Frank Morris (7 September 1937 – 1988) was an American photojournalist who was detained by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in 1988 for allegedly being a spy. He was killed, allegedly by the Contras, after escaping from captivity.
Biography[]
Frank Morris was born on 7 September 1937 in Miami, Florida, United States. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War and was a special forces commander, teaching John Slade everything to know about survival skills. Later, he became a journalist, and in 1988 he was arrested by the Sandinistas for alleged espionage. He was imprisoned in Mediana in a fort defended by Sandinistas under Santiago, guided by a colonel of the Soviet Union, Ivan Kariasin. Morris was tortured while there, and made to learn Russian. Kariasin offered to give him $50,000, release him after a week, and give him a first-class plane ticket back to Miami if he would only do an interview with him and reveal America's involvement in the Nicaraguan Civil War. However, he refused to be Pravda or TASS for him, and he was tortured even more.
However, his old friend John Slade arrived and rescued him, killing several Sandinista guards. Morris held Kariasin at gunpoint as they escaped, but released him in the jungle, where Slade tied him up with a grenade in his mouth. Morris was wounded while firing at pursuing Sandinistas, but his wounds were fixed by Marta Castilla-Smith, who accompanied Slade on his mission. Morris and the others repeatedly evaded the Sandinistas, despite Morris' injuries.
Later, Morris warned Slade of his employers' betrayal: he found out that they were the PFO, who supplied arms to both the Contras and Sandinistas in exchange for drugs. The PFO, led by General Rosen, created wars because they were good business, and Morris knew that they would eventually double-cross them. His words were prophetic, for when he was relaxing to heal his wound, Marta aimed a pistol at him. She did not have the strength to kill a man in cold blood, but PFO agent Joop Houtman shot Morris through the back of the head, killing him. Enraged, Slade went on to destroy the PFO and kill Kariasin and Santiago later on.