Authorities: Cuban Resident Implicated In Fair Lawn Man's Death 40 Years Ago May Be Extradited to the U.S.

A Cuban national implicated in the death of a Fair Lawn resident 40 years ago may be extradited to the United States thanks to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba.

William “Guillermo” Morales was implicated in the 1975 bombing of Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan that killed Frank Connor. Connor was 33 and lived in Fair Lawn at the time of death. Morales is the then-alleged leader of the FALN, the Spanish initials for the Armed Force of National Liberation, set off a bomb at the night club. The group, which advocated for Puerto Rican independent, reportedly committed more than 100 bombings in the 1970s and 1980s, killing several people.

Morales escaped from Bellevue Hospital in New York and fled to Mexico, where he was arrested in May 1983. He was being treated for injuries sustained when a bomb he was working on went off prematurely.

Morales was imprisoned in Mexico, but was handed over to Cuban authorities.

Joanne Chesimard, the convicted killer of a New Jersey state trooper, may also be extradited to the United States as a result of the warming U.S.-Cuba relationship.

Chesimard broke out of a New Jersey prison in 1979. She had been serving time for her role in the fatal shooting of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, who was killed on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick in 1973.

Pictured: William “Guillermo” Morales