“Roy—
“George—
“John—
“& Bill Gay in Los Angeles
“I want this to be an all, all out effort beyond anything we have ever mounted before on anything, and putting aside all considerations of expense,” he wrote, mobilizing his Mormons and their leader, Bill Gay, calling in his chief counsel, Chester Davis, no longer willing to rely on Maheu alone, Maheu who had failed him on the bomb.
“I want you to hire one of those Washington or N.Y. public relations firms that specializes in single difficult emergency political problems such as this, …” Hughes continued, mapping out his antigas campaign.
“I want every available avenue of effort to be pursued, but I think the most effective is to persuade the Bahamian Govt. to lodge a really strong demand.
“I know they have already complained, but not to any-where near the extent that can be done.
“If we have even 1/10th the amount of influence with the Bahamian Govt. that you have assured me we have, then a really strong new complaint can be lodged and somehow a way must be found to publicize this to the high heavens.
“I assure you that if hundreds of TV stations all over the world, starting right now during the weekend can be induced to start in ballyhooing this issue and playing up the black vs. white aspect of it, I think there is a real chance of success.
“Nixon, with his well-publicized attitude toward the black race, is a natural target for this kind of a campaign,” he continued, zeroing in on his unlikely nemesis, the ingrate he had so generously supported all these years, the man he had chosen to be president.
Nixon was calling down strikes on all his positions. Bombing him in Nevada. Gassing him in the Bahamas. Forcing him out of his kingdom. Now cutting off his escape route. It was time to strike back.
“I can just see a cartoon of the Bahama Islands with a carricature of a thick-lipped black boy, of the typical Calypso-singing variety, and Mr. Nixon descending on him with his bulging container of nerve-gas,” wrote Hughes, relishing his counterattack on the treacherous commander in chief.
“I am positive Nixon will be more responsive to a plea from another government, particularly a negro government than he ever would be to pressures from within.
“I beg you to move like lightning on this. I am sure you agree that the most difficult problem we face is time.”
Those trains had to be stopped.
Rather than launch a covert operation against the president, Maheu tried to reach Nixon through the regular channels, using the established Danner-Rebozo connection.
Just a month earlier Danner had visited Rebozo at the western White House in San Clemente and there delivered to him another $50,000, the second installment of the promised $100,000 from Hughes to Nixon. It was over the Fourth of July weekend that the two had last met, sorcerer’s apprentices still acting under an old spell. Hughes had soured on Nixon long before, but Maheu was counting on Rebozo to arrange a settlement with TWA, a coup that might save Hughes a large chunk of the default judgment and get Maheu back in the billionaire’s good graces.
So, on July 3, 1970, Danner had gathered up another wad of hundred-dollar bills from one of Hughes’s Las Vegas casinos, stuffed them into a manila envelope, and handed the secret cash to Rebozo in the Cuban’s guest cottage at Nixon’s California home. Rebozo, as he had done before, slid the money out of the envelope, laid the bundles on his bed, and counted them. Ten bundles, each bound in a Las Vegas bank wrapper, $50,000 in all. Rebozo put the cash in his handbag, then took Danner on a tour of the estate, strolled with him around the private golf course, and finally dropped in on the president at his office.
The three men chatted amiably for ten or fifteen minutes, none apparently so gauche as to mention the just completed transaction. Nixon instead bemoaned the problems of finding suitable entertainment for the White House, noted how difficult it was to get movies that were not “a little too raw,” and asked Danner about the shows in Las Vegas.
All that had happened a month ago. The second half of the Hughes payoff was now safely stashed away in Bebe Rebozo’s Key Biscayne bank, another cash-filled manila envelope with “HH” marked discreetly on one corner, clipped to the first envelope delivered back in September 1969, both now locked in safe-deposit box #224, $100,000 for the president’s personal use.
Now, in August, Danner was desperate to make contact again. He finally reached Rebozo through the White House switchboard and relayed Hughes’s fears about the impending nerve-gas attack.
By the time Rebozo got word to Nixon the trains were already rolling, carrying their deadly freight on a slow trip to the sea. The president was surprised by Hughes’s protest. He had no idea that his hidden benefactor was planning to move to the Bahamas, much less that he was going there to escape the bomb tests. As for the nerve gas, Nixon had decided to dump it in the ocean just to appease Howard Hughes. The original plan had been to blow it up in Nevada.
“Howard, the ‘top man’ has asked that the following information be imparted to you,” reported Maheu with no hint of irony. “In deference to you he rejected, out of hand, the suggestion that the gas be exploded by the AEC in Nevada. The decision to dump the gas at the designated location was made because the area is restricted by virtue of Cape Kennedy activity, and continuously monitored.
“I was also asked to tell you that you would not believe the pressures (particularly from the South and East) which they withstood in order to avoid the necessity of bringing the load to Nevada,” he continued, unfolding a tale that could have been written by O. Henry. “The man said that he truly believed he was cooperating with you to the fullest in this matter.
“We have just received a telephone call asking if you have any alternative means for the disposition of this gas, and we are assured that if you do it will be considered very seriously.”
Hughes was not appeased. He no longer trusted Nixon, who first took his money, then bombed him, and was now about to gas him. But the billionaire did have an alternative to suggest.
“If the Administration can be persuaded to dump the gas at a location further away from the Bahamas than the presently selected location, I would be very grateful,” he wrote.
“In such event, I would like to study the situation before suggesting a location.
“My desire is to see a location selected as far as possible from the Bahamas,” he reiterated. “Preferably near the Arctic Circle, or as far North as they can possibly take it.”
Yes, the North Pole would be excellent. No need to study the situation after all. Meanwhile, distrustful of Nixon, Hughes pressed for his covert operation, the plan that would pit the president against the calypso boy.
Maheu wanted no part of it.
“Since I feel Danner and I are primarily responsible for any White House intervention, it would be absolutely irresponsible for us to be identified with a caper which could end up embarrassing the White House,” he advised Hughes. “Therefore, I think it is important that the ‘tiger hunt’ designed to embarrass the President should not be identified with Danner and me.
“Since Davis and Gay took over responsibility for the Bahamian situation a year ago,” he added, revealing some pique over his rivals’ role in the escape plans, “I am awaiting a report from them pertaining to the situation there before Danner and I can make our next move with the White House.”
Seizing the chance to gain on Maheu, Bill Gay and Chester Davis immediately set out on the tiger hunt their rival had refused to join.
They first went to work on a Bahamian government eager to lure Hughes and his millions down to the islands and within days had inspired the cabinet to meet in emergency session and issue a “strong protest” against the threatened nerve-gas dumping, the first formal complaint it had ever lodged against another nation.