El Paso Herald-Post from El Paso, Texas • 13

The Maheu Files 'Howard Hughes Likes to Play Secret Agent' extent and meanwhile he kept in constant touch with security men in Boston by telephone as a plan was formed and put into action THERE -WERE several times when the operation had to be scrubbed at the last minute he said Private railway cars were waiting at the station but the press and other Hughes watchers had discovered them "So on the night we planned to make the attempt we engaged in activity which indicated there was something going on in the cars We even moved people into them pulling down the shades and bringing stuff on board and so on Meanwhile we had another railway car sneaking in during the night from New Maheu said that the security men then went through the motions of loading Hughes into a limousine only the place of the billionaire was taken by a hired imposter a result we brought I think about six or seven car-loadS' of followers to the wrong section of the railway yards where the cars being watched were WHILE THAT was going on Jack Hooper who was in charge of security simply escorted Hughes down the back stairs of the hotel into a waiting vehicle and drove him out to the railway car which had been moved In secretly during the night Hughes was walking and it was reported to Maheu that he appeared to be in good health The plan worked perfectly but after a while a snag began to develop The train was running late and it would be impossible to make the proper connections to bring Hughes into Las Vegas while it was still dark "At Ogden Utah we made a split-second decision and hired our own private engine which pulled Mr Hughes ahead of the scheduled train which was now running late I recall exactly the cost of the train but the figure $17000 seems to stick in my Maheu said The point at which Hughes would join Maheu and his waiting force of security men an the outskirts of Las Vegas had been carefully chosen "WE HAD made a detailed study of the area for about 10 days checking on 5 am traffic and also all alternate routes into Las Vegas and the spot we had selected was the most IN 19SS Hughes was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City recognizing his record-breaking around-the-world flight The young Hughes captured in a rare smile is in the center of the photograph Official New York greeter Grover Whelan is at right (Photo by I ft J) "YOU SEE he began "Howard Hughes likes to play secret agent He gets a lot of pleasure out of fooling people Hughes had enough wanderlust in him never to be happy staying in the same place tor very long Maheu said "On many occasions we had discussed the trip to the Bahamas and on many other occasions alternate spots such as Mexico and Florida or the possibility of finding an island somewhere in the The Las Vegas operation started when Hughes called Maheu In his Los Angeles office and told him he wanted to move to Las Vegas that he intended to make substantial investments in southern Nevada "HE CALLED me from the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Boston They had been renovating the hotel and we had been able to get the entire fifth floor tor Mr Hughes The floor was rented in my name as were all the telephones five or six But the Hughes security men were having a difficult time there Somehow word had leaked out to the press that Hughes was living in the hotel and the building was under constant surveillance Maheu said by newsmen other sources I cannot One hectic day he recalled someone perhaps an enterprising reporter or photographer set off the fire alarm on the fifth floor hoping to flush out Hughes the alarm rang the fire engines arrived and press representatives and police showed up Among other things they wanted to get by the BUT MAHEU said he had had the foresight to hire with the knowledge of the commissioner of police off-duty policemen as guards And they were able to stop the on-duty police and members of the fire department from getting in learned later that Mr Hughes had been very concerned when the alarm went off and the near-invasion occurred He was subsequently very happy that they had not been able to penetrate the guards "We tried several times to get Mr Hughes out of that hotel but there was just too much activity Things kept happening like the fire alarm Maheu said he decided to wait until the interest of the press had subsided to some By RON LAYTNER (Third in a Sartos) (Copyright (c) 1SR by Rod Laytner From the book Howard Hughes: The Maheu Files to 'he published In April by Quadrangle Books) LAS VEGAS Howard Hughes has spent the last 20 years in ever-deepening seclusion not so much to avoid publicity- as to protect himself from phsycial violence afraid of being beaten up This is the opinion of the billionaire onetime top aide Robert A Maheu the bitterly disen-c a ted former head of Hughes Nevada operations He is sueing Hughes for $50' million over the way in which he was fired from his $520000 a year job in December 1970 IN THIS exclusive Interview the man the said to be Howard Hughes attacked in a strange press conference explains for the first time how travels around the US have been so successfully concealed from the public And he discusses the reasons for insistence on a security screen rivaling that accorded to a wartime President Even though the "mystery voice? said Howard Hughes was afraid of being kidnaped Maheu a former FBI agent feel this was the case never had the impression that he was afraid of being said Maheu as he stalked back and forth across the carpeted floor of the second-story den in his rented Las Vegas home "HE WANTED to make sure that no one could walk in on him or force their way in rm sure that in the back of his mind he was always concerned -with some kind of retaliatory bodily ItfVthe middle fifties said Maine Hughes lived in the Los-Angeles area in those usually in the Beverly Hills- Hotel He had various accommodations including several cottages and a suit or twoin tite hotel he sent to Montreal Maheu continued Then he travelled to the Bahamas where he stayed six or seven weeks on the fifth fllor at the Emerald Beach Hotel In Nassau before returning to Los Angeles Maheu explained in detail how he had co-ordinated the massive FBI-like secret operation involved in the moving of Hughes from Boston to Las Vegas five years ago would change his mind but he never did We never did anything to Carl said Mahue with a smile MAHEU SAID Howard Hughes took a personal interest in his day to day running of Las Vegas sometimes phoning his chief executive 30 times in a day Another disappointment for Howard Hughes may have been the Bahamas Looking back in retrospect with Robert Maheu and as astounding as it seems it appears as though Howard Hughes once intended to buy tiie little country In the late revealed Robert Maheu "Mr Hughes decided he wanted to buy up the "He asked me to come to the Bahamas where he was secretly staying at tiie Emerald Beach Hotel in Nassau I was to make the first official contact for him with the Bahamian government WAS explained to me that Mr Hughes wanted to buy the communications company tiie international airport and also to work out some leases on some of the to make sure that the attention of these people was diverted so they would not see Hughes Maheu hurried one of his men into the hotel to talk to them and get them to look away from the door the time I came back our party had already gone up In the elevator Mr Hughes was in' the penthouse on the ninth Maheu said he was never allowed into the penthouse after Hughes had arrived but added he had been inside many times before HE DESCRIBED the penthouse as bordering a long corridor which ran north and south along the strip On one side were three large suites each containing a large living room and two bedrooms and on the other side were four more similar suites Most of the time the aid on duty slept on that other side in a suite near the elevator bank at the south end of the corridor he said The only way to operate the elevator door was with a special key And a guard sat at the entrance of the corridor The bashful billionaire somehow adapted himself to Las Vegas using Robert Maheu as the stand-in who daily faded the public Hughes probably find the going in Las Vegas as easy as he had expected For a man who had been able to buy or rent anything he ever desired Las Vegas was probably a rude awakening Somethings be bought "SHORTLY after we took over the Sands said Mahue Martin left and went to the Riviera Mr Hughes considered that a great loss because it had become a status symbol to be able to get a seat at the Dean Martin Hughes got some unexpected worldwide publicity at one point in his Las Vegas operation when one of his casino managers Carl Cohen punched Frank Sinatra in the face knocking him off his feet and taking out a few Sinatra teeth in the process Hughes felt very badly about losing Frank said Mahue wanted to try to keep Sinatra but it was too late He never suggested the employment relationship with Carl Cohen be severed He was hoping however that Sinatra "The government official I was to deal with was Sir Stafford Sands the minister of Finance and Tourism but he proved to be a problem He decided he would be glad to do business with Mr Hughes but only if he could meet with him face to face relayed Ids orders and was surprised when Mr Hughes agreed to a face to face confrontation Mr Hughes talked with me by telephone and promised me he would see Sands in person "I WAS TOLD to go to Sands office and bring him fo the Emerald Beach HofeL-I was to wait there in my suite with Sands and would be given further instructions Maheu said he waited with Sir Stafford in his hotel sqite and called Hughes as planned he then told me he had changed his mind that he would have a conversation with Sands by telephone only' placed Sands on the telephone and they spoke a while Soom after Hughes lost his interest in the project He just suddenly changed his mind and returned to Los Angeles I have no idea why NEXT: THE AFTERMATH deserted and on the quickest and smoothest of all routes into tiie city had been laying the groundwork for Mr Hughes arrival using an alias and now stiH using the name of Mur-vhy I waited in a rented automobile for him to It was approaching 5 am and very dark Maheu continued With him stationed near the tracks were four security people and the local police chief of the Union Pacific Railroad and also son Peter who had done the traffic flow checking MAHEU and his men had established radio contact with the conductor and he stopped the train exactly at the point where their railway signals had been placed beside the tracks of our security men Immediately went into the engine compartment and joined the railway men in it He asked them to look at the dials and controls of the engine and not to turn their heads away or look in any other First man off the train was security chief Jack Hooper Maheu said He was looking for a new Ford panel truck which Hughes people had borrowed from a sales showroom for a demonstration and had equpped with a bed for Hughes HOOPER quickly explained where he wanted the truck placed he knew exactly from which door Hughes would be disembarking the time I got back from checking a street barrier Mr Hughes had already stepped down from the train and was about to get into the back of the truck He asked how long the trip would take to the hotel called for a specific driver and ordered him to drive slowly "It was a very dark hour and I get a good look at Mr Maheu said was wearing a daik coat sure he knew what I looked like and had investigated me a lot but with all the tension of the arrival I doubt if he even knew I was present been working for him since 1955 at this point and yet it was only the second time ever seen AT THE HOTEL there were more than a half-dozen security men waiting he said But there was also a problem A group of people standing in the main entrance Someone had COD GFTSCALPED ON HIGH SUNDRY COSTS QQmsBmuwmm Make your whole 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