Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [17]
In the weeks that followed the failure of Operation Gordon, the FBI and CIA met to plot a new investigation of the Romaine heist, starting from scratch—and instead quietly decided to drop the whole case.
An FBI report classified “secret” spelled it all out:
“Bureau agents met October 31, 1974, with representatives of sister federal agency regarding status of instant case and ramifications of contemplated investigation.
“Conference at Los Angeles included discussion of possibilities of embarrassment to sister federal agency in the event of direct and full field investigation of theft by FBI.”
But it was not only the CIA that might be embarrassed.
“In view of the possibilities of direct investigation and inquiry with some of the nationally known personalities involved with Howard Hughes interests, which might lead to disclosure, it is recommended that no further investigation be conducted by the FBI unless the other interested federal agency is in agreement with the above-mentioned interviews.”
It was not. Although the Glomar secret remained at risk, top officials of the CIA decided to abandon the investigation. The Agency had learned from a “fairly reliable source” what was stolen from Romaine and passed the unsettling information along to the FBI:
“Property taken included cash, personal notes, and handwritten memoranda by Howard Hughes; correspondence between Hughes and prominent political figures, etc. The personal papers are said to be sufficient in volume to fill two footlockers and are filed in manilatype folders and catalogued in some fashion. The contents are said to be highly explosive from a political view and, thus, considered both important and valuable to Hughes and others.”
Political dynamite. Already a president had been driven from office amid speculation that Watergate was triggered by his dealings with Hughes. God only knew what else might be revealed in those stolen documents, what other powers might be implicated in which dirty deals. Neither the FBI nor the CIA wanted any part of it.
Top officials met at Langley late in November to close out the case: “It was finally decided that the Agency would do nothing but monitor the case and request nothing from the FBI except what the FBI is doing: i.e., the FBI is monitoring the Los Angeles Police Department. At the current time the Los Angeles Police Department is not conducting a current investigation, so in effect they are doing nothing at this time.”
And that’s how the official investigation ended. With the CIA watching the FBI do nothing, and the FBI watching the Los Angeles police do nothing, all of them now afraid to find Howard Hughes’s dangerous secrets, fearing to embarrass “prominent political figures” and “nationally known personalities,” fearing to find secrets best left untold.
It was like the final scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. No one wanted to find the Romaine raiders, much less open the lost Hughes ark.
It was almost two years later when I entered the case, looking only for the answers to a few questions about the Glomar.
Woolbright was about to come to trial, and I assumed that the Romaine break-in had been solved, the burglars arrested, the loot recovered. But I had not made more than a few phone calls before I realized that something was terribly wrong: obvious leads had never been followed; obvious questions had never been asked; the Hughes organization had never come clean with the cops or the FBI; the CIA had tampered with the grand jury. Even the prosecutor handling the case was not at all sure the lone defendant was guilty, had no idea who actually staged the break-in, much less who was ultimately behind it, and indeed was not at all certain that there had even really been a break-in.*
And, of course, the stolen secret papers had never been found. I was determined to get them. It was clear that everyone else had abandoned the quest.
I cannot tell here how I cracked the Romaine case, how the trail finally led to the Pro, how I tracked down the man with the stolen Hughes secrets,