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Garbage and Grand By WALLACE TURNER Special to The New York Times LAS VEGAS, Nov. 17 The grand jury investigation Howard Hughes is gone from in Miami is directed toward here but the battle lingers on discovering if them were viola with a Miami grand jury sift- tions of Federal laws that pro- ing testimony and Hughes de- hibit the exporting of electronic tectives sifting the garbage of surveillance equipment. The in- a man NA° has sued the mys- vestigation concerns the time terious billionaire. when Peter Maheu sent a team - Peter Maheu, the 29-year-old of investigators to Nassau from son of Robert A. Maheu, a Miami to try to discover if principal in the continuing con- Mr. Hughes was really in the troversy surrounding the Britannia Beach Hotel on Para Hughes enterprises, has been dice Island. before the Miami grand% jury. The investigators worked for He suspects he is a target of Investigators, Inc., of Miami, a its investigation. company operated by E. L Through it all, no one has DuBois 3d. It was founded by seen Mr. Hughes, who will be his father, E. L. DuBois Jr. 66 years old Christmas Eve. who was a contemporary in He has disappeared as com- the F.B.I. with Robert Maheu .siletely in Nassau in the Ba- hamas—if, indeed, he is there— Pressure Is Alleged as he did in the four years he Both the younger Mr. DuBois reportedly lived in a pent- and Peter Maheu have said they house at the Desert Inn, a believe the grand jury investi- hotel-casino on the Strip here. gation is the result of pressures Until Mr. Hughes left here brought to bear by Robert D last Nov. 25, Robert Maheu Peloquin, president of Inter- controlled Hughes Nevada Op- national Intelligence, ksown erations, a $300-million group also as Intertel, which has of casinos, hotels, airports, represented Hughes Tool in ranches and apartments. secutiry matters for more than After much bitter litigation, a year. Mr. Maheu, a former agent of Mr. Peloquin was formerly the Federal Bureau of Investi- an attorney in the Organized ationias Crime and Racketeering Sec- o Hughes Tool Company offi- tion of the Criminal Division of cials from Houston, led by the United States D!partment Chester C. Davis, a New York of Justice. Many of-his asso- lawyer. cll. Intertel were former- Victorious in Court ly officials in various Govern- ment agencies. In the ensuing 12 months, Hughes Tool has won a series "My personal feelings are of court tests and rulings from that it shows how a powerful administrative agencies, such individual can manipulate the as the Nevada Gaming Com- U. S. Government agencies," mission, that have forced Mr. Mr. DuBois, in a telephone Maheu out of any connection interview, said of Mr. Peloquin with the Hughes properties in and the grand jury investiga- Nevada. tion. In each of the contests, Peter Maheu, who is now the Hughes Tool grup has unemployed and living in Tuc- been able at some point to son, Ariz., testified voluntarily produce a letter, or a telephone before the Miami grand jury call from Mr. Hughes, or his late last week. He said he ap- fingerprints on a piece of pa- peared for an hour 40 minutes per. These devices have been over two days. He said he had used on messages that desig-. told the grand jury that How- nate Mr. Davis or some of his ard Hughes now weighs 97 allies as the managers of the pounds, has long gray hair and Nevada enterprises. a beard, and has fingernails Mr. Hughes, however, has not and toenails eight inches Iong. been seen for more than a dec- Hughes Aides Cited ade by anyone who will talk about it. Robert Maheu has In a telephone Interview, Mr. sued Mr. Hughes for $50-mil- Maheu said he had related lion, alleging damages incurred statements made to him by F. from his dismissal, and Hughes W. Gay, a Hughes Tool vice Tool agents have evicted Mr. president, in a conversation •in Maheu from the $800,000 the autumn of 1969, while Mr. house built for him with Hughes Hughes was still said to be liv- money on the Desert Inn golf ing at the Desert Inn here. course. Mr. Gay had not seen Mr. Mr. Maheu said that last Hughes, Mr. Maheu said, but week he caught agents of the was repeating what he had security staff f& the Hughes been told by some of the five properties here in an rrange- men who serve Mr. Hughes as ment whereby they bought his executive assistants and are the garbage; rom the garbage truck only persons who see him reg- operators who picked it up. ularlY. Mr. Gay could not be Mr. Maheu said he assumes!. it reached for comment on Mr. was being sifted for evidence Maheu's statements. to use in the trial of his suit. Mr. Maheu said that while NOV 1 8 1977 THE.NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1971 Jury Figure in Howard Hughes Controversy staff, said he had testified to the Miami grand jury. He said he had testified that he under- stood the Maheu organization had been exploring ways to bring Howard Hughes out of the Bahamas by boat. Subpoenaed for Jury "At that time I thought, and all of us did, that Howard Hughes had been taken against his will," Mr. Bishop said in a telephone interview. "The word 'kidnap' might have been used, but it was to describe what we thought had been done to get him to Nassau. None of the Maheu people had any thought of holding. him for ransom or of removing him from Nassau against his will." Meantime, about a score of persons have been subpoenaed to testify before the Miami grand jury. Some of them are Mr. DuBois's investigators and some are employes of various elements of the Hughes enter- prises. Sob Sherman fcr Time Their evidence concerns how A guard is stationed on roof of the Britannia Beach Hotel on Paradise Island, Nassau, certain electronic eavesdrop- where Howard Hughes has been reported to be living. But Mr. Hughes has not been seen. ping equipment seen in the Du- Bois party's •room cthne to be in Nassau. The thrust of the in- vestigation is to discover if it was taken there from Miami. This could be a violation of Federal law. Mr. DuBois, who has not tes- tified to the grand jury, said that all the electronic gear had been bought in Nassau, which he described as "a hub of in- ternational commerce and in- trigue." "We didn't take it over there," he said. Associated Press Associated Press The New York Times Robert A. Maheu has sued • Peter Maheu, son of Rob- Robert D. Peloquin heads for alleged damages by ert, is under investigation International Intelligence, Mr. Hughes, by whom he in Miami in connection handling security for the was employed in Nevada. With his father's case. Hughes Tool Company. he was before the grand jury Mr. Peloquin, in a telephone Within the week after Mr. he was asked about the use interview, said that he had not Hughes disappeared from the of electronic surveillance de- instituted any proceedings in Desert Inn last year, Robert vices that were found -in the the matter. He said that the Maheu's forces decided that he Britannia Beach Hotel in De- Miami investigators had been was probably in Nassau. Peter cember, 1970, when Mr. Du- found in the Britannia Beach Maheu, accompanied by Dean Bois and his employes were dis- Hotel by Bahamian police and Elson, a former F.B.I. agent on covered in a room beneath members of the Intertel staff, the Maheu staff, Doug those reportedly occupied by who also provide security for Priest, the captain of Alouette Mr. Hughes and his party. He that hotel. They found that the II, the Maheu yacht at New- would not say what his testi- DuBois group had electronic port Beach, Calif., went to Fort mony on those questions had surveillance equipment, which Lauderdale, Fla. been. is illegal in the Bahamas, he They did not go to Nassau, Mr. Maheu echoed Mr. Du- said. Peter Maheu said. Bois' charge that the grand jury The DuBois group was de- Al Bishop, now a public rela- investigation had been insti- ported from Nassau after being tions man in Las Vegas but gated by Mr. Peloquin. questioned. then a member of the Maheu .

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