La Habana, Cuba (2008)

This was taken at the end of the year.

I’d just had my picture taken with my children and family and was almost ready to shave my face.

I was pretty good on growing a full beard for a month or two, but anything thereafter became problematic as my face would begin to itch and I’d have to shave that fucker off. But for this one I persisted just a little bit longer.

I remember the day this photo was taken.

I told my boss that I was going to search for the remains of fugitive financier Robert Vesco and that I probably wouldn’t be be back before he closed up the office.

What had prompted my field trip was a New York Times article that appeared to confirm that a man who had been wanted by the FBI was now buried in a Havana cemetery.

As one of only two legally recognized United States law enforcement officers operating officially in Cuba at the time, I felt duty bound to go investigate this matter to determine for myself whether the author’s story was actually true.

In fact, prior to my visit, I emailed the author in order to obtain more information as to his assertion that Vesco had actually been buried in this cemetery, but as I recall, he was more interested in collecting facts regarding why a “government official” (such as I) was doing to investigate the matter.

Regardless, after a couple of hours of stumbling around, I finally went to the cemetery’s office and requested to see the same paperwork the industrious newspaper reporter had uncovered by himself.

Sure enough, it indicated Vesco had been buried there.

But that really didn’t mean anything.

All it mean was that someone convinced a cemetery official to record that a person named “Robert Vesco” was buried in a plot in that cemetery on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba.

Shorty thereafter I sent a restricted e-mail to our FBI liaison notifying him that I’d essentially confirmed what a newspaper reporter had already done.

As an aside, I’m wearing the same white linen Guayabera I’d gotten engaged in six years prior. (See also my Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange Virginia Tech lanyard.)