Hougan, Jim. Spooks: The Haunting of America -- The Private Use of Secret
Agents. New York: Bantam Books, 1979. 481 pages.
A ground-breaking investigative survey of parapolitical America,
"Spooks" was one of the first books to report on the privatization of the
intelligence function: the application of intelligence practices to
commercial activities, and the emergence of CIAs-for-hire in the private
sector. Within this general framework, Hougan unearths great chunks of
America's "secret history." The war between Jimmy Hoffa and the Kennedy
family is seen to have had a public and a private side, with the latter
fought by countermeasures genius Bernard Spindel against "an archipelago"
of public and private intelligence agencies working for Bobby and Jack.
Calling Howard Hughes "an American Dracula," Hougan offers a blow-by-
blow account of the bedside battle fought by Intertel and former CIA agent
Robert Maheu for control over the drug-addicted billionaire's body and
empire. Other sections of the book describe Robert Vesco's assault on
Investors Overseas Services; Richard Nixon's "French connection" to
industrialist Paul Louis Weiller; the efforts of paramilitary wizard Mitch
WerBell and CIA superspook Lucien Conein to introduce a "final solution"
to the War on Drugs; and the World War II background of Japanese and
German agents who played key roles in the Lockheed bribery scandal. Packed
with anecdotes, footnotes, and proper names, "Spooks" is a classic.
ISBN 0-553-13118-4
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