Kuchel, 54, to oppose the actor. How- Watching the Sunbather. Last week, ever, Kuchel is reluctant to leave the as the Long subcommittee continued Senate for a try at the Sacramento its hearings, it became clear that since statehouse, has not made up his mind. 1961, when Attorney General Robert "I'm in a quandary," Kuchel confesses. Kennedy launched his great federal "I wake up in the middle of the night anti-crime drive, some IRS men had wondering about this." operated with untempered zeal—and Last week Kuchel got some ingenu- had certainly not lacked tools for pok- ous advice from none other than Dem- ing into peoples' private affairs. ocrat . During a Washington Take, for example, former Boston visit, the Governor mourned that it Agent John W. Harris, who served for would be "a real tragedy" for 16 years with the IRS before he became to lose Kuchel from the Senate "and one of some 100 agents indicted for have a freshman Senator [Murphy] bribery over the past two years. Harris representing California in Washington." told the subcommittee that in 1963 his Brown pointed to Kuchel's twelve years unit suspected a Milton, Mass., tavern of seniority and expertise "in water owner named Bernard McGarry of tax problems and other fields." Said Brown: evasion, and that for six weeks IRS "1 have tremendous respect for Senator men watched McGarry's house with Kuchel. We've worked closely as a CALIFORNIA'S KUCHEL "sniperscopes"—a World War II vin- team. But if he becomes my opponent, Quandary for a moderate. tage infra-red telescope that allows an my respect for him will diminish." The observer to see 175 yds. in the dark, at Concord Bridge have thrown down Governor conceded that he had not and "snooperscopes," a smaller version their guns . . .7" bothered to discuss his suggestions with with a range of 30 yds. Harris said Off & Running. The speech brought Kuchel, explaining, "I hoped he would that IRS men were certain McGarry an estimated $750,000 in campaign read it in the newspapers." had a vault in the basement. They contributions, was rebroadcast by state finally decided to open it, with or with- G.O.P. leaders, and, for Reagan, re- out permission. If they found a large sulted in a flood of speaking invitations INVESTIGATIONS Your Friendly Tax Collector amount of cash in the vault, that might that still average around 100 a week help prove that McGarry was making and come from all parts of the U.S. Internal Revenue Commissioner Shel- more money than he claimed. Har- As of last week, , 54, don Cohen recently seemed downright ris recalled the afternoon they got their was off and running for Governor of sheepish when he publicly admitted that chance: "The sun was still out. Mrs. California. The boyishly handsome good some of his Service's agents used wire- McGarry was sunning herself. We ob- guy in some two-score movies (King's taps and even more sophisticated in- served her through binoculars." Even- Row, Accidents Will Happen), and struments of snoopery to get evidence tually, Mrs. McGarry left the premises, more lately the host and sometimes hero against tax dodgers, both real and im- of TV's and the IRS men went into the house, Death Valley Days, Reagan, agined. "Neither I nor my closest assist- They found no money. Eventually, the away from the floodlights, has long ants knew until quite recently of de- Government brought charges against been politically concerned. As president partures from the Service's prescribed McGarry, but once the IRS shenanigans of the Screen Actors Guild in the late policies," he told Missouri Democrat were revealed, the case was dropped. '40s, he helped block a Communist at- Edward V. Long, chairman of a Senate Coast Guard Masque. Long's hear- tempt to take over Hollywood's trade Judiciary subcommittee investigating ings revealed many other IRS cloak- unions. In 1959, when 20th Century- federal encroachments on citizens' pri- and-daggerisms. In Pittsburgh, agents Fox laid on a feast for the visiting vacy. Cohen promised to right any in- had even electronically bugged the of- Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev, justices, then said of his agents: "While ficial IRS seal in the Chamber of Com- Reagan refused to attend. we must temper their zeal with con- merce building, and put behind the Yet Reagan had never run for po- trolled judgment, we cannot categori- plaque a two-way mirror and a camera. litical office. This year, perhaps inspired cally deprive them of tools and training by Actor 's successful In Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Detroit, with legitimate, exemplary uses." Montgomery and Kansas City, IRS con- 1964 G.O.P. campaign for U.S. Senator, M Reagan set his sights on California's Republican gubernatorial primary next June. He has not yet officially declared, says that he is merely testing sentiment. To that end, he barnstormed through northern California last week by auto the never flies). He has already hired the Los Angeles political management firm of Spencer-Roberts & Associates, which has handled some of the state's top Republican candidates, is busy building a statewide organization. One thousand persons have contributed to a "Friends of Ronald Reagan" committee. Near Panic. Reagan's race has touched off near panic among support- ers of the state's moderate Republican leader, Senator Thomas Kuchel. One of Kuchel's followers, Los Angeles Con- gressman Alphonzo Bell, is telephoning businessmen, urging them to abandon Reagan on grounds that his nomination would drive moderate Republicans into helping re-elect Democratic Governor Edmund G. Brown. The G.O.P. mod- CHAIRMAN LONG WITH SNIPERSCOI'E erates are also attempting to persuade School for buggers. 14 TIME, JULY 30, 1965 Terence rooms were equipped with two- way mirrors or hidden microphones so UPI that agents could watch or hear tax- payers and their lawyers while they conversed. In Boston, an IRS agent dis- guised himself as a Coast Guard petty officer (although it is a federal offense to impersonate a military man) so he could more easily bug an IRS confer- ence room at a Coast Guard base. As for wiretapping, Pittsburgh IRS officials had an old Bell Telephone Co. truck in 1961, outfitted their agents to look like phone company employees. Cresson 0. Davis. a Pittsburgh IRS in- telligence expert, admitted to Long's subcommittee that they had used the truck to install wiretaps. Davis said a network was hooked up to the den of his home for four months so he could tune in on three different tapped lines. Pennsylvania law prohibits wiretaps of any kind, but Davis told Long's sub- committee that he had not been aware of that until recently. Anyway. said Davis, "they conducted schools in Washington where our agents were WRECKED PARADISE PLANE NEAR TAHOE taught to wiretap, to plant microphones, False course to tragedy. and so forth, so it was my understand- tics Board has released a report finding ing that it was proper practice." trouble to consult any available tech- that if the plane had been flying only nical manuals for guidance. The altim- Sure enough, the IRS admitted that 300 ft. higher or 300 yds. to the right, it did have a school—the Technical eters were adjusted by another me- the disaster might have been averted. chanic, who later told CAB investiga- Investigative Aids School—where se- According to the CAB, the crash was lected agents could brush up on the tors that he could not quite recall caused by pilot error, sloppy ground whether he had tightened a vital screw. latest in electronic devices. One gradu- maintenance, faulty equipment—and ate, Boston IRS Age44ames J. O'Neill Flying Blind. Thus blinded before it the falsification of a weather report by ever left the ground, Flight 901A, pi- ('61), testified that he4had learned to a Paradise official. rig telephone wiretaps, to bug auto- loted by Captain Henry Norris, 45, flew Three days after the smashup, Para- from Oakland to Salinas, where it mobiles, to operate a wide variety of dise's operating license was suspended. electronic devices. Included were the picked up a party of 18 charter passen- Later, when the outfit's license expired, gers for a one-day trip to the Tahoe Miniphone, a 6-in.-long transmitter that the Federal Aviation Agency refused to can be concealed within an agent's casinos. The plane next landed at San renew it. At the time of the crash, Jose, taking aboard 63 more, filling it clothing, and the "Penn register," an Paradise Airlines was a two-year-old, to its passenger capacity. At the San Fi 18-in.-long device that is installed on a scheduled, intrastate California carrier, Jose stopover, Captain Norris received telephone pole near a suspect's home, flying leased planes between Oakland, a weather report from the Tahoe Val- then is hooked up to a mobile unit at San Jose and Lake Tahoe. It also had ley Airport. According to the CAB, a later time to coincide with the sus- permission to operate charter flights to Paradise's Tahoe station manager, pre- pect's phone calls, so that it can record and from the Tahoe area. The doomed sumably unwilling to turn away a lucra- both the phone numbers dialed and the plane, Flight 901A, was a combination tive flight, had changed an official conversations. chartered and regularly scheduled flight. weather report, causing Captain Norris O'Neill allowed as how he was also "Sticky" Altimeter. During the eight to believe that thin, broken clouds ex- familiar with "burglar tools," and told months before the crash, the Constel- isted in the Tahoe area, where, in fact, the subcommittee that in Boston he lation's compass system had been re- there were heavy clouds, snow showers had once picked a house lock so he ported malfunctioning no fewer than and icing conditions. could sneak in to install a wiretap. Long eleven times. The CAB found that at Approaching his destination con- gasped, "You mean they also taught the time the plane hit the mountainside, fronted by weather conditions that he you lock picking in Washington?' the compass may have been as much as had not been led to expect, and flying a O'Neill said "Yes." 15° off. Only the day before, a Paradise plane that was not equipped with de- Of the 26 federal agencies involved pilot who was flying the plane bad com- icing devices, Captain Norris asked for in the all-out anti-crime drive begun plained that his altimeter had been and got permission to climb to 15,000 by Attorney General Kennedy, the IRS "sticky" during descents, remaining sta- ft. At 11:21 a.m., he said that he could has produced the "best" record, ac- tionary for a while, then suddenly reg- see the south shore of Lake Tahoe. counting for 60% of all convictions to istering a 150-ft. to 200-ft. drop. As for Eight minutes later, he radioed: "Flight date. Considering its methods, small the copilot's altimeter, it registered 100 901A ..." Then his radio went dead. wonder. ft. below sea level when the plane was The CAB surmised that Norris, find- on the ground at sea level. ing himself in a blizzard as he started AVIATION The night before its last flight, the to land, abandoned his authorized ap- "Flight 901A aircraft and its instruments were serv- proach and headed eastward at 9,000 ..." iced—after a fashion. Paradise had no ft. toward what he hoped would be Shortly before noon on March 1, maintenance crews or facilities of its clear sky. "Then, either because they 1964, a four-engine Constellation oper- own, farmed out all such work to an believed they had sufficient altitude to ated by California's Paradise Airlines FAA-approved Oakland maintenance clear the terrain or because they were smashed into a snow-covered mountain- station with licensed mechanics. The unable to climb higher due to structural side near Lake Tahoe on the California- CAB found that the mechanic who ice, the aircraft leveled off," said the Nevada border. All 85 aboard were worked on the Paradise plane's corn- CAB. "At that time they struck the first killed. Now, after a 16-month investi- pass had never before dealt with one trees and were unable to avoid the final gation of the crash, the Civil Aeronau- like it; moreover, he did not take the impact with the mountain." TIME, JULY 30, 1965 15