Chapter 12
Section 12 of the Watergate Report, Volume 3. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Final Report of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, Volume 3. Chapter 8. The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters, Part 5. c. An Analysis of Possible Delivery Dates
1. December 1968, The Bahamas On the disbursement form Lawrence Reilich prepared regarding the withdrawal from the Sands in early December 1968, Reilich wrote at some later date the following notation. The money was taken by John Ianni and given to Bob Mayhew. I was told he was to give this to President Nixon on Mayhew's trip to the Bahamas.
The select committee has been unable to corroborate the accuracy of this remark. According to Reilich, he made this handwritten entry regarding the Bahamas as one of his periodic attempts to make a record of the purposes for cash withdrawals given to Mayhew, should he later be questioned by Hughes officials or anyone else regarding his role in obtaining funds for Mayhew. Reilich was not sure who told him the money was intended for then-President-elect Nixon,
but he thought it might have been Nigro himself or Jack Hooper, Chief of Security for the Hughes operation. Nigro is dead, and Hooper has apparently been seriously ill since at least the fall of 1973 and has been unavailable for questioning. There is no evidence that Mayhew was in the Bahamas after the Sands withdrawal. Danner originally testified that he visited Rebozo and President-elect Nixon on Robert Ablinalp's Bahamian Island, Grand Cay, sometime between the 1968 election
and the inauguration in 1969. President-elect Nixon visited that island on November 18, 19, 18, 1968, and on December 26, 1968. Danner's diary does not show him in the Bahamas or nearby at either time Mr. Nixon was there, in late 1968. He was in Spanish Cay and Freeport in the Bahamas from December 10 through 15, 1968, a visit that Danner testified had nothing to do with political contributions or the delivery of money to President-elect Nixon or Rebozo.
Danner's latest testimony, based upon an examination of his 1968 diary, is that, one, he saw President Nixon in the Bahamas only once in 1968, and, two, that visit was on April 11th and 12th, 1968, at Walker's Cay, part of Abplanalp's property. Further, Danner testified that he did not receive any money from Hughes's representatives in December 1968. Danner was in Las Vegas from December 5th through 8th, 1968,
which was the same time period as 1. the receipt by Mayhew of $100,000 in cash, 2. the unsuccessful delivery of $50,000 to President-elect Nixon or an aide in Palm Springs, and 3. the shipment to the Las Vegas bank used by the Hughes-owned casinos of 50 consecutively numbered $100 bills that were in the money Rebozo returned and identified as the first delivery. While no firm conclusions can be drawn, this evidence and Reilich's note establish an interesting set of coincidences.
2. April 2-10, 1969, Key Biscayne No one has testified to this date as a delivery date. This was Danner's first trip to Miami after he joined the Hughes organization, and according to Danner, it concerned business dealings in the Bahamas. Mayhew told the select committee investigators that the first delivery was made in Key Biscayne
not long after Danner joined the Hughes operation, but he was unable to pinpoint the date. There is no indication from available travel or hotel records that Mayhew was with Danner in Florida at this time. In summary, this is a possible delivery date without substantial support. 3. June 26, 1969, Key Biscayne. Like the April 2-10 date, there was no testimony supporting this specific date. Danner had no specific recollection of this trip, although he testified
that in the spring of 1969, Rebozo was more or less needling him about Hughes's financial support of Hubert Humphrey and Hughes's failure to contribute to President Nixon. Danner testified that around May, possibly early in June 1969, after Rebozo had once refused a $50,000 contribution, Danner and Rebozo began discussing the possibility that Hughes would contribute funds for the 1970 Congressional campaign. 4. September 11th and 12th, 1969, Key Biscayne. There is evidence that
makes this the most probable delivery date for the first contribution. The factors suggesting this as a delivery date include the following. One, the Rebozo-Danner discussions about Hughes's failure to contribute had set the stage for a delivery. Two, according to Danner, Mayhew, who was aware of the Danner-Rebozo conversations about contribution, authorized a delivery to Rebozo sometime during the summer, maybe as late as August 1969. Three, by this time, Mayhew had
obtained an additional $50,000 in cash from Nadine Henley. Four, when first questioned about the first delivery by the IRS on May 15, 1972, Danner made statements that fit with a number of facts about the September 11th, 12th trip. He stated as follows, Mayhew showed me the envelope. I saw that it contained packets of money. I did not count it. As I recall it, it was in his office at the Frontier Hotel. We took the de Havilland, flew to Miami, went to Key Biscayne, met Rebozo
at his house. Mayhew handed him the package and says, here's $50,000, first installment. Rebozo thanked him. Mayhew told him, then, that there would be more forthcoming later on, and that wound up the transaction. We therefore went to dinner.
We didn't discuss the campaign contributions any further that I recall. The next morning, I left and flew back to Las Vegas. My recollection is on that trip, Mayhew stayed, kept the plane down there in Miami. He had some other business to look into.
While Danner's recollection has changed, his early testimony is worthy of particular scrutiny, because A. it is his first recollection, that is, closest in time to the event itself, B. it was given free of consultation with Rebozo, and C. it comports substantially with Mayhew's recollection of the event. A. Mayhew has stated that he was present at a key Biscayne delivery,
Records of the Key Biscayne Hotel show that Danner and Mayhew were there on September 11th and 12th, 1969. Records of the Hughes Company plane show that it made a trip to Miami on September 11th, returning to Las Vegas on September 12th. Danner's records, however, show a $152 expense for travel on September 11th, 12th, indicating the possibility that he traveled by commercial airliner on part of his trip to Miami and back.
If he traveled by commercial carrier from Miami to Las Vegas on September 12th, that fact would coincide with his statement to the IRS that he returned to Las Vegas alone while Mayhew kept the Hughes plane. On July 5, 1973, Danner signed an affidavit to correct his May 15, 1972 testimony to the IRS. In this affidavit, he stated that the first contribution was made in San Clemente on July 3, 1970. However, in subsequent testimony in court and before the select committee,
B. Danner testified that he is certain only that a delivery, not necessarily the first, was made on July 3, 1970. His testimony, therefore, still leaves open the possibility, particularly when considered in light of the facts outlined here, that the first delivery was September 11 and 12, 1969. b. In his initial IRS testimony quoted above, Danner testified that the delivery was made
at Rebozo's house by Danner and Mayhew, and that the three of them thereafter went to dinner. Mayhew's version of the Key Biscayne delivery, at which he said he was present, conforms to Danner's in two respects. Mayhew told the select committee that the delivery was made in Rebozo's house, and that the three men then went together to dinner. Both Danner and Rebozo testified before the select committee that the delivery was at Rebozo's bank office, without
Mayhew present, and Danner cannot remember whether he and Rebozo dined together after the delivery was made. Finally, Danner once placed the time of the first delivery as September 1969. On December 29, 1972, after he had first answered questions before the IRS, Danner called IRS Special Agent Donald Skelton in response to IRS requests that Danner review his records regarding possible dates and places of delivery. Danner told Skelton, according to the contemporaneous memorandum
Skelton prepared, that a. as near as he, Danner, could tell, the first delivery was made in September 1969. B. The money for the delivery was locked in a secure box in the Frontier Hotel cage for at least six months before the delivery. C. At Danner's instructions, the money was once transferred within the cage from one box to another. D. He and Mayhew made the first delivery in Key Biscayne. and E. The second delivery was in San Clemente on July 3, 1970,
F. Mayhew and Danner began talking about making a contribution to Rebozo shortly after the 1968 election, before Danner joined Hughes. These facts would tend to establish the dates of the deliveries. In addition, it is worth noting that the information Danner provided on November 29, 1972, comports with his earlier testimony to the IRS, and with the evidence summarized in this section,
although he testified to the select committee that he was reasonably certain that no delivery of money was made on that date. Taken altogether, however, the evidence described above indicates that September 11, 12, 1969 was the date of the first delivery. 5. February 3-5, 1970, Key Biscayne On February 3-5, 1970, Danner was in Key Biscayne, registered at the Key Biscayne Hotel.
According to Danner's expense records, he had contact with Rebozo, re-TWA suit Air West matters, on this trip. According to his testimony, the TWA v. Hughes case and the acquisition of Air West were the subjects of discussions with Rebozo at that time. Although the hotel records, subpoenaed by the select committee, did not show Mayhew in Key Biscayne on February 3rd through 5th, Danner testified that Mayhew was with him on this trip, which included a visit to Nassau by Danner, Rebozo, and perhaps Mayhew.
Robert Wearley, a pilot of Hughes' private plane, the de Havilland, testified that Mayhew might have been on the flight with Danner from Las Vegas to Miami, and that Mayhew was definitely on the plane when it left Miami and returned to Las Vegas via Washington, D.C. Mayhew told the select committee that he was on the flight to Miami with Danner, and that he and Danner met with Rebozo on February 3rd through 5th, 1970. In addition, Mayhew told the investigators
that he testified before a Las Vegas federal grand jury investigating Hughes's acquisition of Air West that the second delivery to Rebozo was made in a meeting among Mayhew, Danner, and Rebozo on February 3rd through 5th, 1970. Mayhew, however, could not explain the basis of that testimony. Rebozo may have been in Las Vegas shortly before the flight to Miami and may have flown with Danner and Mayhew from Las Vegas to Miami. When confronted with that possibility,
Mayhew stated that it was unlikely that he and Danner would have gone with Rebozo to Florida to make a delivery if Rebozo were already in Las Vegas. Aside from Mayhew's testimony before a grand jury, the evidence that February 3rd through 5th, 1970 was a delivery date, assuming only two deliveries, is not as strong as the evidence on other dates, such as September 11th, 12th, 1969. 6. March 20th through 22nd, 1970, Key Biscayne. Danner and Mayhew were in Key Biscayne on the
above dates, immediately after Danner received approval from Attorney General John Mitchell for Hughes's proposal to buy the Dunes Hotel. All parties have denied that a delivery was made on this date. Mayhew stated that he made a trip to Key Biscayne to see Rebozo sometime during March 1970, and that the purpose was to discuss AEC testing, not to deliver money to Rebozo. Rebozo, of course, placed the first delivery on July 3rd, some four months later. Danner supported Mayhew's
recollection that the discussions with Rebozo were about AEC testing, and that no contribution was made on that date. In sum, there is no firm evidence that this was the date of a delivery, although all participants would have a substantial interest in not admitting to a delivery date so close to the Dunes decision by John Mitchell. 7. July 3, 1970, San Clemente. This is the only date upon which Danner and Rebozo agree that one of the contributions was made. When questioned
initially by the IRS, Rebozo said that one delivery was at San Clemente and one at Key Biscayne, but that he could not remember which one came first. In later testimony before the Select Committee, Rebozo stated that the first delivery was at San Clemente on July 3, 1970. Danner also placed the first delivery on this date in his IRS affidavit of July 5, 1973, which changed his May 1972 IRS testimony that San Clemente was the second delivery.
In later testimony, however, he testified only that a delivery, not necessarily the first, was in San Clemente. Robert Mayhew told the select committee that his understanding was that both deliveries were made in Key Biscayne. Both Danner and Rebozo testified in detail about the July 3rd delivery, which included, according to Danner, a visit with President Nixon immediately after the delivery. 8. August 19-20, 1970, Key Biscayne
This is also a likely delivery date. Based at least partly upon his travel records, which show him in Key Biscayne, August 19-20, 1970, Danner testified before the select committee that a delivery could have been made at this time. In addition, in his July 5, 1973 affidavit for the IRS, he stated that he was certain that the second delivery was on August 19th and 20th, 1970.
Danner originally thought the Key Biscayne delivery was in August 1969, but his travel records show no trip to Key Biscayne in that period. Danner remembered a time-lapse, the extent of which I am unable to define more accurately, between the first delivery and the second delivery. If the first delivery were on July 3rd, the second delivery would have been either August 19th, 20th, or October 28th through 30th, a date discussed below.
Danner discounted the October date as too close to the 1970 election for the money to have been used for congressional campaigns, and Mayhew questioned the October date for the same reason. Rebozo testified that the second delivery was in Key Biscayne, following the July 3, 1970 delivery within a matter of weeks. It could have been three months. I don't know.
I think I saw somewhere Danner had indicated it was in August, and that would be correct. August 19 or 20 was within a matter of weeks of July 3, 1970, while October 28 through 30 is almost four months after July 3. Rebozo's recollection of a matter of weeks between deliveries, plus his inclination to accept the August date, lend credence to August 19th or 20th, 1970 as a delivery date. Danner's present recollection is that he made the trip to Key Biscayne alone, that Mayhew was neither present at the delivery nor in the Key Biscayne area when it was made.
There is no indication that Mayhew was in Key Biscayne on August 19th or 20th, in contrast to September 11th to 12th, 1969, February 3rd to 5th, 1970, March 20th to 22nd, 1970, and, see below, October 28th to 30th, 1970. If Danner is correct about Mayhew not being on the trip to Key Biscayne at which a delivery to Reboza was made, then August 19-20 would be the date for a delivery. 9. October 28-30, 1970, Key Biscayne. There is substantial conflict in the
testimony with regard to these possible dates. Robert Mayhew has stated that he instructed Thomas Bell sometime in 1970 to withdraw $50,000 from the Silver Slipper Casino in Las Vegas and deliver it to Danner. Bell, as noted earlier, told select committee investigators that at Robert Mayhew's direction he withdrew $115,000 from the Silver Slipper Casino in Las Vegas on October 26, 1970, and delivered $50,000 of that sum to Danner on the same day.
Danner's expense records show him in Key Biscayne for Conference with Rebozo as part of a trip to Washington, D.C. and Miami on October 26 to 30, 1970, and hotel records show Danner and Mayhew in Key Biscayne on October 28th to 29th, 1970. President Nixon was also in Key Biscayne on October 27th to 28th. There is no evidence that he met with Danner or Mayhew or was aware of a contribution made in Key Biscayne. Danner could not recall whether the President was in Key Biscayne
when the delivery there was made. The strongest evidence supporting this late 1970 date is Thomas Bell's statement, based upon the withdrawal slip from the silver slipper, that he gave $50,000 to Danner on October 26th. On the other hand, Danner's testimony, that he did not receive money from Bell, plus the statements of Danner and Robert Mayhew that a delivery was probably not made so close to the 1970 congressional elections, cast doubt upon this date.
D. Storage of the Money by Rebozo Richard Danner testified that he delivered the cash to Bibi Rebozo in manila envelopes and that the cash was wrapped with bank wrappers from the Valley Bank of Nevada. Rebozo testified that he received the first $50,000 in a letter-sized thick manila envelope, which he then took without opening it and marked HH in the corner.
In addition, Rebozo recalled that he wrote instructions on the envelope addressed to Thomas H. Wakefield, general counsel, telling him that if anything should happen to Rebozo, Wakefield should turn the funds over to the finance chairman of the 1972 campaign. Rebozo then took the envelope and put it in safe deposit box number 224
in the Key Biscayne Bank and Trust Company. Records from the Key Biscayne Bank and Trust indicate that safe deposit box number 224 was rented on July 9, 1968, by C. G. Rebozo, with Thomas H. Wakefield as the lessee deputy. Rebozo testified that he subsequently prepared a letter of instructions to Thomas Wakefield concerning what to do with the money in box number 224,
which Rebozo placed in the director's safe deposit box at the Key Biscayne Bank. Rebozo testified that he prepared the letter that was in the director's box a few weeks or possibly a month after he had placed the first envelope in safe deposit box 224. Thomas Wakefield declined to testify as to whether Rebozo gave him any instructions regarding the safe deposit box because he claimed the information was privileged under the attorney-client relationship with Rebozo.
However, Wakefield stated in an interview on October 18, 1973, that sometime in 1968 or 1969, Rebozo gave him a key to the box and explained that in case of Rebozo's death, Wakefield should open the box and follow the instructions. Rebozo testified that the second contribution was also in a manila envelope,
that he placed in safe deposit box 224, and that he placed rubber bands around the two envelopes. Rebozo testified that he told Rosemary Woods about the first Hughes contribution, either at the time of delivery at San Clemente or immediately thereafter. Rebozo also testified that he probably informed Woods of the second contribution at the White House. Rebozo added that he may have spoken to Woods about the Hughes contributions three or four times.
In a letter dated October 18, 1973, to Special Agent John Bartlett of the IRS, Woods recalled, Mr. Rebozo told me that he had put this campaign contribution in a safety deposit box, and further that he had given his attorney instructions in the event of his death that he should open the box and follow the instructions therein. It was my understanding that those instructions were to deliver the contents
to the campaign chairman or finance chairman of the next campaign. In addition, Woods gave testimony concerning Rebozo's conversation with her about the contribution, as follows. Mr. Lensner, and do you know how soon after he received the money he told you he received it? Miss Woods, no sir. Mr. Lensner, in other words, Miss Woods, I'm sorry I do not.
Mr. Lensner, I'm sorry, finish your answer, go ahead. Miss Woods, I do not recall because I don't recall when he told me. I don't recall when he got the money, so I do not know how soon after. Woods also testified that when Rebozo advised her of the contribution, he did not specify the campaign for which the contribution was designated.
Rebozo testified that at some point after he received the contributions, he thought he should take a look at the money itself. He testified that the money had Las Vegas wrappers on it, which he removed and replaced with rubber bands, because of the stigma that is applied to anything from Las Vegas.
Herbert Kambach testified that he met B.B. Rebozo on January 8, 1974, and that Rebozo told him words to the effect that, "'Undoubtedly, Herb, I've not told you that after you and I talked last spring regarding the Hughes money, "'April 30, 1973, I found that I had not in fact dispersed any of the Hughes cash to the several people I named. "'When I went into the safe deposit box, I found that the wrappers around that cash had not been disturbed,
"'and so it was clear that no part of this money had been used during the several years it was in my box,' Emphasis added. Since Rebozo's discussion with Kalmbach was on April 30, 1973, then either his statement that he removed the bank wrappers and placed rubber bands around the money is not true,
or his statement to Kalmbach was not true. In this regard, it is significant to note the comments of Kenneth Whitaker, the FBI agent who was present on June 18, 1973, at Rebozo's request, when Rebozo opened the safe deposit box and had a list of the serial numbers made. According to Whitaker, there were 10 to 12 packets of money in two envelopes. Some of the
packets were held together by rubber bands, as Rebozo has testified, but Whitaker said some of the packages were still in bank wrappers. Thus, according to Whitaker, at least some of the money in Rebozo's possession was still wrapped in bank wrappers shortly before its return. Rebozo testified that he again entered the safe deposit box to destroy the original envelopes in which the money was contained after the signals changed. Rebozo said that the signals
changed when he decided not to contribute the cash to the campaign sometime after the Hughes-Mayhew split in 1970 and before the campaign. Although Rebozo has testified that the money was for the 1972 Nixon campaign, FBI agent Whitaker told his FBI superiors that on June 18, 1973, Rebozo told him that the contribution had been for the 1970 congressional campaigns. Danner testified that it was for 1970. The Hughes-Mayhew split was not until December 1970, one month after the 1970
congressional election. Therefore, if the money were for that election, the Hughes-Mayhew split offers no reason for Rebozo not contributing the cash to the appropriate campaign committees in 1970. Rebozo recalled that after the signals changed, he took the safe deposit box into his office and placed the packets of money in large brown envelopes that replaced the envelopes with instructions on them. Rebozo thought this occasion, when he destroyed the envelopes with the
instructions to Wakefield on them, was probably in 1972. Rebozo testified that his sole purpose for changing envelopes was to eliminate the instructions on the original envelopes. He could not recall if he placed any markings on the envelopes to keep the two contributions separate. The occasions when Robozzo entered his safe deposit box are difficult to determine from his records, since his visitation record card from Safe Deposit Box 224 shows five visits between December 26, 1969 and June 5, 1970,
but no visits between June 5, 1970 and June 18, 1973, when the money was removed from the safe deposit box to be counted. Rebozo testified that there was no record of his entry into the safe deposit box because he got the key himself without signing the access card required for other customers. At some time, Rebozo destroyed the original envelopes containing the instructions to Wakefield.
He destroyed the letter to Wakefield in the director's box at some later time. Rebozo testified that he once lost all of his keys to his safe deposit boxes. In July 1973, Rebozo informed the IRS that he had lost his keys approximately a year before he talked to them. Rebozo testified that his bank uses interchangeable locks on the boxes, so he switched the locks for the boxes with the lost keys.
Rebozo testified that he then requested Wakefield's key so that he could get into the safe deposit box. After the lock was changed, Rebozo testified that he then gave Wakefield another key that was a replacement. Wakefield testified that after he first received a safe deposit key from Rebozo, he placed it in an envelope in his safe where it remained until June 18, 1973.
According to Wakefield, 1. He received the key sometime in 1968 or 1969. 2. Rebozo never asked him for the key. 3. Rebozo never gave him another safe deposit key. And 4. Rebozo never told him he had changed the lock on Box 224.
Rebozo could recall nothing else that was done to the money or to Safe Deposit Box 224 until he returned the money in 1973. End of Section 12 Recording by Maria Kasper
