Widow locked in international battle over American rebel's remains

Posted on Sunday, 01.04.09
WILLIAM MORGAN
Widow locked in international battle over American rebel's remains
Olga Morgan Goodwin is immersed in a diplomatic tangle that also
involves U.S. and Cuban diplomats and a congresswoman.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

Almost 50 years after William Morgan was executed by a Cuban firing
squad, his relatives are trying to bring his remains home.

But the campaign has run into a diplomatic snag described as a
''nightmare'' by his widow, Olga Morgan Goodwin.

''This has been going on for too long, but I'm not going to go away,''
said the 72-year-old woman, who lives in Morgan's hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

The effort to repatriate the remains began nearly two years ago, when
her lawyer, G. Opie Rollison, met with Cuban diplomats in Washington.
''They were helpful and agreed to begin the process,'' Rollison said.

But problems set in when the U.S. State Department became involved.

Officials told Rollison that he would not be able to travel to Havana to
make arrangements, but that the State Department would handle the
matter. ''It has been two years since they have been involved, with no
results,'' he said Friday.

The State Department, however, said it was actively pursuing the matter.

''As recently as Dec. 17, the State Department met with the Cuban
Interests Section in Washington, and reiterated the requests for Cuban
authorities to work with our consular officials in Havana to facilitate
the repatriation of Mr. Morgan's remains,'' a State Department official
said in a written response.

But a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur told The Miami Herald that
the Ohio Democrat has run into similar bureaucratic problems.

''We have run into a dead end with the State Department, but we will
renew our efforts there in the interim and with the new
administration,'' said the spokesman, Steve Fought. ``We have decided to
make another run at it.''

Kaptur traveled to Cuba in 2002 and met with Fidel Castro, who agreed to
release Morgan's remains from the Colón Cemetery, she said at the time.

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