Cuba: Year of the Firing Squad

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In the Year of the Firing Squad, there was one man the Cubans could have any time: Herman Marks, 39, Castro's first Lord High Executioner who commanded the guns in 200 executions, more often than not personally delivering the pistol coup de grâce to each victim. Born in Milwaukee, Marks was arrested 32 times in the U.S., jailed in Wisconsin, Ohio and California (vagrancy, assault, draft dodging, theft, rape), joined Castro's forces in December 1957 and was made a captain. The U.S. canceled his citizenship with alacrity, and eventually even the Cubans could not stomach the man they called "the butcher." Last May, Marks fled Cuba in a boat, made it to Florida and disappeared into Mexico. Last week he was arrested in Manhattan, charged with illegally entering the U.S. on July 22 without a proper visa. Deportation proceedings are under way to send him back to Mexico—or Cuba.