It's July 4th. I'm Brian and Dean Wright, former CIA operations officer, and this is The Wright Report.

A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Wright Report, your Daily News, podcast.

Today on this Independence Day, I have a story to tell you.

And to do it, we go back in time this morning to July 4th of 1967.

A man named Hugh Redmond was locked up in a Chinese prison.

On occasion, his captors had allowed him to write back to locked up in a Chinese prison.

On occasion, his captors had allowed him to write back to his family in New York City.

And on Independence Day of 1967, he did.

And he wrote this.

It just dawned on me, he said, that today is the 4th of July.

Did you have a big celebration with fireworks and all? As was typical of Hugh, he went on

to ask how his mother was doing, the latest in the world of sports, especially baseball, and he

wanted to know how his nephews were doing as well. Don't forget, he said, to buy ice cream

for the children. He then closed out that final letter saying very best regards to you all,

love Hugh. Unfortunately, his family never heard from him again. Three years later, the communist

government in Beijing claimed that he had died of suicide. But Hughes family did not believe that

story. Hughes colleagues in the U.S. government did not either.

To this day, what exactly happened to Hugh Redmond remains a mystery. And so on this July 4th,

2025, we are going to go back in time to that July 4th of 1967. We are going to remember and

celebrate Hugh Francis Redmond, a man who grew up in New York City back of the 1920s and 30s, only to end up in that Chinese prison cell 40 years later.

But why?

I'll give you a hint.

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