![Nixon-rebozo-hoover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Nixon-rebozo-hoover.jpg)
Charles Gregory "Bebe" (pronounced ) Rebozo (November 17, 1912 – May 8, 1998) was an American
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
-based banker and businessman who was a friend and confidant of President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
.
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Early life
The youngest of 12 children (hence, the nickname "Bebe" meaning "Baby" in Spanish) of
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n immigrants to
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
, Matias and Carmen, Rebozo owned several businesses in Florida, including a gas station and a group of laundromats, before he started his own bank, the Key Biscayne Bank & Trust, in
Key Biscayne, Florida, in 1964. Rebozo regularly attended Key Biscayne Community Church, sometimes accompanied during later years by Nixon.
Friendship with Richard Nixon
Rebozo first met then-U.S. Representative Nixon in 1950 through Florida Representative
George Smathers. Smathers had recommended Key Biscayne as a vacation destination to Nixon, who eventually established a residence there which was later nicknamed the "
Winter White House" by journalists. While Nixon was vacationing in Key Biscayne, Smathers had Rebozo take Nixon deep sea fishing. Rebozo and Nixon then started a friendship that endured 44 years.
Rebozo quickly became best friend and financial and real estate advisor to Nixon. In 1968 Rebozo changed his party from Democratic to Republican.
According to Rebozo, the two men were swimming together at Rebozo's home in June 1972 when Nixon was first informed of the
Watergate Hotel break-in, and he was with the president on the night that Nixon resolved to resign from the presidency.
John Dean, Nixon's lawyer, testified before the
House Judiciary Committee
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, a ...
that he had been ordered to direct government agencies covertly to punish a journalist who called Rebozo "Nixon's bagman."
[ Rebozo was investigated for accepting covert payments of $100,000 on behalf of Nixon.][
Journalist Jack Anderson speculated that Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox had been fired because he had started to investigate Rebozo's role in Nixon's accepting covert payments.][
]
According to a New York Times article dated Nov. 27, 1975, a completed manuscript of a biography on Bebe Rebozo, that was scheduled to be published by Farrar,’ Straus & Giroux was stolen from the home of Thomas Kiernan. In addition to Rebozo's biography "several tape recordings of interviews and several research files, including one file containing all of Mr. Kiernan's book contracts and another containing all his royalty statements, were taken."[
] Other news coverage at the time pointed out at the time that "thieves ignored" jewelry and other items of value.[
]
Later life and death
Rebozo received a letter threatening his life in 1974.
In 1976, Rebozo was the subject of a bank fraud investigation. The loan application Rebozo filed with Hudson Valley National Bank (Yonkers, New York
Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...
) stated that the loan was for residential real estate when it was actually used for business. Rebozo repaid the loan with interest, and the bank did not file a complaint.Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
br>"Vault: Charles G. Rebozo"
Retrieved: March 16, 2008
Rebozo died on May 8, 1998, of complications from a brain aneurysm.
Personal life
Following his graduation from Miami High School
Miami Senior High School, also known as Miami High School, is a public high school located at 2450 SW 1st Street in Miami, Florida, and operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Founded in 1903, it is one of the oldest high school in Miami ...
, class of 1930, Rebozo married his high school sweetheart, Claire Gunn. Both of them were 18, and the marriage was annulled three years later. In 1946, they remarried but divorced four years later.[Binder, David (May 10, 1998) According to a recent tape published in the Atlantic, he was a closeted racist]
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
br>"Bebe Rebozo, Loyal Friend in Nixon's Darkest Days, Dies at 85" (obituary)
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Retrieved: February 4, 2017. He later married Jane Lucke, who survived him.[
]
References
Sources
* Fulsom, Don (February 5, 2006)
"The Mob's President: Richard Nixon's Secret Ties to the Mafia."
''Crime Magazine''.
* Leinster, Colin (July 31, 1970)
"Nixon’s Friend Bebe."
''Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'', vol. 69, no. 5
pp. 18-26.
* Summers, Anthony (2000). ''The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon''.
External links
Charles Gregory “Bebe” Rebozo
at Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...
Charles (Bebe) Rebozo
at Spartacus Educational
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rebozo
1912 births
1998 deaths
American bankers
American people of Cuban descent
Florida Republicans
People from Key Biscayne, Florida
Richard Nixon