arrested in the Watergate scandal, told her openly that a "big event" was going to happen and the Agency was behind it. Many years later, Ms. Lorenz became a witness in the 1977 House Assassination Committee investigation into the Kennedy murder where she testified about Castro assassination plots and possible perjury by two CIA agents, Frank Sturgis and E. Howard Hunt. She became headline news in the newspapers and tabloids, and appeared on many network TV talk shows, repeating her account of an armed CIA group arriving in Dallas on November 21st.
At the end of the film, Ms. Lorenz returns to Cuba to see Fidel who she claims she is still in love with. When Castro refuses to see her, she ends up in the arms of an 84-year old former Castro supporter now his sworn enemy, and both join together to badmouth Fidel and the revolution. Today Marita lives on welfare in a poor section of New York. In failing health, her son, Mark, takes care of her while her daughter tries to lead an independent life.
It is really hard to evaluate her story. Marita Lorenz has been through it all and has lived a life of adventure and romance. She comes across as a charming individual, but quite an opportunist. How can you trust anything someone says who has been in bed with both Castro and his sworn enemies, including right wing Venezuelan dictator, Marcos Perez Jiminez? Can you believe someone who claims she loves Castro but also worked for the CIA, FBI, the NYPD, a mob enforcer, and possibly Mossad, the Israeli intelligence unit? During the House Assassination Committee hearings, she drained time and resources far beyond any valid justification, making one suspect she is still working for the CIA.
On the other hand, Ms. Lorenz has repeated the story many times without alteration, even under oath as a witness in a Mark Lane counter-defamation suit. She seems credible and is disarmingly frank, yet like many tantalizing stories about the assassination that seem plausible, there is no corroboration and no evidence other than her word. Dear Fidel, Marita' Story is a very entertaining documentary and Marita Lorenz is quite a character, but if you are seeking the key to unlocking some well-hidden state secrets, come with an open mind but have that grain of salt handy.
"I was very idealistic then," she told A Daily News Reporter, "I was going on an adventure and to my first job. I was going to help the new government. Instead I became Castro's plaything." Marita had a child by Castro after only eight months. Drugged and driven to a hotel and forced to have an abortion, Marita recounts the tale with horror and uncertainty as to whom was behind it, the Mafia, CIA, or Castro himself. She claims she was anxious to get out and when she was recruited by Frank Sturgis to assassinate Castro for the CIA, she agreed. Ms. Lorenz, however, says she saved his life by dumping poison pills given to her by the CIA down the bidet because of her love for him
Lorenz tells a story of a carload of CIA agents, including Frank Sturgis and Lee Harvey Oswald, carrying high powered rifles and sub-machine guns coming to Dallas just before Kennedy's visit. She claims that Sturgis, later arrested in the Watergate scandal, told her openly that a "big event" was going to happen and the Agency was behind it. Many years later, Ms. Lorenz became a witness in the 1977 House Assassination Committee investigation into the Kennedy murder where she testified about Castro assassination plots and possible perjury by two CIA agents, Frank Sturgis and E. Howard Hunt. She became headline news in the newspapers and tabloids, and appeared on many network TV talk shows, repeating her account of an armed CIA group arriving in Dallas on November 21st.
At the end of the film, Ms. Lorenz returns to Cuba to see Fidel who she claims she is still in love with. When Castro refuses to see her, she ends up in the arms of an 84-year old former Castro supporter now his sworn enemy, and both join together to badmouth Fidel and the revolution. Today Marita lives on welfare in a poor section of New York. In failing health, her son, Mark, takes care of her while her daughter tries to lead an independent life.
It is really hard to evaluate her story. Marita Lorenz has been through it all and has lived a life of adventure and romance. She comes across as a charming individual, but quite an opportunist. How can you trust anything someone says who has been in bed with both Castro and his sworn enemies, including right wing Venezuelan dictator, Marcos Perez Jiminez? Can you believe someone who claims she loves Castro but also worked for the CIA, FBI, the NYPD, a mob enforcer, and possibly Mossad, the Israeli intelligence unit? During the House Assassination Committee hearings, she drained time and resources far beyond any valid justification, making one suspect she is still working for the CIA.
On the other hand, Ms. Lorenz has repeated the story many times without alteration, even under oath as a witness in a Mark Lane counter-defamation suit. She seems credible and is disarmingly frank, yet like many tantalizing stories about the assassination that seem plausible, there is no corroboration and no evidence other than her word. Dear Fidel, Marita' Story is a very entertaining documentary and Marita Lorenz is quite a character, but if you are seeking the key to unlocking some well-hidden state secrets, come with an open mind but have that grain of salt handy.
