Bernard Barker
| Bernard Barker | |
|---|---|
Frank Sturgis and Bernard Barker, 1960 (top) and 1972
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| Born |
Bernard Leon Barker March 17, 1917 Havana, Cuba |
| Died | June 5, 2009 (aged 92) Miami, United States |
| Nationality | Cuban/American |
| Occupation | military, agent |
Bernard Leon Barker (March 17, 1917 – June 5, 2009) was a Watergate burglar. He had a long career as an undercover operative.
Barker was born in Havana, to a Russian American father and a Cuban mother. Therefore, Barker was a dual citizen of Cuba and the United States. At the age of 16, Barker joined the ABC, a revolutionary group opposed to then president Gerardo Machado Morales. It was during this period that he acquired the nickname "Macho". Worried by these developments, Barker's father sent him to live in the United States. In 1935 Barker became an American citizen, but he returned to Cuba in order to study at the University of Havana.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, triggering American entry into World War II, Barker joined the U.S. Air Force, where he became a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress crewman and a Second Lieutenant bombardier. On his thirteenth combat mission, he was shot down on a bombing raid to Brunswick, Germany, February 10, 1944. The Germans held him as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft I in Barth. The Red Army liberated the camp on May 2, 1945.
After the war, Barker returned to Cuba and joined the secret police under Fulgencio Batista. He was later recruited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and worked for them as an undercover agent. He also did work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He joined the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
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