A Heap of Woe for the Junkman

Bond wiz Milken prepares for criminal charges

The battle to control RJR Nabisco has pitted some of Wall Street's most powerful investment houses against one another, but the financial muscle behind the bidding is really the legacy of one man: Michael Milken. It is not just that Milken's firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, is bankrolling the Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bid to the tune of $5 billion. Milken's role is much grander and far more controversial. The boyish moneyman with the tousled toupee and the obsessive work habits has almost single-handedly sparked the frenzy of takeovers and buyouts that has given the Roaring Eighties their name. And his tactics along...

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