A Flair for Fund Raising

Though the 1964 Senate hearings on Bobby Baker yielded a tangy crop of headlines, they produced little else. Entrepreneur Baker remained free to pursue his affairs, a peripatetic playboy in alligator shoes. Last week, after three years, another Bobby Baker hearing finally got under way in a far less flamboyant atmosphere. The arena this time was the grimly sterile U.S. courthouse for the District of Columbia, and Baker's accuser was the U.S. Government.

After thorough investigations by the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service, federal authorities were bent on a conviction that could send the former Senate Democratic secretary to prison for up to 48 years.

Baker, his mustelid eyes darting intently about the courtroom, went on trial on nine counts of larceny, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the Government. The onetime boy wonder and Lyndon Johnson protege, now a pudgy 38, is estimated to have amassed $2,000,000 in assets, though his annual Senate salary was $19,612. In his opening statement, Justice Department Counsel William O. Bittman charged that Baker had persuaded California savings-and-loan-company officials to give him $100,000 as contributions for congressional candidates in the 1962 campaign, then pocketed $80,000 for himself. Called by the prosecution, Kenneth Childs, president of the Home Savings and Loan Association of Los Angeles--the nation's biggest S & L company, with assets totaling $2 billion--testified that in 1962 he met with Baker, who complained that Childs's industry was not "politically active" enough and suggested that $100,000 would be an "impressive" contribution from its California members.

$50,100 Wait. According to Childs, Baker listed among those in "strong need" of campaign money: Democratic Senators Carl Hayden of Arizona, William Fulbright of Arkansas and George Smathers of Florida; G.O.P. Senators Thruston Morton of Kentucky, Everett Dirksen of Illinois, Wallace Bennett of Utah and Frank Carlson of Kansas; and Democratic Representative Wilbur Mills of Arkansas. Childs's testimony touched off a mass appearance in court by all eight legislators. After Mills and Fulbright took the stand and denied receiving a cent from Baker (Mills pointed out that he had had no opponent in 1962), Defense Attorney Edward Bennett Williams announced that he would stipulate without testimony that the others had received no money, and all were excused after being sworn. (Quipped Dirksen: "I am going to take the $4 witness fee and frame it.")

Other California savings-and-loan executives testified that they had heeded Baker's formula for political activism. Stuart Davis, chairman of the board of Los Angeles' Great Western Financial Corp., related that in October 1962 he had toted $50,100 in cash in two envelopes to Washington--only to sit around his hotel room for three days waiting for Baker to return his call. Finally, said Davis, "I received a telephone call, saying he'd like to come down to my hotel and see me." Davis said that he got the two envelopes out of the hotel safe, handed them to Baker, who "thanked me in some casual way and put them in his pocket and left." John F. Marten, a former Great Western official who said that he had raised some of the $50,100, testified that he understood it was "for the campaign in the November elections for certain Senators." Did he ever receive any acknowledgement from Senators? "No."

$1,000 Brand. All told, 51 prosecution witnesses testified to Baker's fundraising talents. Ralph Hill, a District of Columbia vending-machine operator, testified that after Baker had helped him get a contract with Melpar Inc., an aerospace subcontractor, he went to Baker's office and "asked him what kind of whisky he drank." Baker, according to Hill, indicated that his brand was worth $1,000 a month. Hill said that he made eight monthly payments of $250 in cash.

Baker could at least hope that the suspense might soon be over. Thanks partly to brisk handling of the case by Federal Judge Oliver Gasch, who took over most of the jury selection himself, the trial, originally expected to last 21 months, may take only three weeks.

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