Editor’s Note: from time to time we’ll catch one of Jim Cavanaugh’s “War Stories” shared on social media. His tales from days serving in law enforcement are too good to miss, and he has agreed to allow us to share them with Brownwood News readers.
Written by Jim Cavanaugh – Got a phone call one evening from the Miami Office. Another FBI Division was heading our way on surveillance and was requesting assistance. It seems two Arkansas idiots had decided to drive to Miami as a sort of protest to the Cuban Boatlift that had begun and was in all the papers.
I had just returned from a stint at Key West where all the Cuban refugees were being catalogued and released, or being arrested in some cases. That was what all the media reports were about. The Carter Administration couldn’t decide what the policy was going to be from one moment to the next.
As the boats were arriving the policy would be to arrest the refugees and seize the boats. Then it would change and we were ordered to release the refugees and the boats. Then it would change back to hold them. For days it had been like that: grab ‘em, let ‘em go, grab ‘em, let ‘em go. No one could make up their mind.
As things seemed to be settling down in the press, two “rocket scientists” decided to make a statement.
They left Arkansas in a Hertz rental van and were driving to Miami with a yellow submarine being towed behind it. Their plan was to put the sub in the Miami River and sail to Havana. Once there, they wanted to sink a ship in the harbor. For this plan they were bringing along a single torpedo in the van.
One of the problems with their plan was the fact the Bureau agents were already aware of it and following the van on its trek south.
Two cars of agents from the Little Rock Division were assigned to drive along with the van and as they entered each Division along the way, agents from that area were to join them in the event a problem developed.
The US Attorney in Arkansas wanted these two idiots to really do an overt act to complete a federal charge that was being drafted against them.
As they entered the Miami Division, agents from Ft. Pierce picked them up and a couple of West Palm Beach agents were to take the hand-off from them along the Florida Turnpike. It was about one or two in the morning when Tony and I joined the parade south. We’d change positions along the way so the idiots would not be seeing the same cars all along the drive.
For entertainment, someone had the Beatles song “Yellow Submarine” which they were playing in the car while they keyed their microphone on the Bureau radio. The song was being transmitted all along the Florida Turnpike as we drove.
At the Lake Worth plaza, the idiots pulled in for a pit stop. They went to the restroom and bought some coffee, hoping to stay awake just a little longer. I went in with them so I could get an eyeball on them. They sat in the parking lot of the rest area to drink the coffee and talk for a while and then headed south.
Tony and I passed the parade on to Fort Lauderdale agents about 3 a.m. and went home. Later that day we heard on the TV and radio that the fools had been arrested while putting the torpedo into the sub.
They actually got to Miami and were attempting to carry out their plan.
No way would it ever work, but you had to give them an “A” for effort.
Jim Cavanaugh
Justice of the Peace for Precinct 4 in Brown County, Texas
Jim Cavanaugh graduated from Lamar Tech in Beaumont in 1967, and participated in post-graduate studies at Sam Houston, South Texas College of Law, and the University of Virginia.
Cavanaugh was a Texas police officer before joining the FBI under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover in 1971 through 1996. He served as a contractor for the Bureau and a number of Federal Agencies post 9/11.
Jim Cavanaugh has served as the Justice of the Peace for Precinct 4 in Brown County since 2007.
