Donald Nixon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francis Donald Nixon (23 November 191427 June 1987) was a brother of United States President Richard Nixon.

He was the third of five children:

He married Clara Jane Lemke and had a son named Donald A. Nixon.

In January 1957 Howard Hughes lent Donald Nixon $205,000 to bail out his "Nixon's" drive-in restaurant in Whittier, California. [1] The restaurant went bankrupt less than a year later, and the loan was never repaid. Questions about whether this was a political favor dogged Richard Nixon during his campaign for president and later when he sought the governorship of California. [2]

He never lived it down, and one of the many speculated motives for the 1972 Watergate burglary that ultimately led to Richard Nixon's resignation was a desire to find proof that the then-Democratic National Committee chairman Larry O'Brien was also secretly working for Hughes. [3]

In 1973, criminal financier Robert Vesco fled to Costa Rica hoping to avoid prosecution. Shortly before his departure, in hopes of shutting off the United States Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into his activities, Vesco routed illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon through Donald Nixon, Jr., the younger son of Donald Nixon.

In 1974 the staff of the Senate Watergate committee disclosed additional information to support the charge that Charles Rebozo gave or lent part of a $100,000 "campaign contribution" to President Nixon's personal secretary Rose Mary Woods, and to Nixon's brothers Donald and Edward Nixon. [4]

Donald Nixon, Jr. spent time in jail in Cuba in 1995 after engaging in another fraudulent scheme with Vesco.

[edit] References

  1. ^ DuBois, Larry, and Laurence Gonzales (September 1976). The Puppet and the Puppetmasters. Playboy
  2. ^ Stern, Carl (April 10, 1974). Howard Hughes Contribution / Kalmbach Version. NBC Evening News
  3. ^ Haldeman, H.R. and Joseph Dimona (1978). The Ends of Power. Dell: ISBN 0-440-12239-2
  4. ^ Crewdson, John M. (July 11, 1974). Report Questions Rebozo's Account on Hughes Funds. New York Times

[edit] External links