Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [12]
If this really could be accomplished, I think it would be a ten strike and might change all of my plans.
Please reply. Most urgent,
Howard
The document not only established Chester Brooks’s credentials—thus providing the first lead to the missing papers—but also raised some troubling questions. Hughes and two of his top aides were at that very moment under criminal investigation in the Air West case. And here the billionaire was suggesting that Parvin-Dohrmann, which owned several Las Vegas casinos, be acquired “in the same manner as Air West.”
Moreover, Parvin was then a known Mob front controlled by Sidney Korshak, a Beverly Hills attorney identified by the Justice Department as one of the country’s most powerful organized-crime leaders. Hughes had dealt with him before, and Korshak’s name was to surface again in the Romaine break-in saga.
But, for the moment, it was the mysterious Chester Brooks who held center stage. He had instructed the Hughes executives to signal their interest by placing a classified ad in the Los Angeles Times with the message “APEX-OK“ and a telephone number written backward. It was done. Three days later he called again and spoke to Nadine Henley in a conversation recorded by the police.
First Brooks had a message for Hughes: “It may please him to know that this is not part of any conspiracy through the Maheu people, and we wish this man no personal harm of any, any kind.”
Next he tried to put some heat on Henley: “There was quite a bit more money that was said to be taken than actually was. You might bring that to his attention. It seems that maybe he’s got some people in his own company who dabbled somewhat.”
And then Brooks got down to business: “The total price we’re interested in procuring is one million dollars. We want it in two separate drops. The first one of which will be $500,000 for half of the documents. The second one will follow in a three-day period.”
He concluded the ransom demand with a warning: “If there is at any time any breach of trust, the negotiations will stop at once.
“We’ll call you tomorrow and you can either give us a yes or a no,” added Brooks.
Henley stalled for time. “This is not money I could just pull out of my hat,” she said, noting that Hughes himself would have to be contacted. “It takes me a little time to get in touch with the man, sometimes, you know.”
“Well, that’s your responsibility,” replied Brooks. “We won’t call but one more time.”
As arranged, Brooks called back the next day for Henley’s answer. The police were waiting. A helicopter and a fleet of squad cars were poised on alert, all set to close in as soon as the call could be traced. They got the first three digits in just a few seconds, started to focus the dragnet on North Hollywood … and never got any closer than that.
Nadine Henley was not there to receive the call. “All righty,” said Chester Brooks, and hung up. He never called again.
The Pro was left sitting with his million-dollar haul. He decided to wait Hughes out. Wait until he was ready to sit down at the table and ante up for the big game. Wait until Hughes came after him. He waited for days, he waited for weeks, he waited for months, all the while hearing his TV blare news of Hughes, Maheu, Nixon, Rebozo, Watergate, wondering which if any of them had ordered the break-in, watching all these forces swirl about the hidden billionaire while he sat there with all of the man’s secrets.
And while the Pro waited, unknown to him, the biggest secret of all began to leak out.
When the final ransom call came, Nadine Henley and the entire Hughes high command were aboard a mystery ship in Long Beach harbor, at the world’s most exclusive bon-voyage party.
And while they waited in vain for Chester Brooks to call back, the mystery ship—the Hughes Glomar Explorer—set sail on a top-secret mission to a point in the Pacific 750 miles northwest of Hawaii.
The Glomar