Weinberg, Steve. Armand Hammer: The Untold Story. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989. 501 pages.

This biography of Armand Hammer is one of five, but the first that is unauthorized. Reviewer Anthony Sampson thought even this one was overly kind, but that was before the ever-litigious Hammer filed a nuisance suit in England alleging 173 instances of defamation. Until Hammer died in December 1990, Steve Weinberg -- a journalism professor at the University of Missouri and director of Investigative Reporters and Editors -- was looking at what could have been the most expensive defamation trial in British history.

Hammer's self-celebrated career began at a meeting with Lenin, and blossomed into a long series of insider business deals in the USSR. Soviet documents reveal that he ferried $34,000 from the Soviets to the American Communist Party in 1921. But Hammer wasn't one to let ideology get in the way of business -- in 1976 he pleaded guilty to charges of trying to conceal a $54,000 contribution to Nixon's reelection campaign, and received a tiny fine (and eventually a pardon from George Bush). Hammer's control over his $20 billion Occidental Petroleum was so firm that stockholders complained about picking up the tab for his art collections. Although he was frequently under SEC investigation, his lawyers and connections always came through. Before the "Teflon tycoon" died at age 92, many were beginning to worry that the hyperactive Hammer was not only untouchable, but might even be immortal.
ISBN 0-316-92839-9

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