Hugh Francis Redmond

Who was Hugh Francis Redmond?

A former World War II paratrooper and native of Yonkers, New York, Hugh Francis Redmond later worked for the CIA in their storied Special Activities Division. He was in Shanghai disguised as an ice cream machine salesman from 1946 to 1951, returning intelligence information on the Communists.

As he was boarding a ship to San Francisco to return to the United States, 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 murdered during his imprisonment.