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_ - f EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR: Ken Kelley EDITOR: Craig Pyes FEATURE EDITOR: David Weir MANAGING EDITOR: Alison Weir COPY EDITOR: Cheryl Bishop DESIGN CONSULTANT: Bob Roth POETRY EDITOR: Anne Waldman MUSIC EDITOR: Alec Dubro PHOTOGRAPHERS: Detroit Annie, Gary Weineke CONSULTING EDITOR: Abbie Hoffman WANDERING HISTORIAN: Harvey Wasserman BUSINESS BUSINESS CONSULTANT: Charles Fracchia ADVERTISING MANAGER: Jay Odell OFFICE MANAGER: Aloma Sue DISTR IBUTION MANAGER: Keith Wilson BUSINESS STAFF: Tia Odell, Tamara Baltar, Sharon Murphy PUBLICITY: Kathy Streem

ART STAFF: Joe DiVencenzo, Michael Hamilton, Carl Muecke Terry Taube, Good Times PRODUCTION MANAGER: Wade Carey FRONT AND BACK COVERS BY PHIL CARROLL

Contributing Editors: Frank Bardacke, Robert Bazell, Richard Boyle, Kate Coleman, Banning Garrett, Jeff Gerth, Todd Gitlin, Howard Kohn, Sandra Levinson, J. Marks, Harold Rossman, Robert Scheer, Walter Shapiro, Allen Young.

Correspondents: Sandy Carter (Omaha), Izzy Cohen (Jerusalem), Claudia Dreifus (New York), Thomas Dupree (Atlanta), Bob Hartley (San Diego), Kenji Kanesaka (Tokyo), Mike Kazin (Portland), Tom Miller (Dallas), Abe Peck (Chicago, Jeff Nightbird (Houston), Clark Norton (Charlotte), Larry Werner (Louisville), Daniel Zwerdling (Washington, D.C.).

Special Thanks: Suzanne Allen, Mark Bramhall, Elliott Buckdrucker, Alvin Duskin, BobFisher, Karen Freedman, Erik Ibsen, Dan Weinstein

SunDance Magazine is published monthly by Running Dog, Inc., 1913 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California, 94115. Telephone (415)563-2100; Advertising: (415) 431-4347. Subscriptions: U. S., $8 twelve issues, $14 twenty 116 twenty-four issues. Foreign rate; 110 twelve issues,-four issues; 118 twenty-four Canada, 39 issues. twelve Foreign issues, Airmail rate: Mexico, CentrafAmerica, Caribbean Islands, $77; Europe, South America, North Africa, 121; Far and Near East, USSR, Australia, and remainder of Africa. 126.50. Single issue, 75 cents. Copyright ° 1972, Running Dog, Inc. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission of publisher. Retail distribution c/o SunDance Distributing Co., 1913 Fillmore St., San Francisco, California ...... 94115. Unsolicited manuscripts submitted to SunDance \\... self-addressed envelope to ensure their return. SunDance editorsmust beassume sent withno responsibil- stamped, ity for unsolicited manuscripts.

ing court files, National Archives records, and both private and govern- and private both and records, Archives National files, court ing organized crime. crime. organized

nary men, and a substantial number of them have connections with with connections have them of number substantial a and men, nary

over a hundred people, and examined thousands of documents, includ- documents, of thousands examined and people, hundred a over

intertwined circle of men who are directly and indirectly linked to to linked indirectly and directly are who men of circle intertwined

ment intelligence files on organized crime. crime. organized on files intelligence ment

closest personal, business, and political ties have been with a thoroughly thoroughly a with been have ties political and business, personal, closest organized crime." crime." organized

doing by Nixon. It is rather a clear, accurate portrait of a man whose whose man a of portrait accurate clear, a rather is It Nixon. by doing

Nixon's ascendancy to the pinnacle of American power has required required has power American of pinnacle the to ascendancy Nixon's

Mafia," starting on page 30, "one indisputable fact emerges—Richard emerges—Richard fact indisputable "one 30, page on starting Mafia,"

Nixon, " writes Jeff Gerth in this issue's cover story "Nixon and the the and "Nixon story cover issue's this in Gerth Jeff writes " Nixon, twenty-five years of care and feeding by some very wealthy and reactio- and wealthy very some by feeding and care of years twenty-five

The evidence in the article is not "circumstantial" proof of any wrong- any of proof "circumstantial" not is article the in evidence The

Through his research, Jeff Gerth has become a premier authority authority premier a become has Gerth Jeff research, his Through

Gerth's investigation took him to eleven cities, where he interviewed interviewed he where cities, eleven to him took investigation Gerth's

"After a six-month investigation into the long career of Richard Richard of career long the into investigation six-month a "After

Wasserman and Feature Editor David Weir. Weir. David Editor Feature and Wasserman

he has traveled for more than twenty-five years," Gerth concludes, concludes, Gerth years," twenty-five than more for traveled has he

"it is accurate to say that organized crime has elected its own own its elected has crime organized that say to accurate is "it

investigations, including a bachelor's degree in business from from business in degree bachelor's a including investigations,

Northwestern and graduate-level study at Columbia. Columbia. at study graduate-level and Northwestern

on Nixon and his ties to organized crime. A twenty-seven-year old old twenty-seven-year A crime. organized to ties his and Nixon on President in Richard Nixon." Nixon." Richard in President

researcher and free-lance writer, Gerth has extensive training in financial financial in training extensive has Gerth writer, free-lance and researcher

The major editing of the story was done by Contributing Editor Harvey Harvey Editor Contributing by done was story the of editing major The "In light of his personal business dealings and the milieu in which which in milieu the and dealings business personal his of light "In

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r. r. :,1 :,1 "Organized crime will put a man in the White House someday, and he won't even know it until they hand him the bill."

-Ralph Salerno Richard M. Nixon has been a central figure in American politics since the end of World War II. He is now completing the last of his three Presidential campaigns as the best- financed candidate in United States history. Yet in many ways Nixon remains a profound enigma to us all. Never a man of great personal popularity, he has nevertheless survived an almost endless series of personal crises and defeats to attain the pinnacle of , American power. Nixon's career has been continu- ously marred by scandal and con- troversy. From his smear cam- paigns in the late Forties, to the secret slush fund that led to the Checkers speech in 1952, to the Hughes loan in 1960, to the $400,000 ITT scandal this spring, to the Watergate break-in and the $10,000,000 secret Re- publican war chest cur- rently in the news, Nix- on's ascendancy to pow- er has been surrounded by the stigma of suspi- cion. This article has no di- rect "scandal" to dis- close, nor is it a col- "Copyright 1971. Son1.3,1n< e taga7I ne

lection of circumstantial evidence designed to pin a specific With its gigantic power and resources, from the heroin wrong-doing on Nixon. traffic to inflated supermarket prices, from military PX frauds It Is rather a direct, primary portrait of a man whose finan- to black market currency manipulations, from gambling and cial and political careers have rested on investments and con- prostitution to its tong, powerful push into "legitimate" busi- tributions tainted by the involvement of organized crime. Rich- ness and politics, organized crime constitutes one of the most ard Nixon's closest personal, business, and political ties have powerful and pervasive forces In American life. been with a tightly intertwined circle of men who are directly and indirectly connected with the underworld. These connections have been unearthed in the course of a six-month Investigation of Nixon's career, focusing on his busi- ness deals in Florida and the Caribbean since the late Forties. The Early Days in Florida A number of new facts have been discovered: • Nixon visited Miami numerous times in the late Forties, A major base for the wide network of organized crime is contrary to all of his official biographies. While there, he the Caribbean, and consequently a major capital is Miami. In yachted with Richard Danner, Bebe Rebozo, and Tatum "Chub- the days of the Cuban dictatorship, Miami was the center of by" Wofford of the syndicate-controlled Wofford Hotel. the "Havana connection"—a funnel for money flowing from the Danner also had mob connections at that time. Caribbean gambling hotel, prostitution, and drug operations • Nixon has Invested in two southern Florida land deals; which centered in pre-revolutionary Cuba. The control exercised others involved in both projects have had links with organized by organized crime over the city of Miami dates back to the crime. Two men in particular—Leonard Bursten and Nathan Forties. Ratner—have had business connections with organized crime. As of January 3, 1947, Richard Nixon was a Congressman • Nixon concealed his ownership of a Key Biscayne lot for from southern California. Mr. Nixon and his biographers have four years until a mortgage held by another Lansky-associate, always maintained that he never showed up in Florida—the site Arthur Denser, was paid off. of so many of his later dealings—until the early Fifties. • Nixon's closest friend, Bede Rebozo, was a war profiteer But information from two ex-FBI agents not only puts Cong- in the early Forties in the tire recapping business. Three of his ressman Nixon In Florida "numerable" times in the Forties, but associates served on the Dade County tire allocation board, also in close contact with Bebe Rebozo and other persons closely in clear violation of OPA regulation No. 3C-118. At the same connected with organized crime. time Nixon was working in the legal interpretations unit of Keeping Nixon out of Florida in the Forties is essential to the OPA in Washington, D.C. the Nixon image, because in 1950 Senator Estes Kefauver opened • Nixon technically concealed his employment with the OPA his celebrated hearings on organized crime in Miami. In 730 until he was President. pages of testimony Kefauver painted a shattering picture of • Nixon is linked to the "Havana Connection"—a funnel for nationally known gangsters working in harmony with Florida organized crime and reactionary Cuban politics. Indictees in public officials ranging in rank from sheriff to governor. the Watergate case also figure in this connection. Among other things Kefauver reported that the underworld • Nixon has received campaign contributions from two men took control of three Miami Beach hotels—the Wofford, the who have had direct connections to organized crime. Sands, and the Grand—to centralize their gambling and book. • Nixon has appointed a number of men, Including John keeping operations. The three hotels were within a block of Connally. William Rogers, and Will Wilson, who have indirect each other and served as the capitol buildings of the crime ties to organized crime. empire. • The mob-favored Miami National Bank was the chief creditor It was into this formidable atmosphere, and Into the compan- in a bankruptcy case which led to a 1300,000,000 suit, still ionship of Rebozo and the Wofford family, that Richard Nixon pending, against Nixon and other members of his New York was introduced In the Forties. Travel plans were arranged by law firm for their alleged part in skimming over 55,000,000 of fellow-Congressman George Smathers and his first campaign the bankrupt firm's accounts. manager Richard Danner. Nixon's rise to wealth and power has required the silent loy- alty of a wide range of personalities whose names only occa- (NEW FRIENDS) sionally surface in the glare of scandal—with good reason. Richard Nixon would not be where he is today were it not for According to Danner, a former head of the Miami FBI office, his uncanny ability to thrive on political crisis. As much as any- and his FBI partner John Madala, many of Nixon's early Florida thing else it is his self-proclaimed poker-playing instincts— excursions found him fishing with Bebe Rebozo, an unknown the cautious, calculating, close-mouthed style and the ability gas station operator, and Tatum "Chubby" Wofford of the to keep a stone face in rough as well as smooth times—that has syndicate-controlled Wofford Hotel. carried Nixon to the Presidency. The Wofford was the headquarters for New York syndicate "A hundred Navy officers will tell you His never lost a cent figures Frank Costello, Frank Erickson, and allies like Meyer Lan- at poker," says a buddy from World War II. "It's a matter of sky [see chart, pp 38- 9). Erickson, described by law enforcement being in the right place at the right lime," says Nixon, "and officials as the syndicate's "national betting commissioner," was I'm always willing to take a chance . . . maybe it's that old a partner In the Wofford with the Miamian who managed the poker-playing Instinct." hotel and represented the New York interests on the Beach. It Is in moments of vulnerability that the underworld inevi- The Woffords spread the action around and gave a piece of tably makes contact. It is the loan shark who will loan you the hotel to John Angersola, a member of the Cleveland syn- money when no one else will, and it Is the mob that controls dicate. Angersola and his Cleveland running mate "Big Al" Polizzi the pleasures and vices of escape—narcotics, gambling. also owned large chunks of the Sands and Grand hotels, the pornography. other two headquarters for mob activity in Miami. Accordingly, Nixon's closest contact with organized crime The manager of the Wofford was the Miami Beach "fund- occurred during the most vulnerable periods of his political raiser" for the political campaigns of mob-favored politicians, carreer—his start in the Forties, and his defeated years out of including Sheriff James Sullivan of Dade County. Atter the office in the Sixties_ Kefauver hearings, Sullivan was charged on a six-count grand

-Nixon's dealings with the Miami National Bank may also have brought him into contact with one of its directors—James Lawrence King—for in October 1970, Nixon appointed King to be a judge in the U.S. District Court. King has said he has 'no comment' on Lansky's use of the Miami National."

32 DRAWING SY CHARLES SHIELDS

In January 1942 Price Administrator Leon Henderson recognized the problem. 'The public must be protected exploitation...Profiteering in tires (retreads) already has reached serious proportions ...'Meanwhile. in his newly expanded gas station, Rebazo had become South Florida's largest tire recapped."

jury indictment with incompetency, corruption, taking bribes, enting Hughes' Las Vegas casino interests at the time. Not long and conducting raids on behalf of certain gambling interests, after Nixon had set himself up at Key Biscayne—with the help among other charges. of Rebozo—Danner located himself in Nevada to oversee the During an hour and a half conversation in early September, Hughes empire them. Danner's friendship with former FBI buddy Danner recounted for me one of Nixon's Miami visits, Robert Maheu put him there in the first place, and it was Nixon's The time was 1948. Nixon was involved In prosecuting the Influence that kept him safe during Maheu's stoney, well- Hiss Case, in which lln Six Crises) Nixon has confessed his "name, publicized departure. reputation, and career" were staked. In the middle of the pro- Today, couched In his luxurious executive offices at the Sands secution Smashers called Danner from Washington to tell him, Hotel, Danner speaks kindly of his "close friend" in the White "Dick is on the verge of a physical breakdown. We're all con- House. cerned about him." Smothers put Nixon on the train and Danner met him at [THE DANNER PAST] the other end, in Miami. Danner remembers he thought Nixon looked "like a northern hick" coming oil the train in his heavy Danner's own past Is hardly Free of scandal. There was his overcoat. friendship with corrupt officials like Dade County Sheriff James After a week in Vero Beach, where Danner had a car dealer- Sullivan during his 1940-46 FBI days and there was his stint in ship, the two headed for a Miami osteopath. Danner called 1946 at the Miami Beach Hotel Owners Association with his friend Rebozo to say "Bebe, get your boat and meet us at the doctors Abe Allenberg, the association president. Allenberg also hap- office.- The three then went out on Rebozo's yacht. pened to be booking manager of the Wofford Hotel and local From the su nny quiet of Miami Nixon returned to Washington representative for the New York syndicate. rested and ready to continue his attack on Alger Hiss. From 1946.48 Danner was city manager of Miami, and his term of office ended with him caught in the middle of a gangland !BILLY GRAHAM AND MICKEY COHEN] dispute over control of the city police. In 1948 the city council dismissed Danner, accusing him of "playing both ends against On other visits In the Forties, Nixon "spent time yachting the middle." Furthermore, one council member alleged that with Wafford"(actording to both Madala and Danner), and two years earlier Danner had accepted $10,000 from gambling he also learned how to play golf. One of his companions on Interests while managing the first Congressional campaign of the golf links was evangelist Billy Graham, George Smathers. In 1949, after his first golf outings with Nixon, Graham became In the early Fifties Danner left Florida to loin his friends In famous by "converting" a convicted perjurer named 1. Arthur Washington. He opened shop as a lawyer and took out member- Vans. Vans was a good friend of West Coast gambler and premier ship in the Burning Tree Country Club, where his golfing partners mob bookie Mickey Cohen. Some ten years later, during the were Smothers and Nixon. course of an income tax evasion case, it was revealed in court Danner managed to keep out of the public eye until the papers that Graham and other "businessmen" had made "loans" mid-Sixties, when General Motors used him to coordinate Its to Cohen, helping the mobster explain to the IRS some of his snooping on Ralph Nader. unaccountable wealth. Through the years Graham has tried unsuccessfully to convert [YOU MUST HAVE BEEN A BEAUTIFUL BEBE] Cohen to Christianity. Mickey, however, did feel sufficiently reformed by 1968 to give Nixon $26,000 for his Presidential cam- Bebe Rebozo is the closest of all Nixon's friends, and probably paign. the most mysterious. The life of this fifty-nine-year-old neatly Even so, Cohen's contribution was considerably smaller than dressed millionaire—whose face has adorned the cover of the $100,000 that passed through Danner and Rebozo's hands Life—has remained by and large a closed book. This doesn't from a Howard Hughescaslnothat sameyear, Danner was repres- seem to bother the President, for as Life said in 1970, "He's 7'SGANIZED CREME :THE GHOST IN THE MACHiNF The predominant characteris- abandonment of illegal enter- Recent revelations have shown (stocks and finance). Organized tic of organized crime today is prises. In organized crime a Its involvement with the CIA in crime again has been one step its shift from the crimes of vio- man never goes completely heroin traffic in Southeast Asia, ahead, diversifying Its products lence to the business of crime. 'tee', though he may well with high supermarket prices in from the "vices" of gambling, Images of rough-looking thugs move out of direct operation of New York City, and with the liquor, and narcotics to the toting machine guns in their illegal business." billion dollar frauds in U.S. and "services" of hotels, restaur- suitcases have been replaced by Thus today, the underworld South Vietnamese military PXs ants, Insurance, real estate, and pin-striped executives carrying consists of a shadowy empire and black market currency entertainment. The creation or attache cases stuffed with 51400 held together by mutual arran- manipulations. a huge leisure industry, rooted bills. A 1971 IRS report dis- gements, Influence, and mon- Since World War II, in travel, recreation, entertain- closed that fully eighty-five per- ey. It uses various fronts— organized crime has been one ment, and escape—has further cent of the nation's gangsters dummy corporations, attor- step ahead of the major popula- helped expand the coffers of have investments in legitimate neys, and accountants—to pro- tion shifts In the United States. organized crime. businesses. tect itself In a maze of paper- Post-war Americans flocked to Although there may have work. This network has led to the sun, making California, As Donald Cressey, consul- been a reduction In violence, the creation of the most suc- Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and tant to the Presidential commis- there has not been a reduction cessful business of all: with Florida the Fore fastest growing sion on violence, concluded, in crime. yearly revenues of $50 billion, states during the last twenty "The penetration of business Ralph Salerno, an expert on organized crime takes In about years. Accompanying these and government by organized organized crime, explains that two times as much money as changes In population patterns crime has been so complete "throughout the progression General Motors. were qualitative shifts in the that it Is no longer possible to from simple extortion and With its economic power, inter- economy. A decline in real differentiate 'underworld' mayhem to the penetration and national organization, and wealth 0.e., equipmentand raw gangsters from 'upper-world' control of sophisticated larger invisibility, organized crime is materials) was paralleled by an businessmen and government businesses, there Is never an in business with everybody. increase In "paper" capita) officials,"

34

iRebozo) the only person Nixon really trusts. He can talk to few weeks after Pearl Harbor, the government banned construc- Rebozo, ask him questions. He knows Bebe will give him honest tion of any new stations. answers. They can talk about anything ... And nothing Nixon Nevertheless, just two days after Pearl Harbor, Rebozo says is going to go any further.- purchased the land next to his station to enlarge his facilities. A man who knows them both says "Bebe and the President In Washington, the Office of Price Administration (OPA) was can sit together for hours and say practically nothing to each one of Iwo agencies charged with managing the tire scarcity. other." Since original tires were unavailable to the public, recaps and Today Rebozo owns considerable real estate, has a financial retreads became precious commodities. Bootleggers, thriving interest in several small firms, and owns the only bank on Key on the scarcity. were to enjoy many years of profit. Biscayne—the Key Biscayne Bank. Dubbed the unofficial mayor In January 1942 Price Administrator Leon Henderson recog- of the island, Rebozo drives around in his large green Continental nized the problem, declaring, 'The public must be protected with a bumper sticker that reads "The only Issue is America." from exploitation... Profiteering in tires [retreads) already has While an American citizen (born of Cuban parents) Rebozo reached serious proportions, a situation that cannot and will has close ties to the pre-Castro Cuban political scene. His busi- not be allowed ro continue." ness associates have included the former Cuban ambassador Meanwhile, in his newly expanded gas station. Rebozo had to Brazil under Batista, Burke Hedges, who was a heavy initial become South Florida's largest tire recapper. His profits showed investor In Rebozo's bank, and the former mayor of Havana, up throughout the Forties in numerous real estate purchases. Dr. Eduardo Buttari, who ran the "Cubans for Nixon" organiza- Charged with enforcing OPA policy on the local level was tion In 1968. Butted presently holds a plush $25,000 a year job the tire allocation board of the Dade County Defense Council. in HEW doing little. According to a reliable source Buttari, a The chairman of the council and at least one other key member Cuban refugee. had his citizenship papers okayed rather quickly had direct links with members of organized crime. in August.1971. He claims to have a "great friendship with Nixon Moreover, three men who served on the tire allocation board and Rebozo." had ties to Rebozo. Frank Smothers, father of Rebozo's friend Other of Rebozo's business associates are linked to organized and associate George Smothers, Lucien Renuart of Renuart crime. Dick Fischer, a Florida State Senator who invested In Lumber which had loaned Rebozo the money to expand his Lummus Island with Rebozo, has been a "character witness" service station Into the profitable tire recapping business; and for a number of underworld characters. C.W. Chase, Jr., of Chase Savings and Loan Association which Another Rebozo business connection is "Big Al" Polizzi of employed Rebozo's sister Margaret Barker in an executive posi- Cleveland. In 1968 Rebozo chose the Pattiz, Construction Com- tion land which was a few years later to provide Rebozo with pany to build a shopping center in the Cuban community in capital for his real estate venturesi—all served in clear violation Miami. "Big Al" claims to be a retired gangster, and probably of OPA policy (3C-118l which stated, "Persons connected with Is by now, When he appeared before the Kefauver Committee the production or distribution of tires and tubes, or with the In 1951, Polizzi also purported to be a retired mobster engaged recapping or retreading of tires should not be selected to serve In "legitimate" business. on the Boards." Polizzi was convicted in 1943 of black market liquor violations In the meantime, the OPA's tire rationing division had hired arising from his and the Cleveland syndicate's efforts to smuggle a few young attorneys to draft the multitude of necessary regula- rum from Cuba to Key West—with the help of Cuban President tions and to set up regional offices to enforce these regulations. Batista. On January 9, 1942, Richard Nixon, just a few years out of Duke Rebozo's friendship with Polizzi precedes their 1968 business Law School, went to work in the interpretations unit of the legal transaction, but exactly how far it goes back is unclear. In 1965 section of the tire rationing branch of the OPA. Polizzi was one of several Coral Gables residents to sign a petition For Nixon the position must not have been a memorable on behalf of Rebozo with regards to a zoning matter. In 1952 one. He concealed his employment at the OPA until he became •I Rehozo's sister-in-law signed a petition used by Polizzi to get President. In his official biography In the Congressional Directory a Federal pardon, although she claims now that she doesn't for the 80th Congress, he listed his employer from January- remember signing it. August 1942 as the Office of Emergency Management. While Polizzi moved to Coral Gables in 1944, putting his Illicit cash this was not technically Incorrect, It is the equivalent of an FBI Into over 300 parcels of land there. Rebozo was also buying agent saying he works for the Justice Department. real estate in Coral Gables at the time, but there is no evidence On Jan. 29. 1942, George Smothers was in federal court for linking Polizzi, Rebozo, and their Coral Gables purchases. the case United States vs. Standard Oil of Kansas, involving U.S. Among the raw data accumulated by the Miami Police Depart- Customs confiscating American-made tires coming into the ment is an Intelligence report dated Nov, 13, 1963, which lists country from Cuba in an "attempt to circumvent national tire the testimony of a gangster informant that Bebe Rebozo as owner rationing." When Smathers encountered a delay in the case he of a coin laundry operation—Wash Well—out of which he was sought a ruling from the OPA in Washington on the legality running a numbers racket, was "fronting in this operation for of bringing tires in from Cuba. ex-Vice President Nixon." But this testimony is uncorroborated. OPA records in the National Archives reveal that one of Nix- on's duties was handling all correspondence involving tire ration. (WOULD YOU BUY A USED TIRE FROM THIS MANE) ing. It was therefore his responsibility to answer Smothers. and it is relevant to know what he said. ' Unfortunately, most OPA records were destroyed after the Rebozo's source of capital for his land purchases came from war. The court file for this case is supposed to be in the Atlanta his war-time service station business. and It was his sideline Records Center, but a written request submitted to the clerk in tires that brings the supposedly unconnected Forties careers of the civil court in Miami on July 6, 1972 has not been honored, of Smathers, Nixon, and Rebozo into curious intersection. despite the usual one week response time. Contradictory Following Pearl Harbor the Japanese had cut off the vast excuses for the delay have been given. rubber reserves of South east Asia. By 1942 America was minus Written questions submitted to President Nixon and Bebe ninety-five percent of its rubber supply—tires became a scarce Rebozo have also gone unanswered. Among the relevant ques- commodity. tions is whether Miami was one of the regional offices Nixon Before the war had broken out. Rebozo was running a Shell set up. In the context of their later friendship, one is forced gas station which also served as a hangout for such friends as to ask just when did Nixon, Rebozo. and Smothers come into Smothers and Sloan McCrea, NIxon's present finance chairman, contact with each other, and under what circumstances t By the end of 1941, with gas rationing already in effect for six War profiteering was the pastime of Nixon's other yachting months. service stations were not good investments. And, a host, "Chubby" Wofford. Wofford's hotel was one of the two

"While Nixon prosecuted the Hiss Case, Smathers called Danner in Miami to tell him, 'Dick is on the verge of a physical breakdown. We're all concerned about him.' Danner called Rebozo, 'Bebe, get your boat and meet us at the doctor's office'."

35

r'e "The intrigue in the Watergate affair is a throwback to the good old days of Cuban politics. It was ex-Cuban President Frio Socorras who led Cuban exile demonstrations for Nixon. Among the earl,, pianners were Watergate indictees Frank Sturgis and Eugenio Martinez. The real estate office of Bernard Bark:,r—Watergate ringleader—is '4 next door to the offices of Socorras

t. , Miami Beach Hotels allowed to remain open during the war. It is not generally known that Nixon played an Important According to Danner. Watford made "tons at money" through role in conceiving the Bay of Pigs Invasion, which, to the anger the Navy's use of this hotel, but that wild man blew it all away." of people like Barker, was politically and strategically aborted by Kennedy in 1961. Nixon too was angered, enough so to visit Kennedy for the only time during his Presidency. And, according (FROM ANSAN TO WATERGATEI to recently revealed tapes from the 1FK oral history library, it was Nixon's crony Smathers who was at the time advising Ken- Wofford's attorneys were Hunt, Salley and Roman, who also nedy that Fidel Castro be "destroyed." At the same time, Robert represented some mysterious Cuban interests—the Ansan Maheu enlisted the aid of notorious West Coast Mafia figure group. John Roseill with the idea of "eliminating" Fidel. Finally, also The arisen group was a secretive investment group including in 1961, Meyer Lansky put a 51,000,000 price tag on Castro's Cuban businessmen and political figures, their Miami associates, head. and members of organized crime. The group had no official The plotters must certainly have been aware of each other's name, but will be referred to in this article as the Ansan group, plans as evidenced by a secret Bahamian police report which after the name of its primary real estate front—Ansan Corp. disclosed that as the CIA-led Cuban exiles went ashore in the The group's holdings in Florida real estate soon amounted to ill-fated invasion, the Mafia (in the person of the Florida-based over 550,000,000. Smathers' law firm protected the Ansan group Traificante family) was waiting in Nassau with a fortune of gold, Fir from publicity, while the firm of Hunt. Salley and Roman held ready to move into Havana and re-open the casinos. off the Internal Revenue Service, Those casinos had been frequented by a lot of Americans, In 1947 Richard Hunt resigned his position as a judge on including Richard Nixon. On one of those visits, in April 1952, the circuit court to become legal counselor for the corrupt Dade Nixon was accompanied by Richard Danner and Dana Smith, County Sheriff, rim Sullivan. William Roman vacated the Miami administrator of the as yet unrevealed Checkers slush fund. office of the FBI and another lawyer named George Salley joined Smith blew all his cash in the syndicate-run casino. Playing . to form Hunt, Salley and Roman. According to a Miami Crime on credit he wrote a check for 54,200 to cover his debts and Commission memo fit was the Miami Crime Commission that stopped payment on the check when he returned to the Stares. did most of the investigative work for the Kefauver Committee The casino threatened to sue, so Smith turned to Senator Nixon in Miami) Hunt was the "brains for every public utterance made to intervene. Nixon wrote a letter on August 21, 1952, in which. by (Sheriff) Sullivan." The source further alleged that Hunt was according to the State Department, he said he "would appreciate "involved with Sullivan in taking graft." anything the Embassy might be able to do to assist Mr. Smith Roman also acted as attorney for the Keyes Realty Company. with his problem." The Embassy acknowledged Sen. Nixon's With a top Keyes official he set off a spin-off realty company letter, stating that although it was prohibited by the foreign ser- to transact such deals as procuring a rent-free home for the vice regulations from giving legal advice, nevertheless It "wished sheriff. The IRS regarded the Keyes spin-off as a "dummy front to do anything possible to be helpful to Mr. Smith," re' for handling sub-rosa deals for Sullivan." On other trips to Cuba, Nixon stopped off to see his friend This wasn't the first time Keyes officials were Involved In President Fulgenclo Batista. In 1955 Nixon visited Batista at his questionable ventures. Keyes himself —in conjunction with the private palace, toasted the dictator and pinned an award on Ansan group—set up a number of real estate fronts for acquiring him. Batista's ambassador to the U.S., Nicholas Arroyo, made land on Key Biscayne. sure Cuban interests were well taken care of by keeping Nixon Nor was it the last time. in 1971 a Keyes vice president named informed. Years later the same Cuban interests, now in exile, Eugenio Martinez helped form a Miami real estate company continued the relationship through Arroyo's 517,1100 contribu- called Amen tan, which has been used as a cover for the principals tion to Nixon's 1968 campaign, and through the activities of of the Watergate break-in. Martinez and his boss at "Cubans for Nixon- in both 1968 and 1972. The loyal silence Ameritas—Bernard Barker—are two of the seven men indicated of Watergate leader Bernard Barker, himself a former employee In the espionage case that leads from the White House to the of Batista's secret police, will also help the Presidential campaign. Democratic National Party Headquarters. The offices of Ameritas The Miami-based intrigue in the Watergate affair-she secret were originally located one floor below the headquarters for bank accounts and real estate fronts—is a throwback to the good Keyes Realty. old days of Cuban politics. All three of Cuba's Presidents between (The indictees in the Watergate case have many other interest- 1940 and 7958 used Florida as a financial depository as well as ing links. The money Barker had with him when arrested was a political base In exile. from his account in the Republic National Bank. The first presi- Shortly after Batista took power in a military coup In 1952, dent and father of the owner of Republic National was the former Lansky "convinced" the dictator that gambling was the cure for chairman of the syndicate-controlled Miami National Bank. the island's economic ills. Carlos Prio Socorras, who was Presi- Republic National's present director is a law partner of George dent from 1948 to 1952, eventually migrated to Miami, his wealth reputed (according to the New York Times) to be in excess of And, according to lack Anderson, it was President Nixon's 550.000,000. At this summer's Republican Convention it was Prio best friend, Rebozo, who helped Barker arrange for the financing who led the Cuban exile demonstrations. Among the early plan- of some of his real estate ventures -as a personal favor.") ners for those demonstrations were Watergate indictees Frank Richard Nixon is also quite close to the Keyes associates. Sturgis and Eugenio Martinez. The real estate office of Bernard Nixon and Rebozo have been close friends and occasional Invest- Barker—the Watergate ringleader—is next door to the offices ment partners with the top executives of the Keyes organization. of Prio Socorras. For example, Keyes' successor as president, a man named Alien Morris, joined with Nixon and Rebozo in a land deal brokered [ $1,000 BILLS] by a Keyes realtor. Another top Keyes officer has been a director of Bebe Rebozo's Key Biscayne Bank.for the last few years, and A good example or the unifying nature of the politics it was to the Keyes company that the White House turned to of corruption, Cuban style, are the vast investments during the transact some of the business involved in establishing the Presi- Forties In south Florida real estate by the Ansan group. The dential compound at Key Biscayne. group's visible partners were the Minister of Education, Jose Rieman, his wife Elena Santiero and Dr. Anselmo Alliegro, Batis- The Havana Connection ta's close friend and Minister of Finance in the Forties. Aided by Miami allies like Smathers' law firm, Keyes company, and The President and the principals of the Watergate break-in the Hunt firm, the Ansan group managed to buy large chunks thus share a number of important links, especially through the of real estate in anonymity. By failing to register changes in Keyes land company. They also share an important link in Cuban stock ownership with the state incorporation office, by present- politics. ing false ownership information, by paying for the land in cash. 36 LCU SE KOLLENBAL,M

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IOQO 1006 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 fret 5 k.iremetet- and by shielding the real ownership behind an elaborate maze arrangements with the Cuban government of real estate fronts, the real roots of the Ansan group and their "to receive Luciano warmly, though unofficially. capital remained a mystery. " During his brief stay in Cuba, Aleman is considered responsible for the siphoning of "Lucky" managed to move in all the right circles. A report by a Federal Narcotics Bureau between $60,000,000 and $174.000.000from the Cuban Treasury agent operating undercover in Havana stated in the years before his death in 1950. The story goes that Aleman "that Luciano had already become friendly with a number of high Cuban officials simply pulled up to the Treasury with a truck and hauled off through the lavish use of expensive the loot. Aleman is guilty, of that there is no doubt. As for gifts." The IRS noted that how much he took, that can never be answered, for all the the funds used for Ansan 's purchases "consisted entirely of currency in bills of $1,000 denomination. pertinent records relating to the Cuban Treasurywere later stolen " The IRS tried to ask Elena Santiero about the origin of the bills, and never recovered. many of which were consecutively numbered. She referred them The Ansan group purse strings, swelled by the Cuban Treasury to her lawyers, Hunt and Salley, who gave a simple response: as well as Batista money (in the person of Alliegro) had one the money had been other source. That was what George C. Vitas, IRS Intelligence "earned or acquired in Cuba." Of course they didn't mention how it was earned or acquired. The IRS Special Agent,had in mind February 2D, 1948 when he filed a 's suspicions were increased when Vials noticed that Elena was report "with regards to large real estate purchases in the Miami "transferring this sum to Miami in currency, rather than through area." The IRS report states: [normal] banking channels." (The money was deposited by the "11 At the time 'Lucky' Luciano was on board a ship at a escrow agent in Ed Ball New York dock prior to his deportation to Italy [Feb 1946] he 's Florida National Bank and Trust of Miami. Ball figures later in the development of Key Biscayne.) was visited by Frank Costello, who Is alleged to have carried Though shrouded insecrecy, the workings of the Ansan group suitcases on board containing around S2,000,000, representing remain a model of how the Miami/Havana connection operated. Luciano's share of gambling Income during his incarceration. With the coming of Castro in 1959, and the subsequent emigra When Costello left the ship he did not have the suitcases. - tion of gangsters and politicians alike, the Miami/Havana connec- "2) When Luciano came to Cuba eighteen months ago [in tion shifted its emphasis from corruption to espionage. Political violation of his deportation proceedings] he was visited by a espionage, number of underworld characters prior to his deportation to be it gun-running, invasions of Cuba or snooping in Washington, or laundering money through Miami banks, is Italy by Cuban authorities. In connection with Cuban deportation the byword since 1959 of the Miami/Havana connection. charges Luciano employed Cuban Senator Santiero, the father A good example of a Miami bank linked to this Connection of Elena Santiero y Garcia. the president of Ansan and other and Richard Nixon Is the Pan American Bank. The bank was corporations that have made large investments in real estate started in 1945 by George Salley of Hunt, Salley and Roman In this area. It is believed that some of the funds being invested [attorneys for Wofford and Ansan). Early directors included Ken- in this area by Mrs, Garcia may belong to Luciano or other under- neth Keyes and William Roman, and down through the years world characters, which was turned over to Senator Santiero leading executives of Keyes In Cuba." have been directors as well as Salley and Roman. The top fifteen stockholders in the Sixties included Additional information reveals further contact between lead- Anselrno, Alliegro, Hoke T. Maroon and Walter Frederich, the ing underworld figures and Cuban political officials connected last two of whom are investment partners of Nixon to the Dade County investments. Meyer Lansky, who had helped and Smathers. In recent years, another Nixon/Smathers investment partner, arrange Luciano's deportation. paved the way for "Lucky's" Sloan McCrae, has been a director of the bank. In a 1960 stock Illegal entry into Cuba. via Italy. then Mexico. Lansky had made suit involving his Pan American Bank stock, Alliegro was iden- KEY BISCAYNE

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nfied as fronting for Batista. The judge said "All inferences point land deals. In March 1943, the Matheson estate sold 193 acres to the startling fact that—the stock may be In the property of (tract six) on the southern end of the island to the head of Batista and is being held by the Plaintiff [Alliegrol to prevent Keyes Realty Company—Kenneth Keyes. Keyes created a special Dictator Castro from seizing it." The bank was identified in the company especially for this transaction, its principals being him- McClellan hearings as helping to finance in conjunction with self and three Cuban clients. Tract six was described in 1946 some Teamsters officials In 1959 a proposed gun-running scheme by the Miami Herald as "probably one of the most valuable that found weapons and ammunition going to Batista sym- pieces of and In the United Stales, not excepting the financial pathizers. district of Manhattan." Keyes and his friend paid only $2011,000—barely ten percent The Key Biscayne Story of the assessed value—for land whose value was conservatively estimated at Si ,930,000. In 1946 Keyes set up a new affiliate com- Before 1940 Key Biscayne was undeveloped and unlinked to pany and transferred the title for S10. the mainland, its land titles firmly in the hands of two wealthy In 1947, a 370-acre parcel of land owned by the Deerings—a northern estates—the Deerings, a family of Chicago Industrialists parcel covering the southern tip of the island and adjacent to and the Mathesons. a family of New York financiers. the Matheson tract six—passed to the Ansan group. The attor- In the Forties the Matheson offered a large chunk of the neys for the Deering estate "negotiated" a price of 51,700,000, Island-808 acres—as a county park If the county would finance well below the conservatively assessed value of 54,000,000. The a causeway to the mainland [see mapJ.Working behind the scenes First National Bank of Miami Beach—owned by the Smashers to set up the details was Ed Ball. family—acted as trustee for the Ansan group. The Smathers law Ball is the brother-in-law of Alfred I. duPont, manager of firm "convinced" the Miami newspapers in 1948 to withhold the billion-dollar duPont empire in Florida, In 1950 Ball helped from the public information concerning land deals in the Miami finance and organize the election of his close friend and vicious area—including those on Key Biscayne—until after the Cuban anti-Communist George Smathers to the U.S. Senate. Both men elections of that year. were friends with Smathers' old high-school buddy, Bebe But the alliance of the Smathers family with the Ansan group Rebozo. In 1963 it was Ball, Rebozo, and another friend of Ball's— and with Ball were only part of the story. In 1945, amidst some World War I flying ace, Eddie Rickenbacker—who "arranged of Kenneth Keyes' juggling acts, a man named Wallace Groves, the necessary introductions which led to Nixon joining a New fresh from a term in Federal prison for fraud, caught some of York law firm" (Mudge, Rose, Guthrie and Alexander) according the land action on Key Biscayne. .A few years later Groves turned to a 1969 article on Rebozo In Women's Wear Daily. When the up in the Bahamas, working for Meyer Lansky, finance minister causeway was finished after World War II it bore the name Ric. of American organized crime, developing plans for Bahamian kenbacker Causeway. The Causeway project brought skyrocket- casinos to be linked with the American underworld. To this day ing land values to Key Biscayne, and it also brought some shady government informants maintain that "Groves is under obliga-

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-4. lion to cut Lansky in on all deals." In 1952 the Amerman Mercury magazine of Miami Identified Major figures In Worldwide had conducted numerous trans- the Key Biscayne holdings of the Chicago-based Deering family actions with John Lansky iMeyer's brother) and other Lansky as a front for 'Capone interests:' associates, and it is the belief of some organized crime Inves- [THE MACKLE BROTHERS] tigators that these Worldwide figures are "respectable" business associates of Lansky's. Meanwhile, the three Mackie brothers—Robert, Bruce, and Through a number of joint ventures Worldwide was closely Frank—were making their first millions through the development connected in the early Sixties with another Florida realty com- of housing tracts on Key Biscayne. The Mackles had received pany—Major Realty. In 1968, when the Lansky-connected people their land in large chunks In suspicious deals from the Matheson had disappeared from control of the company, it was revealed Estate. By 1953, with the opening of the Mackle's Key Biscayne that a director and a large stockholder (94,000 shares) in Major Inn and Villas. Richard Nixon had become a regular visitor. The realty was then-Senator George Smathers. series of Intimate villas bordering the ocean have proved to be a favorite retreat and meeting place for Nixon down through [NiXON AND THE MIAMI NATIONAL BANK] the years. Another frequent guest was FBI Director I. Edgar Hoover. (It was the F.B.I. that located Barbara Jane Mackie, The worlds of Major and Worldwide Realty are marginally daughter of Frank Mackie, buried in a box during a 1968 kidnapp- linked to Richard Nixon, but Nixon's links to the Lansky-related ing. Both Hoover and Nixon personally visited Miss Mackie at Miami National Bank are more direct. the Villas shortly after the bizarre event.) There is, for example, a man named William Pallot, a In December 1953 Nixon and William Rogers. then Deputy 5mathers-type Florida Democrat who was a chief executive Attorney General, held a meeting at Key Biscayne with toe officer and director of the Miami National Bank from 1959-1963. McCarthy. telling the Wisconsin Senator to 'ease off" on his After leaving the Miami National, Paltot founded the International attacks. (Interestingly enough. before the Key Biscayne resort Bank of Miami, one of whose directors, lames Angleton, is a opened, Nixon's visits to the Miami area, as well as those of member of the CIA. In 1968 Pallot headed the Florida State Chap- Hoover. found them at two hotels owned by G. Meyer Schine, ter of United Citizens for Nixon/Agnew. whose son David Schine was a prominent figure in the McCarthy Furthermore, Miami National was the chief creditor in a bank- hearings. Today the elder Schine is a director ruptcy case that resulted in a 53,000,000 damage suit against of the Boca Raton bank through which 5114,000 in mysterious Watergate funds Nixon and other members of his New York law firm in 1968. passed. Twenty years earlier. Schine, as a witness before The suit, which is still pending, involves the Atlas Sewing Com- the Ketauver Committee reluctantly admitted that he had lease ar- pany of Miami. It alleges that Nixon and his firm negotiated rangements with bookmakers at his Miami Beach hotels.) a contract between Atlas and Nixon clients, the Irving Trust and The Mackles had even closer connections with organized Beneficial Finance Company. According to the suit, Irving crime. In 1958 they entered into a partnership in the General assigned 520.000,000 in Atlas accounts to Beneficial, which In Development Company with Lou Chester, a business associate turn "skimmed 55-6,000,000." of Meyer Lansky. Other investors in the land development com- The key figure in the case, Irwin Ray, the court-appointed pany included two other Lansky business associates, one of trustee, got his job through the efforts of the president of the whorrF--"Trigger Mike" Coppola—was a notorious syndicate Miami National Bank. (According to the court papers, the trustee "hit" man. The year the Mackles sold out. 1961, one of those had "underworld connections.") Before bankruptcy, Atlas Lansky associates was involved in the fraudulent trading of the turned to a small New York investment firm for its underwriting, company's stock, for which he was later convicted. a firm whose partners have given more than 575,000 to Nixon's Presidential campaigns. [ENTER THE TEAMSTERS[ Nixon's dealings with the Miami National Bank may also have brought him into contact with one of its directors--one James In 1958 the Ansan group "found" a buyer for 547 acres of Lawrence King—for In October 1970, Nixon appointed King to Key Biscayne. His name was Arthur Desser. a close friend of be a judge In the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida. King jimmy Hoffa. That year-1958—Desser got a $5.000,000 loan from has said he has "no comment" on Lansky's use of the Miami the Teamsters which probably went to help cover the 513,000,000 National. price of the Key Biscayne acquisition. One of King's first cases as a judge involved a suit against About this time the Teamsters were taking control of the Miami National Bank and within a few years Desser and the Bebe Rebozo's Key Biscayne Bank, It involved the passage of real estate company he controlled had become closelyconnected some stolen stock through the bank, and, according to several with the bank. Miami reporters, King was In the process of quietly dismissing the case until the Also connected to the bank was Meyer Lansky. According Miami News began looking into It. to a 1969 Federal indictment of Lansky and some of his associates, [THE CAPE FLORIDA DEVELOPMENT the Miami National Bank was used between 1963 and 1969 as COMPANY] a depository for skimmed and illicit funds, money which also flowed in and out of the interlocking Exchange and Investment Not all the Key Biscayne corporations met with success. In Bank of Switzerland. 1962 Worldwide Realty lost most of its Key Biscayne holdings. In 1959—three years after its founding—the bank's control The Ansan group foreclosed on Worldwide's Key Biscayne passed to the Teamsters Central, Southwest and Southeast States acreage after Worldwide failed to meet two year's mortgage pay- Pension Fund In the form of a loan. In 1964 a loan from Lansky ments. The Ansan group then put an S8,008,000 price lag on their newly repossessed parcel. front-man Sam Cohen (Cohen was indicted with Lansky in 1969) retired the Teamster loan and Influence. With his foot already Four years later the land was still unbought. That year Bebe In the door. Cohen finished taking over the bank by 1966. Over Rebozo founded the Cape Florida Development Company. that 1956-66 period of HoHa-Lansky control, six top executives Other founders included Donald Berg, who became company and three other directors of the bank were subjects of govern- president, Francisco Saralegui, a wealthy Cuban refugee news- ment Indictments. paper publisher, Robert Haverfield, a Florida State Senator, and three others. [WORLDWIDE REALTY] Largely through the efforts of Haverfield, the state of Florida decided to create a park on the southern end of Key Biscayne, to be called Cape Florida State Park. The state of Florida then By 1964 a company called Worldwide Realty shared three common directors with the Miami National Bank as well as some forked over 525,000/acre for land assessed at 515,145/acre. Ansan mutual large stockholders. Worldwide also took loans from the and company received at least $1,000,000 more than their Miami National for five of its subsidiaries and owned the building 58,000,000 asking price, even though the land had gone unbought in which both companies operated. for four years. In keeping with their history of sound government relations, the Ansan principals [Continued on page 64.1

"Today Key Biscayne's 'leading citizen' is Richard M. Nixon. The owner of its only bank is Rebozo; one of the island's largest landowners is Harold Geneen, president of ITT; and one of Nixon's newest neighbors is ITT itself."

42

Nixon and the Marla One also wonders about Don berg, range one. Seemingly out of politics. ton by Icor McCarthy to work on iConomred from page 421 and their the man who sold Nixon his lots. The Mr. Nikon could afford to do a little McCarthy's Senate investigating Cam- lawyers "persuaded" Dade county offi- Secret Service found Berg's 'iback. wheeling and dealing, particularly as he mlhee. The year 1959 was an exciting cials to roorgo Nees during the option ground" questionable enough to tell had leh the Vice-Presidency with only one for him, for while he was Wring period at the sale In return for the the President to stop eating at his Key 549,000. to awing the Fisher Island causeway deal granting at permission" for publiCuse afsfronoratenwitarst. Berg heitoldNovni- As Sloan began to re-enter the he also concocted a scheme to get the of some of the property. day that he is "weitacquainted" with national political scene In the late ousted Cuban dictator Batista asylum In Thu. twenty years alter its northern Lou Chester, a Meyer Lansky business Sixties, discontent broke out in the the U.S. and at the same time managed end became a park through a deal associate, and once entered a deal with ranks of Nixon's fellow Investors, most to get Involved in an Income tat evasion tainted by connict-al-interest, Key Bis- Chester, only to have it collapse of whom were close associates of cot which later led to his conviction. tayees snuthem end also became a beset se a third party died. Chester then Smothers and Rehm*. By 1965 Nikon's Bursten eventually gave up an the public perk in a similar mannat. Both went ahead with the deal by enlisting presence in the syndicate and the exact causeway, although Reared" and deals Involved Ed Bet and both cen- the aid of another Cape Floridian, circumstances surrounding hit invest. friends am still trying. tered on land priced considerably out whose tor bordered Nixon's. mono heroine a liability...One investor, Burden Is aloe dose friends with of line with their assessed value. While Berg's relationship with organized Hoke T. Maroon, told friend.: "I ilmmy Haifa and helped found the the caosevrawipark swap in the Forties crime is of particular M-14111111 in tight wanted Noon out. Now can you pull Miami National Bank, which Hotta and teaselled corrupt Cuban figures work- oil the fact that the two pervious owners a political deal when the President of the Teamsters collimated while Burden Ins within organised crime, the mid- of his subdivision in the previous the United States Is your partneri was a director. Buraten has been Sistier creation of the Cape Florida twenty veers—the Anson group and Everyone in the world it looking over Indicted twice this past year In connec- peck benefited the organized crime. Worldwide Realty—both have signifi- your shoulder." tion with the scandal ridden Teamster Minted An tan erect p Worldwide Really, cant links with organised crime. Immediately after becoming Presi- financed Beverly Ridge Estates protect and Bebe Reboze's Cape Florida Now Nixon's Island paradise seams dent, Nikon maintained he "had no in Los Angeles . Development Company, which In more like a closed compound of con plans to sell the stcck." Sul soon there- The Beverly Ridge project is not far 1966—the year the park was ruption Than the Innocent resort home after leaks—presumably from fellow from another Teamster financed pro- created--pald Sleet Mello Worldwide alms elected [diktat. With the two ends Investors—found their way Into the tect, the Truesdala Estates, in Beverly for one hundred prime waterfront loss of the (deed "reserved" as parks, the Miami News. By February 1969, tenon NIBS, This choice development, bulk by adjacent to the perk. central district al homes Is reserved for sold his 149,291 shares in the fisher the Murchison', was where Nilsen For a short time e.t.a.'s develop. an elite troop at load a few of whom Inland venture. lit is sad than chestier established his California residence In met company clamed II was twins reserved theirplacesin highly question- stockholder resistance Nixon was paid 1%1. Bunten though' enough of Nixon trouble sailing ite highenrited lots. But able fathion. If you talk to enough resi- two dollars per share. double his to distribute anti-Catholic !aerator, In In 1967 Resorts brought In Richard dents at Key flierarrne you realize how money. The mitt cIrcumalarress of Nix- Nikon". 1960 campaign against Sohn Nikon for a prnmnitonaI photo and light the island is, have everybody on's "Investment" and "return" In Kennedy. sales picked up quickly. In return Nikon knows what everybody else Is up to. Nsher Island remain a reydery.1 get two lots at a 'substantial discount" For example, one local resident The political deli that Hoke Maroon NATHANRATNER1 in the usual care-andleeding tradition, recounted for me in a long-winded complained Nixon', presence would While Burden has strong links to the Mean was allowed to pay a little more torts-Noe minute rap, the history of lust hamper involved the building of a Fisher Island project and to the Team- titan 525,000 each for two Iota worth about every parcel of land in the Island. causeway linking Flutter bland to the ster's dealings In the Arilarni National /MOO total at the thee, and now worth Large pieces of land exchange hand. Florida mainland, a maneuver requiring Bank and elsewhere, a man named well over $100,004. rarefy, rarer still among grantors. taxpayer assistance, and one Owl would Nathan Ratner has even closer links to Mysteriously, the yeeito-be Presi- For Richard Nixon. like most of the provide a spectacular increase in the both Nixon and organized curse. dent recorded only one of his new lots other Key Biscayne property owners, value of the real estate. The son of a prominent Cleveland at the Dade County Courthouse. The tile on the Island Is fat and secure. The Interest In the causeway was inten- builder, Ratner arranged and brokered other lament unrecorded forrouryeers only bank As owned by the President's sified When Rebozo Acquired most of the sale of fisher island to Rebozo. He —anal June, 1971. The Melee Nixon dosed friend, Rebozo. The largest the bland In 1957, and with the progress handled plans for its development, concealed his ownership of the lot for lendowners are also good friamidarfor of his plans for a rasoridtyle develop- owned land with Nixon, and helped those four yeare vow that there were Nixon and Reboao distribute pieces of two previous mortgages on the Cape Fisher Island as favors to i Hands. Ratner Florida development held by Arthur "The four-year 'war' on organized crime by the Nixon was also a broker for Keyes Realty. whew. associated wi th tensity administration bears more resemblance to the 'peace' which was deeply involved In Kay Bis- and emery Hotta through the mob. cayne land, and a former president of controlled Miami Nation.' Bank. The in Vietnam than a sincere effort to get at the mob," [he Keyes Compeer..., also an I rwestor first of them mortgages was satisfied in the Fisher island project. in February 1971, and the second in example, Harold Gerreen, president 91 went there. Testimony in the Bobby But It Is Ratner's holding of 3,144 March 1971. Nikon waited until both Mond recent purchaser aisle new lots. Baker hearings a few years later die, shares In the Bank of Miami Beach that mortgagee were saddled before he The ITT eanglornerate itself also closed that aaker'S business asseciates, in most interesting. recorded hit lot. thereby avoiding the became an official Nixon neighbor the Texas Murchisoro, were involved The Bank of Miami Beath was stigma of a connection with Deemr. recently, purchasing the lust large in the proposed building of that cause- organized in 1959 to service organized Nixon made another strange land (thirty-eight acre] tract of undeveloped WO. crime based in the Havana gambling purchase in Cape Florida about this land there. Clint and John Murchison are Texas empire, Its Incorporation papers were time. He bought George Smathers' On August 22 this year. as he drove mute-mithonaires who multiplied their drawn up In Havana the same year that house (next door to Relscoo'N in 1968 from the Island toe jam-packed "Youth- fathers sacicaoo,aeo fortune In all Casino International opened there for 5121,000. This wotrid 444111 fair for-Nixon" rally following his corona- through construction, recreationsl con. under the guidance of the Cleveland 14,01.1" but the very neat year, 1964, tion at the Republican Canventhan In evens like the Dallas Cowboys, and pub. syndicate. The stock In the mine was the haul. was assessed at a value of nearby Miami, Nixon must have felt fishing, among other ventures. The transferred to Mohawk Securities only 976.000, just sloty'perrent of the quite secure as he drove by the homes ilitlrrillOM are close friends of Lyndon Corp., a Panamanian company. President's buying price. of men like Geneen, past Reboao't Johnson and were featured guests at Mohawk then opened an account at the Wink. pact the Meckle brother, Key Bi John Connally's Texas berbeque, Ned Bank of Miami Reach, and thereafter woe Inn and knees. pad ITT's Royal Chile summer for Moon's benefit. cash hoes Havana and skimmed funds ITHE NiKONIZATWINI OF K(Y Sheraton, alt on sand handled to rent- A Murchison associate named from the Las Vegas syndicate flowed OISCAYNE) al* by people like the Anson gnnup, Thomas Webb testified at the Baker into the accounL There is considerable the Deering larnily, Donald Berg, Ken- hearingsthat "we had been working on evidence that checks were drawn on neth Keyes, Robert Haverhald. George it (the causeway) tar over a year. The Mohawk's acroun t at the Bank of- Miami With Nikon's promotional photo- Smothers, and all overshadowed by purpose of the meetings [Webby meet- Beach as a device ter laundering black graph far Rebate's development com- Meyer Landry. ing with Murchison and others In the money ands distributes pi to syndicate pany and the teablishment a year later The rootless Mr. r4140111.1344ll to winter of 19591 chore was with the city members. of the Florida White Nouse. the Nemni- have found a fitting, home on Key council and county commissioners Meyer Lansky used the hank as a cation of Key Biscayne was In full whom we had been working with for vehicle for funds from his Havana Wooer. quite a while...fsier Riviera nperations, among other things. The 31071, of Key Biscayne Is complex The Denixonizalion Of Fisher Island Inc. had a lot of good On one occasion Meyers brother lake and 'branded in mystery, but there are Fisher Wind friends in geveminent to help owing the was searched by customs officials on some indisputable truths and same deal, Members of Miami city council returning to Miami from Cuba. Appar- Irrepressible dispicion.. Nixon's Cape Florida deal wilan't his Included Robert Haverfield. later a ently lake was on his may to make Clearly, Niece left one of his Cape first private Floridian land venture. nor Rebozo business partner and principal another depoill at the Bank of Miami Fliorlda loo—on which the Florida was it the fiat one cloaked in secrecy. in the Key Biscayne deals. and Grant Beach, as he was carrying 150,000 in White House now saw-unrecorded for Sometime after his delearin the 1961 Stcteisclate, an tide to George Smellier/. lour year because e taint of a linen- California gubernatorial election, The city manager was Ira Willard. who c"a'orn testimony before the 1%7 dal connection with Arthur Desser. He Richard Nixon began acquiring land in later became the first president of Royal Commission of Inquiry In the was Ihefolore aware of Dessers icon. Fisher Island Inc., a seCtetiva Invest- Rebozo's Key Biscayne Bank Bahamas showed that Lansky's Baha- nedionsvoith Mafia kingpin Lathier, and ment syndicate headed by Bebe mien cadhos [Grain ued to use the Bank he did not want the public to know that Rebore, whose sole holding was Fisher. [LEONARD KASTEN) of Miami Beach. For example, the Com- the President would become involved Wand, an undeveloped 22.11acre Island sscomissioxon disclosed onela. rderedwherernareughr with such a man. The unrecorded let JuSt Off the southern tip of Miami Beath. In his testimony. Webb Identified a th IS a good example of Nixon's exempts The deatirop of Fisher Island Inc. are mna named Leonard Burson as "one the bank by tensity couriers in 1964, to Cover his necks whenever there Is so secretive that there Is no definite of the people we were working with turned up with different names anthem a threat or maim scandal. date as to when Mr. Nixon began buy- an this causeway." after they were cashed. One wonders whether thin explains log it. The common guess Is 1962, but Bureen's reputation as a roan with By 1963 the bank heti changed why he concealed his employment with the authors of American Melodrama put "important connections" made him a hands, but the new "owners," con- the OPA lot so many years, or why the the date at 1960. logical choice ler behind-the-scenes tinued the bank's fine service to crucial court file In the Atlanta Records raison's Fisher Island Investment negotiating. Bunten was a Milwaukee organized dime. An FBI memo dated Center it so mysteriously unavailable. was apparently Intended to be a long, attorney who was brought to Washing. July 79,1964 derails a story of Boston

bd Malta gangsters bringing "hot money" the prime corporate vehicle for gam- Snide, both of whom are friends of Nix- Bahamas. The ubiquitous Sir Salford to the bank and arranging "hearts" In bong operation that would eventually on'', have mutual connections direst-1y Sands handled the legalities. Know- return. In reality it was their own money include three casinos—the Freeport tied to organized crime. According to ledgeahie observers looked for the they were selling back. but the "leans" Casino, the Lucayan Beach Casino, and FBI files, Garfinkle has employed high- mystery man, and a Justice Department made it poolible Mr diem to espial n the Nassau's Bahamian Club. Groves' level Mafia members in newspaper memo dated lamely le, 1966 predicted possession of cotta cash. attorney was Sir Stafford Sands. distribution business. In 1975 he that "the atmosphere seems ripe for a The Bank al Wore Beach had a fie Enter in 1960 also one Lou Chester, attended— upon the Invitation of Prase. Landry skim." ternal relationship with another a wheeiendealer Canadian with all the dent Nhusn—a White House welting of Alter Piradling's election. Groveesvas eyndicate-bwoured Miami bank, the right connections and 512,000,000. In champagne and entertainment for forced out and the Mary Carter Paint aforementioned Miami National bank. the Shim Chester had worked web Lan. "official and personal reseed. of Ilse Company had ince two new casinos. Not only have the hanks shared many dry annotate Canadian mining dealsand President." At the 1967 opening of one at o f the same director. and decide:lidera. was a partner with Lansky courier John Both Garfinkle and Rabb were there—the Nausea Bay Club—the hect- but one person has served as chairman Pullman in the MPC Corporation. The founders and large ItockhOlders in ored guest was Richard Mums, of both banks simuharreously, ensuing ChesterSCroveseansky mar- international Airport Systeme Inc. The following sear-1968—theet her in 1465 Ratner, already I long- riage left the brat two up front. with Amorigthecornpanysotherearlyrnapor Mary Carter Club, the Paradise Island standing large stockholder. tried unser. Landry In the shadows sage. In stockholders were Meyer Lansky, Moe. Casino, opened tor business. The OW, restfully to pin control of the Bank of its 1967 series on the Bahamas, Life rls Landsburgh, and ether Lansky en lei dem enough to Nison OS offer Miami beach. Like most moterelated mewl ne disclosed that "Groves' silent associates Rabb Is currently a director him use at their facilities during the 1968 ventures, the Bank ol Miami Beach was partner in all three gambling saloons of a New York City bank which In 1969 Republican Convention. Nixon felt anghtoperailonwithveryfrentockhold- and spokesman for the syndicate Is helped found an 5Be loan to a top figure more comfortable at Key Biscayne, but ers. It would be difficult to believe that Meyer Landry." The Article went on to in the New York Mafia. some e6 his oaf/ took up the offer. Ramer was unaware of, if not involved explain that -Lansky front men" • Wigwam &One Seem Is one of the in, the activities of the bank in which meshed thirty percent el the net profile President's most trusted speechwriter. (MARY CARTER BECOMES RESORTS he held en much stock and whkh he at the Leuven Beach Casino and flimen According to Julie Nixon lope worked INTERNATIONAL1 wanted to compel. percent of the grow at Nassau's Baha- with Satire on a book of Noon family In keeping with the traditions of man Club. photographs) the Safire-Nleon friend- Nemo business associates. Ratner has by 19111 the Bahamian Amusement ship dates back to their days at the Mos- In 1969 Mary Carter—now called refaced to comment on hie rule In the Company had procured a "certificate cow aummit in the Fleles. Satire also Restarts International—reluctantly Bank of hawse Beach. of exemption- from Bahamian tam- worked as a Pit official for Nixon In his "released" one Dino CelLni, claiming blInidarnandthalong-drawnblueprmts 1960 campaign. that while he "had a relatively unsavory were transformed Into garish palace,. Seam learned his public relation. background. Ins had no criminal record, After Cuba, The Bitterne! Running government Interference wee trade as a "protege" of Tee McCrary, no criminal associates." ['tent hopped Sir Raiford Sands. In areal toughe r and it was the rannection to McCrary across the water to Miami, where, assignments the 3110-pound Sands. act- that led Sa fire to PR vrork In the Bahamas according to Dade County Sheriff Intel- The shift of organized crime's ing as anerney lot the Bahamas Amuse- In the years Nixon was out of office, ligence Reports, he continued to work ACV:Pant. at the Bank 01 PALMA Beech meet Company, negotiated a deal mob According to a 1971 article in the Las in conlunclion with Paradise /shed trorn Cuban sources to Bahamian ones the minieter of Finance and Tourism— Vegas Son Satire had the public rela- Casino. The report. allege that Cetera is symbolic of the major underworld re- himself. err* account for the Lanskysconnected was an almost daily vleltor to Resorts elienmenra that look place atter the Syndicate influence in the Bahama. L uSayan Beach Hotel and Casino. Satire Internationaes Miami office. where he Cuban resolution. tad already reached its retain by 1967 also worked on the Grand Bahamian checked credits and worked with a By mid.1959 most syndicate figures when this wave of press and Ai:were- Development Company with McCrary' company booking junkets to the Para- had left Cuba. With them went Frank :emit ewe:Ogee:ars begat warming up and Doty Peters, a tansky man. dise Wand Casino. Sturgis, a leading epee In the Water- There are those who maintain that gate aftalr. who had overseen the CellinesconnectiorussidtRewarts Inter- Cuban casinos for Casio" for a brief national Symbolize the Influence of Lan- period In 1959. Sturgis later chained "Throughout the progression from simple extortion sky, $n a 1971 editorial. the Las Vegas U.S. citizenship wi th the help of George Son concluded an eleven part seder on Smathere. and mayhem to the penetration and control of sophis- organized crime—tome al which cen- hernia southern caplet in Miami, ticated larger businesses, there is never an abandon- tered on Resort. International—by organised crime nought a new home for charging that "however cloaked and Its cruoal Caribbean operaliens— ment of illegal enterprises. In organized crime a man cleverly concealed by the guardians, d reigglIng,earnbleng_proditution,noco- never goes completely 'legit', though he may well gambling in the Bahamas Is controlled gun-ninning. and lb. passage Of move out of direct operation of illegal business." by Meyer Lansky and It her been eel-Ab- illicit funds. With Its lush tropical ashed in police Intelligence reports t climate Ideal for the "legitimate- the fee is fifteen percent of the Braes hotelocumo front operations. and with income." The nowsdefunct Toronto its legal dructure loose enough to per- the Islands. As organized crime sup- (SHAKEUP IN THE BAHAMAS; Telegram reported in 1970 that "ob- it plenty of back door escapes, the poeedly tooled out, Richard Nixon sur- By the middle Sixties there was a servers believe that the reeve rcefultan- Bahamas became the next underworld faces considerably. But there is con- storm brewing. Internal friction had say 1. .till managing to get his cut from "gem" of the Caribbean. siderable evidence that Me lire never forced out a few people like Lou the Bahamas'. Among others who found the went completely out, and That the [heeler, while a was'. of public Meet- Resorts International, through Its Bahamas a suitable substitute for the shadow of Richard Nixon had always Options were blaring the role of under- ninety-one percent owned subsidiary, "good old days" in Cuba was our old been around: Some emamples: world figures She Meyer Lansky. The Intertel, has denied all allegations of gambling friend, Richard Nixon. Nixon • Lou Chester: For his 514,000 In 1967 Royal Commission of Inquiry also Involvement with organized crime. It made three trips to the Bahamas CantribetiOnS Chester got to travel M. dredged up another familiar was Intent! that ITT hired in 1972 es between 1960 and 1962, two of them on'e 1960 campaign trail. Chester's name—Richard Nixon. snoop on columniu lack Anderson. corning right alter hre elechan defeats. acquaintance Donald Berg wee the man Testimony before the Royal Com- The latest and possibly Meet damag- Ae a result of marry governmental who sold Nixon his lot. on Key Si.' mission by Max Courteney, a Lansky ing charge in the Resorts international investigations the story of organized owne. Today Chester travels around in lieutenant, detailed a long bookmaking battle came this past bane in an IRS crime in She eahamas up to 1967 has a plane Hawn by Moon's former pilot career and brought out the names of inspired indictment of Meyer Lansky received widespread publicity In the • Daniel Le dwigs Ludwig is a trete. a large clientele, !Wetting the then ex- and Dino Centel, The Indictment reads American press. The InvesdpeSons billionaire who dredged the Bahamian Vice President Richard Mean part: have demonet rated the astounding harbor for Wallace Grove, He later (MARY CARTER PAINTI In "O n or about May 17, 1966, units- influrinee of organized trims in the twill the King's Inn Casino and"leased The Royal Commission also bared a dieted co-conspirator Vincent Teresa islands, and a brief synopsis of how it 11 lo Lansky Inentmen Sam Cohen and deal which Implicated Richard Nixon far met with defendants Meyer Lansky and was all put together makes for • good Morris Landsburgh. LudwheSe National more deeply than passing mention by Dino Cellini In Miami and had a discus. case study in governmental relations as Bulk Coders. the chief source of his an underground bookie. eon wherein defendants Lansky and practiced by Meyer Lansky: corporate wealth, a lung-time client in 1967 Lyndon Pe-idling became the Ceihni gave Teresa permission ro con- In 1960 Lansky furred up at the of Nison's New York law firm. first black premier ever to acme the duce to the Paradise office of 5Ir Stallard Sends, Minister ol •Tiet McCrary: A wide-ranging pub- almost one hundred percent black Casino," Finance aid Tourism far the Bahamas. lic Newtons "consultant.' McCrary hen- citizenry of the Island. ',Maims wee Thus government agents allege that Lender offered him sir,poo.noo to "see died pubic rehears, work for Chester'. hardly • revolutionary, however, for in 1968 Lansky maintained RI' least same what he could do" shout saltine up General Development Corporation among the people instrumental In put- control In runerns junkets to RefilftS tome casino, on the islands. Isidore moving to the Bahamas and tak- ting him In office was a gambler close International's Paradiee island Casino. Sands turned down the money but ing the account of Chester's land to Landry named Mike Mdaney. The The junket racket Is an integral part of liked the Idea and when it nue all over Cranes' and Lanskyse Freeport Casino. Royal Commission branded Mcleney a the caulino operation. and as recently Sands managed 10 collect at least One of McCrary's fellow PR men as tise "thoroughly dangerous person" and as 1971 Landry's cohort Eddie [e'en' .100 ,e0e in 'lees." In 1967. In &some- Grand Bahama Development Company accused him of maneuvering Pindling was reportedly Oh arrenging Junkets what comic gesture, Sands told the was Dusty Patera, a Lansky courier. Into at lead one deal Involving a clues. for the Paradise Island Casino. Royal Commission of inquiry thai Lan- McCrary staged a few extravagardu clonal:Ile gambling conceseion. eky's original otter had ectually bean for the Eisenhower/Nixon campaign In Penalties part-election controversy [ENTER NIXON AND REB0701 52,000,001. 1952 and also helped Nixon with his was a company based in Tampa which In 1960, the year that tensity made 1960 campaign. In 1957 McCrary bore the Innocuous name of "Mary Ca n 11 was in 1957—with Lansky still okay- his original offer to Sande. Wallace became involved In the Sherman Adams ter Paint Company." leg lunketa and Cellini still running the Groves. the Inteiewheelin promoter scandal, tending a hand to Maxwell In 1965 Laneky's front-man land Paradise Island Casino—that Richard who wee cat in by eiermeth Keyes In Rabb, who was Bernard Goidfine's former Key Biscayne landcromer) Wats Moon and Bebe %steno became friends 1945 on Key Biscryne land, began tot- &Ionics. tate Groves, filed a joint application with the head of Resorts International. ting up rite Bahamas Amusement Corns • Maxwell Rabb and Harry Gar- with the Mary Caner Company to open ft should be no surprise that lames pany or tensity. This company became 011E101 in tore Rabb and Harty Car- a casino on Paradise Wand In the Golden, the recently D 9691 hired

65

were only implemented some years sten-512,000,000 Int the Miami pro iect 'The penetration of business and government by later by Attorney General Robert Ken- and rearm than $16,000,000 for Ceasar's organized crime has been so complete that it is no nedy. — Palace. A footnote In the lustier Department With things going slowly, Lums longer possible to differentiate 'underworld' gangsters files was a report by IRS Special Agent announced plans for a new 522,006.000 from 'upper-world' businessmen and government offi- loseph Delfine. dated October 14.1953. casino next door to Creasers Palace. In The IRS recommended to the justice December of 197t the company cials." Department that "criminal proceedings decided lhat the whole restaurant idea he instituted against Meyer Lansky in was no longer worth the trouble. In a "deputy director of security- for turns up in the Bahama; with very the Southern Judicial District of Nev. classic climax to a classic American soc• Resorts intemanonal is a good friend similar links, bringing some big names York Ice the YARN' attempt to defeat cess they changed their name to or Nixon's. As a Secret Service guard along with him. and evade a large portion of his income Ceasar's World Inc., and sold their not for Nixon when he was Vice President, taxes for the years 1945 and 1947 under dog stands. Golden made a gond enough impres- Enter William Rogers section 14Sb of the Internal Revenue meanwhile the Secretary of State's sion to be appointed staff security chief Code." The Justice Department—with old law firm reaped a bundle with the, for Nixon in 1968. Golden was also sec- Two men with histories both In William Rogers second in command at newfound involvement in the Las urity director of Nixon's Convention Bahamian politics and In the finances the time--ropecifully declined to pro- Vegas underworld. With such stunning headquarters In Miami that year. And of organized crime have made Irequent KHUte. successes at home. one wonders what was SeCtrnyttireclor for his subsequent use of the legal services of a firm whose a firm with a link to the Secretary al nauguration. Later that year he moved most prominent partner is Richard Nix- RUMS HOT DOGS! State could do abroad, in places like To Resorts imernatIonal. Golden is l ust on's old friend William P. Roger,, now the Bahamas or Vietnam, for example. one of a Icing string of interesting Nixon Secretary of Stare. Upon leaving his pool as Attorney Not do the underworld implications security appointees, among them The two men are Mike McLaney, General in 1960, Rogers became a of big names surrounding Nixon end Watergate indictees James McCord, charged by the Royal Commission In member of the New York firm of Royal. with the Secretary of State. Murray Gordon Liddy, and Howard Hunt_ 1967, and a business cohort of his Koegel and Wells. In 1969, with its lead- Chotiner, a long-time Nixon aide and There are rumors. some of which named William Colusardo. McLaney mg partner about to become Secretary architect or his early smear campaigns. have been auto on the press, that and Colusardo were investigated in of State. Royal, etc., moved with its has past Inks to the underworld. In 1962 Richard Nixon Owns stock in Resorts 1967 by the Securities and Exchange client, wholeheartedly ado the world Drew Pearson and lack Anderson wrote international. former Republican Presl• Commission in connection with a of gambling casinos and organized that "Choliner...besldes representing dential candidate Thomas E. Dewey blueberry plantation that McLaney sold crime. the top gangster of Philadelphia. Marco does own stock in the company, and, to a company controlled by Colusardo. A year liter Royal took on the Reginelll, represented a long and amaz- according to organised crime inves- The subsequent corporate juggling; account of the Miami-based hot dog ing list at hoods, concession peddlers. tigator Hank messick among other, implicated lemon s others) newly chain, Lums Inc. What did a hot dog Income tax violators and others needing there are reports of Lansky buying stock elected Bahamian Premier Lyndon Pind- chain have to offer a prestigious New Influence In hi g h places..." It was as well_ Nobody has proved anything ling. Among Colusardo's "favors" for York law firm? The answer may Ile in Chotirrer who brought Frank Vitale. one way or another about 1M stock con- Pindling were the use of his airplane where the firm took its client. 'once involved in the biggest bootleg- nections, but that !Jams is connected during the election campaign. and a In 1969 Limo purchased the Ceasar's ging conspiracy on lhoWest Coale' onto to Resorts International. at least 5127.000 contribution in the form of an Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Nixon's special plane to Moscow In through Golden. Is indisputable. "interest payment." The law firm that for S60,000.000. A month later the 1959, Perhaps more disquietin g than defended McLaney and Colusardo Nevada stale gambling authorines were Nixon's recent appointment of Wel. rumors of Nixon stock ownership in an against the SEC was that of William P. looking into the hotels' "catering to ter Annenberg as Ambassador to Eng• underworld holding company for Kaha- Rogers. Rogers had been a close blend twelve underworld figures from Kansas land also echoes the themes of under- n casinos are the reports of his and political associate of Nixon's for world involvement. Annenberg and his meddling in Bahamian affairs. In 1969 twenty-five years. He accompanied A few months after the purchase the lather were indicted in 1939 for "aiding a proposed tax increase on gambling Nixon on many of his Bahamian founts SEC filed suit charging Lums and and abetting' in sonnet-Sian with their profits to provide money for Bahamian and also made frequent stops with him Cease e s Palace with "false and mislead- wire service operation in Chicago, an schools was slashed in half by the Minis- at the Key Biscayne Inn and Villa,. On ing" statements. The SEC wondered operation run with the protection n1 Al lot of Pittance. The Minister refused to addition to being an "R 8 R" sidekick. how Ceasar's managed 10 lose Capone, for which the Annenbarg'S explain the cut. and told opposition Roger. was the man Nixon turned to •51.000.000 in live months when the pre- paid $1,000,000. The Annenberg family members to "use your imagination" for for counsel amidst his performl crises vious year (before Lums bought int was also a maior contributor to Nixon's an explanation. in the Checkers affair and Eisenhower's there was a $2,200,000 profit fora corm 1968 election campaign. The advice was taken literally by serious heart attack. parable time period Further back In the NIRO...saga, and some Bahamian papers who speculated Rogers the Eisenhower. The SEC also questioned Lums con- closer to his southern California birth- that pressure came from "outside Nixon team for eig ht years In the cerning the 51.500,01:11 Lums paid one place, lies San Diego financier, C. sources connected with casinos." One Department of Justice, first as Deputy Jerome Zarowitz. a convicted profes- • Arnhohlt Smith and his bookmaker Bahamian per asked openly if "a tele- Attorney General, and then, by 1957, sional sports fixer who wasn't even partner Icahn Alessi°. In 1946 Alessi° phone call from Ma White House was as Attorney General The Justice Depart- listed as an owner of the casino. Top and Smith introduced Nixon to another nut resporrublet" ment's retord against organized crime officials in both Caesar's and turns have bookmaker named Lew Llpinsky. Lipini Whereas our investigation into in the year. followin g the Kefauver been under investigation by IRS Intelli- sky, who was convicted for bookmaking Cuban politics brou ght evidence to Commission was lackluster, to say the gence In Miami and by Nevada gaming in 1938. served for three decades as a light possible violations of the Neu- least. It was Rogers who personally authorities in cases invohing organized go-between for the SmillvAlessio Inter. trality Act, we now have the posse:idler refected the recommendations of the crime ever since Rogers' firm took on eats to their syndicate connections. of an American President who has spent specially constituted Wesaell Commit- the turns account. Some of the dealings a! the • sIgni kant amount of his v acatIon time tee on organized crime set up In the There is also the question of the 1971 SrelthiAlessio combine were brought to In the Bahamas also meddling In the wake of the infamous Appalachian raid 1,111% acquisition at a North Miami national prominence by a recent LA affairs of that country. in upstate New York that revealed a housing resort development called Sky magaoine article which accused Richard Nixon. a man with both Y,13- Mafia sum rni tCanterenCe_ Tice Commit. lakes. Both Sky Lakes and Ceasar's Attorney General Richard Kleindienst of 131c and invisible links to the under- tees proposals lot a concentrated and Palace have received large sums of "tampering with justice" ina case world and politics 01 ere-Castro Cuba. coordinated war on organized crime money from the Team. involving Alesaro. According to the Wall

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66

"The 'Havana Connection' is a funnel for money nerd Barker channeled funds tor the !pane between 550 and $70,000,000, Watergate caper. some shakily secured by WM Dan mort- flowing from the Caribbean gambling hotel, prostitu- gages and subordinated notes. A high- tion, and drug operations which centered in pre- ITHE 7E4/457E4 ACA1N1 ranking Federal offidal has commented revolutionary Cuba. The control exercised by that "the-teamster fund Is a Sort or open A recant toll Costawas frank bank to people well-connected In Las organized crime over Miami dates back to the Forties Fitzsimmens, a key to Nikon's new- Vegas and well-connected to organized and remains strong enough today for the syndicate _ found support in organized labor. Fitz- crime." elmmons is president of the Teamsters It was Holfa's desire "to have ihisl center of the Caribbean operations to still be there. - Lin/on. This summer he stopped in Ls own bank in every city" that lansught Corte on his way to net Nixon at San on the Teamster takeover of the Miami Clemente. Fitzsimmons had last come National Bank. The Bank in lam is bull Sneer /Cemial, Smith raised PAU% The fact that certain of Hoover's from dinner in Detroit with a local Mafia one of a long list of ventures such as for Nikon's 1%8 campaign. He and his good friends tubbed elbows, rather figure and soon alter his DermitLa Ceasor's Palace, Sky Lakes, La Cana, voile took the that position on the warmly, with Meyer Lanky, and the fact Costa-San Clemente recursion, Fitzsim- Worldwide Fealty, International Allmon receiving line behind the President at that the mean's lending dime fighting mons announced his support Mr Moon. Hotel Systems, Truesdale Estates, In the White House inauguration. agency--the FBI—has come up almost One wonders whether the Teamster which Teamster money amounting lo blank in its fight against organised decision to stay on ihe Pay Board and over 5$0.090.000 ileums prominently More Of The Same In Calliprada crime may not prove anything about to support Nixon is somehow related alongside the sooal and business part- Hoover. On the other hand, the facts to what the DEUDII Free Press KIS been ners of Richard M. Nixon—a line of Nieran's other favorite resting place don't make It any easier cod/stens ques- hinting strongly as of NM: that the Investments that leads from Nixon's besides Key Biscayne Is the area near tions which might arise about the edministration has stopped prosecu- three White HansaS to a Federal clem- his birthplace in southern Calllornia. Influence of organized crime of the tion of Frank's son likhard Flozsin, ency for Timmy Hotta and back to or- Hare the underworld pattern of his highest levels of g.overnment. mons—the bosinms partner of a Detroit eanized crime. Florida Involvements repeats irsell—in North of the the Charro end thirty mobster—on charges of missing union The current head of the lustice a strikingly similar pattern. miles south of the San Clemente White fundn. in exchange for Teamster sup- Departments Criminal Division saw One story there Involves Nixon's House, les the mammoth La Costs land port of the Republican President. enough evidence in 196710 say that he multi-millionaire backer, C. Amholdl resort development. The development Whenever creels Winn and Fitzsim- -knew for a moral certainty Shall in the Smith, end the Del Charm Hare' In La If tied to both Smith this daughter is mons did make, the Teamsters have upper echelons there is an amalgama- loll+. just north of San Diego. a dffectori and to the Teamsters. long working relationship with tion between the Cosa Nostra and the The Del Charm was a favorite La Cone was originally developed by organised crime. Their marriage gees, Teamsters Union.' In 1971, when a stopover for Nixon in the Fifties. Cleveland syncitcare reliable, Allard back over twenty years, where limMy Federal grand lump probing the activities Owned by the Murchison brothers, Roen and Moe Dallis. The development Holfa wan introduced in the Detroit of Meyer La risky questioned Prem.! who also owned the nearby Del Mar was reorganizes' in 1968 to bang Team- underworld by Paul Dorfman, In Hoffa, many wondered whether the race track. the hotel played host to ter control mote In line with their exchange for some multhmiflion dollar finks between the two giants we re more numerous Detroit and las veil, Rent' Investments, which already mceeded insurance business. Dorfman's son, direct than the numerous transacrons stem Alan lAti ewer, a former manager ca S1ti.000,0011 Like Sky Lake.. its Honda Paul, has residences at both Sky hires between mutual Mends. the hotel has alleged In statements to counterpart, La Costa attracts a whole and La Costa analogs recenthf convicted low months alter his teetinom. tins reporter and others that the hotel range of (turn from organized chew. of taking kickbacks on a Teamster lean. Hotta wet granted clemency alter serv- Served et a secret meeting placer for La Costa visitors have included Willie The Teamster tradition of labor tack, ing less than five years of his thIneen. pohnelans and assorted business inter- "Ice Pick" Alderman, a St Louis mob eteenng and corruption made Ito a Year sentence. The treeing of Hotta and ests. some of them horn she under- cohort Morris Shenker, and Wallace ready alliance with the mob. Early gov- three codefendenta of the 1963 Wre world. Witwer speClfimtly cited a 1954 Groves and Lou Chester of Bahamas ernment investigatians of the Teams- fraud pension Case is the latest and most meeting attended by NNon and chaired fame. ters, such as the Bobby Kennedy-led crucial event In Nikon's longstanding by a leading member of ITT. He also According to eyewitnestee. when MCCIe/lan Permanent Committee on friendship, a Inendship with som e clear claimed that there was a bookmaking Groves' helicopter sets down, the red Investigations, centered on labor roc, public benefits for both. lack Anderson operation at the hotel, but has offered cape! is rolled out. II may be because Fele-ening. As Attorney General, Ken. documents, for example, that as early no documented prose'. Clove, bought a home in La Costa. but neds continued his milt uit of the Team- as 1960 then-Vice Presiders! Nixon and Mrs. C. Andualcit Smith is a perma. more likely its because, as government sters and their boss. limmy Hotta. At Attorney General Rogers intervened to nem resident of the Del Charm, and agents per it, "where Crewel appears. one point Kennedy had twenty-nine halt an indictment against Haifa In the hates visitors.thnie included John Meyer Leesky will not be tar behind." grand buries simultaneously investigat- rechange for Hofia's support In trailed Connally, Barry Goldwater, and I. Edger Another mob frequenter of the La ing Holies activity—one of which led election. Hoover. Hoover. $1 5,00041-year bills Costa development Is lake Arvey, an in a conviction lot mall fraud and Jury were picked up by the stockholders of organizer or the Republic National Sank the Murchisee interests. In Miami, the bank through which Ber- umlipne et two Oakland Tribune report- ANICO—More 01 The Same In ers concluded a see-month Imelda:a- Texas nion with the charge that "the 3628,000.1100 Teamsters Central Stead, In recent years the Teamster fund "The shift of organized crime from Cuba to the Southeast and Southwest Pension has been superseded by a giant Imes Fund, headquartered In Chicago, has insurance company as a maim source Bahamas is symbolic of the major underworld realign- become a bankroll for some of of finance for Las Vegin calicos tied to ments that took place after the Cuban revolution. America's most lining, underground the mob. The company Is the American figurer. National Insurance Company IANICOI Among others who found the Bahamas a suitable sub- Nowhere does the relationship et Galveston, Texas. ANICO is close to stitute for Cuba was our old gambling friend, Richard between this fund ind the mob settler the heart and pocketbook of the two Nixon." mare dramatically than in Las Vegas. ranking Texan, in the Sheol, adminis- wheseTearnstertnisioet hive approved tration—former Treasury Secretary

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CARL MUECKE

67

of his discovery involved the busting The Tip of the Iceberg the largest heroirecocaine ring In Miami, many of whose members were -The organized criminal relies on "It was in 1967-with Lansky still okaying junkets and Cuban refugees. Inspection of various physical terror and psychological intieni- papers, including wiretap ate hart- Cellini still running the Paradise Island Casino-that court darinn, on economic retaliation and rations, confirmed "Irregularities" in Richard Nixon and Bebe Rebozo became friends with political bribery, on citizen's indiffer- the signature—WIF WIlson's signature. ence and government acquiescence. the heads of the casino, Resorts International." While resembling his actual handwrit- He corrupts our governing institutions ing, the signatures appeared as "WII" and subverts our democratic proces- Instead of "Will.- While it may seem strange for an -Richard Noon, April 24, 7969 John Connally and farmer Assistant [WHOSI WS-VG DEPARTMeNT?) aide to misspell his boss' name. it seems Someone should tell President Attorney General WIN WHS., even stranger that Hogan took the case. Ninny that resisting the power of As well as floating more than The ANICO case rakes us to a fitting His normal tees start in five figures but organized mime demands, above all, a $40,000,020 to Las Vegas casinos and endpoint to he story of Richard NI eon's he has been working on behalf of his President web a clean slate. $13,000,000 to premier mob attorney involvement with the underworld— court-declared Indigent client for more Nixon's life is like a complex jigsaw Morrill Shenker, ANICO has made loans the Department of Justice. it Is an than ewe years with minimal compensa- puede, the pieces of which have been to two Florida companies close to old saw that criminal and criminal- tion. While Hogan is known as a "very shuttled so ei to defy complete recon- Richard Nieon—S1750,1)1)0 In tee* to chaser eventually become involved In thorough" attorney, it would be Inter- struction. Some of the crucial pieces the Mary Carter Paint Company, and the same business, but In Richard Niacin esting to find out more about the cir- have been removed, so a full picture S3.000.000 In 1970 to a subsidiary of that old saw has become more of a real- cumstances in which he discovered the cannot be achieved. It is no accident Worldwide Realty. ity than perhaps ever before in Amen- "irregularities." that no other politician has been so That year a group of disenchanted an history. For Richard Nikon is • man Even more interesting, perhaps. are much written about, yet so little under- stockholders filed a multi-million-dollar whow name has been synonymous the circumstances under which Richard stood. a bribe of suit, charging AMC° officials with hiv- with "law and order" in America Mr Kleindienst was offered indeed, meet has been made al the ing taken control of the company and three decades,. 5100.000 to quash several mob indict- "enigma" of Richard Nixon, his tight- using as a private preserve AS well Yet thewfour-year "war" on ments, In sworn testimony last lipped beating in relation to his per- as a source or hands tor the mob. organized cnme by the Nixon adminis. November Kleindienst admitted to tonal life, his unwillingness to divulge The defendants in the suit hired Nix- nation bean more resemblance to the being offered the 5100.000 bribe (which what's really on his mind. on's New York firm to handle the case. "peace"' In Vietnam than a sincere effort would be paid in the form of a contribu- But maybe the answer to the enigma Connally's Houston law firm hes also to gee at the mob. tion to Nixon's 1972 campaign' in Iles In his old poker-playing instincts, been used by ANICO. The First National in a recent interview in U,S. News exchange for stopping prosecution In the unfailing ability to keep quiet Bank or Houston of which Connally was and World Repart (September 11,19721. against sevemi underworld figures when he's sitting on cards best hidden a director and In which Berne of his law Attorney General Richard Kleindienel caught in a stock fraud case. The bribe Item the table, partners were officers. has provided an hailed "about 1600" Indictments of Was offered by an aide of Senator Hiram For there Is one Indisputable fact interesooree account of more than underworld Ileums brought by the Fong, a Republican from Hawaii. The about Richard 'loon's career—his S1.030,000 for ANICO. Connally was Nixon administration in the past three aide had worked previously with Klein- ascendancy to the pinnade of American also a director of a savings alllOaiallan and a half years. The Police Department dienst through Fong's portion on the power has required twenty•five yeah of whirls was purchased recently by claims that many of these Indictments Senate Judiciary Committee. Klein- care and feeding by some very wealthy eNICO. involve top mobsters. dienst said he refused Ihe offer but he and very reactionary men, and an extra- Will Wilson was "general" of the Those outside Ow Nixon administra- also said he did not realrze It ma. a bribe ordinary number of them have main- luslice Department's "war" on crime tion, however, have charged that the for an entire week) tained connections with the world of from 1969-1971. He was head of the government's prosecution has been In cross examination, the pro- organized crime. reimirsal Derleion until October 1971, both partisan and selective. aimed secutor asked Kleindienst, "II you had Dunng Nixon's years in office the when his resignation was forced lay die exclusively at mobsters linked to big- regarded the conversation as some- underworld empire in the United States a bribe offer you would closures tying him to the scandal/- city Democrats such as in Newark. and thing regarding has prospered almost unrestricted by rocked financial empire of Texas at the "little fish" who are always in have immediately reported it, would the Federal government. From its base wheeler-dealer Frank Sheep. Wilson has abundance and who make linie differ. you note" in the gigantic resources of heroin traf- "Yee sir," replied Kleindienst, "I been charged by diwident ANICO once in conducting mob business. Time fic, gambling, prostitution, "prolec• stockholders of helping to drag ANICO has reported that quotas have been would have." lion," and a host of other enterprises into the twilight zones of finance with established ( i.e.one bundled hood- Kleindienst admitted he reported of violence against society, organ- the bribe a full week later, upon learn• such deals as the 1963 absorption of a lums a month for New York City) and ized crime has moved like a bulldozer defaulted Tr450.000 mortgage held by that arrests are "being delayed so that mg from J. Edgar Hoover that Federal into the world of legal, "respectable" Sharp. Sharp's attorney and "financial future quotas can be tilled." The .New agents were investigating the caw. business, advisor" on the deal was Will Wilson. York Times has editorialized about the One would espect the Attorney Every link between Richard Nixon While Attorney General of Telal, ease with which petty gamblers can and General of the United States to be more and organized crime, however margi• Alert. But what is more troubling are Wilson sued the foundation which con- nave been rounded up, and wondered nal, is of significance, if for no other Washington Post trolled ANI CO to bring three new aloud If the WHIGS Department Isn't reports aired In the reason because he Is President, And after the Indictments In the trustees onto the foundation's board of conducting more a publicity war than shortly there are people all over America, from stock fraud case in question (and ten directors. Wilson has no visible ties to one on organized crime. A limes report government intelligence agents to hotel months before Meindiemes testimony the new trustees. whose votes were this year found the government was Wallet". who have Nixon stories to tell. on the bribe.) Those reports quoted instrumental In shaping the company's building up a backlog of gambling He covers his traces well, but not well "sources at the U.S. Attorney's office new financial course. But dissident indictments, saving them for a crucial enough and indiuwed that after stockholders hare charged that the time during the election campaign. In New Wok" The full extent of Nixon's invitave- the meeting between Kleindienst and "negotiations" that brought on the shift Indeed, while the Nixon- ment with organized crime is just Fong's aide, "Kleindienst Immediately of control in the fouedatinns were han- Agnew•Mitchel I team has used the beginning to surface. The evidence in contacted justice's Criminal Division dled by a Galveston law firm (Inked to spectre of "CRIME" to keep the fear this Ankle is merely the tip of a dirty headed by Will Wilson] and ... the mob. The stockholders 4190 claim level high And to guarantee large bud- [Olen iceberg that will slowly become visible an FBI agent was assigned to infiltnee that John Connally played a role in these gets and expanded powers for their over the coming years. the group of alleged conspirators." °ego-emotes, albeit a "backstage role. lustoe Department, the actual "at- The milieu In which he has traveled Do we now believe Kleindientes The ANICO ease is part of a long history tempts" of the Nixon adminletation to for three decades, and to which so many story that he "didn't realize" he had of Wilson's involvement with the Gab cope with organized crime have resem- of his friends, associates, and been offered a bribe, or do we believe vesion underworld bled a somewhat sinister update of the appointees have been related to the the U.S. Attorney's office in New York? When he mime to the Just ice Depart- Keystone Cops. mob, throw a long and permanent Did Will Willem and the !unite Depart- shadow over everything Richard Melon ment In Weahington, Wilson disco, For example, up to 1,000 of Klein- ment hold off a week while Kleindienst the "public servant" has ever said, and wed the organized crime division dienst's vaunted 1600 indictees in "made up his mind" than he had been over everything his political life has ever looking Into the affairs of ANICO. Since gambling and organized crime may some- offered 4 bribe, or was the decision Meant. then there have been no indictments have their Mel IlwoWn out lot whether or not to take it? And did in the came and there are reports that what dubious "Improper procedures" For In light of his career, both past Hoover and the 1111 somehow interferer and present, Richard Si, Nixon seens Wilson had the ANICO files locked technicalities. A Miami attorney named Perhaps the answer comes In the to be the factual embodiment of Ralph safely in his personal of rice. One sou rce lames Hogan has "discovered" final outcome of the actual prosecution Salerno's prediction that organized of those reports is Stewart Hopps, a irregulantlespn signatures required for involved. The defendant, In the stock- crime would someday put Its own mar form er luster Department investigator. electronic surveillance authorleations. Court-approved wiretaps require writ- fraud case Included Meyer Lansky's in the White Houseol Some serious conflict-of-Interest a former director of the ten authorization by the Attorney .,min-law, intweason ta .is paw. Sue charges concerning ANICO remain: awned or Ininane General of a designated representative Sank of Miami Beach and lohnny Dia, Ina swifts. lawny., • The oincers of AMCO who were a notorious racketeer long associated oda. pumaufly NI., Walninaion In this case Will Wilson. Instead of Any*. tan pry,. las Vey.. Della,. laviin. later represented by Nixon's law firm. with Jimmy Halo They were acquitted, made a lean to a company whose top 4etrig signed by John Mitchell or by Wil- Cialreunn, rallaluswi. and San ,rwiewo. ,lattes son, the authorizations In question while the messengers who offered the included innr-....1111 n-or a Sawaad people: officers are long-time friends of Mann. bribe were convicted. One wonders if cowidocurnarriaiinsietlinedeede monleaeslia 1. were signed by aides, thus rendering -we D.C.. The criminal divisson of the /melee that $100,000 did not find its way Into rematniniheNellend Anne.. W.W.II Department has been needed bye man thousands of wiretap euthorizations miasmas,' n4,. inwayess ides iliewn wow. and the Republican secret treasury after all. awn-neon, and newspepei cappiey with direct links in a company the &el- —and the indictments based on them—useless. Show it a orwaninew sloasinnew. reel Awed won is supposedly investigating. on tome al it. rwt.,.. Ile, anwe. The Elm and • The company also has clear Mtn to Hogan himsell is a long-time syn- arlarawimfmarnw 4Wda we pan si • eunenavel Whin ea anomaly, NIxon's former Treasury Secretary, a dicate attorney and a partner of Ben Nana wenn, ewer Dale Scar Care Dowse, low personal ti • i and ...lam el Amen. Ogaden Cohen, a former political bout of Miami Leavy Sowed Am Mord_ Ow NYASAn al inn elwer Alt ..111.17■11D .1111! Be wypewens woe. eapirae man mentioned for the Vice- hem Ana SW. nerd, Ilanwl ha at non lor nalim sown usi Int...y.4 memo. Presidency, the national chairman of Beach who figures prominently In the A. ma. Crime COV7I4.1141: See ye, male or sio Sunnen... lell Minor, Sae frencnro, 1.113 Democrats for Nixon, and a key figure Forties' takeover of Miami by organized raver Obseporr, and yews who will in ,,mein Cope. el and warraiion Can. ten auto anomie.. Ie .ilined b. wiling vas orldma in the President's re-election scheme. crime. The case In which Hogan made

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