Hugh Francis Redmond (October 30, 1919 - April 13, 1970) was an American

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

paratrooper A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during World ...

who later worked for the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

in their storied

Special Activities Division The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert operation, covert and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015. Within S ...

. He was in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

disguised as an ice cream machine salesman from 1946 to 1951, returning intelligence information on the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

. As he was boarding a ship to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

to return to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, he was captured and imprisoned. Held for almost twenty years in a prison camp, he was severely tortured, but never admitted his connection to the CIA. In 1970, he died; the Chinese claim he slit his wrists on April 13, 1970. The Chinese cremated his remains and they were returned to the United States. Redmond was buried in Yonker's Oakland Cemetery on August 3, 1970. Considerable mystery still surrounds whether or not he was

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

ed during his imprisonment.

References

People of the Central Intelligence Agency 1970 suicides American spies United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II People from Yonkers, New York Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China Spies who died in prison custody American people imprisoned abroad American people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in Chinese detention American people convicted of spying for the United States 1919 births 1970 deaths American torture victims {{US-army-World-War-II-bio-stub