Washington Merry-go-round By Jack Anderson & Les Whitten WASHINGTON — The biggest Watergate mystery of them all has attorney to pull his neck back inside never been cleared up. What was because of the Watergate publicity. For Howard Hughes' strange role in the instance, Hughes sent this message to scandal? Chester Davis on April 10,1974: The late billionaire was the only ma- "He (Hughes) wants to know im- jor Watergate figure who eluded the mediately what prompted you to tell special prosecutors to the end. Yet some him to please continue his so-called Watergate investigators believe he was reclusive way of life and not to cause the cause of the Watergate break-in. any publicity. He said he has to make His man in Washington, Robert Ben- some decisions in Nevada and he nett, kept turning up mysteriously can't, or doesn't dare, arrive at any con- throughout the Watergate plot. White clusion after what you told him yester- House informer John Dean commented day." that Bennett "became as mysterious in In response, Davis cited not only his inconspicuous presence as Howard Watergate but other legal problems as Hughes was in his conspicuous his reasons for "recommending that we absence." • do not invite additional unnecessary At this time, his co-plumber, E. Howard We have searched Hughes' Jrivate publicity." Later, he reported on his ef- Hunt, worked for Bennett yet was also forts to identify "the persons behind this papers, now in federal custody, for on the White House payroll. determined effort to embarrass you in clues. The papers show that the phan- — Bennett put Hunt together with order to compel you to appear." tom billionaire followed the Watergate Ralph Winte, a Hughes security man. Unhappily, the Hughes papers merely investigation avidly. For example, he Hunt later confessed that they discussed heighten the mystery of Hughes' in- demanded an immediate report from burglarizing Greenspun's safe. Ac- volvement in the Watergate scandal. his attorney, Chester Davis, un White cording to Hunt. he was supposed to The documents discuss these House counsel Fred Buzhardt's secret provide the burglars with a getaway fascinating developments: testimony before the Senate Watergate plane. It is uncertain whether the safe- The papers acknowledge that a Committee. — cracking was ever attempted. But White Hughes aide, Richard Danner, delivered House aide John Ehrlichman later two separate $50,000 cash bundles to Key Davis responded in a May 8, 1974, reported to Nixon that Liddy and Hunt, memo: "I am informed that Buzhardt Biscayne, Fla., and San Clemente, "Flew out, broke his safe, got something Calif., for Nixon's use after the 1968 elec- (a) effectively asserted the attorney- out." Greenspun said someone tore off tion. The money was turned over to client privilege, and (b) did ;lot testify to the cover plate of his safe but failed to anything relating to (you). The Rebozo, who returned it seven years open it. transcripts of those hearings are secret, later. In the meantime, Hughes' — White House aide Charles Colson and it may be some time before I can get Washington operator, Bob Bennett, more detailed Information." delivered another $150,000 to the Nixon In other memos, Davis confided that re-election campaign. This reportedly he was on good terms with "Sen. Sam" included some blank checks which Watergate plumber G. Gordon Liddy as he called Senate Watergate Chair- filled in. man Sam Ervin, D.-N.C., and that he — When we broke the story of the was "cooperating" with attorneys for $100,000 cash gift to Nixon, it reportedly Bebe Rebozo, the sidekick of then- has also said that he has "good reason to caused panic inside the White House. President Richard Nixon. believe that Bob Bennett was Nixon aides suspected that we got our somehow Hughes sympathized completely with involved in the decision to go after information either from then- Nixon during the Watergate investiga- O'Brien." Chester Davis later reported tion, and the men around him tended, in Democratic National Chairman Larry to Hughes that the Senate Watergate O'Brien or from Las Vegas publisher the way of subordinates, to reflect his Committee was trying to link the Hank Greenspun. Both had access to views. "Since the Watergate incident," O'Brien and Greenspun episodes. Hughes documents. wrote Davis, "there has be'n a bitterly fanatic political movement to destroy — Liddy began planning the — The Watergate caper remained a Nixon." Watergate break-in, according to subse- mystery for months after the break-in. quent testimony, with the understanding Another Hughes aide, Richard Han- Yet on July 10, 1972, less than a month nah. characterized Nixon's critics as that he had approval to tap O'Brien's i afterward, Bennett reported "detailed "the hypocrites, the holler-than-thou phone and break into Greenspun's safe. knowledge of the Watergate incident" to elements, the very-very righteous." He his CIA case officer. Howard Hughes, in- reported to Hughes on June 2, 1974, for cidentally, was probably the CIA's example, that "Nixon's enemies will not largest contractor. relax their efforts to hang him, but ,.. Yet the special prosecutors never got the public is supersaturated with the a chance to question the elusive Hughes. partisan clawing and kicks to the groin." There is a hint In the documents that the recluse •considered emerging from his turtleshell but was persuaded by his .