On March 12, 1956 Jesús de Galíndez, a Basque nationalist, Columbia University professor, and critic of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, was kidnapped in New York and flown secretly to the Dominican Republic, where he disappeared. Although the case stimulated widespread press coverage, it remained shrouded in mystery for decades until the publication of this book, which unravels the complicated roles of the Dominican and US governments, as well as the FBI, the CIA and some NY police officers, in the affairs.
About the Author: Stuart A. McKeever is a retired attorney and author who began his legal career in the early 1960's in New York City as a staff member of the Legal Aid Society's Criminal Division. He served as a public defender representing the indigent who could not afford counsel of their own. In September of 1965, he was recruited by the New York State Attorney General for a special assignment placed in charge of implementing legislation mandating the assignment of counsel to indigent defendants throughout New York State. This legislation was the first in the nation to adopt the mandate of the United States Supreme Court (Gideon vs. Wainwright in 1963; 372 U.S. 335) to provide counsel for the indigent in non-capital cases. He traveled extensively meeting with government and bar association officials and helped rewrite legislative provisions regarding the assignment of counsel in the crtiminal justice system. He spoke on the Attorney General's behalf at a convention in Arizona. After entering private practice, his 42 plus years as a trial attorney in state and federal courts also involved his extensive travel abroad investigating matters for the cases he was then handling. His law practice acquainted him with a menagerie of Runyonesque characters; people from all walks of life (and ages) in and out of court, top shelf corporate executives and their families, the literati and a potpourri of jazz musicians, McKeever being one of them playing, in part, to help pay his way through college and law school. For many years he continued playing with many fine musicians including lawyers, judges, doctors and corporate executives and playing freely for charity benefits at major venues in New York City including outdoors at Rockefeller Center. In 1990, his non-fiction book, the autobiographical life story he wrote on behalf of retired New York Police Department Detective Anthony Ulasewicz titled, The President's Private Eye, The Journey of Detective Tony U from NYPD to the Nixon White House, was published. The book contains a chapter on the Galíndez case viewed through the eyes of Detective Ulasewicz who was assigned to the investigation. Prior thereto, Detective Ulasewicz had been assigned as part of the NYPD security detail when Rafael Trujillo visited New York City to attend sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.