PY How Maheu Fooled

SFExamine r JA Hughes 1J ulnas/zed 2 8 1972 How Maheu Fooled PY By Ron Laytner gone in th vast Hughes empire, b the former LAS VEGAS — A young- Last in a series of chief sp kesman for er man would think very articles revealing the rela- carefully before tangling tionship between billion- Hughes is c early different than most. physically with Robert A. aire. Froward Hughes and Maheu. The former FBI Robert Maheu, Hughes' Maheu h s refused to agent is 56, but hp gives Nevada chieftain who is take his smissal lying the impression of b,aing an suing him for $50 million down and h s armed him- for firing him. extremely dangerous man. self with a ough attorney, Maheu is one of the few Morton Gal ne. who once FBI agents in its history badly trounced Maheu and ever to have made a per- ing to Howard Hughes. the Hughes f u roes in court. fect score in shooting and spoke in a bizarre tele- Maheu an Galane had he has won an FBI medal phone press conference. been discus ing the possi- for achievement. Ile is The voice accused Maheu bility of o conversation known as a master of of stealing from Howard being moult red by listen- weapons. Hughes. ing devices •ecretly plant- On Jan. 7 a mysterious Over the years many ex- voice, identified as belong- ecutives have come and --Turn to Page.= Col, 'I ill.WIrmr7w,:377.114mm, vn, center of photo. Official In 1938, Hughes was given a ticker-tape parade in tured in a rare smile,, is New York greeter at that ime was Grover Whalen, New York City, recognizing his record - breaking dwick. around the world flight. The young Hughes, cap- left; at right is Albert I. L Page 12—.1.1ixanttuer Fri., Jan. 2$, 19/2 giiiirillillffirli111111/1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111I11111111111091111111M111110191111111flit111111111111111111111I11111111111111111 Hughes Unmas ed ' 7/111111M1111111#1111111111IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiii11111111ift11111iiiiiiIIIIIIIIMI11111111111111111J11-1111111ilik111111111111111111111$111111111€I1111 111E11111U 11111111illillili1111111Me% How Maheu F oled A Top 'Nazi A ent —From Page 1 embassy. Our investigators dcl in Maheu 's rented there finally :broke him down and he told them the hnuse. story I am telling you now "If anyone is listening." — claiming it was always said Maheu, "I hope they his intention to tell the understand it is a felony in same story after he ar- this state. There are also rived in the U.S." federal regulations which After receiving speciat- preclude the use of bugging training in German espio- devices." nage techniques Costes, op- e have nothing to erating under great person- hide," added Galane, "Ev- al pressure, followed his erything we have done in orders and "fled" France. this litigation has been Counter Agents above board and has hap- pened in the courts using At the time of his in- proper precedures volvement in the case Ma- Maheu became national- heu and his wife had a ly known over a year ago five-and-a-half month old when h e was suddenly son. He had just opened a fired by aides of Hughes resident agency for the FBI in Aberdeen, Wash. who said they were acting on instructions from the There he received an or- wraith-like industrialist. der to report immediately Accounts at . that• time at Washington for a special and ever since have de- DISCUSSED EAVESDROPPING POSSIBILITY assignment. scribed Maheu as a "super Attorney Morton Galane, left, and Robert Maheu At the Capital Maheu ipy." FBI agent and coun- was briefed on the back- terspy. He was rumored ground of the case and giv- once to have been under worked for the Federel Bu- of information. It did a en instructions on his cover contract to the Central In- reau of Investigation," Ma- good if Nazi intelligen 'e story. Because of his fluen- telligence Agency to aEsas- heu "The early part got the information after cy in French it had been . sinate Cuba's Fidel Castro. of 1942 was a time when es- the fact," Maheu e decided that he would be Just who is Maheu - pionage had evolved to a plained. the counter agent to work what did he do for the FBI point where there were The lead man they cho .e with the Nazi radio team. during the war and after? runny double and triple to send was a famo s He reported later in Mi- Why did Hughes choose a gents " French aviator, Dieudon e ami, turning in his creden- him to eventually become The Germans had decid- Costes. He had been one f. tials, gun, badge, every- his official spokesman and ed to send an espionage the great pilots of Wor d thing that was identifiable / administrator of a $300 mil- team to the U.S. using a War I. At the time of t e — even clothing that held lion Nevada empire? lead man who was to offer German takeover laundry-marks. his services to the U.S. France ' he was a vic Maheu became Robert A. Work for FBI government., he continued. president of the Hisp. Marchand, a French- In this exclusive inter: The Germans would then Suiza Co. Costes is the m n Canadian black-marketeer, view Maheu finally sets the send a technician to set up who returned Lindbergh's and checked into a small record straight and de- a radio transmitter. flight in 1930. hotel on Miami Beach ' scribes his career in the "As you know, one of the "He arrived in Spain where he waited for Costes FBI. big problems in those days Maheu said. -and we t to arrive. "During World War II, I was the quick transmission straight to the Americ. Costes arrived in the U.S. by way of Buenos Spain on Oct. 12. 1943 and he could build a radio for Normandy were either Aires, in June. 1943 and went into action. transmitter to open contact relocated or left_ in south-. was told that Maheu was On Nov. 30 he managed with Germany but the FBI ern France." an FBI agent. "We took to get the French authori- placed a number of road- When 1. e war ended the calculated risk that he ties at Washington to rein- blocks in his way. Costes went back to was a double agent and state him as a lieutenant in Finally. Cavaillez h a d France where he was first would not, in fact, become the French Air Force so the set working and the tried as a spy then exoner- a triple agent." that he could wear the FBI let him transmit a few ated with the help of the For a long while the French uniform while oper- messages. always with Ma- FBI and recognized as a French aviator and Maheu ating as a German spy in heu at his side in case h hero. Cavaillez was first worked on the method of the U.S. tried to tip off the Nazis sentenced to five years by secret writing that Costes According to Connelley. that it was a FBI trap. a U.S. Federal court, then had been taught to use by the French-uniformed Nazi After the Germans had sent back to France a pris- the Nazi intelligence. This spy did considerable re- been convinced that Costes oner. was the code which would search work in the Library had access to solid information the espionage team After the war Maheu be- be Used to send messages of Congress and in the New came assistant to Cannel- baCk to Germany and Ma- York Public Library, ob- started sending messages that the invasion of Europe ley and worked on many of heu had to be completely taining material from the America's major eases familiar with it. restricted shelves on the was going to be staged in southern France. with the FBI's top The French war hero and strength of his French uni- trouble-shooter. When Con- RI-mined German spy form and credentials. At first it was reported to nelley's special squad was gave Maheu exact details But he sensed something German intelligence that broken up, Maheu became of his training at a German was wrong with his con- Costes had been called to supervisor of the adminis- espionage school in Ham- tact. Costes, and kept the Pentagon to answer tration division. burg and advance informa- away, much to Maheu's some questions abou tion on the top Nazi spy southern France. "After a while 1 re: dismay. signed. And after a short who was to join him. Troops Shifted In charge of this whole -Our surveillances dis- period of being in business closed that Cavaillez would project at the time. said And then the messages I formed my own compa- Maheu. was FBI Assistant attend a certain mass at became increasingly force ny. It was a combination St. Patrick's every Sunday Director E. J. Connelley ful so that the last were ab of international investiga- at a given time. And so we who has since died. solutely certain—there wa. tive work. public relations arranged in New York City no doubt —t h e invasion and management consult- Misled Nazis one Sunday for Costes and would take place in south ing. "Mr. Connelley had the he to bump into each other ern France. "Then one day in 1955 -- authority to go into any without their realizing "After the war." sai without knowing it --- FBI office and pre-empt they'd been maneuvered. Mallen, was told that went to work on a secret any case. He was in charge "Contact was now finally when the espionage papers assignment for Howard of this particular opera- established and eventually of the Germans wer Hughes.

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