CUBAN INFORMATION ARCHIVES




DOCUMENT  0069


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Statement Of
Teodosio Bahadue
February 23, 1967


REF: Teodosio Bahadue vs E. W. Purdy  Habeas Corpus in the Circuit Court in and for Dade County, Florida. Case number HC-3237  Petitioner's exhibit #1 filed 8/15/69.

NOTE:  Statement was typed as is, with spelling errors left in tact.  Where a correct spelling or a note was added are found in brackets.


Investigation into the shooting and fatal beating of one Lado Caferino DEL VALLE, Cuban Male, Age 45, that occurred 1:35 AM, February 23, 1967 at the Central Shopping Plaza located at NW 37th Avenue & 7th Street.  Interrogation by Sgt. A.V. Giordano, 10:30 AM February 27, 1967.  Stenographer - Juliet Morrison.

Q: State your full name?
A: Theodosio Bahadue.

Q: Where do you live?
A: 5890 W. 14th Lane, Hialeah.

Q: What is your home phone number?
A: It is unlisted.

Q: Tell us anyway.  This is for our information only.
A: It is, 822-3418.

Q: Do you own a place of business?
A: I own two of them.  One located at 301 Palm Avenue and 1491 E. 4th Avenue in Hialeah.  The telephone numbers there are, 887-4237 and 888-5752.

Q: What kind of business is this?
A: Appliances; second hand and new.

Q: How long have you known DeValle [del Valle]?
A: I have known him four years.

Q: How did you come to meet him?
A: I have known him four years.

Q: How did you come to meet him?
A: He came to buy a car, a Dodge car.

Q: Have you ever had any business dealings with him?
A: Yes, second hand.  Three months ago we looked for second hand appliances.  We ship to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.  We ship refrigerators and trucks.

Q: Who do you ship them to?
A: To two different companies.  One is Mopis and the other one shipped to Marco Guin.

Q: Is there any particular person you do business with over there?
A: I did a lot of business myself without anybody.

Q: I am particularly interested in the business you did with Del Valle?
A: That's the only business.
Q: Who was your contact in Santo Domingo?
A: My contact in Santo Domingo was Santiago Reye [ Santiago Rey Perna ].  He is the manager of the Hotel  Ambassador.

Q.  How much value in the last three months was involved in this dealing?
A: I believe there was a $24,000.00 truck and one time $17000.00.

Q: How did Del Valle and you make money off of this?
A: I purchased the merchandise, fixed it up, delivered it to Untiem_Marine Shipping Company.

Q:  Where is that located?
A:  Here in Miami, South River Drive, and then we ship them from there.

Q: Is Del Valle your partner in this?
A: No, he is not my partner.  We do that kind of business because we save money and we bypass duty.

Q: Did Del Valle put up any money to buy these trucks?
A: Nothing.

Q: How did he make a profit?
A: In fifty percent what we were allowed to pay on duty because trucks cost $5000 in duty some times.  Del Valle makes a percentage on the duty only, due to his contacts.

Q: On February 22, 1967, this was the day that Del Valle was killed; when did you first see him that day, what time?
A: I say him around 2:00 o'clock or 1:45 in Kimbo's Restaurant located at Miami Avenue & 4th Street.  It was about 2:00 that I saw him, something like that.

Q: Did he come over to the restaurant?
A: No.  He finished eating, him and two other guys.

Q: Were these other two guys Cubans?
A: Yes, marineros, marines.

Q: What are their names?
A: I don't know, I never saw them before in my life.

Q: Did he introduce you to them?
A: No.

Q: Did you over hear any conversation at all?  Did he tell you anything that time, later on?
A: No, nothing.

Q: They asked him for money.  He gave one two dollars and one a dollar and a half and I was sitting near them.

Q: Have you ever seen these two men since?
A: Never.

Q: Have you any idea where they came from?
A: One of them has been here only three weeks.  He left from Havana, and the other one, I never saw him in my life.

Q: Did Del Valle tell you anything about these men?
A: No, nothing.  He never says anything.  He is a very reserved man, he never talks.

Q: Then what happened?  Did the two men leave?
A: The two men left.

Q: And at that time did you sit down and talk with Del Valle?
A: No.  I had my lunch, paid for it and left.

Q: Did anybody else talk to him after these two men left?
A: He was talking with the girl that works there in that restaurant.

Q: When is the next time you saw Del Valle that day?
A: Around 4:30 or fifteen to five.

Q: Where did you see him then?
A: He came to my store and I had a customer there and they talked; they said hello because the guy works for the same Government, the Batista regime.

Q: Do you know this guy's name?
A: Yes, because he bought a refrigerator.  He paid $33 down and $42.10 for the last two or three weeks.

Q: What was his name?
A: Antonio Pupanio.  I have his name written down.  If I can help you in any way, I will be very happy to help.  Then Del Valle left for the fish market.  I didn't go with Del Valle, because I have trouble with the man down at the fish market.  He bought a big freezer from me and he paid $118.18 and he owes me on it.  He is very close to the second lieutenant of Batista.

Q: What time did he come back to the store?
A: He came back at 6:15 or 6:20, something like that.

Q: Did anything happen pertaining to Del Valle while he was gone to the fish market.  Did he get any phone calls?
A: He got a phone call from a woman, no two phone calls.

Q: You say he got two phone calls?
A: Yes, one from a guy named Sanchez, and

Q: Did he leave a phone number, for him to call back?
A: Yes.

Q: What time was that?
A: That was 6:40 or 6:30.

Q: Was he there when that phone call came in?
A: No, he was in the rest room, and then he tried to call when he came back.  I gave him the phone number to call. He tried to call that number but it was busy.  He called about four, five or six times.  So then he said, "I'll call emergency", and then he was able to talk to her.

Q: What did she say to you when she called up?
A: She said "Is Mr. Del Valle there".  I said, "he is not here; would you like to leave a message", and she left the number.

Q: Did she said it was urgent?
A: No.

Q: After he called the emergency operator, they cut in the line and he talked to this girl?
A: Yes, for a while.

Q: How long?
A: I told him I would be outside waiting to go pick up my son.

Q: Did you hear anything he said to her?
A: No, nothing.

Q: You never heard of this girl before?
A: No, this was the first time.

Q: After he was finished with his phone call, what did he say?
A: He said, "where are you going", and I said "to pick up some cigarettes and my home, on to my home", so I went with him to the Blancito Grocery in front of my place and he bought meat and groceries and he talked to the meat man and he told him about his children.  We left the store and we met a man named Costa who owns the Admiral Appliance Store next to the grocery store.  We asked him if he knew anybody by the name of Sanchez who was going to open a store there.

Q: From there where did you go?
A: He left and I stayed over there maybe two or three minutes talking to the man about financing and then I left to go pick up my son.  I went to the Judo School on 29th Street.  He goes there on Wednesday and Friday.
Q: What time was this when you left the appliance store?
A: I got to the school five minutes to eight.

Q: How long does it take you to get to the school?
A: About ten to fifteen minutes.  He left three minutes before me.  That's the last time I saw him. He said he was going home.

Q: Which way did he go?
A: He went toward the race t racks, north.

Q: What kind of a conversation did you and he have all day long.  Were you talking about a business deal?
A: No.  We were talking about trucks, trying to buy new trucks, trade in old ones for new ones. He seemed to be happy.

Q: What about some of his friends?
A: I don't know, I never interfere.

Q: Do you know Pedro Martinez?
A: Yes, I saw him two or three times.  He is right now in Santo Domingo.

Q: How long has he been over there?
A: He's been over there about a week and a half.

Q: He was over there at the time of this murder?
A: Yes.  He called me the next day to find out about this, because they called him from Gino's off ice and told him what happened, and then he called me and asked me if this was true and I said, "it looks to be true".

Q: Do you know if he was associated with Pedro in any dealings?
A: Yes.

Q: Do you know what it concerned?
A: Gold.  120 ounces of gold.  I believe the people that is buying this is from Boston.  They passed some money in the Boulevard National Bank on Biscayne and this was under Pedro's wife name.

Q: Was this a legal dealing?
A: Yes it was.

Q: Do you know Francisco Tamayo, he is also known as the Americano?
A: No I don't know him.

Q: How about Manola Aassan?
A: Yes, this guy I sued him one time for trying to break my windows.
Q: What was his connection with Del Valle?
A: I don't know, they had a deal about a boat, something like that.

Q: Didn't you find some one that wanted a boat?
A: I was never involved in any boat deals.

Q: Did you have a big argument with del Valle?
A: Never.

Q: Do you know if Manuel carried a gun?
A: I don't know.  Del Valle carried one one time.  He was a revolutionary man.  I believed this killing had something to do with politics.  He has a lot of enemies in politics.  I never tried to take anything from any one in any kind of business.

Q: Has he been tied up, you say as a big political figure and you believe this thing was done in a political way?
A: Possibly, because he is tied up with many friends.  He had trouble with, I can't think of his name but he was in the paper two or three weeks ago, the man who is making the invasion, Mas Ferre [Masferrer], he is at the head of the invasion in Haiti.  He could give you a lot of information  about Del Valle.  He is a good friend of Denny Lanatio.  He is a very nice person and can give you information about Del Valle.

Q: This association with Mas Ferre [Masferrer], how close he was with him?
A: I can't tell you how close but he mentioned his name many times, saying, that maybe in 60 or 90 days, they would take over things in Havana.

Q: Other than you think this is political, is there any names you can think of to tell me you think could have done this?
A: No, I never walked with him any place.  All the time he comes there, and we never talk revolution.  He is a very reserve man.

Q: Did he use to run guns in Cuba, do you know, or buy boats and sell them?
A: This is possible.

Q: Do you know anything.  What do you know?
A: I can't tell you something I don't know.  I am very willing to help you one hundred percent; anything I know I will tell you.  I know one time, by his telephone call that he was talking to a Capt. Lamay.  They might have had an argument about armaments.  There was another one by the name of Angelica Henry.  She presented the people from Boston to him.  The name of the guy is John Gallagher from Boston.

Q: Where is this gold coming from ?
A: Two different places.  Los Angeles and here.

Q: Do you know any of the contacts here and in Los Angeles?
A: I can get them for you.  I know that Marco Guin; is also involved in this gold selling.

Q: Do you know his address and name?
A: He's got an office, downtown Miami.  He is now in Washington.  His office is in a new building, the Howard Johnson on the corner and his building is in the front.

Q: Did you meet anybody else in Boston?
A: Gallagher took us from the Airport to the hotel and he had a gold sample and they were talking about a trip to Santo Domingo to promote more business and we left Miami at about 6:00 o'clock.

Q: Then you were also involved in this gold selling business?
A: No.

Q: How come you went to Boston with him?
A: He asked me to go with him.  I went to translate things.  That same day, Pedro left for Santo Domingo to collect money for the trucks.  He said "if Pedro has to go to collect money, then you will have to come with me to translate English".  They have another deal working too in gold from a store here in Miami.

Q: Do you know which store?
A: No, he called somebody by the name of Barnad.  He called and asked if the merchandise was ready.  This is all legitimate business.

Q: When did you find out Del Valle was dead?
A: I found out 12:00 noon by the News.

Q: Nobody told you before this?
A: No. I called his wife and she said she didn't know, so then I talked to Sanda.

Q: Do you know a guy named Batiste?
A: No, he may be a big fellow in Havana that owns hotels.

Q: Was he in the rackets?
A: I don't know.  You see this is not my business.  Batiste is a very rich man in Havana.

Q: You say the last time you saw him was when?
A: Exactly when I left, it was 7:30 or a little bit more.  7:30 or 7:40 on the 22nd in the evening, at Palm Avenue & 4th Street.  He took the meat and said he was going home.  At 4:30, when he came back, he said, "would you like to go with me to see Sanchez", and I said "no I don't want to go see nobody", and he even called his son from my place, and I don't know which son.

Q: But he called his son earlier?
A: Yes, about 6:00 o'clock, before he went to the rest room.  I believe he called his house and he said he was leaving to the house.

Q: Can you think of anything else that would help us in this investigation?
A: No.

Statement concluded at 11:00 AM 

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