A former Wyoming rancher made headlines from Cuba in the 1950s and 1960s as the island underwent its revolution from a corrupt dictator in league with the U.S. mafia to another dictator named Fidel Castro who teamed up with Russia.

Lawrence Kirby Lunt Jr., a World War II and Korean War veteran, had been running cattle and managing a 5,000-acre ranch purchased in conjunction with his Belgian wife’s family north of Havana when the CIA came calling. Under CIA guidance, he recruited Cuban informants, helped get photos of Russian missile sites, and offered a clandestine drop zone for the agency.

But as the walls of oppression grew tighter in Cuba and U.S. opposition to Castro grew stiffer, the one-time Wheatland resident became a person of interest to Castro’s regime. And in 1965, the

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