There is one final proof, not scientific, yet entirely persuasive to all who read the Hughes memos—only the mind of Howard Hughes could have created them.
Notes on Illustrations
Some of the Hughes documents reproduced in this book are excerpts from longer memos. Wherever material has been excised, the cuts are indicated by tear lines in the facsimiles, and are also noted here:
• The first memo Hughes wrote the night that Robert Kennedy died (following this page) was misdated 6/7/68 by one of his aides. It was actually written 6/6/68, and the date has therefore been deleted to avoid confusion.
• All the memos in the Hughes-Maheu exchange (following this page) are excerpts.
• The two Hughes memos regarding his relationship with Maheu (following this page) are excerpts from separate messages.
• The Hughes memo promising to make Paul Laxalt president (following this page) is a one-page excerpt from a three-page message that also concerns nuclear testing in Nevada.
• The Hughes handwritten memo offering Laxalt a top job in his empire, and the three typewritten reports from Maheu (following this page), are all excerpts from separate messages.
• The Hughes memo regarding television and politics (following this page) is a one-page excerpt from a two-page message.
• The Maheu typewritten memo reporting Laxalt’s help in killing the open-housing bill (following this page) was superimposed on the Hughes handwritten memo as indicated.
• The Hughes memo comparing Las Vegas to Hiroshima (following this page) is a three-page excerpt from a four-page message.
• The Hughes memo reacting to Lyndon Johnson’s refusal to halt a nuclear test (following this page) is a five-page excerpt from a seven-page message.
• The Hughes memo plotting to play off Humphrey against Kennedy (following this page) is a one-page excerpt from a two-page message.
• The Hughes memo calling the Kennedy family “a thorn relentlessly shoved into my guts” (following this page) is a five-page excerpt from a six-page message.
• The Hughes memo about Teddy Kennedy and the RFK funeral (following this page) is a one-page excerpt from a two-page message.
• The Hughes memos seeking to place in the White House “a candidate who knows the facts of political life” and citing Richard Nixon as such a candidate (following this page) are excerpts from two different messages.
• The Hughes memo in which he describes himself as “a supposedly successful business man” (following this page) is a one-page excerpt from an eleven-page message.
• The Hughes memo threatening to leave the country after Nixon’s bomb blast (following this page) is a three-page excerpt from a four-page message.
In addition, the Hughes memos reproduced on the back cover and the title page are excerpts from memos reproduced more extensively elsewhere in the book. The “bagman at the White House” passage on the cover comes from the LBJ memo following this page, while the two-page extract on the title page was drawn from the Kennedy memo following this page.
All the facsimiles not cited here are reproduced in full.
Notes
Since Hughes routinely ranged over a variety of subjects in a single memo, and since he often went on at great length, I have rarely quoted any memo in full. Sometimes sentences or paragraphs have been removed without ellipses, but in no case has anything been quoted out of context. Hughes’s spelling and punctuation have been retained throughout. He never dated his memos, but his aides often did, sometimes in error. In most cases it was possible to determine the correct date by matching his memos with the dated replies Hughes received.
While this book concentrates on the secret records stolen from Romaine, I have also examined the public record: documents, depositions, and testimony filed in courts throughout the country. Much of that material was never entered into evidence and is also presented here for the first time.
Most of the other information in this book was also obtained from primary sources, identified in these notes.
Introduction The Great Hughes Heist
I spent more than six months investigating the Romaine break-in, interviewing at least one hundred persons, reviewing all available records including confidential police reports and grand jury transcripts, contacting all central figures in the case and questioning many others never contacted by the authorities, checking out all possible suspects, and finally tracking down the man who actually had the stolen Hughes papers. I spent several more months confirming his account of the burglary, checking all details against FBI and CIA reports eventually obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Los Angeles police and district attorney’s office files obtained through a confidential source, and other information from interviews with persons directly involved in the official investigation at both the federal and local levels, as well as sources within the Hughes organization.
My description of 7000 Romaine is based on personal observation, and my later description of its interior on accounts from several Hughes employees, one of the burglars, and police reports.
Its mythic security system was described in a typical account by Albert Gerber in Bashful Billionaire (Lyle Stuart, 1967, p. 319): “The Romaine Street headquarters is a treasure house of the finest and most sophisticated forms of electronic gadgetry in the counterespionage field. Various warning devices can be triggered by almost anything trespassing in the area. There is a device which will sound an alarm if anyone tried to get information about documents inside the headquarters by use of x-ray outside the headquarters! There are lead-lined safes and burglar-proof vaults. There is electronic equipment to repel radio waves and to neutralize snooping devices.” The myth was so powerful that even Hughes’s right-hand man Robert Maheu accepted it. “I always heard it was the most impregnable thing,” he said in an interview. “It would have been easier to break into J. Edgar’s office, that’s the way it was described to me.”
Mike Davis’s account of the break-in is quoted from LAPD reports, grand jury transcripts, and two interviews. Harry Watson’s account is from grand jury testimony and an interview.
All descriptions of the police investigation are based on official reports of the LAPD, on interviews with detectives involved in the case, and on information from other law enforcement authorities.
The SEC’s Air West probe was detailed by William Turner, a former SEC official who initiated the case and later pursued the criminal prosecution as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Nevada. Turner also made available the quoted SEC report.
The account of the Maheu case was drawn from court records. Summa’s claims of a Maheu-Mob link to the burglary are noted in police, FBI, and CIA reports. The quoted FBI report on a possible organized crime connection was dated August 26, 1974.
The Senate Watergate Committee and Special Prosecutor probes of the Hughes-Nixon connection were detailed in published reports, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and interviews with staff investigators. The Hughes connection to Watergate was first detailed in an unpublished forty-six-page report by the Senate committee staff. The quoted LAPD report log is dated July 5, 1974. FBI agent James G. Karis claimed in an interview not to recall the basis of his suggestion of a Watergate link to Romaine.