The son of a man killed 40 years ago in the Puerto Rican terror group FALN's bombing of New York City's historic Fraunces Tavern is vowing to get fugitive terrorist Willie Morales returned to the U.S.
"I promised my mom we'd do it," anti-terrorism advocate Joe Connor said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
"My mom said she just wants to live long enough to see Morales returned, and we're going to do it."
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Connor said Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of Florida, and Reps. Peter King of New York and Scott Garrett of New Jersey are leading an effort to get Morales behind bars.
"We have a sort of bipartisan coalition that's growing. We're going to push this thing," Connor said.
Morales, who is living freely and openly in Cuba, was chief bomb-maker for the FALN, a group that exploded 130 bombs in the U.S. between 1974 and 1983.
When he blew himself up in a Queens, New York, safe house — losing his hands — Morales was arrested, tried, and convicted of being a terrorist and sentenced to 89 years in prison.
But while in New York City's Bellevue Hospital to be fitted for prosthetic devices, he shimmied down a rope made of sheets and escaped. He has been in Cuba since 1988.
The FALN — the Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation — claimed responsibility for a horrifying blast at the Fraunces Tavern that killed four people, including Connor's father, Frank, and injured at least 50 others — although no one has been prosecuted for it.
"We've got to get him back. They don't even want him [in Cuba]," Connor said.
"I was 9 years old when [my father] was killed … My father was a great man. He deserved a lot better than what he's gotten."
Connor said the recent thawing in relations between Cuba and the United States should have been contingent on the return of Morales and other terrorists.
"He was the FALN bomb-maker. He likely built the bomb that killed my father, and on what would've been my dad's 37th birthday, July 12, 1978," Connor said.
"Morales is not liked in Cuba anymore. He's worn out his welcome. So as a precondition for any negotiation with Cuba — a no brainer to bring him back."
Connor said his tireless decades of work to bring the terrorists who killed his dad to justice has been well worth it.
"I couldn’t not give it my best. My father deserved my best and that's what I'm doing," he said.
Aside from Morales, Connors also wants to see the return of JoAnne Chesimard, who also lives in Cuba and goes by the name of Assata Shakur. Chesimard killed a police officer on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973.