Investigations: The Silent Witness

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Richie, a $403-a-month telephone page in Baker's office, roomed with Stewart, also a page, and paid Stewart $50 a month rent. When Stewart went off the Senate payroll while on military duty, Richie said, Baker ordered him to pay an additional $50 monthly, presumably to make up for Stewart's missing income. Richie, who was dating Lucy Baines Johnson at the time, mentioned the inequitable arrangement to then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson. L.B.J. spoke to Baker, suggested that Richie live free for three months in Stewart's apartment to make up what he had lost. Said Baker, explaining why the bite had been put on Richie: "After all, he was just a teen-ager making a good salary."

Had Baker received $10,000 from Fred Black for a 1960 presidential candidate's campaign contribution?

Reynolds told the committee's Republican members that he was present when Black gave Baker $10,000 in cash "to get our man elected," and promised $90,000 more. Reynolds said that Baker later told him the money was for Johnson's campaign.

"A Tragedy." The Rules Committee was understandably grieved by Baker's refusal to answer such questions. Declared Counsel McLendon: "We have witnessed a tragedy this morning because a man who has occupied a very high position in Government—so important, so sensitive, so close to the heart of Government—finds it necessary to invoke the protection of the Fifth Amendment."

Next day the committee got another brushoff—but, all things being relative, this one seemed almost pleasurable. When Carole Tyler swept into the hearing room on the arm of her lawyer, the photographers nearly rioted. From her lacquered bouffant hairdo down to her black high-heeled pumps, she was 5 ft. 4 in. of elliptical extravagance. Unlike Baker, Carole did not in the least mind appearing on television; rather, her batter-thick pancake makeup, her bright vermilion lip paint and her heavily charcoaled eyebrows seemed ready for living color. The Baker investigation, she pouted, "has resulted in some worldwide intimations and suggestions that I have indulged in improper conduct, to say the least." She went on to lecture the Senators on what the U.S. Supreme Court has said about taking a person's use of the Fifth Amendment as evidence of guilt. "I pray," she purred, "that the public will keep an open mind regarding me in order to insure that no further irreparable injury may result to my reputation." The committee was gentle with her, asked only 25 questions. When she refused to answer, it was with sweet firmness. Each time, she read from a typewritten card: "I decline to answer on the ground that this investigation is unrelated to any legislative purpose and is an invalid invasion of my right of privacy; and I decline to answer on the further ground that my answer might tend to incriminate me."

After his committee appearance, Bobby repaired to Duke Zeibert's restaurant, a favorite spa for Washington's political jet set, and presided over a luncheon with his attorneys. As for Carole, she went back to Baker's law office, where she is working these days. For a couple of country kids, they had come a long way from rural South Carolina and rural Tennessee.