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But there was a pesky problem of financing the garage—and it had still not been solved in 1950. The garage promoters hit on the bright idea of selling its virtues as an atomic bomb shelter. On June 21, 1950, Massachusetts Democratic Governor Paul Dever and Boston's Democratic Mayor John Hynes, both old Goldfine friends, visited the White House to ask President Truman for Reconstruction Finance Corp. help in building the garage-bomb shelter. Next day, on June 22, Massachusetts' Democratic Representative John McCormack, one of the best Goldfine friends of all, publicly announced that President Truman was intensely interested in the civil defense aspects of the Boston Common garage.
Truman's interest took visible form. Within a week, John Steelman, then one of President Truman's closest advisers, moved into action. A June 30 entry in the diary of RFC Commissioner Walter Dunham read: "Mr. John Steelman, White House, telephoned. Said the President had requested him to call each director of the RFC regarding the garage to be constructed under Boston Common . . . Dr. Steelman also stated that the study of the situation revealed that conditions would justify extreme interest on the part of the RFC." That same day, June 30, 1950, the RFC authorized a $12 million loan to Motor Park Inc.
Things looked good. For the first time, Bernard Goldfine stepped out front as the man behind the garage scheme, throwing a huge party at Boston's Copley Plaza Hotel and proclaiming himself Boston's protector against atomic attack. But RFC had attached a hooker to its offer: it required Motor Parks Inc. to put up $3,000,000 in listed, marketable securities as collateral. Goldfine either could not or would not raise the collateral. Therefore on Dec. 12, 1950, a remarkable delegation called on President Truman to urge that RFC relax its requirement. The delegation: Goldfine, Mayor Hynes, Governor Dever. Congressman McCormack and Maurice Tobin, by then Secretary of Labor. Result: no deal—the Fulbright Senate investigating committee was already moving in on RFC scandals.
That left Goldfine in a spot. In 1951 his friend Governor Dever desperately tried to ram through the legislature a bill changing the rules of the state's lending institutions to permit them to buy Motor Park Inc. bonds. The move got nowhere, but Dever remained Goldfine's best bet. In 1952 Goldfine lent John Fox's Boston Post $400,000 in return for supporting Governor Dever for reelection. Dever lost anyhow—and the garage under Boston Common was clearly a moribund project. By that time Goldfine had pumped an estimated $500,000 into promoting it—but he managed to halve his losses by selling equally devious John Fox (TIME, July 7) about $225,000 worth of the dead dog.
*Including a $275 suit by a mason who repaired his house, had Goldfine's Lincoln seized by court order. Goldfine settled.