Robert Maheu, who worked for the FBI and the CIA before he became billionaire Howard Hughes' right-hand man, shielding the eccentric industrialist from the public he feared and crafting the deals that made him a Las Vegas power player, has died. He was 90. The cause was congestive heart failure, according to his son, Peter, who said his father died Monday at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas.
Maheu served as the reclusive mogul's public face for 15 years, from 1955 to 1970. He said he caught glimpses of his enigmatic boss twice but never met face to face with him, communicating instead by phone and memo. "Whenever I spoke, it was Howard Hughes speaking. We had an incredible relationship," said Maheu, speaking to Vanity Fair a few years ago.
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