Greetings! I’m pulling a Saturday pop-in to tell you about two more ‘Hac’ records I found.
First, let’s do a quick tally of the other Hacs we’ve found in the top righthand corner of various FBI records:
–Two Hacs can be found on records from July 1973 concerning Hank Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun,
–One 1971 record on the New England chapter of the Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA) has a Hac plus the initials “sd” written nearby,
–Ten pages of Ron Tammen’s missing person records have the Hac notation in the top righthand corner.
That makes 13 Hacs so far, with Ron’s records carrying the lion’s share of them. As we’ve discussed, my current theory is that Hac stands for Hughes Aircraft Company, and, therefore, could be the FBI’s shorthand for Howard Hughes.
Here’s why I believe Howard Hughes was the noteworthy person that everyone with a Hac had in common:
Howard Hughes and Hank Greenspun
Hank Greenspun had considered himself a friend of Howard Hughes, even though he, like Hughes’ right-hand man Robert Maheu, had never seen him face-to-face. In 1966, Hank had encouraged Howard to move to Las Vegas and invest in properties there. In 1967, Hank had agreed to sell Howard his TV station, KLAS, so that Howard could watch his favorite movies all night long when all the other stations in the area had signed off, which is something TV stations did back then. Ralph Witte, who is also discussed in the two Hac memos, was head of security for Howard Hughes’ Summa operation, formerly Hughes Tool Company. He was one of Howard’s top men. And let’s not forget that the two Hac documents were about an attempted burglary of Greenspun’s safe, which contained hundreds of memos between Howard Hughes and Robert Maheu. Hank Greenspun’s connection with Howard Hughes is rock solid and crystal clear.
Howard Hughes and the CNVA
Howard Hughes was ardently opposed to underground nuclear testing, especially if the nuclear testing was happening in his vicinity. Not only did he detest how the underground bombs being set off at the Nevada Proving Grounds caused his Desert Inn penthouse to shake and sway, but he feared what the radiation was doing to the water. (Howard was right to be concerned, by the way.) The CNVA was the first organization to protest underground nuclear testing at Base Camp Mercury, 65 miles from Las Vegas, in 1957. They were so well known for their creative, peaceful protests, other groups, including Greenpeace, modeled their protests after the CNVA’s tactics. In 1974, Robert Maheu testified that John Meier, one of Hughes’ employees, “was originally hired as part of a Hughes’ scheme to aid groups protesting atomic bomb testing [in] late 1966. Hughes called him to outline a plan to assign ‘somebody with a scientific background’ to assist the various ban-the-bomb groups.” Although the CNVA wasn’t specified, I think there’s a pretty good chance that it was one of those groups.
Howard Hughes and Ron Tammen
I’m still trying to figure out how Ron Tammen would have had a connection with Howard Hughes. My current theory is that Hughes Aircraft Company may have served as a cover for Ron, since that operation frequently worked in cahoots with the CIA. I also think that Robert Maheu, who had a close relationship with the CIA’s Office of Security since 1954, was how Ron would have entered the Hughes orbit.
OK, now let’s talk about the other two records I’ve found with Hacs on them.
Howard Hughes and Larry O’Brien (June 17, 1972)
The first new Hac is on a record dated June 17, 1972, the day of the Watergate break-in. It’s a teletype from the FBI’s Miami Field Office to the Washington Field Office as well as Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray and the Domestic Intelligence Division. The teletype has to do with Larry O’Brien, then-chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Miami told Washington that they had a source who said that five burglars had been arrested in the office of Philip Seib, Larry’s assistant, attempting to burglarize materials there. Even though the burglars were in Seib’s office, I’m sure everyone’s antennae went up when they saw Larry’s name in the teletype. (If you think it’s weird that the guys in Miami are informing the Washington Field Office, the office of origin for Watergate, about who was arrested in what office, you’re in good company. I’ll have more to say about this memo in a later post.)
OK, so I need to come clean about something. We’ve actually seen this teletype before. However, when I showed it to you the first time, I was discussing how similar the “H” looked to the H in Ron’s Hacs. The letters are extremely light, and not as easy to read as Ron’s bold Hacs. But the word appeared to be longer—at least five or six letters. I thought it may have been someone’s name, possibly the same person who wrote the letters H-a-c at the top of Ron’s and Hank’s documents. (I hadn’t discovered the CNVA document yet.)
I now believe that the June 17, 1972, teletype has a Hac too, followed by two initials, similar to the initials “sd” that follow the Hac on the CNVA document. Heck, the initials might even be “sd” on Larry O’Brien’s document too.
If this is indeed another Hac sighting, and if Hac is indeed shorthand for Howard Hughes, then it makes total sense that someone would write those letters on this teletype. Larry O’Brien had an incredibly strong connection to Howard Hughes. He’d been hired to serve as Hughes’ lobbyist in Washington, D.C., influencing senators and tweaking proposed legislation for Howard’s sole benefit, before he became chair of the DNC. In fact, according to Michael Drosnin, author of the book Citizen Hughes, O’Brien was still working for Hughes while he was chair of the DNC, since the latter was an unpaid position. (Apparently, that’s no longer true—the latest figure I’ve seen that the DNC chair earns is $350K/year.) This arrangement likely drove Richard Nixon crazy. Picture it like this: here was the chair of the DNC, whose primary goal was to defeat Richard Nixon in the 1972 election, likely having full knowledge about the $100,000 in bribe money that Hughes had paid to Nixon through Nixon’s buddy in Miami, Bebe Rebozo. Nixon’s most overriding fear was that the $100K bribe would become public knowledge, destroying his chances for reelection. No wonder Liddy, Hunt, and the rest of the Watergate Seven had tried to bug O’Brien’s office. So, again, the Howard Hughes connection to Larry O’Brien is crystal clear.
Let’s move on to the second new Hac. When I stumbled onto this one, let’s just say that the subject’s ties to Howard Hughes were less than clear to me. In fact, I thought this person’s pursuits were so different from Howard Hughes’ priorities, I was going to have to walk away from my theory that their paths had ever crossed. Even worse, I was going to have to report back to you that our theory about our favorite reclusive billionaire had officially been shred into a billion tiny pieces.
Well, good news, guys. I’m happy to report that the theory is still intact.
Howard Hughes and Susan Heiligman Frank (Sept. 14, 1972)
Susan Heiligman Frank and her husband Richard Cyril Frank were being closely watched by the FBI for quite some time. The FBI was always putting out feelers for Susan and Richard, trying to find out what they were up to and using whatever means they deemed necessary: field offices and LEGATS, informants, electronic surveillance, you name it. The reason for the FBI’s ongoing interest in the Franks was their former membership in the U.S. communist party, as well as their infatuation with the People’s Republic of China. They were staunch advocates for the Chinese people and seemed to have friends in high places over there.
So imagine my surprise when I found the above memo with some familiar notations.
First, I saw the FD-217 (followed by an NY)
Then, I noticed the 10-2.
Then I saw the Hac.
What’s weird is that these notations were misplaced. They’re in the left margin of the memo instead of the upper righthand corner. I ignored the other notations for the moment and focused on the Hac. There was no question about it. That was a Hac, all right.
I don’t know much about Susan Frank—only what the FBI has written about her, which isn’t very flattering. Nevertheless, I couldn’t see any connection whatsoever with Howard Hughes. She wasn’t his type, to put it mildly. When I saw the Hac, I was bummed. I walked away for a while. I think I poured myself a glass of kombucha. There may have been chips and salsa involved as well.
A few days later, I found another memo.
“Hold on,” said I. “I guess she was his type after all.”
On October 15, 1968, the New York City Field Office had reported that the FBI’s Paris LEGAT had somehow gotten their hands on Susan’s address book when she was visiting the City of Lights. (See what I mean about her being watched constantly? Girlfriend couldn’t even take a nice European vacay without having some Parisian intelligence officer rifling through her purse and stealing her stuff.)
The New York office flagged two names in her address book that they felt J. Edgar Hoover should know about ASAP. One guy was an Iranian national who might be with the KGB. That one didn’t interest me. The name that did interest me was David A. Robinson. And the reason that David A. Robinson interested me was because they added this comment to his entry:
“Above the name of ROBINSON was a notation “HUGHES’ friend…”
Hughes’ friend? There’s only one Hughes who could have drawn that kind of attention from the FBI at that time. It had to be Howard.
My next question was: who was this David A. Robinson and how did he become friends with Howard Hughes? Howard Hughes didn’t have “friends,” so to speak, at least not then. From the books I’d been reading about Howard Hughes, I’d venture to say that he had zero friends at that point in time. Jean Peters had divorced him by then because she never saw the guy. Even if they happened to be in the same building, which wasn’t often, he wouldn’t let her into his room. He was a recluse, for goodness’ sake. Recluses, as a rule, don’t have friends.
I delved more into David A. Robinson.
David A. Robinson was born in Tianjin, China in 1925. His father, Arthur, had moved to China in 1913 and served as a secretary for the YMCA there for 13 years. In 1926, when David was about 6 months old, Arthur and his family moved back to the United States, but not for long. Three years later, David’s parents both became commissioned missionaries based in China, where the family remained until around 1937.
When Susan Frank met David Robinson, he was living in Wellesley, Massachusetts. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, he was a respected minister with the Boston Theological Institute, working to improve relations with China. One of his key advocacy issues was for China to become part of the United Nations. I understood why David Robinson’s name would turn up in Susan Frank’s address book. What I couldn’t understand was how David Robinson managed to strike up a friendship with Howard Hughes.
I needed to dig a little deeper into David A. Robinson’s family history. With all the talk about China, I needed to develop a better understanding of where David’s roots were. Who did Arthur and the fam visit over the holidays or during family reunions? With whom did David Robinson hang?
As it turns out, David’s roots were in Waterville, Maine, a picturesque town on the banks of the Kennebec River. Canoeing was huge there and maybe still is, though I’m sure kayaks and paddle boards have taken over. Many French-Canadians settled there.
Do you know who else grew up in Waterville, Maine? Robert Maheu. Both the Robinsons and Maheus were well-established in Waterville. You could say they were the OGs of the Watervillians.
Don’t get me wrong. David Robinson and Robert Maheu weren’t classmates or anything like that. David had spent a large chunk of his formative years in China and Robert’s and David’s ages don’t match up either. Robert Maheu was born in 1917, so he was 8 years older than David Robinson. Also, when the Robinsons moved back to the states in 1937, they were living in Auburndale, Massachusetts, about three hours from Waterville. Still, both families were well connected in the community. Maheu’s father Ephrem owned a carbonated-beverage bottling company called Elm City Bottling that he operated in a barn behind the local grocery store that he also ran from 1916 until his death in 1954. Ephrem Maheu also dabbled in politics, having served as an alderman for several terms as well as a state legislator for two terms.
As for David Robinson’s grandparents, Increase and Elizabeth Robinson, they were also stalwarts of Waterville. Increase worked as a contractor and builder in town and later as an insurance agent. They were also active in the Congregational Church. After Increase died in 1916, his wife Lizzie left Waterville to live with a daughter. But Arthur maintained a close relationship with Waterville even after his parents were no longer there. A 1906 graduate of Colby College, whose campus is in downtown Waterville, he kept in close contact with his alma mater. He was a big deal in the community, often returning to give talks about his work in China at college commencements and church gatherings. He even collected donations from the citizens of Waterville for famine relief in China. As a young man, Robert Maheu would have been reading about Waterville’s local hero in the newspaper, the Morning Sentinel. Likewise, I’m sure Arthur and David would have stopped into Ephrem’s store, where Robert was known to help out, for an orange soda during one of their visits. After WWII, Robert Maheu and his wife moved back to Waterville for a little while to help her recover from a terrible bout with tuberculosis. Maheu at that time was still with the FBI, and J. Edgar Hoover allowed him to open up an FBI Field Office in Waterville, Maine, of all places.
With Robert Maheu being the extrovert that he was, I’m certain that Robert Maheu knew David A. Robinson and even called him a friend. Likewise, I’m sure David Robinson told Susan Frank about his friendship with Robert Maheu, who, during the 1950s and ‘60s, was the alter-ego of Howard Hughes. That would make the notation in her address book, “Hughes’ friend,” understandable.
I think we’ll stop here for now. If you ever find yourself in Waterville, Maine, be sure to visit Pine Grove Cemetery, where Arthur and his siblings are all buried in the family plot, in addition to Increase and Lizzie. Then make the short trip to Saint Francis Catholic Cemetery, where Robert Maheu, Maheu’s wife Yvette, and Maheu’s parents Ephrem and Christine are buried.
Rev. David Arthur Robinson died on August 13, 2007, in Brooklyn, NY. Unfortunately, I’m unable to determine the location of his remains.
Sincere thanks to The Black Vault, the Mary Ferrell Foundation the National Archives, and the FBI Vault for making these records available.
