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 ...

-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 ...

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 Caribb ...

n immigrants to

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the 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 the seat of Hillsborough ...

, 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 Key Biscayne is an island town in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The population was 12,344 at the 2010 census. Key Biscayne lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami. The village is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originall ...

, 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 George Armistead Smathers (November 14, 1913 – January 20, 2007) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the state of Florida in the United States Senate from 1951 until 1969 and in the United States House from 1947 to 1951, as ...

. 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 Listed below are the private residences of the various presidents of the United States. For a list of official residences, see President of the United States § Residence. Private homes of the presidents This is a list of homes where ...

" 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 John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal ...

, 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, ...

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 In the United States, a special counsel (formerly called special prosecutor or independent counsel) is a lawyer appointed to investigate, and potentially prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing for which a conflict of interest exis ...

Archibald Cox Archibald Cox Jr. (May 17, 1912 – May 29, 2004) was an American lawyer and law professor who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was ...

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 en ...

) 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, 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, energy ...

'', 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

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Charles (Bebe) Rebozo
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rebozo 1912 births 1998 deaths American bankers American people of Cuban descent Florida Republicans People from Key Biscayne, Florida Richard Nixon