Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [253]
Epilogue II The Final Days
Hughes’s activities at the time of the Watergate arrests were detailed in the logs maintained by his aides and confirmed by listings for July 16–17, 1972, in a Vancouver edition of TV Guide.
The fact that Hughes was oblivious to Watergate for more than a year was established by the memos his aides and attorney sent in response to his belated inquiries and confirmed in an affidavit by one of his Mormons.
Hughes’s escape from the Bahamas was described by an aide in an interview, and by several other aides in depositions. His dealings with Somoza were established by memos Hughes wrote and dictated, and by others received from his staff. Hughes’s preparations for his meeting with Somoza and Shelton were detailed in his logs, and the meeting itself was described both by an aide who was present and Shelton in an interview with the IRS. Hughes’s arrival in Vancouver was described by an aide who was present.
Bennett’s role as a double agent in Watergate was detailed in Senator Howard Baker’s report of his investigation into “CIA Activity in Watergate,” published as an appendix to the final report of the Senate Watergate Committee.
Nixon’s suspicion that Bennett was “Deep Throat” and that the Bennett-Hughes-CIA axis was somehow responsible for his downfall was reported by Haldeman in The Ends of Power (Times Books, 1978, pp. 134–39) and hinted at by Nixon in his memoirs RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (Warner, 1978, vol. 2, p. 578). “Now that few people seemed to care about the question of who had ordered the break-in,” wrote Nixon, “there was new information that the Democrats themselves had prior knowledge and that the Hughes organization might be involved. And there were stories of strange alliances.”
Ehrlichman detailed his July 24, 1972, meeting with Nixon in an interview and provided a copy of the IRS “sensitive case report” he gave Nixon that revealed Hughes’s payments to O’Brien. “He got very, very excited about it, about as excited as I had ever seen him get,” recalled Ehrlichman. Ehrlichman also reported Nixon’s orders to have the IRS audit O’Brien and put him in jail, and the efforts to use the IRS against O’Brien were confirmed by the final reports of the House Impeachment Committee and the Senate Watergate Committee.
Nixon’s September 15, 1972, conversation with Dean is drawn from a transcript of a White House tape.
Hughes’s contribution of $150,000 to Nixon’s 1972 campaign was reported by Bennett in statements to the Senate Watergate Committee and the Special Prosecutor’s Office. Rebozo’s call to Danner seeking Hughes money was confirmed by Danner in Senate Watergate Committee testimony. Liddy’s involvement in handling the Hughes contribution was noted by Liddy in Will (St. Martin’s Press, 1980, p. 215), and by Bennett in his Senate staff interviews. Bennett reported Evans’s solicitation of another $100,000 in statements to the special prosecutor in which he also noted his arrangement of a birthday call from Nixon to Hughes.
Hughes’s reaction to the Managua earthquake was described by an aide who was present, by other aides in depositions, and detailed in logs the aides kept.
The IRS showdown in Fort Lauderdale was detailed in a series of interviews by Richard Jaffe, an IRS agent who played a key role, and confirmed by Andy Baruffi, who was in charge of the Hughes investigation, and by IRS reports of the incident obtained from a confidential source.
Hughes’s plans to fly again were described by one of his Mormons, his preparations for the flight were detailed in his logs, and the flight itself was described by his English co-pilot, Tony Blackman, in a later report to lawyers for the Hughes estate. It was the first time Hughes had flown a plane since he slipped out of his seclusion for a flight in 1960, at which time his pilot’s license had already expired.
Hughes’s belated discovery of Watergate was described by one of his Mormons, George Francom, in an affidavit. “In mid-1973, I gave him a copy of the London Express which had a picture of a plane he was interested