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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