Cuban War Story Lures Hollywood Star

Drawn by ex-wife's ordeal to repatriate his remains from Cuba, Hollywood superstar George Cloony aims to film the story of Ohioan William Morgan, the "Yankee Comandante" executed by Castro firing squad In Havana 1961.

Via Jessica Shor In The Toledo Blade   

"In many ways, South Toledo resident Olga Goodwin is a typical Midwestern grandmother.

The 76-year-old volunteers at her church, makes dinner for her husband each evening at 5 o'clock, and spends her free time learning the art of Google searches.

But the energetic Cuban native has been fighting a fierce battle for more than a decade: to bring home to Toledo the remains of her late husband, William Morgan, a celebrated rebel soldier who left Toledo in 1957 to fight for her country during the Cuban revolution and died at the hands of Fidel Castro's army.

"William did his best for my country. He said when he found me, he found everything," Mrs. Goodwin said of their meeting in the midst of the fighting in her native land,

It's a story that she has carried with her since leaving Cuba in 1980, and one that has attracted the attention of Hollywood actor and director George Clooney.

 

William Morgan is buried in Havana. His widow seeks to bring his body back to Toledo. Enlarge

 

Clooney is in the process of optioning the dramatic rights to Mrs. Goodwin's life story for a Hollywood production, according to her attorney, Jon Richardson.

In her first interview since the deal, Mrs. Goodwin expressed hope that big-screen publicity will bring an end to a saga that began in Cuba 54 years ago and will conclude, she prays, here in Toledo.

In 1958, Cuba was under the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and Olga had taken up arms in the resistance. While in Castro's army, she met Mr. Morgan, whose story seems made for Hollywood.

Born in 1928, Mr. Morgan grew up in Toledo's Old West End, but did not stay there for long. In Chicago, he joined the circus. In Japan, he served in the Army but went AWOL, then escaped from military prison.

He returned to Toledo for a period of time, during which he worked as a janitor in Rosary Cathedral. Later, he left again, joining a carnival in Florida as a flame swallower and marrying the snake charmer.

But in 1957, he left his family behind to join the revolution in Cuba. Mr. Morgan quickly ascended the ranks of Castro's forces, earning the title "Yankee Comandante." Read More