750199

750199

=== **Filename: 750199.pdf**

Scientists, Have another
Premier, President, etc. 9

Red Chief
'Cedes'
Powers

LEONID I. BREZHNEV
... reportedly ill

MOSCOW (AP) - Soviet offi-
cials were either unavailable or
not talking Saturday about an In-
dian news report that Leonid I.
Brezhnev had relinquished his
duties as Communist party lead-
er because of illness.

The Press Trust of India
(PTI), quoting informed sources
in Moscow, said the 68-year-old
Brezhnev "has taken leave of his
responsibilities" because of ex-
haustion, age, illness, and emo-
tional stress caused by his
mother's death last week.

The report did not say he had
resigned. PTI said Brezhnev
"evidently is resting and under-
going treatment not far from
Moscow but is available to his
colleagues for urgent counsel."
The agency did not list any spe-
cific illness.

PTI, an independent agency
owned by Indian newspapers as
a cooperative, said that its
sources "summarily dismiss talk
of a power struggle as the cause
of or the likely consequence of
Brezhnev's withdrawal."

In a related development, Brit-
ish Broadcasting Corp. and an-
other Indian news agency, the
United News of India, reported
that Mrs. Gandhi had postponed
a planned visit to
Moscow next month. An Indian
Foreign Ministry spokesman said
no date for the visit had ever
been set "and so the question of
postponement does not arise."

Reports on Brezhnev's health
have circulated in the foreign
press for weeks, and he has been
variously reported suffering from
pneumonia, heart trouble, and
leukemia.

During that time, Soviet
spokesmen have refused to com-
ment or even respond to inquires
on the subject.

Tass, the official Soviet news
agency, reported last week that
Brezhnev attended the funeral of
his 87-year-old mother and at
that time described speculation
about his health as "groundless
inventions."

But the agency has not yet dis-
tributed promised photos of
Brezhnev at the cemetery.

The Soviet press has continued
to mention Brezhnev's name fre-
quently. Saturday's edition of

Pravda had it five times.

Speculation on Brezhnev's
health began last month after he
postponed a planned planned
trip to Egypt. He failed also to
meet Australian Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam or Japanese For-
eign Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
during their recent visits to Mos-
cow, although both leaders want-
ed to see him. Mr. Pilot
1/19/75

Brezhnev
Heart Attack
Reported

L.A. Times/Washington
Post News Service

WARSAW--Soviet Party Sec-
retary Leonid Brezhnev suffered
a heart attack Dec. 19, his 68th
birthday, reliable sources said
here Tuesday.

The sources said Brezhnev, a
heavy smoker, had suffered two
previous heart attacks.

The sources said Brezhnev is
resting and will officially resume
his activities when British Prime
Minister Harold Wilson visits
Moscow next month. The
sources said the heart attack had
not affected Brezhnev's position
in the ruling Soviet Politburo.

They added, however, that be-
cause of his health Brezhnev is
thinking of stepping down next
year after the Soviet Communist
Party Congress. He would still
keep his Politburo seat.

The sources named as his like-
liest successor as party leader
Fedoro Kulakov, a member of
the Politburo and central com-
mittee secretary in charge of ag-
riculture.
1/22/75

... SI WORK ON
PREMIERS, ETC.

my predict banks will fail's beginning everywhere soon. Gwens
A3 Virginian-Pilot, Monday, January 20, 1975

Foundering
Bank Is Sold

WASHINGTON (UPI) — The Security National Bank of Hempstead, N.Y., with $1.8 billion in assets and facing failure, was sold today to the giant Chemical Bank of New York City, the nation's seventh largest bank.

All depositors of Security National will automatically become depositors of the Chemical Bank, which takes over "virtually all other liabilities," said James E. Smith, U.S. comptroller of currency.

Chemical said it paid $40 million in cash to acquire Security National, the nation's 55th largest bank. Details of the purchase were to be announced by Chemical Bank today.

The purchase had to be approved by the Federal Reserve Board and the New York state superintendent of banks after Smith's finding that "external forces and public confidence have adversely affected the operations and condition of Security to the point that an emergency exists," the FRB said.

Bill Foster, a spokesman for the comptroller, said, "Security was faced with probable failure unless the takeover could be arranged. That finding (by Smith) was necessary in order to permit the Boards of Directors to enter into the transactions without prior approval of the shareholders."

The FRB said that Chemical Bank's action "will minimize the secondary effects of uncertainty and doubt on banking and financial markets generally."

Chemical has assets of $17.8 billion. As of Monday, all 98 offices of Security were to become branches of Chemical, which already has 181 offices in the New York area.

The surprise deal was worked out Saturday and Sunday by the Boards of Directors of the two banks, who were given approval by New York state superintendent of banks, the Federal Reserve Board, and the U.S. comptroller, whose office oversees all national banks.

Smith said the purchase was a "very constructive result for the Security National Bank shareholders and depositors for the Chemical Bank and for the public interest in a stable and healthy banking system."

It was third major banking failure in recent months. The Franklin National Bank of New York, the nation's 20th largest, was declared insolvent by the federal government last October after it lost nearly $40 million in foreign currency dealings. The bank was taken over by a consortium of six large European banks.

The worst previous bank failure came in late 1973 when the U.S. National Bank of San Diego went into receivership.

but your money out of your stocks.
liquidate
Gwens
1/24/75

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Sun., Jan. 5, 1975

# If the rich are like us,

# Hunts prove we're in trouble

By Charles Foley
The Observer, London

DALLAS-People at the Texas State Fair a few years back were startled to find, at a modest booth displaying his products, the lofty figure of Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, smiling benignly at the world of which he owned so large a slice and doling out 3 pound plastic bags of goodies.

"Takers found inside copies of Hunt's book 'Alpaca,' which explains why the rich should inherit the Earth; a packet of his 'Life Line Freedom Talks,' which told how the Communists will probably do so instead, and a free sample of Gastro-matic, an H. L. Hunt product guaranteed to dispel painful gas, of which the oil billionaire was a victim.

In blue bow-tie, with tufts of white hair at his ears, Hunt looked like the kindly judge n an Andy Hardy move. "I'm here to save the Republic," he affirmed, in reedy tones. "The Kremlin plans to take us over in three years. Read my books and you'll see!"

Now Hunt is dead, at 85, and the horrendous tangle of law- suits, charges and countercharges, dirty linen and unclosed skeltons he has left to hs hers indicate that, if the Hunts are typical American zillionaires, the rich are in grave trouble.

The lid has come off a bizarre family feud for the old man's money. It involves wiretapping, purloined papers, charges of bribery, plea-bargaining in high places and an exotic dash of international high politics that pits Al Fatah's guerrillas against the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A hush-hush yearlong investigation into the affair by the Justice Department is about to end with a string of in- dictments. Caught in the web of the inquiry are a ranking senator from Texas; hs former governor, John B. Connally; a brace of Richard M. Nixon's attorneys-general and, of course, the former President himself, without whom no scandal these days is complete.

Among the Big Rich of Big D-as Dallas residents like to call their city-it was long believed that the Hunt problems began some two decades ago when HLH's first wife, Lyda Bunker, was dying of cancer. Hunt grew dependent on his personal secretary, Ruth Ray Wright, who was 30 years his junior. The first Mrs. Hunt had been dead two years when, in 1957, HLH married the girl. This move confronted the six children of his first bed-Lamar, Nelson Bunker, W. Herbert, H. L. Jr., Margaret and Carolyn-with a stepmother in their own age bracket and four healthy young rivals in the next-of- kin stakes: her children, Ray Lee, June, Helen and Swanee.

The four were at first attributed to "a former marriage," but some time after Hunt formally adopted them, the second Mrs. Hunt revealed-apparently to strengthen their claims on the inheritance-that her husband was, indeed, their father. Ruth, an enthusiastic member of the local Baptist choir, get her mind to converting HLH-no more gambling or ci- gars-and eventually led the old man, along with his new family, to Dallas' First Baptist Church, the largest in the world, where under the egis of Billy Graham all six were baptized by immersion together.

course, Ray Lee left college to go into real estate, a
deline; June went on tour as a gospel singer and Helen
wannee married. Their husbands were taken into the busi-
ness. Both branches of the family presented the patriarch with
grandchildren and great-grandchildren until the total of pan-
tative beneficiaries rose to 48.

Hunt, a onetime farm boy, lumberjack and cowhand, struck
it rich in the 1920s. Old hands swear that he got his start by
staking $50,000 in poker winnings on a property that turned
out to cover a lake of oil 45 miles by 9 miles. When the money
rolled in, he would risk thousands on a horse or the turn of a
card. The money still rolls in today on an ever-mounting tide,
in line with the high profits throughout the oil industry. Im-
mense reserves await tapping, when prices soar still further.
All this is in addition to real estate holdings, timber, a canning
plant, drug companies, ranchland and cattle.

Hunt refused to bid for anything he could not own outright.
He must have absolute control: no pesky shareholders, direc-
tors, balance sheets for public disclosure. Hunt Oil was a
private company, and on its affairs, "Rich men are ill-
advised to call attention to their wealth in any way," he
snapped, when asked why there were No Hunt foundations for
health, education, the arts.

HLH did spend some millions on the fervidly anti-Commu-
nist 'Life Line' broadcasts he sponsored on 541 radio stations,
but because they enjoyed tax-exempt status, this favorite hob-
by horse was exercised entirely at Uncle Sam's expenses.

Four years ago, Hunt's grip on his affairs began to slacken.
He was confined first to a wheel chair, tended always by Ruth,
then to a hospital bed. The old guard at Hunt Oil began get-
ting orders from plump Vice President Nelson Bunker, the
heir-apparent, and his closely allied brother, Herbert.

One executive who resented the change was Paul M. Rother-
mel Jr., for 15 years HLH's confidant, bodyguard and whip-
ping boy. Rothermel, a former FBI man and an attorney, had
known and admired the second Mrs. Hunt throughout that
time.

He also knew that Hunt, while putting enough in trust funds
to make his first six children multimillionaires in their own
right, had given scant thought to Ruth's family. "Mr. Hunt
approving transactions I might make on his behalf. So I felt a
duty to persuade him in 1969 to change his will to benefit the
second family. But when the first lot heard of this, some odd
things happened."

Rothermel's wife, Joyce, wondered about two men in a red
Thunderbird always outside her home. The driver, questioned
by police, turned out to be a private eye, one J.J. Kelly.
"When I asked if he was on a divorce case," a policeman said
later, "he stepped on the gas and took off. If he hadn't
panicked, none of this would have come out."

In the car were $40,000 worth of tapping equipment and
some 100 tapes of bugged conversations. But J.J. Kelly stayed
defiantly mute, even when the FBI discovered wiretaps on
Rothermel and the homes of three other Hunt Oil executives.
Kelly and his lieutenant, Patrick McCann, were confident that
"dollar power" would see them through. Instead, they re-
ceived three years apiece. Furious, they turned state's evi-
dence, and proudly disdaining hush money, according to their
story - at last named their paymasters.

Bunker and Herbert were brought to court, Texas style, in
steel bracelets and chains, to be indicted on wiretapping
charges. Kelly confessed that he'd been beguiled by "men of
vast fortunes who merely wanted to escalate their wealth and
power."

NELSON
BUNKER HUNT
LAMAR
HUNT
W. HERBERT
HUNT

The Hunts recovered the legal initiative with a suit against
Rothermel - who had by now left their father's employ - and
two executives associated with him. It was alleged that they
siphoned off scores of millions of dollars into dummy com-
panies, and it was simply to trace these funds that the detec-
tives had been hired.

The two executives protested in court that groundless em-
bezzlement charges had been brought "simply to discredit and
coerce us as pawns in the struggle for the Hunt fortune." They
also raised some eyebrows by contending that, on behalf of the
Hunts, they had undertaken numerous clandestine deals in-
volving "holders and seekers of office, labor leaders, profes-
sional sports figures."

Then Kelly sued Bunker and company for $100 million com-
plaining they had ruined his reputation and career, even
threatened him with force. Not to be left out, the Rothermels
stepped in with a $1.5-million suit against the Hunts. Mrs.
Rothermel, a psychiatrist's aide, complained of eavesdropping
on her patients. Rothermel, who had access to the old man's
files for years, is busy on a book about it all - he'd like the
world to know more about "the man who played God."

Rothermel said HLH allowed his sons to bring their suits "to
keep peace in the family" - a somewhat forlorn hope. Now
that his influence has gone, Bunker's instincts will take over.
A weighty, more aggressive chip off the old block, Nelson
Bunker Hunt, 48, is the family's business brain. His gambling
streak has lately been channeled into the commodities market
in silver and sugar, as well as into racehorse owning and
breeding on an international scale.

The Hunt lawyers allege that originally Nixon and his men
promised Bunker immunity in exchange for certain (unspeci-
fied) favors. "Our clients performed," they say, "but in-
dictments were handed down anyway." The deal, according to
Hunt Oil sources, was a perfectly proper" tradeoll. Wiretap
charges would be dropped if the Hunts give the FBI a list of Al
Fatah agents in the United States.

At that time, in 1972, the Nixonites had evidence that Al
Fatah was seeking a foothold in America. They even feared an
attempt on Mrs. Golda Meir, who was soon to visit New York.
The FBI had burgled the offices of the Arab Information Cen-
ter in Dallas, where the Hunts had contacts - with what
success is not known. Next the FBI turned to the Hunts, who
were in a position to know Al Fatah personnel in the U.S.
Bunker had high-level friends in the Arab world, who were
trying to help him dissuade Libya's Col. Mummar Kadaki
from taking over the Hunt oil wells in the Libyan desert.

Libya was Bunker's fief. He had negotiated in person the
deals that had given Hunt International its vast holdings
there, and he had celebrated the inauguration of the empire
with a 'ball' for 500 (tax deductible) guests in London with
three name bands flown there from the United States.

Because of the dispute with Kadafi, which had promised to
deal America, in the shape of Bunker Hunt, "a slap in its cold,
arrogant face," there had been threats from Al Fatah, which
the Libyan revolutionary subsidized. Bunker was a target for

assassination or kidnapping, and he had made his own investigations into the terrorist group's U.S. complement.

At a Texas barbecue in autumn, 1972, Bunker met Nixon personally on the estate of their friend, John Connally, who was then destined for high office and might help bring Kadafi to heel. Bunker complained about Kissinger's inertia over Libya (if they would not send in the Marines, at least they could blockade Tobruk), and asked that the wiretap charges against him be dropped. Through clouds of smoke from barbecuing steer, Hunt Sr. could be heard blasting the administration for "trailing our flag in the dust."

Soon after this encounter, Bunker met the Justice Department's new boss, Richard G. Kleindienst, and, it is alleged, discussed the tradeoff with him over lunch at the ranch of their old friend, James O. Eastland (D-Miss.), head of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. If the Nixonites got their Al Fatah list - and many here believe it was instrumental in helping the FBI foil a bomb plot against Mrs. Meir in March, 1973, when three cars stuffed with explosives were discovered before they could be set off - why did they default on the deal?

The answer is Watergate: Nixon flinched from involvement in another scandal and cover-up. As for that Libyan oil, it had been expropriated by Kadafi anyway in May, 1973, and the White House had no intention of looking for more trouble.

With the fall of Kleindienst over Watergate in April, 1973, the Justice Department under its new broom started a clean-up. An inquiry into the Hunt affair and the alleged tradeoff began. A grand jury, having secretly heard out the actors in this Texan melodrama, is preparing up to a score of indictments against politicians and others both here and in Washington, D.C.

For Bunker, it has been one disaster after another. He has lost Arab friends by trying to win immunity via the Al Fatah list. He has lost all holdings he estimates are worth $25 billion. He could yet go to jail on those wiretapping charges. And, as Paul Rothermel predicted, the HLH's will leaves the bulk of his estate to his second wife and family, including his home and all his shares in Hunt Oil.

Bunker might contest the will, but then there is the clause that H. L. Hunt, wily to the last, inserted in that document as his own Catch 22: Anyone who attempts to challenge it "loses and forfeits all right and title" to what he has been given.

It's Castro-Majic time up on Turtle Creek.

Jan. 24, 1975 - Scientists - Just spent four
weeks at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Checked out 100% healthy. They checked
everything. (Then had bilateral hernias)
by Dr. Edie's staff.) Am
home now.
Ted-O & wife
* Dr. Carey,
Medical work-up.