-Caveat Lector- an excerpt from: The Breaking of a President 1974 - The Nixon Connection Marvin Miller, Compiler Therapy Productions, Inc.©1975 LCCCN 7481547 --[1a]-- BEBE THE BAGMAN Secret Manipulations of President's Crony Still Pose Question Mark Even at this late date in the Watergate debacle-with President Nixon resigned in disgrace; with the Watergate cover-up trial certain to bring out new revelations of criminal conspiracy and corruption in the White House; with accusations, indictments, trials, jail sentences and lawsuits still reverberating in courtrooms from Washington to California—amid all this, the exact role of Ex-President Nixon's closest friend and confidant, Charles Gregory (Bebe) Rebozo), is still not "perfectly clear." With the White House gang effectively broken up by the Watergate indictments and sentences, and the President himself deposed, Bebe Rebozo remains, in the words of the late Winston Churchill in another connection, ". . . a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Is the 61-year-old Florida banker, who has been called closer than a brother" to the President, simply the ultimate Nixon loyalist, sticking by his friend to the last ditch, trying his best not to do or say anything that would further embarrass the President and worsen his already dismal plight? Or is Rebozo closely involved up to his ears, along with Nixon, in the Watergate cover-up and associated crimes and corruption? Are there to be further revelations and possibly criminal charges against Rebozo? Bebe has been Richard Nixon's close crony for more than twenty years. For most of that time he has been Nixon's shrewd financial adviser and manipulator, the man mainly responsible for the wealth Nixon has accumulated while in office. Admittedly Bebe has played the role of bagman, handling the mysterious $100,000 undercover contribution by Howard Hughes and other secret and dubious donations of large sums of cash, allegedly earmarked as campaign funds but quite possibly used for other purposes. In this role, has the self-made millionaire Floridian been simply a trusted and discreet messenger-or has he been so deeply involved in the White House criminal machinations as to lay himself open to charges of perjury and violation of the Fair Campaign Practices Act, among others? And will he be found to be even further involved as Nixon's deeper connections with organized crime, masking as big business, are inexorably laid bare? Only time will tell; but time is running short, and it may well be that by the time this article appears in print, Bebe Rebozo may be the center of new charges and revelations of still unsuspected corruption. The Florida banker, who parlayed his knack for making Washington connections into a tidy fortune, is notoriously self-effacing and unavailable to newsmen. For many years he stood in Nixon's shadow-the unobtrusive friend who was always around when his presence pleased Big Brother. Despite all the mounting Watergate revelations of 1972, it was not until more than a year later, in October 1973, that Bebe Rebozo was publicly mentioned as having a hand in the "political" fund-raising. This was when the story of the Hughes gift first broke-the $100,000 that Rebozo blandly swears he held for three years and then returned intact. And now, following the testimony of Herbert W. Kalmbach, Nixon's one-time private attorney, to Senate Watergate Committee investigators last April, Bebe's mysterious bag-carrying activities are under the full spotlight of investigation. Pandora's Box has at long last been openedand its contents are still being inventoried. The unhappy Bebe has been interrogated for several grueling days, and his financial records subpoenaed. The stocky, wavy-haired, heavy-browed Florida financier, a first-generation Cuban-American, who lives next-door to the Southern White House on Key Biscayne, is so publicity-shy that be was not even listed in Who's Who until the 1971-72 edition, even though he was already a power behind the Washington scene and a manipulator of international finance. It was not until 1970 that Rebozo rated more than passing mention as Nixon's friend, always listed among guests at family parties and social events. But it was becoming evident just how close Bebe was to the President, and feature stories and articles about their brotherly relationship began to appear. The reporters had a hard time, however, in digging up any more than the surface facts. When the late Life magazine sent Colin Leinster to Key Biscayne in 1970 for a cover story on Rebozo, the veteran reporter had to admit that he was unable to interview Bebe personally. Everybody on the tiny island claimed to be a pal of Bebe's but most of what they "knew" about him turned out to be false, second or third-hand information. The man evidently had very few close friends, and these were not inclined to talk. In those halcyon prehistoric days before Watergate, Bebe Rebozo's image was that of a faithful and trusted friend, the only man with whom Dick Nixon could relax and be himself, speak his mind without fear of being quoted in the morning paper. "He's the only person Nixon really trusts," one associate said at that time. "He can talk to Rebozo, ask him questions, and he knows Bebe will give him honest replies. They can talk about anything—about Agnew, the Cabinet, the White House staff. And nothing the President says is going to go any farther—Nixon knows that." Another mutual friend said: "He's the only one around him who doesn't want anything out of the President. He has everything he wants for himself, and he doesn't aspire to politics. He's simply Dick's best friend, that's all. They enjoy each other's company." It was quite evident that Bebe was happy in his role of a devoted house-dog. He never pushed himself forward. On his visits to the White House, unencumbered by a wife—he was divorced long ago—he always made a hotel reservation, never assuming that he was going to spend the night in his usual third-floor guest room. Presumably this is still his habit. At Key Biscayne, playing the genial host, Rebozo mixed the President's martinis, broiled the steaks on his backyard grill, and whipped up spicy Spanish-style dishes. They frequently played golf together. "Make no mistake about it," a White House aide was quoted in Newsweek, "it's the President who calls the shots and Bebe who adjusts. If the President wants to talk, they talk; if the President wants to drink, they drink. Bebe may ask the President if he wants to go out on the Cocolobo (his boat), but it's the President who decides." Frequently when he visits the White House, Bebe goes on to Camp David with the Nixon family. Frequently he has been the only "outsider" at intimate family gatherings. The Nixon daughters, Julie and Tricia, have always looked on him as a kindly uncle. He has attended their birthday parties since they were little girls, and of course was a guest at their. weddings. All in all, it would seem that this image of Bebe Rebozo, by and large, is a valid one as far as it goes; he is a true and trusted friend of the Nixons. The image is tarnished a bit by the fact that he has profited in the past from relations with other politicians, and certainly is not suffering from being known as the President's closest friend. To those of an inquiring turn of mind, it may seem odd that these two men from such radically different milieus-the earnest young Quaker lawyer and politician from rural Southern California, and the self-made Cuban-American businessman on Florida's Gold Coast-should have become friends in the first place, and soon become so close. Just who is Bebe Rebozo and what is his background? Charles Gregory Rebozo was born in Tampa, Florida, on November 17, 1912—making him just three months older than Nixon. He was the youngest of nine children of a Havana cigar-maker who had brought his family from Cuba to the United States. By the time the family moved from Tampa to Miami, little Charles had already been nicknamed "Bebe." A brother of his had trouble saying "baby" in English, and the nickname stuck. (Most people pronounce it "Be-be"; the Nixons call him "Beeb." Bebe worked hard to help support his parents and eight brothers and sisters. At the age of 10 he was delivering newspapers, and at 12, in the fifth grade, was working after school as a chicken plucker, a job he detested because he hated to kill anything. While still in school he displayed his money-wise nature by making his first real estate investment. He put $25 down on a lot in Canaveral, which be lost during the Depression when he couldn't keep up the payments. Small and slightly built, Rebozo learned as a boy, according to old friends, that the way to avoid being bullied by the bigger boys was to keep quiet, smile a lot, and be generally charming. He was a bright boy, and his dark good looks and charm won him the vote as "best-looking boy" in his senior class of 1930 at Miami. After graduation, while many of his wealthier classmates went on to college, Bebe got a job with Pan-American Airways as one of their first 10 stewards. For a year he worked on the flying boats shuttling between Miami, the West Indies and Panama. It was during this time that he was secretly married at the age of 18 to a Miami girl named Clare Gunn. The marriage was annulled three years later. His young wife testified that they had never lived together, and that she had only married him because "he was very domineering, and kept insisting and insisting." Apparently this was a facet Bebe displayed only to his girl friend; to others he was charming and ingratiating. In 1931 Bebe quit his job with the airline and went to work pumping gasoline at a filling station in Miami. After a year he quit this and took a job chauffeuring tourists around the Gold Coast. Living frugally and saving his money, restless and always looking for a better chance, in 1935 he invested his savings in "Rebozo's Service Station and Auto Supplies," specializing in the sale of retreaded tires. With his modest profits, he kept investing in real estate, buying raw land around Miami at two or three dollars an acre. He was one of the few who foresaw the coming Florida land boom. With the outbreak of World War II, Rebozo went back to Pan-American as a navigator on contract flights for the Army's Air Transport Command, and made about 100 ferry trips across the Atlantic to Africa and India. While he was away, an elder brother ran the service station, which profited handsomely on the sudden wartime demand for retreaded tires. On his return from the airways, Bebe found himself in very good shape financially. The postwar land boom was already starting, and he concentrated on his real estate investments. At the same time, following his natural bent for advancement, the young Cuban-American garageman began to move into Miami social circles, where his natural Latin charm and unobtrusive manners quickly opened doors for him-with an assist from the rumors of his modest wealth and shrewd business instinct in real estate deals. In 1946 Bebe was quietly married for the second time-curiously enough, to the same girl he had married at 18, who was now a widow named Clare Gentry. This time they lived together for two years, then separated, and were divorced two years after that. "We just didn't make it," Rebozo said later in one of his rare interviews. "It happened when I was young." A friend commented: "He'll never let on, but the whole thing upset him very much. He isn't going to try it again." For some time after that the bachelor Bebe acquired a reputation as a bit of a ladies' man. He dated many of Florida's most beautiful women. One woman friend described him as a "suave man-about-town, with a lot of Old World charm—a fun guy," Increasingly in recent years, however, Bebe has cooled off the romantic image and devoted his energies to amassing money and being the President's best friend. He has indicated to his few intimates that he is very careful about his dates because he doesn't want to provoke any idle gossip that might reflect on the Nixon family. His latest steady date is Jane Ann Lucke, an attractive Miami divorcee who lives with her mother and two sons. Mrs. Lucke said in a recent interview that Bebe comes over to their house a couple of nights a week, and she and her mother give him piano lessons, or watch TV or play cards. To get back to the late 1940's, Bebe's real estate investments prospered and prospered. The word went around that he had the Midas touch. Some of his boyhood friends, back from the war, several of them wealthy, invested their money with him and on his advice, and brought their friends in. Bebe soon became the central figure and guiding genius of a group of well-heeled, enthusiastic young men who poured their money into real estate speculation. They had their own private fun spots, in particular the old Cocolobo Cay Club on Adams Key, where they frolicked and entertained customers and associates. Among Bebe's cronies in this group was his old school chum, Rep. George A. Smathers, an ambitious young Florida Democrat, a colleague and friend of Nixon's in the House of Representatives, though they were of opposite parties. Rebozo himself was a Democrat at that time, during the Truman administration; he didn't switch to the GOP till some years later, after Eisenhower and Nixon were elected. George Smathers and other associates realized the value of their real estate enterprises, in the middle of the land boom, of cementing good relations with powerful local and national politicians. So Bebe Rebozo found himself cast in a new role: that of entertaining Democratic bigwigs aboard his boat and at lush private spots along the Gold Coast. Among his guests from time to time were Senators Russell Long, Lyndon Johnson and Stuart Symington. The Bebe had come a long way since the days only a few years before when he sold retreaded tires. There is some question as to when Richard Nixon first met Charles Gregory Rebozo; and the very fact that there is such a question, leads to speculation that perhaps something is being covered up, for some reason still unknown. Nixon's official biographers, and the news feature stories of the early 70's, all agree that the two were introduced by George Smathers. Nixon and Smathers, who had entered the House together in 1947 from their separate States, were both elected Senators in 1950. Some say the meeting with Bebe took place in 1950 while they were campaigning for the November election-others that it was in early 1951, after they had been elected. At any rate, the story is that Nixon was worn out from overwork and nursing a cold, and his Democratic friend Smathers persuaded him to take a brief break in the sunshine of Florida. Several writers have stated that this was Nixon's first visit to Florida-that Smathers urged him to "take a look at our State." Smathers told Nixon to call Bebe Rebozo on his arrival in Miami, promising that Bebe would "show him a good time." Nixon wasn't necessarily in search of a good time; he had brought a lot of work along with him. He duly phoned Rebozo, then worked all day in his Key Biscayne Hotel room, while Bebe discreetly hovered in the background, not wanting to bother the new GOP Senator from California. The next day Bebe invited Nixon to take a cruise on his houseboat, and the weary Nixon accepted. The Senator spent most of his time aboard the boat working on papers he had brought with him. "I doubt if I exchanged half a dozen words with the guy," Rebozo later recalled. However, on his return to Washington, Nixon wrote Bebe a warm letter of thanks, promising to visit Florida soon again, and their friendship was begun. That is the officially approved account of how the oddly-assorted pair first met-approved by Nixon and Rebozo, with a discrepancy only regarding the date in various accounts. However, investigative reporter Jeff Gerth wrote recently in Penthouse magazine that he was informed in the summer of 1972 by an ex-FBI agent, John Madala, that Nixon, as a Congressman, made a number of pleasure excursions to Florida in the late '40s. According to Gerth, quoting Madala, Nixon went fishing first with Tatum "Chubby" Wofford, a Florida hotel owner and real estate speculator, and later with Bebe Rebozo—at least a couple of years before 1950. Madala said the arrangements for some of Nixon's visits had been made by Richard Danner, an automobile dealer who was city manager of Miami from 1946 until 1948, when he was dismissed in a dispute over gangland control of the police force. Danner and Gerth's informant, Madala, had worked together in the Miami FBI office in the 1940's. Danner later joined the Howard Hughes organization and became head of the Sands Casino in Las Vegas. Jeff Gerth went on to state that Richard Danner later in 1972, in an interview in his plush Las Vegas office, confirmed Madala's story of Nixon's visits to Florida in the 1940's. He recalled one particular visit in 1948. According to his story, George Smathers, who had introduced Danner to Nixon in Washington in 1947, called from Washington to tell Danner, in Miami, that Dick, who was involved in prosecuting the Alger Hiss case, was on the verge of a breakdown and needed a rest. Danner agreed to take care of Nixon in Miami; Smathers put him aboard the train, and Danner met him in Miami. According to Danner's account, after the ailing Senator had spent a week in the sun at Vero Beach, Danner took him to an osteopath in Miami. From the doctor's office Danner called Bebe Rebozo, who came over in his boat, and the three men went sailing together. Danner confirmed Madala's information that Nixon's first Florida yachting companion, before he became chummy with Rebozo, was Chubby Wofford. But Wofford had some pressing personal problems at that time, and shortly moved to Georgia; it was then that Rebozo took over as Nixon's sea-going host. Jeff Gerth noted that Wofford's Miami hotel was named in the celebrated Senate hearings of the Kefauver Committee on Organized Crime in 1950-51. It was testified that the Wofford Hotel was headquarters for crime syndicate figures from New York, who owned an interest in the hotel. The Kefauver Committee probed deeply into the operations of organized crime in Florida, with known gangsters working hand-in-glove with public officials. Abe Allenberg, the syndicate's Miami representative, was a friend and former employer of Richard Danner. Danner is currently a principal figure in the investigation of the mysterious $100,000 donation to Nixon by Howard Hughes; it was Danner who delivered the money to Bebe Rebozo in two installments of $50,000 each, either in 1969 and 1970, or in mid-70; there is a question about the dates. Jeff Gerth in his Penthouse article revealed further that Danner in 1952 accompanied Nixon on a hasty visit to a casino in Cuba, operated by the syndicate; and he stated that Danner got his lucrative job as head of the Sands in Las Vegas due to his closeness to Nixon. Winding up our scrutiny of Nixon's visits to Florida in the 1940's, we may note that it has been reported that Nixon visited the Sunshine State as early as 1942, on government business, when he was a young lawyer working for the wartime Office of Emergency Management in Washington. There is no indication whether he met Bebe Rebozo at that time; probably not, since the young tire dealer was with the Air Transport Command during most of the war. Danner has testified under oath that it was he rather than Smathers who introduced Nixon to Rebozo; he estimated the date as "about 1950"; but in his interview with Gerth in September 1972, before the Watergate avalanche got really going, he was quite definite that it was in 1948. It seems as through there is a conspiracy, or at least some sort of tacit agreement between those concerned, to cover up and bury any activities of the future President in Florida in the 1940's. An educated guess is that it has to do with Nixon's links, as a young Congressman, with big-time organized crime and gambling, which were notoriously entrenched in the Miami area at that time. Certainly Nixon's friends Danner and Wofford were deeply involved in this picture, and he must have known it. As for Rebozo, these men were his friends also. It may be noted that in 1968, when the Bebe was building his big shopping center in Miami's Cuban community, out of scores of construction firms available, he picked the one operated by "Big Al" Polizzi, a former Cleveland mobster. One way or another, it seems that the ambitious Senator-and-President-to-be was hobnobbing with some very dubious people indeed, and today Nixon prefers to cloud over that period in his life, for fear he will be tarred with the same brush. At any rate, Nixon did meet Bebe Rebozo in those days, and their peculiar friendship blossomed. One explanation by one of Nixon's aides is that both men were "the same methodical, hard-working type"—their personalities appealed to each other, and they had many tastes in common. They both liked boating, golf and football. By the time Senator Nixon was elected Vice-President in 1952, the oddly assorted pair were fast friends, and Nixon was a frequent visitor to the free-wheeling Gold Coast with its yachting, partying set; a strange milieu for a Quaker boy from Whittier, California. On those visits he stayed at Bebe's house, sometimes bringing his family along, and they went cruising on Bebe's boat. While Nixon's political star was rising, Bebe Rebozo's fortunes were going up too. He was constantly expanding his real estate and financial dealings, and his Midas touch persisted. Was it a coincidence that he was a close crony of Nixon and other -influential politicians? One Key Biscayne businessman recently told a Newsweek reporter with blunt candor; "Rebozo is a fumbling tire salesman. He's not really that good at business. He would never made it without political clout." And political clout the ingratiating CubanAmerican certainly had. He had hitched his wagon to the right star, put his money on the right horse. The friendship was cemented during the years of Nixon's vice-presidency from 1953 through 1960, when Nixon made numerous visits to Florida, and Bebe to Washington. It was during that period, of which not too many details are known, that the Bebe became Nixon's "shadow," his closest confidant. Their association was not spotlighted at that time; no one much cared who the Vice-President's friends might be. Bebe Rebozo was the only "outsider" sticking closely to the Nixon family on election night in 1960, when Nixon lost the presidential race to John F. Kennedy. When Nixon ran for Governor of California in 1962, the Bebe actually moved from Florida to California—"at some financial sacrifice," according to friends-to help Dick unofficially in his campaign, which was marked by a phony Red smear and other "dirty tricks" on Nixon's part. Rebozo was standing at Nixon's side when he glumly told newsmen, after his resounding defeat by Governor Edmund G. Brown, that he was retiring from politics: "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more!" It seemed that Nixon had lost his own political clout-or had he? Bebe remained his close friend when the Nixons moved to New York City and Dick went into a lucrative law practice. There is reason to believe that he very soon reconsidered his decision to quit politics, and used his law practice to solidify his connections with big business and high finance, with his eye still on the Big Chance. In 1964 Nixon hit the campaign trail for Barry Goldwater, and was back once more in the public eye. In 1965 Bebe Rebozo was with Dick and Pat when they celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in Mexico; in 1966 he went around the world with the future President; in 1967 Nixon and Rebozo traveled to South America together. When Nixon definitely decided to make a second try for the presidency in 1968, Rebozo originally was against the idea, according to mutual friends. Says one: "Bebe was afraid of the impact another major defeat would have on his friend." But as it turned out, Bebe's faithfulness paid off, and the rest is history. Incidentally, it was not until late 1968 that the cautious Bebe changed his registration from Democrat to Republican. During those same 1960's, while he was following Nixon around, Rebozo was steadily building up his own fortune in Florida, to his present worth of approximately $3 million. He founded his own bank, the Key Biscayne Bank, of which he has been president and chairman since 1964. The one-story modern bank building is complete with American flags, pictures of Richard Nixon and even a smiling bust of the President. The Rebozo bank enjoys a monopoly position on wealthy Key Biscayne; repeated attempts by rival financial groups to open another bank have been turned down by the Comptroller of the Currency, despite favorable recommendations by a federal field examiner. Another instance of the Bebe's good luck in dealing with the federal government was the favored treatment he received from the Small Business Administration in the early 1960's. According to several Miami businessmen, it was the intercession of Senator Smathers and the Bebe's well-known friendship with Nixon, that enabled him to use SBA money to help him acquire the prosperous Monroe Abstract and Title Co. of Key West, and to finance a shopping center and a string of laundromats in Miami. Rebozo's Midas touch is largely responsible for the building of Nixon's personal fortune. In a financial statement before the 1968 election, Nixon placed his gross assets at $800,000 and his liabilities at $300,000. He said $400,000 of his assets stemmed from Florida real estate investments. Among other deals, in 1962 Nixon on Rebozo's advice had bought 185,891 shares of stock in the Fisher's Island resort community being developed by Rebozo off the tip of Miami Beach. He paid one dollar per share. Development plans were stalled, and after the 1968 election, to avoid conflict of interest with federal projects in the area, Nixon sold his stock back to Rebozo's holding company at two dollars a share, for a neat profit of $175,000. In 1967, at Bebe's urging, Nixon was persuaded to pose for a publicity picture for a sub-division being developed by Don Berg on Key Biscayne. In return for this favor, which paid off handsomely by placing Key Biscayne in the national limelight, Berg sold Nixon two choice lots for a bargain price of $53,100. Five years later Nixon sold the lots to William E. Griffin, an attorney for the President's other millionaire chum, Robert H. Abplanalp the Aerosol magnate, for $150,000. This was the devious deal spotlighted in the Congressional investigation of Nixon's personal finances: Nixon's daughter Tricia. had loaned her father $20,000 of the purchase price; when the loan was repaid and she was given part of the profit, her share was transferred to Bebe Rebozo's account as a loan to him. It was Bebe the Magnificent who shortly after Nixon was elected to the presidency, put together almost single-handedly the Southern White House retreat on Key Biscayne's opulent Bay Lane, where Rebozo has lived for years. The deal involved a five-house compound. Rebozo first arranged for Nixon to buy Senator Smathers' house, next-door to his own, plus another house. Robert Abplanalp bought another house and leased it back to the Secret Service at a handsome figure for Nixon's two terms. Then a complex deal was worked out whereby a stockholder in Rebozo's bank bought the fifth and last house, and leased it back to the White House as a communications center. Columnist Jack Anderson revealed only last May that back in 1969, while Bebe Rebozo was already collecting secret cash contributions for Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, he was also paying some of the President's bills. Anderson reported that he had traced to Rebozo's personal account an $11,978 check, which went to pay for electrical, air-conditioning, and painting work on Nixon's home in Bay Lane. He said he was also informed that Rebozo paid for a swimming pool, a pool table, and architectural services for the President. The check for $11,978, signed by Rebozo, was dated August 6, 1969. On August 7th another check for $11,307, this time a cashier's check drawn on Rebozo's bank and bearing Nixon's name as remitter although he was not in Florida at the time, was delivered to the same construction company; and on October 9th the company received payment for a $6299 bill it bad submitted to Rebozo for air-conditioning work on another of Nixon's Key Biscayne houses. Columnist Anderson noted that these payments were made just about the time the first $50,000 of the mysterious Howard Hughes $100,000 contribution was reported to have been delivered to Rebozo by Richard Danner, ostensibly to be used for campaign purposes. As one Senate investigator recently complained: "Rebozo's affairs are so commingled with Nixon's, that we cannot separate them." Bebe Rebozo was also directly involved in the planning and purchase of Nixon's Western White House at San Clemente, California. In 1969, when it seemed Nixon might have difficulty in meeting the mortgage payments on the $1.5 million, 29-acre estate, Rebozo and Abplanalp formed an investment company and bought all but 5.9 of the seaside acreage for $1,249,000. Rebozo also bought a home for Julie Nixon Eisenhower and her husband David in Bethesda, Maryland. This brings us into the 1970's, when Bebe Rebozo's friendship with Nixon first began to be publicized and spotlighted by the media, to the acute discomfort of the publicity-shy Cuban-American banker. Speculation arose as to the self-effacing Bebe's exact role in the President's life, both official and personal. U.S. News & World Report posed the question: "Is he a policy-shaping adviser reminiscent of Colonel House of the Woodrow Wilson era? Or is he just a non-political friend to a man who-outwardly at least-has few close friendships?" Reporters dug into the association of the two men; mutual friends were interviewed; the question was not fully answered, but the best information seemed to be that Rebozo was simply a close friend who refrained from dabbling in politics-though no one denied that he was Nixon's personal financial adviser. The President enjoyed relaxing in Bebe's company. It was duly noted that Bebe had profited in a business way by being known as the President's pal, just as Nixon's personal fortunes had prospered on Bebe's shrewd advice. One hand washed the other. This was before Watergate, before the revelation of Bebe's role as a bagman for secret political funds, and of the pair's joint connection with organized crime figures. A feature story in Life magazine in 1970 pointed up Rebozo's touchiness about anyone trying to capitalize on his relationship to Nixon. Shortly after the 1968 election, Life reported, Rebozo took a telephone call at the yacht club, and came back to the table fuming. "Son of a bitch!" he said. "That was a guy I haven't seen since high school. Now he wants me to help him out in a deal by putting in a good word with the President!" And one White House aide said not long ago: "Bebe would endure having his nails pulled out one by one, rather than reveal anything but commonplaces about the President." Rebozo himself said solemnly, in a rare interview with U.S. News in 1971: "Naturally, the justification for my high regard for the President should be apparent to everyone by now. It is my feeling that, if he were given credit for just a fraction of his accomplishments, he would already be heralded as one of the all-time great Presidents. I am sure history will recognize him accordingly." And a Nixon associate commented: "Mr. Rebozo's main role is to take some of the pressure off the President. Bebe is the kind of friend all of us want and need—a person who likes us for ourselves, and is not with us to use us." Pat Nixon told interviewers that "the President is comfortable with Beeb." Close friends said she had a sister-like affection for the ingratiating banker, and the two Nixon daughters looked upon him as a favorite uncle. The President himself described Rebozo as "a great guy." In those "innocent" pre-Watergate years of 1970-71—while the illegal undercover machinations to re-elect the President in '72 were going ahead full steam and the top-secret Plumbers Squad was bard at work with its break-ins, bugging and espionage, a rash of news photos appeared picturing Bebe Rebozo at happy family gatherings with the Nixons; entertaining them aboard his houseboat the Cocolobo (named after a tropical shrub); cooking steaming Spanish-style picadillo for the Nixons on his backyard grill; playing golf with the President; escorting the Nixon daughters and their fiances[sic]. There was even a picture of two pewter tankards engraved with the names of Nixon and Rebozo, still standing in a place of honor behind the bar in Key Biscayne's English Pub, where the two chums many years before had joined the exclusive Pewter Vessel Drinking Society. All this publicity was good for Nixon's image as a family man, a good fellow devoted to his friends. But Bebe Rebozo didn't like it; he dodged interviewers on general principles; the media then were publicizing good things about him and the President; but the day might come when they would stumble onto something bad, so it was best to discourage their prying into the Nixon-Rebozo relationship. In standing by this attitude of shunning the limelight and keeping himself in the background, which some reporters called "the Howard Hughes syndrome," the Bebe was displaying prophetic vision. It wouldn't be long before their beautiful relationship would be tarnished by the Watergate disclosures. Bebe Rebozo received his first bad publicity in September of 1970, when the New York Times and the Washington Post belatedly got onto the story of a lawsuit based on shady dealings that linked Rebozo and his fat little bank directly with organized crime, even with-that ugly word-the Mafia. It had long been whispered in financial circles that there was something peculiar about the operations of the Key Biscayne Bank, with its limited assets and its policy of discouraging loans to ordinary customers. The bank, in which the President has his personal accounts, ranks at the bottom of the list of Florida banks in percentage of deposits loaned out to customers; yet the bank had lent large sums of money and handled accounts for officials of the syndicatelinked company that owns the Paradise Island Casino in the Bahamas. And now it was revealed that the Rebozo bank had loaned $195,000 to an Atlanta businessman-on the security of 900 shares of IBM stock which it developed had been stolen by Mafia hoodlums. According to sworn testimony by Rebozo, the Atlanta man, one Charles L. Lewis, who apparently had no ties in the Miami area, applied for the loan in July of 1968, offering the IBM stock as collateral. Bebe said he "checked" on the stock and on Mr. Lewis-including, interestingly enough, making a phone call to the President's brother F. Donald Nixon in Newport Beach, California. Apparently the light was green, and the mysterious Mr. Lewis got his $195,000. Some time later it was discovered that the stock had been stolen from E.F. Hutton & Company of New York by Mafia agents, allegedly for the express purpose of using it as collateral for the Florida loan. But Bebe couldn't return the stolen stock; it seems he had become suspicious of the loan at some point, and called it in. He said Lewis had told him to sell the stock-which had increased in value-to cover the loan and Bebe did so. Meantime, before the whole story was known, Fidelity & Casualty Company of New York had covered Hutton for its loss of the stock, and in May of 1970 the insurance company sued Rebozo and his bank for $248,000 to reimburse the loss. The suit, filed in U.S. district Court in Miami, was not reported in the Florida or national press- at that time; perhaps its significance was not realized under all the legal verbiage, or perhaps there was a deliberate cover-up to spare embarrassment to the President's chum. Rebozo asked dismissal on the grounds that he had not known the stock was stolen at the time he sold it. Dismissal was denied, and a pre-trial conference was set for October. When the story finally broke that September, Washington Post reporter Ron Kessler stated in an exclusive story that Rebozo had sold the stock after an insurance investigator had informed him that it was stolen. The investigator had testified to this under oath in a pre-trial deposition, and he had written a report to the company on his interview with Bebe in which he stated: "This would appear to me to be a shady deal, and I suspect that Mr. Rebozo was aware of this and did not want to become involved." Rebozo continued to deny that he had known the stock was stolen before he sold it; he specifically denied the insurance investigator's testimony. The FBI meantime had been probing the original theft of the stock for more than a year, and eight Mafia figures were finally charged with the theft. Rebozo would have had to testify under oath in their trial; but he was spared this ordeal when in 1971 the Justice Department quietly settled the criminal case out of court. With equal lack of fanfare, the insurance company's lawsuit against Rebozo and his bank was "terminated" after a one-day trial by U.S. District Judge James King. The judge, who had been appointed to the bench in Miami by Nixon in 1970, summarily cut off discussion of the methods normally used by banks to determine whether stock offered as collateral is actually owned by the loan applicant. Judge King, a former lawyer, it may be noted, had been a director of the Miami National Bank during the time when, as charged in a federal indictment, mob kingpin Meyer Lansky was using the bank to hide and transfer illegal funds. That was the end of the murky case of the stolen IBM stock-or not quite the end. Rebozo, in righteous indignation over the besmirching of his name and that of his opulent little bank, filed a $10 million libel suit against the Washington Post. The suit is still pending in Miami Federal Court; a Post motion to transfer it to Washington was denied, and the suit has dragged on. In retrospect, it certainly seems there was a deliberate cover-up and playing down of the still unresolved case, and the fact remains that Rebozo's name, and that of the President's brother, were directly linked with syndicate crime. The picture was different in late October of 1973, when the mysterious Howard Hughes "campaign' contribution was revealed, and Bebe Rebozo was plumped right into the middle of the Watergate mess, in the role of Nixon's secret bagman for questionable funds. This time no cover-up was possible; the self-effacing Key Biscayne banker suddenly found himself in the full glare of the national limelight. The disclosure came as the Senate Watergate Committee was winding up its investigation of dirty political tricks and focusing its attention on Republican campaign financing. Senate investigators, following up persistent rumors that Howard Hughes was somehow involved in Watergate, finally made the connection: the eccentric billionaire had secretly sent $100,000 to Bebe Rebozo—at a time when Hughes was trying to iron out some anti-trust problems with the Justice Department, involving his multi-million-dollar Las Vegas hotel and casino properties. Committee investigators inverviewed the flustered Rebozo for five hours, and further pieced the still somewhat obscure and contradictry[sic] story together from other sources. Rebozo told them the "campaign gift" was suggested by Richard Danner, who at that time was managing director of the Hughes-owned Frontier Hotel, and delivered to him in two equal installments of cash, one in late 1969 and another in mid-1970. According to Rebozo, Hughes intended the money to be used in Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign. Danner confirmed the $100,000 gift, telling investigators he had delivered $50,000 in $100 bills to Bebe at San Clemente late in 1969, and another $50,000 to him at Rebozo's home in Key Biscayne in July of 1970. Danner said the money was a run-of-the-mill political contribution, earmarked for the 1970 off-year Republican Congressional campaigns; in this he contradicted Rebozo's statement that it was meant for the still-distant 1972 campaign. And the bizarre fact was that Rebozo claimed the $100,000 had never been used; he said he had kept it in its original packages of $100 bills, in a safe-deposit box in his bank-and returned it in the spring of 1973. According to Rebozo, the money was returned to the Hughes organization by a roundabout route: he said he gave it to William Griffin, the attorney for Robert Abplanalp, Nixon's other millionaire friend. The reason for this was not made clear. Rebozo said he decided to return the money, after hearing that Robert Maheu, the deposed head of Hughes' Nevada gambling empire, had mentioned the $100,000 contribution in a deposition connected with Maheu's $17.5 million defamation of character lawsuit against Hughes in Los Angeles. Maheu reportedly said in his deposition that the money actually was intended to influence two pending federal cases involving the Hughes interests. Two such cases were decided in favor of Hughes, during the time in question: the Civil Aeronautics Board okayed the Hughes purchase of Air West, and the Justice Department cancelled an anti-trust action seeking to prevent Hughes from acquiring additional gambling casinos in Las Vegas. The Senate investigators began a full-scale probe of these allegations. Another odd coincidence also came under investigation: the fact that at the exact time the second installment was delivered in July 1970, Rebozo and Abplanalp were concluding a phase of their deal to buy Nixon's San Clemente estate to ease his mortgage problems—a phase involving the purchase of 2.9 acres for exactly $100,000. Rebozo denied that any of the Hughes money was used for this deal or for any other purpose; he said the funds lay idle in his safe-deposit box for three years, without even earning interest. --[cont]-- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. 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