European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 27, 1959, Darmstadt, Hesse S o of t i o it Trotsky before his exile. Jacques Mornard is due for parole next year but the world May never know his True identity or motive Leon Trotsky s Assassin enters his 20th year of silence prisoner Mornard in 1955. By figure in affair Silvia Ageloff. By Martin b. Houseman Dpi staff writer wounded by arresting police Mornard awaits questioning after 1940 arrest. On aug. 20, 1940, exiled russian revolutionary Leader Leon Trotsky was murdered in Mexico with a Rod that smashed his Skull. His Assassin was apprehended immediately. He has been in jail Ever since. He is due to be released next year. And yet neither his True identity his nationality nor his motive has Ever been definitely that is known is that the killer claims to be a belgian National named Jacques Mornard that he had entered Mexico with a forged Canadian passport that once belonged to a Soldier killed during the Spanish civil War while fight ing in an anti Franco International Bri was introduced into Trotsky s closely guarded household by Silvia Ageloff a russian american trotskyite to whom he was apparently introduced in Paris and whom he subsequently wooed. Mornard claimed he killed Trotsky in a rage during an argument Over doctrine. But the fact that he carried a .45-caliber pistol and a knife in addition to the sawed off a Penstock with which he Mur dered the old Man indicated the crime was not As spontaneous As All that. And the consensus of police is that he had been sent by Joseph Stalin and his henchmen to gain Trotsky s Confidence and then do him in. One widely accepted theory about mor Nard s True identity is that he is a Span ish communist named Ramon Mercado Del Rio and that he was brought up on communism by his communist Mother Eustasio Maria Caridad Del Rio. One Lead ing mexican criminologist or. Alfonso quire claims to have proven with Span ish police fingerprint cards that Mornard and Mercado Are one and the same. Mornard was sentenced to 20 years in prison on april 16, 1943, but the term was made retroactive to the Day of the crime the same Day he was arrested. He will be released in August of 1960.there was once speculation that mor Nard preferred the Security of his cell to Liberty where he might face vengeance at the hands of Loyal or per manent lip sealing by Kremlin agents. But this theory was apparently squelched in 1954 when he launched a determined Legal Battle for parole. He lost out in his bid for Early Freedom when a judge ruled Mornard had failed to prove himself no longer u menace to during the parole procedure Mornard came As close As ii Ever did to v,?, Reynoi be for having killed tvo icky. "1 am a Man he said aim i an in tilled to ret urn to Normal life like decent human. If i Ever was to de Lujin in. I no longer when the parole was denied in i of Rumary 1957, Mornard resigned Hin Xueli to serving out the rest of his sentence. He has never disclosed his Freedom plans. The mexican govern meet also has apparently chosen to Cross that Bridge v. Hen it comes to it. Technically Mornard is subject to deportation since he originally entered the country with a forged pass port. But that would pose the problem of where to Send him. His True country of origin has never been determined to the satisfaction of. Mexican officials. The High Point in Mornard s dreary Pris on existence came on March 19, 1958, when he was transferred from rat infested Lecumberri prison Mexico s famous Black Castle to the modern new i Talapa Penitentiary prisoners soon named the airy Well lighted White walled institution the i Talapa at i Talapa Mornard continued to be the Model prisoner he has been All these years. He took charge of the Penitentiary s Power Plant the same Job he had held at Lecumberri. Warden florentine Ibarra who regards / Mornard As an electrical Genius has Given the 54-year-old prisoner a cell to himself which he has made comfortable with a Rug an easy chair a television set a radio and a hot plate Mornard generally works from 9 am to 6 pm in the Power Plant. Sometimes he leads his eight Man Crew around the prison to make electrical repairs. Occasionally he fakes a mid Clay siesta. In his free Lime he repairs radios in the prison shop which he also runs. This con cession had been taken from him at Lecumberri allegedly because of int Aprison politics but he got it Back at the he is allowed to keep the Money he earns. As a commissioned Pris 3ner." equivalent to a trusty in the u.s., a enjoys the run of the prison. At the end of the Day the grading be spectacled prisoner who is no longer slim As he was in 1940, chats with fellow in mates before retiring to his cell. He has Little to do with outsiders however particularly newsmen one free Lance woman correspondent Marion Wilhelm apparently has gained Mornard s Confidence and visits him about once a month. She has not published any thing of her talks with the murderer presumably due to some Mutual agreement. The last time Mornard acceded to repeated requests Tot interviews was in 1954, when he disclosed he had secretly married a mexican girl in 1944.the wife Roque la Mendoza Morriar now a 4h-\eur-oin stenographer visits her husband sunday. Incidentally one of the Nisi appreciated Leai Uros of the new in mor ill Yalu i a ill behind nun Man who a specially de of she i eneral is say and in his cell. A u Hen he was visited a rela i,., like steely Vohen i la prison Gates r year from now. And Kepi his silence for 19 years scorns determined to make it Jacques Mornard is not talking. 20. August 27, 1959 the stars and strips Page u
