dfs346
Pre-Flight
Browsing the declassified CIA files relating to the assassination of President Kennedy, I came across the following memorandum to file, dated 29 December 1967:
"SUBJECT: Leslie Norman Bradley
1. subject was employed as a co-pilot by ZRCLIFF [a CIA cryptonym for Southern Air Transport] 4 April 1966 and was terminated (fired) on 12 September 1967. During his period of employment, he had absolutely no exposure to sensitive or classified information.
His earnings were in the neighborhood of $500-600 per month. These personnel are paid on an hourly rate and his pay was thus dependent upon how much flying he did. As to his performance, there was no one single incident that led to his dismissal, but he generally demonstrated a bad response to requirements, was sloppy in both performance and appearance, and was considered “an unusual character.” The file indicates some suggestion of smuggling, but this is not substantiated and was not investigated.
2. it is interesting to note that he included in his application for employment the fact that he had been in prison in Cuba for a period of three years [1960-1963] and was released as a result of the Donovan mission.
SIGNED Alan M. Warfield
Special Assistant to the Deputy Director for Support".
In his book A Secret Order, the late Henry P. Albarelli Jr. wrote of Bradley:
"Leslie Norman Bradley [was] a skilled small plane and crop duster pilot, as well as a flight instructor. At the time that Taber dealt with Bradley [1961], the pilot was about 32 years old. ... While working in Florida in 1953 as a flight instructor, Bradley had been approved by the CIA for use as a contract pilot. In 1959-60, he was reportedly also working as an independent “soldier-of-fortune,” flying guns from the United States to Cuba, Panama, Mexico City and Nicaragua. ... Bradley’s story of intrigue and adventure did not cease with his release from a Cuban prison. Indeed, it accelerated, and Volume Two of this book shall examine Leslie Bradley in detail."
But Albarelli died in 2019, and he never published Volume Two of A Secret Order. It sounds like a book worth writing.
My question for this forum: does anyone know how Bradley's career unfolded after September 1967?
"SUBJECT: Leslie Norman Bradley
1. subject was employed as a co-pilot by ZRCLIFF [a CIA cryptonym for Southern Air Transport] 4 April 1966 and was terminated (fired) on 12 September 1967. During his period of employment, he had absolutely no exposure to sensitive or classified information.
His earnings were in the neighborhood of $500-600 per month. These personnel are paid on an hourly rate and his pay was thus dependent upon how much flying he did. As to his performance, there was no one single incident that led to his dismissal, but he generally demonstrated a bad response to requirements, was sloppy in both performance and appearance, and was considered “an unusual character.” The file indicates some suggestion of smuggling, but this is not substantiated and was not investigated.
2. it is interesting to note that he included in his application for employment the fact that he had been in prison in Cuba for a period of three years [1960-1963] and was released as a result of the Donovan mission.
SIGNED Alan M. Warfield
Special Assistant to the Deputy Director for Support".
In his book A Secret Order, the late Henry P. Albarelli Jr. wrote of Bradley:
"Leslie Norman Bradley [was] a skilled small plane and crop duster pilot, as well as a flight instructor. At the time that Taber dealt with Bradley [1961], the pilot was about 32 years old. ... While working in Florida in 1953 as a flight instructor, Bradley had been approved by the CIA for use as a contract pilot. In 1959-60, he was reportedly also working as an independent “soldier-of-fortune,” flying guns from the United States to Cuba, Panama, Mexico City and Nicaragua. ... Bradley’s story of intrigue and adventure did not cease with his release from a Cuban prison. Indeed, it accelerated, and Volume Two of this book shall examine Leslie Bradley in detail."
But Albarelli died in 2019, and he never published Volume Two of A Secret Order. It sounds like a book worth writing.
My question for this forum: does anyone know how Bradley's career unfolded after September 1967?
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