Ilona Marita Lorenz (18 August 1939 – 31 August 2019) was a German woman who had an affair with

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

in 1959 and in January 1960 was involved in an assassination attempt by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

on Castro's life. In the 1970s and 1980s, she testified about the

John F. Kennedy assassination John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas gove ...

, stating that she was involved with a group of anti-Cuban militants, including

Frank Sturgis Frank Anthony Sturgis (December 9, 1924 – December 4, 1993), born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate scandal, Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the presidency of Richard Nixon. He served in several branches ...

and E. Howard Hunt of CIA and

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, in August of that year. It revol ...

infamy, shortly before the assassination.

Early life

She was born Ilona Marita Lorenz in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

, the daughter of Alice June (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Lofland) and Heinrich Lorenz. She had a sister, Valerie, and two brothers, Joachim and Manfred "Philip". Bardach, Ann Louise (Nov. 1993)
"The Spy Who Loved Castro."
'' Vanity Fair'', pp. 80+
Archived.
Photographs by Jonathan Becker. Her father, a wealthy

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

navy captain, became commander of a fleet of

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

s when Germany invaded Poland two weeks after Marita was born and was subsequently taken prisoner after his ship was captured; he was interned in a

POW camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, an ...

in England. Her mother, who was born in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

, was an actress and dancer who performed under the stage name June Paget. Earlier in the war she had been recruited for the French underground by British intelligence after she aided in the rescue of a French soldier and British pilot. Accused of helping forced laborers in Bremen escape, Marita and her mother were incarcerated in the

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

in 1944. After liberation by the allies, the Lorenz family moved to Bremerhaven. Alice began working for U.S. Army intelligence, and then the

OSS OSS or Oss may refer to: Places * Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands * Osh Airport, IATA code OSS People with the name * Oss (surname), a surname Arts and entertainment * ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...

, the U.S. wartime foreign intelligence agency predating the

. When Marita was seven years old, she was raped by an American soldier, and testified against him in the trial that followed. Journalist

Ann Louise Bardach Ann Louise Bardach is an American journalist and nonfiction author. Bardach is best known for her work on Cuba and Miami and was called "the go-to journalist on all things Cuban and Miami" by the ''Columbia Journalism Review'', having interview ...

wrote that " ny close to Lorenz say" these events "set in motion a lifelong pattern of violence and revenge in her relationships with men." The Lorenz family moved to the United States in 1950, and Heinrich began work as captain of various luxury ocean liners. During this time, Alice's work in the intelligence community deepened, working alternatively with both U.S. Army intelligence and

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...

. Marita's sister Valerie described her mother's work: "I was never sure who hewas working for, except I knew she worked in intelligence with high security clearance. She didn’t confide in me, but she was very close with Marita."

Castro and Pérez Jiménez

In February 1959, weeks after the conclusion of the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

, Lorenz arrived in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.MS ''Berlin''. Fidel Castro and his men visited the ship and Castro took a liking to Lorenz. After dinner, the Berlin set sail for New York. Lorenz disembarked in Manhattan, where she would be living with her brother Joachim, a student at Columbia University. A few days after she arrived, Castro called Lorenz—she had given him Joachim's home number on a matchbox before parting ways—and said he was sending a plane to fly her back to Cuba. A jeep picked Lorenz up at the other end and drove her to the Havana Hilton, which Castro had repurposed as his base of operations. She claims then to have lived with Castro for several months, engaging in a sexual relationship. There are unconfirmed theories about whether she became pregnant with his child during this time, but no child was born. She left the island and joined anti-Castro activists in Florida. Her later testimony named Francisco Fiorini as the

agent who recruited her to assassinate Castro, and that this was an alias for Frank Fiorini Sturgis. She received poison pills that she was to put in Castro's food. Back in Cuba in 1960, she did not deliver the pills but told Castro about the plot, claiming that she still loved him.''Lieber Fidel – Maritas Geschichte'', documentary film by Wilfried Huismann, Germany 2000 She left the island and visited Castro one last time in 1981. According to Lorenz, in March 1961 she met deposed Venezuelan dictator

Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military officer and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 1950 to 1952 and as president from 1952 t ...

, introduced to her as "General Diaz", at a residence in

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean ...

while working as a courier for the International Anti-Communist Brigade. She said she was to collect a $200,000 contribution from Pérez Jiménez for her group. Lorenz said: "He chased me around for six weeks." Lorenz claimed that Castro and Pérez Jiménez each fathered a child with her. In August 1963, a

paternity suit Paternity law refers to body of law underlying legal relationship between a father and his biological or adopted children and deals with the rights and obligations of both the father and the child to each other as well as to others. A child's p ...

Lorenz filed against Pérez Jiménez briefly held up his extradition to Venezuela. She claimed to have been with Frank Sturgis at a meeting with the CIA head in Miami which also included E. Howard Hunt, which Frank stated was for planning right before the JFK assassination.

JFK conspiracy allegations

In 1977, Lorenz told Paul Meskil of the ''

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

'' that she met

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at age 12 for truan ...

in the fall of 1963 at an Operation 40

safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is a dwelling place or building whose unassuming appearance makes it an inconspicuous location where one can hide out, take shelter, or conduct clandestine activities. Historical usage It may also refer to ...

in the

Little Havana Little Havana () is a Neighborhoods in Miami, neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. Home to many Cuban exiles, as well as many immigrants from Central and South America, Little Havana is named after Havana, the Capital (political), ...

section of

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. According to Lorenz, she met him again before the Kennedy assassination in 1963 in the house of

Orlando Bosch Orlando Bosch Ávila (18 August 1926 – 27 April 2011) was a Cuban exile militant, who headed the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), described by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as a terrorist o ...

, with

Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz (July 8, 1926 in Havana, Cuba – June 26, 2008 Miami, U.S.) was Chief of the Revolutionary Air Force of Cuba under Fidel Castro, before and after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. He is great-grandson of a sister of the Cuban natio ...

, and two other Cubans present. She said the men studied Dallas street maps and that she suspected that they were planning on raiding an arsenal. Lorenz stated that she joined the men traveling to Dallas in two cars and carrying "rifles and scopes", but flew back to Miami the day after they arrived. In response to her allegations, Sturgis said he did not recall ever meeting Oswald and reiterated his previous denials of being involved in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. On October 31, 1977, Sturgis was arrested in Lorenz's apartment after Lorenz told police that Sturgis threatened her in an attempt to force her to change her testimony to federal investigators. In an interview with

Steve Dunleavy Stephen Francis Patrick Aloysius Dunleavy (21 January 1938 – 24 June 2019) was an Australian journalist based in the United States, best known as a reporter, columnist and editor for the ''New York Post'' from 1977 to 1986 and again from 1995 ...

of the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

'' shortly after he posted bail, Sturgis said that he believed communist agents had pressured Lorenz into making the accusations against him. Later that week in Manhattan Criminal Court, charges against Sturgis were dropped after the prosecutor told the judge that his office found no evidence of coercion or harassment. Lorenz testified about this Kennedy assassination plot before the

House Select Committee on Assassinations The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established on September 15, 1976 by U.S. House Resolution 1540 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and ...

(HSCA). Her testimony was investigated by the political committee and said to be unreliable. In February 1985, attorney Mark Lane read a deposition that Lorenz provided in E. Howard Hunt's libel suit against the

Liberty Lobby Liberty Lobby was a far-right think tank and lobby group founded in 1958 by Willis Carto. Carto was known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories, white nationalism, and Holocaust denial. The organization produced a daily five-min ...

's tabloid, ''

The Spotlight ''The Spotlight'' was a weekly newspaper in the United States, published in Washington, D.C. from September 1975 to July 2001 by the now-defunct antisemitic Liberty Lobby. ''The Spotlight'' ran articles and editorials professing a "populist and ...

''. Lorenz lived in New York City at the time, however, Lane read the deposition in court stating that Lorenz was "afraid to come to Miami". The deposition reiterated allegations similar to those she provided to the HSCA. Lorenz said she met Oswald in Miami in the early 1960s, and that in November 1963 Sturgis asked her to come to Dallas with him and Oswald to act as a decoy. Her statement said that she, Oswald, and seven anti-Castro Cubans transported weapons to Dallas in two cars shortly before 22 November 1963. Lorenz claimed that Hunt came to their Dallas motel room and provided Sturgis with an envelope filled with cash. According to one account, this testimony became the "centerpiece" for Lane's 1991 book ''

Plausible Denial ''Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK?'' is a 1991 book by American attorney Mark Lane that outlines his theory that former Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt was involved with the Central Intelligence Agency in the ...

''. In 1993, Lorenz was interviewed by '' Vanity Fair'' writer

who described her as "a patron saint of conspiracy buffs". Bardach wrote, "at least half of her story is readily documented by the accounts of others and

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

memorandum, the other half lacks any corroboration, at times, flies in the face of existing evidence."

Work for the FBI

In 1970, she married the manager of an apartment building in New York. The two worked for the FBI spying on

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

UN diplomats living in the building.

Books and films

With Ted Schwarz, Lorenz's first autobiography, ''Marita: One Woman's Extraordinary Tale of Love and Espionage from Castro to Kennedy'', was published in 1993 by

Thunder's Mouth Press Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in year 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. In 2005, Perseus acquired ...

. ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' described the book as "the wild—if nearly incredible—adventures of a new Jane Bond". ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' wrote: "Like other sensational conspiracy stories, this one presses the limits of credibility, but its very outrageousness gives it weight." Her second autobiography ''Lieber Fidel – Mein Leben, meine Liebe, mein Verrat'' () appeared in 2001. Lorenz's story was the inspiration for

Jack Bender Jack Bender (born September 25, 1949) is an American television and film director, television producer and actor best known for his work as a director on '' Lost'', ''The Sopranos'', ''Game of Thrones'', and '' From''. Biography Bender grew up ...

's 1999 TV film ''My Little Assassin''.

Gabrielle Anwar Gabrielle Anwar (born 4 February 1970) is a British-American actress. She is known for her television roles as Sam Black in the second series of '' Press Gang'', as Margaret Tudor in the first season of ''The Tudors'', as Lady Tremaine in the ...

portrayed Lorenz in the film and her mother Alice was portrayed by

Jill Clayburgh Jill Clayburgh (April 30, 1944 – November 5, 2010) was an American actress known for her work in theater, television, and cinema. She received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actr ...

. She is also the subject of a 2000 German documentary film ''Lieber Fidel – Maritas Geschichte'' ("Dear Fidel – Marita's Story"). In 2016, it was reported that she would be played by

Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress and producer. She is known for starring in both action film franchises and independent dramas, and her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide. The List of high ...

in the upcoming biographical film ''Marita'', which is based on Lorenz's memoir, ''Marita: The Spy Who Loved Castro''. As of 2022, the film is still listed as 'in development'.

Personal life

Lorenz lived in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. Monica Mercedes Pérez Jiménez, the daughter she had with

(former President of Venezuela), is married to one of the sons of

Orlando Letelier Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar (13 April 1932 – 21 September 1976) was a Chilean economist, politician, and diplomat during the presidency of Salvador Allende. A refugee from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Letelier ...

References

External links

*
Official website for film

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lorenz, Marita 1939 births 2019 deaths German emigrants to the United States German people of American descent American people of German descent American conspiracy theorists American failed assassins Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors Fidel Castro People associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy People from Bremen (city)