Charles Rebozo

This article explains the person Charles Rebozo , for the Mexican garment see Rebozo .

Charles Rebozo (left) and Richard Nixon

Charles Gregory "Bebe" Rebozo (born November 17, 1912 in Tampa , Florida , † May 8, 1998 in Miami ) was an American banker of Cuban origin. He was one of Richard Nixon's closest confidants , but worked in the background. He was not known to a wider public until it was revealed that he was involved in the Watergate Affair .

Early years

Charles Rebozo, called Bebe, was born to Cuban immigrants on November 17, 1912, the youngest of nine children in Tampa, Florida. Its nickname comes from the Spanish word for baby. His father worked as a cigar maker and moved the family to Miami at an early age, where Rebozo grew up and went to school. After school, he first worked as a steward for an airline. He married Claire Gunn in 1931, but the couple divorced four years later. According to Rebozo, the marriage was never consummated. By then he had saved enough money and in 1935 he opened a specialty store for auto accessories ( Rebozo's Service Station and Auto Supplies ). During World War II , he took part in a lucrative retread tire business and made a fortune. Rebozo later invested these profits in a chain of laundromats. He also got into real estate trading in Miami.

Richard Nixon

To get to know

Rebozo met Richard Nixon in 1951, when he had just been elected Senator for California . Nixon wanted to recover from the exhausting election campaign against Helen Gahagan and his good friend George Smathers recommended that he do so in South Florida , in Key Biscayne . Smathers, who had also won a seat in the Senate (for Florida) the previous year, had known Nixon since 1946, when both were first elected to the House of Representatives. Nixon followed the recommendation and during his stay in Key Biscayne Smathers introduced him to "Bebe" Rebozo. Smathers had known Rebozo since childhood and he had played a central role on his campaign teams for a seat in the House and Senate. Rebozo invited Nixon to deep-sea fishing on his yacht ChrisCraft . After their return, Rebozo said to his friend Smathers: “This trip was a total bankruptcy” and

“Nixon is a guy who doesn't know how to talk, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't chase women, doesn't know how to play golf, doesn't know how to play tennis… he can 't even fish. "

“Nixon is a guy you can't talk to. He doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, isn't after women, can't play golf, can't play tennis ... He can't even fish. "

- Charles Rebozo

But then it turned out that this journey was the beginning of a long-lasting friendship between men that lasted until Nixon's death in 1994. The two men spent so much time together that rumors began to spread that they were homosexual . Bobby Baker wrote Rebozo and Nixon would be as close as lovers ( close like lovers ). According to an interview from Anthony Summers' book The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon , Rebozo was a member of Miami's gay community. In 1952, Nixon was named Vice President by US President Dwight Eisenhower . Nixon and Rebozo's mutual friend - George Smathers - believed that the higher Nixon went, the greater his affection for Nixon. In 1969, Smathers sold one of his domiciles in Key Biscayne (500 Bay Lane) to Richard Nixon, who - now also spatially - moved closely together with Rebozo (490 Bay Lane), who lived next door, and thus also with Robert Abplanalp , another friend who also owned an estate here. Nixon stayed in his Florida home more than fifty times during his reign (1968 - August 9, 1974), so it was nicknamed the Florida White House . Rebozo and Abplanalp were members of Nixon's so-called “kitchen cabinet”, which included the evangelist Billy Graham . The US Department of Defense had a helipad built in the immediate vicinity of Nixon's domicile for $ 400,000. When Nixon sold his domicile - including the helipad - the public complained that he had enriched himself at the expense of taxpayers.

Ventures

Rebozo advised Richard Nixon on potential business investments. According to an FBI informant, the two men are said to have invested money in Cuba when the dictator Fulgencio Batista was ruling there. Hoke Maroon, a former Rebozo business partner, said Nixon was also a partner in the Coral Gables Motel . When Nixon tried to become president in the 1960 election , Rebozo helped him raise funds for the campaign and even paid someone to break into the house of his campaign opponent, John F. Kennedy . He got documents showing that Kennedy had recently married Durie Malcolm . The story turned out to be untrue and Nixon lost the presidential election to Kennedy. Rebozo became one of Nixon's closest political advisers. He was increasingly interested in the political situation in the Caribbean countries, not least because he had invested a lot of money there. After Fidel Castro's coup in Cuba on New Year's Day 1959 , Rebozo became one of Castro's leading opponents. In 1961 he sent William D. Pawley on a secret mission to the Dominican Republic to meet the dictator Rafael Trujillo .

family

Rebozo remarried his ex-wife Claire Gunn shortly thereafter, only to divorce her two years later. He later married Jane Lucke, a secretary to his lawyer. In an interview, Jane Lucke described Rebozo's relationship with her as follows: “Bebes favorites are Richard Nixon, his cat - and then me.” ( “Bebe's favorites are Richard Nixon, his cat - and only then will I come” ).

Their assessment was confirmed by Jake Jernigan, a friend of Rebozo. Jernigan said: "Rebozo loved Nixon more than he loved anybody." ( "Rebozo loved Nixon more than anyone else in the world." )

shops

Key Biscayne Bank

Charles Rebozo opened his first own bank, Key Biscayne Bank, in 1964. Richard Nixon, who attended the opening ceremony, was given the account number 1. Rebozo tried to set up a shopping center for Cubans with his bank . Edgardo Buttari, the then so-called Director for Social Assistance for the First Officers of Brigade 2506 , which failed in the Bay of Pigs invasion , was chosen to head this shopping center. He later got a highly paid position in the Ministry of Health under the Nixon presidency. Rebozo also did real estate deals in Florida with Richard Fincher . It is believed that Fincher worked for the mobster Meyer Lansky . When Fincher's phone was tapped, it turned out that he had regular contacts with the mobsters Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante . Vincent Teresa , a senior Boston Mafioso , later admitted using Rebozo's bank to launder money .

Watergate affair

→ Main article : Watergate affair

After Nixon was elected president in 1968, Rebozo became a regular visitor to the White House . He often signed up with a false name or was not signed up by the Secret Service . He could be heard on published tapes saying that in no time he could get money from friends who owed him a favor and that he had information to drag down Nixon's political opponents. In January 1973, Frank Sturgis , Howard Hunt , Virgilio R. González , Eugenio Martínez , Bernard Barker , Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord, Jr. were found guilty of conspiracy, burglary and espionage. In some cases, connections to the White House could also be proven. As Watergate affair became known affair eventually led Richard Nixon to case.

When it emerged during the investigation that Rebozo had failed to properly report a donation of $ 100,000 from Howard Hughes , an American entrepreneur who often donated money to the Republican Party, he was punished too. The money was purposely withheld to aid Nixon's bankrupt brother. The investigation revealed that Nixon had assets of approximately $ 300,000 when he took office, but that tripled to over $ 1 million in the five years he was in office. Rebozo's net worth grew from $ 673,000 to over $ 4.5 million during that time. According to investigator Jack Anderson, they both had secret accounts in Switzerland where they hid their money.

The End

Rebozo escaped criminal prosecution. He died of a brain aneurysm in a Miami hospital on May 8, 1998 . He left behind his wife and a sister.

Web links

• FBI biography ( memento of October 9, 2004 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Watergay": Was US president Nixon gay? , Article from January 13, 2014 on Merkur.de
2. ^ R. Pearson: Charles `Bebe 'Rebozo, 85, Dies. In: Washington Post. 10 May 1998, p. B08.
3. ^ Charles Rebozo. Spartacus Educational, accessed January 13, 2012