Kennedy called Nixon’s Hughes scandal a “decisive factor” in the 1960 election in a New York Times interview reported November 13, 1960. Justice Department files leaked to the Times January 24, 1972, revealed that as attorney general Kennedy considered criminal prosecution of Hughes, Nixon, and members of Nixon’s family over the “loan.”
The scene of Hughes watching RFK assassination reports is based on his own memos, on interviews with his aides, and on television videotapes. Teddy Kennedy’s eulogy is quoted from press reports of the funeral rites.
O’Brien’s “long, sad, emotional journey” on the RFK funeral train is recounted in his No Final Victories (Doubleday, 1974, pp. 245–46) and was further detailed in interviews. “After the funeral services,” he wrote, “I went home and remained there for several days. It was a mood I had never known before. Following President Kennedy’s assassination I had been swept along by Lyndon Johnson, but now I had nothing to do and nothing I wanted to do.”
Maheu told the Senate Watergate Committee that Hughes ordered him to hire O’Brien within minutes of Bobby’s death, but that he “had the decency to wait some time” before making contact. Maheu finally reached O’Brien on June 28, 1968.
O’Brien described his job negotiations with Maheu in his book (pp. 255–56) and in interviews. “Suddenly Bobby was dead and I had nowhere to go,” he said. “There’s a cold reality that sets in, and it’s very simple. I had to earn a living.” But after being shown a copy of the memo Hughes wrote the night that Bobby died, O’Brien added, “Now you make me wonder whether I’d forsaken everything to go to work for a bum like Howard Hughes.”
O’Brien discussed his work for Hughes in two four-hour taped interviews, but claimed not to recall many matters detailed in Maheu’s reports, often went off the record and demanded that the recorder be shut off, and refused access to his own reports to Maheu and all other records relating to O’Brien Associates.
O’Brien confirmed that he had been contacted by Hagerty to represent the three television networks at about the same time he first met with Maheu, but claimed not to recall any discussion with Maheu of Hughes’s bid to take over ABC, as reported in Maheu’s memos. O’Brien also claimed he was not aware of the Hughes/ABC deal, although it was widely reported in the national press starting July 1, 1968, three days after Maheu first called, and three days before he came to Las Vegas to discuss the Hughes job.
O’Brien’s associate Claude DeSautels told the Senate Watergate Committee that Humphrey called while O’Brien was in Las Vegas. O’Brien said in an interview that shortly after he returned to Washington, he agreed to take over Humphrey’s campaign and told Maheu he could not go to work for Hughes until after the convention.
O’Brien confirmed that he met again with Maheu in Washington on July 31, 1968, received $25,000 promised to the Kennedy campaign, which he passed on to Smith the next day, and agreed to represent Hughes through O’Brien Associates for at least two years at $15,000 a month.
O’Brien became Democratic national chairman on August 30, 1968, and that same day became chairman of Humphrey’s campaign. He confirmed that he met a third time with Maheu in Las Vegas shortly after the November election and made final arrangements to begin work for Hughes on January 1, 1969.
O’Brien confirmed that he “maintained contact” with Maheu while he managed Humphrey’s campaign but said that he did not recall discussing Hughes’s attempt to take over Air West. He said that he discussed Hughes’s TWA battle with Maheu on several occasions but did not recall the plan for a congressional probe of the bankers, which Maheu said he discussed with O’Brien in a memo to Hughes dated October 9, 1968.
O’Brien also said he did not recall having arranged Maheu’s August 1968 meeting with Johnson at the LBJ Ranch, but Maheu told the Senate Watergate Committee that O’Brien set up that meeting, and Johnson’s appointments secretary Jim Jones confirmed that O’Brien arranged it. Jones recounted LBJ’s reaction in an interview.
Maheu confirmed in an interview that Hughes ordered a second million-dollar bribe to Johnson. O’Brien claimed not to recall any “direct contact” with the president in December 1968 regarding the bomb test. “It gets perilously close to suggesting that Maheu’s reports to Hughes might not have been accurate, in terms of my opinions and views and activities, and that wouldn’t have been the case,” said O’Brien. “Because if Maheu told Hughes that O’Brien says Lyndon Johnson’s view on the bomb test is this or that, I’m sure I told Bob that was the president’s position, and I wouldn’t have told him unless some effort was made to find out what the president’s position was.”
O’Brien claimed that he never discussed with Maheu any offer of money to Johnson, or indeed any political contributions at all, but Maheu told the Senate Watergate Committee that he kept O’Brien informed of “all political matters.” Maheu refused in an interview to confirm that he told O’Brien about the proposed million-dollar bribe to Johnson, as he stated he did in his memo to Hughes. “That’s none of your business,” said Maheu.
An O’Brien associate, who declined to be identified, said in an interview that O’Brien told him that Hughes had once ordered that a million dollars be given to Johnson, but that he refused to get involved.
Colin McKinlay confirmed in an interview that two Hughes representatives, Tom Bell and Jack Entratter, “tried to buy me off not to run the story about Ted Kennedy,” and also confirmed that it was Entratter who brought Kennedy to room 1895 at the Sands where the showgirl was seen by a bellhop, a room service waiter, and two detectives assigned to protect Kennedy. Entratter died in 1971, but another Sands executive corroborated McKinlay’s account in an interview. Senator Kennedy refused repeated interview requests.
Both Napolitan and DeSautels confirmed their work for Hughes, and both also confirmed that they consulted regularly with O’Brien, as did O’Brien himself. “During my period on Wall Street,” said O’Brien, “there were occasions when Claude and/or Joe would check with me on some aspects of their activities with Maheu, and I’m sure I also talked with Maheu directly.” However, O’Brien said that he did not recall any involvement with the Air West CAB hearings or seeking congressional support for the fight against nuclear tests, as reported by Maheu.
O’Brien confirmed that he met again with Maheu in Las Vegas in August 1969, after quitting his Wall Street job, and arranged to go to work for Hughes for two years at $15,000 a month starting October 1, 1969. It was not publicly known at the time that O’Brien was working for Hughes, and the fact that O’Brien was on retainer while he was Democratic Party chairman was not reported until July 1974, when leaked by the Senate Watergate Committee.
O’Brien confirmed Maheu’s report that his firm played a central role in altering the 1969 Tax Reform Act. “I’m sure that’s true,” said O’Brien. “Obviously there was involvement on the tax bill through my contract with Hughes, and I’m sure that DeSautels was very active on that. He knew just about everybody on the Hill.” O’Brien defended his role but added, “I know I’m going to look a bit illiberal on the tax bill.”
The account of Patman’s probe of the Hughes Medical Institute was drawn from reports of the House Banking Committee and the hearing record. The account of HHMI’s finances was drawn from IRS files and internal documents of the Hughes organization, as well as congressional reports. O’Brien said that he never contacted Patman for Hughes, but that DeSautels probably did.