Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [86]
He could not bear to part with anything that was his. Not his dust, not his junk, not his hair, not his fingernails, not his sweat, not his urine, not his feces. His hair and beard went uncut for years while highly paid barbers stood on standby; he stopped trimming his nails when he somehow “lost” his favorite clippers in the debris of his lair; soon he began to store his urine in capped jars kept first in his Bel Air garage and later in his Las Vegas bedroom; and he was so chronically constipated, so unable to let go of his bodily wastes, that he once spent twenty-six consecutive hours sitting on the toilet without results.
Nor could he let go of his wife. He kept Jean a safe distance away in bungalow 19, out of the combat zone, and barely saw her at all for three years. Still, he kept her under tight control, and safe from all contamination.
He tried to keep her from going anywhere, to trap her in her rooms, always finding reasons to delay her planned excursions. When he had to let her loose, his men always escorted her, following detailed written instructions in which Jean was often code-named “Major Bertrandez.”
One such memo—“Handling Major Bertrandez for Theatre”—ordered: “If necessary to open the doors entering the threatre or closing the doors, do so with the feet, not the hands. If it is necessary or common procedure to enter the theatre with her to lower the seat for her, do so with kleenex.”
Any sign that Jean was sick, that she had become contaminated, had to be reported immediately to Hughes, and she had to be prevented from seeing any doctors but his own, and never before he had been consulted:
“If the situation is critical enough, then it is permissible to let a doctor call her on the telephone. Under no circumstances should she be allowed to go see a doctor either at an office, a hospital or any place else, until HRH has talked to her first.
“The doctor will be cautioned to give her only such information that might be required for immediate relief of pain, or immediate medication, if required. This is to be done only if the immediate effect on the disease would be impaired by a delay. It is assumed that there will be some conversation over the telephone if all other efforts to delay EVERYTHING until HRH is available fail, but the doctor must be instructed, not told but instructed, to tell her nothing more than what medicine she should take to prevent further expansion of the ailment. The doctor should avoid giving her a diagnosis of any kind, or indicate the treatment required on an extended basis. Only the very immediate treatment should be offered.”
Hughes himself would make the ultimate diagnosis and decide the course of treatment.
“HRH could use the fact that there is to be further treatment, or the fact that she doesn’t know what the specific ailment is, as a basis of telling her something which might break her of the smoking habit, get her to eat more regularly, or any number of things that would be for her own good. This could not be accomplished if the doctor were to inform her completely.
“After the first contact between the doctor and Mrs. Hughes, you’ll have to watch to see that she doesn’t get the doctor back. If the doctor is at home, his wife should be asked to answer the telephone and say that the doctor is out.
“The doctor should report back the complete conversation between himself and Mrs. Hughes.”
Even Jean’s friends and associates had to be watched. Any that fell ill had to be placed in “isolation.” When her former wardrobe mistress, Cissy Francombe, caught hepatitis, Hughes demanded a complete quarantine.
“Although the doctors are not sure whether this is the contagious type or not, I consider it to be highly contagious,” explained the master physician. “Although we have had reason to put into effect a program of isolation before, I want this to be ten times as effective as any we have ever set up.
“With the present condition of my business affairs, if Jean, myself, or anyone else important