Dead Men Tell No Tales

"Did you steal that money?" asked the defense attorney over and over. Each time, the witness replied crisply: "I did not." Thus a beleaguered Bobby Baker last week emphatically denied in court one of the U.S. Government's key accusations against him: that he had raised $99,600 in contributions for congressional candidates in 1962, only to pocket most of it himself. Then what became of the money? In reply, the former Senate Democratic secretary invoked the name of a man who could not possibly dispute or corroborate his account. He had given the cash, Baker claimed, to Democratic Senator Robert S. Kerr shortly before the Oklahoma millionaire died on Jan. 1, 1963.

If that sounded like a Shakespearean bid to call spirits from the vasty deep, it came as no more of a surprise than the fact that Baker was testifying at all. When he went on trial two weeks ago for larceny, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the Government (TIME, Jan. 20), it seemed unlikely that the onetime

Washington whizbang would elect to take the stand. Yet after the prosecution rested its case, Defense Attorney Edward Bennett Williams called Baker as his first witness. Displaying little of the bravado of his less troubled days, Bobby calmly told the jury of sundry influence-peddling deals. But his own role, he maintained, had been little more than that of an errand boy for Kerr.

Prompt Promise. Baker also evoked Lyndon Johnson's name four times. When he found in the summer of 1962 that he was desperately short of cash for his $1,200,000 Maryland shore Carousel Motel, Baker testified, he took his woes to Johnson, whom he described as "the best friend I had around the Capitol." Baker said: "The then Vice Presi dent picked up the phone and called his friend and my friend--Senator Kerr. He then advised me to go immediately to Senator Kerr's office, which I did."

According to Baker, Kerr at once promised personally to lend him $50,000, advanced him $10,000 of it forthwith and arranged an additional $250,000 line of credit from an Oklahoma City bank.

As it happened--and as Baker recounted in court--Kerr was deeply involved at the time in political infighting over the tax reform bill of 1962, which sought to end the special tax treatment enjoyed by savings and loan associations. At the suggestion of an industry lobbyist, Baker arranged a meeting in September 1962 between Kerr and Kenneth Childs, a Los Angeles S & L executive. Afterward, Baker went on, Childs informed him that "as a result of the conference with Senator Kerr," he was going back to California and get together a "substantial contribution to Senator Kerr, to be used in the 1962 election." The tax reform bill was en acted by Congress on Oct. 2--but only after a conference committee knocked out a feature to which stockholderowned S & L companies had objected.

Baker testified that on three occasions, in October and November, he had been handed envelopes containing money--presumably the disputed $99,600 --by executives of West Coast S & L companies. Each time, Baker insisted, he turned over the envelopes to Kerr. On one such occasion, Baker received two envelopes from Stuart Davis, board chairman of Los Angeles' Great Western Financial Corp. (who had previously testified that they contained $50,100 in campaign funds). When he gave the envelopes to Kerr, Baker continued, the Senator loaned him $25,000 of the money, with the comment that he would "replenish" it later from his own funds. Bobby also said that he visited Oklahoma after Thanksgiving, at which time Kerr gave him another $15,000--completing the $50,000 loan he had promised him.

Happy Christmas! On Dec. 16, 1962, Kerr suffered the illness that was to lead to a fatal heart attack two weeks later. Baker testified that at Christmas he received a call from Kerr, but at first could not believe that it was really the Senator. After all, said Bobby, "when Senator Johnson had his heart attack, the doctors insisted that he not make telephone calls." Making Kerr sound like the reformed Scrooge, Baker said the Senator told him that "he wanted to call me to let me know he loved me and my family. He said, 'Bob, I hope this is the best Christmas you've ever had. You've had it tough. The reason I wanted to talk to you was I wanted to wipe your slate clean of money I loaned you.' " According to Baker, Kerr told him that the $50,000 was payment "for the many wonderful things you have done for me."

If Bobby Baker had indeed turned over all the "political contributions" to Kerr, what did the Senator do with them? In his opening statement, Defense Attorney Williams said that when Kerr's Washington safe deposit box was opened following his death, it yielded "an equivalent sum to what had been turned over to him" by Baker. Without specifying that amount, Williams declared that Baker "did not commit theft from the savings and loan executives." Government attorneys this week will try to shake Baker's story under crossexamination. Whatever the outcome, his testimony will only becloud the memory of Bob Kerr--the man with whom Baker, according to his attorney, had "a father-son relationship."

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