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1958 Armory Theft Carbines
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Pete51577 View Drop Down
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    Posted: Oct 10 2024 at 9:35pm
2024-G 

Carbines For Cuba


I'm a bit of a historical archives rat.  I am a history teacher by trade, so it stands to reason.  Recently I've been working on a project about aerial gun-running to Cuba in the late 1950s.  (I'm an aviation historian on the side.)  In the JFK Assassination archives, which hold a lot of records about Cuba and all of the illicit stuff going on with that country in the years leading up to the assassination, I came across FBI and other records of the following incident:

On the very early morning of October 14, 1958, the Ohio National Guard Armory in Canton, Ohio was broken in to.  Stolen were 317 weapons, 16 blankets, and 1 carbine rack.  The weapons stolen were:

141 M-1 Garands, valued at $94.30 each
164 M-1 Carbines, valued at $76.90 each
4 .45 caliber Submachine guns, valued at $60.00 each
8 .22 caliber Target Rifles, valued at $42.10 each

Later that day, a Beech 18 aircraft was seized at Morgantown, West Virginia with 121 weapons on board from the Armory.  After the investigation shook out, the facts became clear.  The heist was put together by elements of organized crime as a way to get weapons to Fidel Castro's emerging revolution in Cuba.  At that time, the mob was at odds with the Batista government and was supporting Castro, as Castro promised that if he won the revolution, he would allow the mob to keep all of it's casino interests and money in Cuba.  The story is quite complicated, but that's the short and skinny of it.  

In the records is a list of every weapon stolen from the National Guard Armory by serial number.  Attached are the pages of the document listing the 164 M-1 Carbine serial numbers.  

Anyone have one?!?  

It's a rare thing to be able to tie a Carbine to a very specific historical moment.  Here's a chance!  

It would be pretty amazing if any of these were in circulation and someone here had one.

The carbines start on the bottom of the first page.

Enjoy!





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Edited by New2brass - Oct 14 2024 at 9:38am
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Second page.
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Third and final page of Carbine serial numbers from the 1958 Armory theft.
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Interesting story. Thanks for posting.
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Points: 1484 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Smokpole Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Oct 10 2024 at 9:54pm
Did anyone check club records to see if any of them showed up?
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Points: 513 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbinekid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Oct 10 2024 at 10:42pm
It’s the interesting how many serial numbers are very close to each other. I wonder if they were all rebuilt or if a bunch were still early configuration? Looks like some 1945 Winchesters in the mix too.
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Pete, Excellent reporting!
Do you know what the first set of serials are for?

@Jack, if you are adding to the spreadsheets send me these serials in numerical order, I will check the clubs records when I can.
(If anyone else has time to rearrange number, please do and post)
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@Dan, I can sort the numbers in numerical order, identify the makers and see if any are already on the Spread Sheets. While I'm at it I will check to see if any are on the "Serial Numbers to Look For and Report" list as well. I'll send you the Excel file when I'm done. We can decide if we want to add them to the Spread Sheets later. If we do, it would be nice to have a link to the original supporting data such as copies the original theft report and cover sheet to the serial number list.
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 Those numbers that come before the carbines are most likely hand guns. Serial # 142155 is a match for a Colt 1911 made in 1917. I suspect they are serials for 1911 and 1911a1 .45 auto pistols. I was just looking up the manufacture date for one of my 1911s, so I had my reference handy. That number was close enough to my 1918 that it was a quick lookup.
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Assumed the 1st set of serial numbers were M1 Garands since the report says 141 Garands were also stolen, no mention of pistols. Serial # 142155 is also a match for a M1 Rifle (Garand) made in 1942.
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I’m glad to see many of you are as interested in this as I am.  The serials before are M-1 Garands.  Once I’m home I’ll try to attach the very long 152 page file, and you can all get a deeper perspective on things.  Documents like this give us some solid perspective on how weapons in general and carbines in particular were stored and organized in this period.  There is talk about the carbine rack and how it was marked etc.  
I’ll also try to post some period newspaper articles of the event as it was reported.  When the aircraft was seized there were only 121 weapons aboard, leaving one to wonder where the rest went.  Having one of these would be a quite interesting carbine to own considering this history. 
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The carbine rack that went missing in the robbery was marked “HQ 182” which refers to the 182 AAA Battalion, which was the unit based at that National Guard Armory.  Suggests that weapons were not pooled per se but racked according to individual units, such as the HQ element of the 182nd.  Would love to have a blueprint of the racks!  Would encourage me to acquire more carbines!
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I just wonder if someone does end up having one of these would they be in any kind of legal limbo since technically they would be stolen property?
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Originally posted by Jond41403 Jond41403 wrote:

I just wonder if someone does end up having one of these would they be in any kind of legal limbo since technically they would be stolen property?

That’s an interesting point.  I think it will come down to if it was one of the carbines that was recovered and then made its way into civilian hands via the usual paths, or if it was somehow unaccounted for?  I’m trying to find out which specific ones were on the plane etc.  Perhaps some even did make their way to Cuba.  There are many photos of Cuban revolutionaries with carbines, some smuggled in and others probably from Batista’s Cuban Army.
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Pete, It may be a feat to post 152 pages. If you email them to me I can make a PDF and link it for download.
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After a quick look, I found no carbines on this list that were already in the latest release of the Carbine Serial Number Spread Sheets. Standard Products serial number 2261131 (on page 8) was within the "Contract Terminated" range of "Serial Numbers to Look For and Report".
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That's a tremendous discovery, Pete51577 !

I'd like to ask a favor from you. Can you forward to me the SNs of the Garands? Or perhaps Dan Pinto can do so, after he receives them. Dan has my contact info.

I want the Garand Collectors Association to get those SNs. Of course, you will get full credit for the report. The GCA and the Carbine Club have had a good relationship; helping each other out when we can. The GCA has a data base of over 200,000 Garand SNs and they are anxious to learn from these stolen rifles as much as we Carbine collectors are.

Off topic, I'm reminded of Bonnie & Clyde. I helped a friend do research for a book on them, and Clyde frequently burglarized National Guard armories. His weapon of choice was the BAR and his sidearm was the M1911. He never ran out of weapons nor ammo for his numerous robberies and shoot-outs with "the law."

Regards and thanks, mb
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Originally posted by Marty Black Marty Black wrote:

That's a tremendous discovery, Pete51577 !

I'd like to ask a favor from you. Can you forward to me the SNs of the Garands? Or perhaps Dan Pinto can do so, after he receives them. Dan has my contact info.

I want the Garand Collectors Association to get those SNs. Of course, you will get full credit for the report. The GCA and the Carbine Club have had a good relationship; helping each other out when we can. The GCA has a data base of over 200,000 Garand SNs and they are anxious to learn from these stolen rifles as much as we Carbine collectors are.

Off topic, I'm reminded of Bonnie & Clyde. I helped a friend do research for a book on them, and Clyde frequently burglarized National Guard armories. His weapon of choice was the BAR and his sidearm was the M1911. He never ran out of weapons nor ammo for his numerous robberies and shoot-outs with "the law."

Regards and thanks, mb

Hey mb!
Here are the Garands.  Love the idea of you sharing them with the Garand people.  100% not essential to give credit.  These records are all out there….I was just the weirdo who rooted through them and had a bit of a Carbine habit as well!  Haha.  That said, anything I can do to help us learn more about these things. Just appreciate you guys taking an interest and deepening our knowledge.
   I’m a detail-based kind of historical researcher, and your Bonnie and Clyde work sounds fascinating!
    We will get the full document posted ASAP.  
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The rest of the Garands….
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So who stole them?
We can't blame Ollie North he was only 15 at the time. Big smile
Sounds like the CIA is a likely candidate with the help of their Mobsters insiders.
And the Beechcraft 18 was a favorite of the CIA for many a covert operation.. like there use by Air America. It's also was (is?) used by many Drug runners. I've flown in one several times on guided fishing trips in Canada with the twin engine rigged with floats and skis landing on both open water and ice. That same outfitter flys cargo to small towns and villages in the dead of winter, landing on the big rubber tires if needed. Point is the Plane is versatile and capable of high and low altitude with a pretty heavy cargo load. We had a load of Dairy products on a side track stop one trip. 

The US overlapped suppling arms to Batista and to Castro for a while.

I found this interesting from Wiki:
>'The United States supplied Cuba with planes, ships, tanks, and other technology such as napalm, which was used against the rebels. This would eventually come to an end due to a later arms embargo in14 March 1958'

Post embargo Castro was joined by CIA connected Frank Sturgis who offered to train Castro's troops in guerrilla warfare. Castro accepted the offer, but he also had an immediate need for guns and ammunition, so Sturgis became a gunrunner. Sturgis purchased boatloads of weapons and ammunition from CIA weapons expert Samuel Cummings' International Armament Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia. 

 Frank Anthony Sturgis born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the Presidency of Richard Nixon

He served in several branches of the United States military and in the Cuban Revolution of 1958, worked as an undercover operative for the CIA and was alleged to be involved in the assassination of John F Kennedy.

 CIA weapons expert Samuel Cummings' International Armament Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia' <

From Bavarian Import/Export page: International Armaments Corp. (Interarmco) was established by Samuel Cummings in 1953. Cummings has been the subject of much attention from the anti-gun crowd and it's not difficult to locate numerous inaccurate articles and statements regarding Cummings.  

From our Plainfield Machine Company page:

In 1959 or 1960 a sporting goods store named Millville Weapons was opened in Union, NJ

The store was a retail outlet for the owner of Millville Ordnance, Charles Colle. 

In June 1959 Colle and others were indicted in Miami for attempting to smuggle small arms and ammunition to Batista, who had fled to the Dominican Republic after the fall of Cuba to Castro. The weapons were intended to be used by Batista's forces in an attempt to retake Cuba

In early 1962 Charles Colle was taken into custody to begin serving a sentence in a Federal penitentiary. His appeals had finally been denied and the case caught up with him. Millville Ordnance abruptly ceased to exist.
It's known that JFK had numerous assassination plots to kill Castro using the CIA, the Mob and ex Cuban freedom fighters that we trained and armed, some were 500 strong. Some plans well planned others..... Well you decide about exploding Cigars. Many Deaths were reported by these attempts, many were not. Who could even consider wild theories like I've listed under administrations like Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon's.

I know long, just adding for thought. Who else could/would pull this off but the CIA and the Mob. Someone didn't get the memo when it was on the strip. Wonder why that Boy Scout lived to report it? Too many Witnessed it?

Ch-P777  
Living Free because of those that serve.....
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