McGraw-Hill calls Maheu to corroborate portions of the Clifford Irving biography of Hughes. Irving’s fake autobiography accused Maheu (and not Gay) of “robbing him blind.” Maheu fought back, and filed a $17,300,000 defamation suit against Summa Corp. Maheu suspected that Irving had been fed bad intel by the Mormon mafia now running Summa Corp. In the course of this legal action, a very angry Maheu began telling even more about the internal workings of the organization as they related to Nixon and the CIA to prove that he, Maheu, and not Gay was privy to Hughes’ deepest secrets:
- He presented a tape recording of a phone call from Hughes, who told him in reference to a possible move to the Bahamas, “If I were to make this move, I would expect you to wrap up that government down there to a point where it will be, well, a captive entity in every way.” The bribe to Nixon for this purpose was obliquely mentioned. Authorities asked to “put a pin in that one” for follow-up.
- He revealed that approval for Hughes’s purchase of additional casinos was a favor granted by Nixon implying that Hughes had bought Nixon off.
10/20/1971