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Post by silvertip on Dec 12, 2011 2:27:28 GMT -5
Whatever happened to Capt Rufo C Romero of the 14th Engineers PS? Is it really true that he sold maps of Corregidor to the Japs before the war?
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Post by winn on Jan 4, 2012 12:53:53 GMT -5
He died in Spain, in the 1980's.
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ministro
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Post by ministro on Feb 20, 2012 3:50:03 GMT -5
Capt Rufo Romeo was a graduate of USMA Class of 31, he was Commandant of Cadets at PMA for class 1940.On October 17, 1940 he was arrested by the US Army Intelligence service at his home after he obtained classified documents from Fort McKinley which he was about to give to unauthorized persons and was held for court martial. He was convicted for attempting to sell for $25,000 classified maps of Bataan and Corregidor and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment at McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington State . He died January 3, 1985. If he indeed died in Spain I would understand for he was a broker for the Japanese and the go between was supposedly the Spanish consulate at that time.
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Post by frank on Feb 20, 2012 13:22:14 GMT -5
Lets follow the record.
Was he imprisoned at McNeil Island Penitentiary? When was he released? Etc.
Is he our "Capt. Drayfus" ? Or a undercover plant?
Sounds like a good historic fiction script...
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ministro
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Post by ministro on Mar 19, 2012 3:36:34 GMT -5
He was released after 15 years however may have to make a thorough research as to what happened to him afterwards. His wife the former Lorraine Becker of New York who was also involved in the alleged selling of the map was not imprisoned and survived the war.
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Post by winn on Apr 25, 2012 10:43:39 GMT -5
After he was released from prison he spent time in many countries working as an engineer. He was in Africa and in Spain. He became ill while in Spain and either died there or returned to the Philippines to die in his homeland. As to his wife, there is a page on the internet where a historian trailed her and his three children to Washington DC and was looking for more information.
As to the maps, he did take them and attempted to sell them. I'm told that either he thought they were outdated and thought he was conning his buyers, or... he knew they were current when he sold them.
Does anyone have a link to newspaper stories at the time - more in depth ones?
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Post by 79thfoot on May 10, 2012 15:48:30 GMT -5
Sounds like a Filipino version of 'The English Patient' - now all you need is the script (who'd be a good Filipino 'Ralph Fiennes' I wonder...)
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Post by Paul Whitman on Aug 15, 2016 6:02:54 GMT -5
The story of the Romero family is most extraordinary, stranger than any fiction. It is like a Herman Wouk novel. Romero's wife and children witnessed the March of Corregidor POW's to Bilibid, and in 1945 took shelter in the Bayview Hotel, a ground zero of Manila's numerous atrocities. Romero's son obtained an education and became a well respected gentleman in Washington. I won't disclose his details.
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Post by Valerie Gonzalez on May 22, 2019 0:14:05 GMT -5
My Father says this about Mr. Romero:
Capt. Rufo Romero was my Professor @ the National University in Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines, when I was studying for my Civil and Sanitary Engineering degrees. I obtained my Civil Engineering degree in 1956 & my Sanitary Engineering in 1957, respectively. He was the best Professor that I ever had in my whole life. Outside of the class hours that I have had under him, he was a very friendly & a very good friend & excellent conversationalist.
I would like to get in touch with any close relatives/friends of Captain Rufo Romero.
Very sincerely,
Jesus T. Gonzalez"
If you would like to contact my father please write me at vivaladivamusicstudio@gmail.com
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