The year was 1954, it was
the end of summer. I had just turned nineteen the previous June and had come
west from Michigan to go to Santa Monica City College as my grades weren't yet
good enough to get into UCLA. My "cousin-in-law" Jeff Chouinard ran a
detective agency, "Mike Conrad and Associates". It was really a front
for Howard Hughes. - From my memoir, I Was A Teenage Spy For Howard Hughes
This is the story of how working as a private detective during
summers as a teenager put me in the middle of the Nixon-Hughes loan scandal that some say led to Watergate,
and why I have still have negatives and a carbon copy of an incriminating
13-page report by a Kennedy supporter on the loan to this day.
In 1956, I was still working for my cousin's first husband, Jeff Chouinard who was head of security for Howard Hughes. My cousin was the traveling companion of actress Jean Peters, Hughes' wife from 1957-1971. My job was to keep tabs on a couple of Hughes' girlfriends, one of whom was actress Yvonne Schubert, a beautiful girl I eventually began dating myself.
But first, I followed Yvonne around as a private detective in the Westwood section of Los Angeles (plus once in Miami Beach) and reported back on her activity to Bill Gay, a senior corporate officer for Hughes. Bill's brother-in-law was Hughes' private physician.
In 1956, I was still working for my cousin's first husband, Jeff Chouinard who was head of security for Howard Hughes. My cousin was the traveling companion of actress Jean Peters, Hughes' wife from 1957-1971. My job was to keep tabs on a couple of Hughes' girlfriends, one of whom was actress Yvonne Schubert, a beautiful girl I eventually began dating myself.
But first, I followed Yvonne around as a private detective in the Westwood section of Los Angeles (plus once in Miami Beach) and reported back on her activity to Bill Gay, a senior corporate officer for Hughes. Bill's brother-in-law was Hughes' private physician.
In that same year, Howard Hughes loaned Richard
Nixon’s brother Donald $205,000 for his insolvent restaurant called Nixon Burgers, with
their mother’s home in Whittier as collateral (although it was only worth
about $13,000 at the time.)
Three years later in 1959, Mike Bruce (a photographer friend I knew from our favorite watering hole Chez Jay's a small bar/restaurant on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica that I used to take Yvonne to) was hired by a Kennedy supporter to take pictures of Nixon’s mother’s home in Whittier as part of his investigative report on the loan prior to the Presidential election that November.
After several cocktails, courtesy of Mike Bruce, the Kennedy supporter left the studio, accidentally leaving behind his report. Bruce, realizing the importance of the document, knowing I had dated Yvonne and assuming he'd be coming right back for his report, called me and my friend Tom Finnegan and asked us to come to his studio.
We rushed over and quickly photographed the report (negatives in photo above). Bruce wanted me to take it over to the Hughes people to sell it to them so we could split the money. But given the way Hughes had mistreated Yvonne, and knowing Hughes was in cahoots with Nixon and would want to know about this report, I refused. Instead, I decided to hold onto the materials until after the Presidential election when it was too late for the Nixon people to do anything about it.
When I finally turned in the report to Bill Gay at the Hughes office (keeping the carbon copy and negatives which I still have), I slammed it on his desk and said "Here!"
He read it and asked, "How long have you had this?" When I told him I had it since August he asked why I kept it so long adding they should have had this sooner. I explained it was because I did not like how they mistreated Yvonne (controlling and manipulating her to do things I won't go into publicly.) Gay said, "If you had given it to us then, we would have given YOU the $205,000."
Supporting Yvonne Schubert was worth every penny. I wonder if she is alive. Would love to see her again.
Three years later in 1959, Mike Bruce (a photographer friend I knew from our favorite watering hole Chez Jay's a small bar/restaurant on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica that I used to take Yvonne to) was hired by a Kennedy supporter to take pictures of Nixon’s mother’s home in Whittier as part of his investigative report on the loan prior to the Presidential election that November.
After several cocktails, courtesy of Mike Bruce, the Kennedy supporter left the studio, accidentally leaving behind his report. Bruce, realizing the importance of the document, knowing I had dated Yvonne and assuming he'd be coming right back for his report, called me and my friend Tom Finnegan and asked us to come to his studio.
We rushed over and quickly photographed the report (negatives in photo above). Bruce wanted me to take it over to the Hughes people to sell it to them so we could split the money. But given the way Hughes had mistreated Yvonne, and knowing Hughes was in cahoots with Nixon and would want to know about this report, I refused. Instead, I decided to hold onto the materials until after the Presidential election when it was too late for the Nixon people to do anything about it.
When I finally turned in the report to Bill Gay at the Hughes office (keeping the carbon copy and negatives which I still have), I slammed it on his desk and said "Here!"
He read it and asked, "How long have you had this?" When I told him I had it since August he asked why I kept it so long adding they should have had this sooner. I explained it was because I did not like how they mistreated Yvonne (controlling and manipulating her to do things I won't go into publicly.) Gay said, "If you had given it to us then, we would have given YOU the $205,000."
Supporting Yvonne Schubert was worth every penny. I wonder if she is alive. Would love to see her again.
I have some quesions. I just started reading about Howard Hughes (I'm a little behind the times, I was born in 1951). Gay was a mormon. Did he have no concerns that Yvonne was 15 at the time. If everything was repored to Gay by the mid 50's Hughes must have been loosing control of his fortune long before the 70's. What was your opinion of William Gay? What were the bad things? If you dated Yvonne, how many others who worked for hughes date his starlets?
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