# Was Bobby Kennedy THIS ruthless? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 5, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bobby-kennedy-this-ruthless/288462 "2005-02-05T01:19:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![harry\_sgame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@harry\_sgame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harry_sgame)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bobby-kennedy-this-ruthless/288462/1 "2005-02-05T01:19:45Z")
I remember watching the movie “Nixon” and hearing Tricky Dick saying that Bobby Kennedy had Nixon’s mother’s taxes audited while she was in the hospital with cancer. I knew RFK could do some low things, but is there any proof/common knowledge of this one? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bobby-kennedy-this-ruthless/288462/2 "2005-02-05T02:21:15Z")
I spent 25 minutes researching and answering this, only to have the board go down and eat my post. grrrrrrr! Long and short: In 1956, Howard Hughes, through his Hughes Tool Company, loaned Frank NIxon, Richards brother, $250,000 to keep Franks failing restaurants afloat(it didn’t help). The sham loan was secured by a piece of property in the name of Hannah Nixon, the mom. Richard Nixon having just been elected vice president, perhaps the reason for the loan was an attempt to curry political favor. In 1961, an anonymous tip was provided to the White House/Justice Dept. by a newspaper publisher who hated Nixon. The Justice Dept., under Robert Kennedy, investigated the loan, and concluded that there was nothing to prosecute. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bobby-kennedy-this-ruthless/288462/3 "2005-02-05T02:33:54Z")
One thing to keep in mind is that the movie _Nixon_ was directed by Oliver Stone, the same guy who “treated” us to the movie _JFK_. Therefore, your first assumption, upon seeing something in the movie, is that it’s either completely made up, or took a small snippet of fact and distorted it beyond recognition. I didn’t know the information that samclem most excellently provided, but it sure fits the pattern, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bobby-kennedy-this-ruthless/288462/4 "2005-02-05T05:17:19Z")
Not to defend Stone, but the movie didn’t actually have a scene showing RFK/Justice auditing Hannah Nixon, it merely showed Richard Nixon complaining about it, which seems entirely in character for the paranoid Mr. Nixon. I don’t think you can accuse Stone of making up history in that instance (the rest of the movie, sure).