New book details dubious Nixon pals
ACTUALLY, President Nixon, you WERE a crook.
In author Don Fulsom’s latest book, “The Mafia’s President: Nixon and the Mob,” the former White House reporter details the 37th U.S. President’s felonious habits dating all the way back to his 1946 congressional bid.
Nixon tried to present a straight-andnarrow image to the world but Fulsom reveals a man who loved hanging out with gangsters, gambling and making obscene profits on real estate and was looking to benefit only one person — himself.
Though the book draws no parallels to President Trump, it’s pretty difficult to read a passage like this and believe history isn’t repeating itself:
“Richard Nixon was a man almost entirely consumed by his own ego and personal ambitions, a trait that would lead to the end of his presidency. Considering this, it is unsurprising that he rarely connected with people in open or emotional ways.” Fulsom, a dogged reporter who covered five presidential administrations and teaches classes on Watergate at American University, draws from decades of materials — books, recently released government documents, interviews and articles.
The former UPI Washington, D.C., bureau chief recalls how his time in the Nixon White House left him with “a lifelong determination to uncover all the truths I sensed were hidden.”
He nails down details of Nixon’s gangster associates, including his $1 million deal with Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa.
The amount of money varies, according to different accounts, but Fulsom cites evidence that Nixon and his cronies came up with the cash to spring the corrupt labor leader from prison early.
New tapes revealed Nixon wanted an assurance Hoffa would stay clear of politics. If he dared try to recapture his powerful position atop the Teamsters, Nixon wanted to threaten Hoffa with a one-way ticket back to prison.
It was such an outlandish threat that Nixon’s attorney general, Richard Kleindienst, dissuaded the President. If Hoffa knew about Nixon’s threat, he didn’t seem to care.
Hoffa announced his intention to reclaim the union’s top spot — and disappeared in July 1975, never to be be seen again.
It would take a rare book to explain in full all the corruption of the Nixon years, so Fulsom focuses on Tricky Dicky’s mob ties — dubbing him the “patron saint had said. of the Mafia in the White House.” His goons locked the doors.
The mob was known to have Nixon addressed the crowd and financed a chunk of his 1968 bid, the exits were opened only after when Nixon outspent Hubert $75,000 was “donated.” Humphrey, 5 to 1. But even mobsters
But Nixon’s organized crime Nixon contemptible. ties dated to the start of his political In 1968, before the presidential life. His first campaign manager, election and while Cohen lawyer Murray Chotiner, defended was serving time, the crime figure mobsters and introduced wrote newspaper columnist Jack Nixon to Los Angeles gangster Anderson to label Nixon a rough Mickey Cohen. hustler.
In 1950, Cohen held what Cohen expressed his hope that might generously be called a “this guy’s thinking has changed, fund-raiser among Las Vegas and let’s hope it’s for the betterment gangsters. “There wasn’t a legitimate of our country.” person in the room,” Cohen The book lists so many mobsters found you start to wonder if Nixon took the oath of omerta. But that would mean he had allegiance to someone other than himself. That’s not indicated here. Other than longtime friend Charles (Bebe) Rebozo, Nixon did not exhibit a lot of loyalty. Rumors have swirled for decades that Rebozo and Nixon were lovers.
Fulsom addresses the connection between the shady businessman and the shady politician who “were so inseparable that there were even several sightings of them holding hands.”
The anecdote that lingers is of Rebozo and Nixon playing a game they called king of the pool in Key Biscayne, Fla. One of them would mount a rubber raft in the water, with the other trying to upend it as both fell into fits of laughter.
Nixon hysterically laughing is weird enough. But he always wore a bathing cap — to protect his dye job — taking the whole thing to a new level of bizarre.
Rebozo’s mob connections ran deep, including Mafia godfathers Carlos Marcello of New Orleans and Santo Trafficante of Florida, and he continued to help Nixon throughout his career.
Fulsom likens Marcello’s skills to Nixon’s: “Ruthless and ambitious, the pair created a lucrative and rewarding partnership.”
The two were among those who had conspired to try to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro, when Nixon was vice president.
The author’s new revelations from declassified documents involve “war and peace, life and death.”
Nixon’s motivation was also to please William Pawley, an extremely rich businessman with deep ties to the GOP, the CIA and the Mafia.