There was some concern about the dangers posed by the angry Maheu’s relationship with O’Brien. A White House memo dated 1/26/1971, from Dean to H. R. Haldeman, says: “I have also been informed by a source of Jack Caulfield’s that O’Brien and Maheu are longtime friends from the Boston area. . . . Bebe [Rebozo] is under the impression that Maheu had a good bit of freedom with Hughes’s money when running the Nevada operation. Bebe further indicated that he felt he could acquire some documentation of this fact if given a little time and that he would proceed to try to get any information he could. He also requested that if any action be taken with regard to Hughes that he be notified because of his familiarity with the delicacy of the relationships as a result of his own dealings with the Hughes people.” (The “delicacy” Rebozo referred to is not hard to understand. At that moment. he had $100,000 of Hughes’s money that he had never reported to the IRS stashed in a safe-deposit box.)
1/26/1971