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Mother Lode. Then the committee hit the mother lode. Major General Oliver Echols, wartime materiel chief of the A.A.F., set the committee on the track of another Hughes project: the high-speed XF-II photoreconnaissance plane, in which Planemaker Hughes had crashed a year ago. Whooping with delight, the committee learned that the XF-II had been urged on the Air Forces by none other than Colonel (later Brigadier General) Elliott Roosevelt.
This time the committee, in its questioning, plunged gleefully back to the summer of 1943. Colonel Roosevelt, home from duty as operations officer of a photoreconnaissance group in the Mediterranean, had been ordered by the A.A.F.'s General Henry H. Arnold to recommend a new plane to replace the makeshift, reconverted P-38s and B-17s. (Why "Hap" Arnold picked Newcomer Roosevelt to do this job was not made clear.) Over the violent objections of General Echols and his boss, Barney Giles, chief of air staff, Elliott Roosevelt had insisted on the XF-II. "Hap" Arnold put through a $50 million contract for 101 of them, although later he scaled it down to three trial models for $22 million.
Chairman Ferguson promptly summoned Hughes's pressagent, John Meyer, the man with the inexhaustible bank account and all the girl friends. Chairman Ferguson proceeded with loving caution.
It was late in the afternoon when Johnny arrived in the committee room, and he was still groggy from lack of sleep after his flying trip back from France. He was on the stand only 15 minutes the first day, just long enough to admit he had known Elliott Roosevelt. Then he went off to bed. Next day the lid blew off.
"So Charming." His bald pate shining under the committee's klieglights, rubber-faced Johnny Meyer said that he had indeed known Elliott Roosevelt more than somewhat. All the time Roosevelt had been out looking at planes, Hughes's Meyer had been at Elliott's elbow, pouring on the treatment. The night that the final Roosevelt recommendation went to Washington, Johnny had treated Elliott to the tune of $106.50 at Manhattan's swank night clubs.
Nothing was too good for a prospective buyer. Johnny had even introduced Elliott to Movie Actress Faye Emerson, had flown her East for a visit and had presented her with $132 worth of war-scarce nylons because she was "so charming." There were expensive weekends from Palm Springs to Washington. There were other favors too.
Johnny's expense accounts, which Hughes had always demanded and the committee had seized, were spread as evidence. After one dinner for Elliott, Johnny had meticulously jotted down the item of $200 as "presents for four girls." There was another cryptic notation of $50 for "girls at hotel (late)." From the summer of 1943 to the autumn of 1945, Meyer figured, he had spent the whopping sum of $5,083.79 on fun & games for Elliott Roosevelt and his friends. In December 1944, Elliott married Faye.
Nehemiah 6. All in all, Elliott and Johnny had gotten along fine together. Elliott brought Johnny right into the family. At election time in 1944, Johnny Meyer said he was invited up to Hyde Park for a visit. He had been invited to the White House twice, he added, the second time as one of the guests for President Franklin Roosevelt's funeral.