Hughes Aide Maheu Files Suit Over Best-Seller

Longtime Howard Hughes aide Robert Maheu has filed a $20-million damage suit against the author and publisher of the best-selling book “Citizen Hughes,” charging that they profited illegally from using material that belonged to him.

In the suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Maheu says the book is based upon and derived from an extensive correspondence between the eccentric billionaire and himself, and that the letters and memorandums were taken without his knowledge or consent.

The letters in question were taken from a Hughes-owned Hollywood warehouse in an unsolved burglary.

Named defendants in the suit, filed Wednesday, were Michael Drosnin, author of the book, and Holt, Rinehart & Winston Inc., the publisher, along with CBS Inc., owner of Holt, Rinehart, and Playboy Inc., which printed excerpts of the book.

Personal Relationship

Maheu says in the suit that he enjoyed a close personal relationship with the late Hughes through the exchange of private and confidential letters from about 1956 to 1970.

Much of the book “Citizen Hughes” is based on memorandums exchanged between Maheu and Hughes between 1966-70 when Hughes was buying up hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and living a reclusive existence in a top-floor suite of the Desert Inn there. At the time, Maheu headed Hughes’ Nevada operation.

Maheu says in the suit that publication of the private and confidential material has exposed him to contempt and ridicule and caused him to suffer loss of reputation and standing in the community. Maheu is also asking that the court order profits from the book placed in a trust for him.

In the book, Drosnin says he deduced who committed the Hollywood warehouse burglary and acquired the letters from the burglar after promising to protect his identity.

CBS Has No Comment

The Times was unable to contact Drosnin. A CBS spokesman, John Workman, said Friday there would be no comment until lawyers had reviewed Maheu’s complaint.

Attorney Joseph Hurley, who filed the suit for Maheu, called publication of material known to be stolen “a shocking low” in publishing.