Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.
Remembered as billionaire Howard Hughes’ “alter ego,” Robert Maheu helped mold Las Vegas into what it is today. Maheu, a larger-than-life character who shepherded Hughes through his Nevada stay, died Monday. He was 90.
When Hughes came to Las Vegas in 1966, Maheu was his established right-hand man. Hughes had a base of operations in Los Angeles, but complained of being a “small fish in a big pond.” After spending several months in Boston to plot his next move, Hughes figured he could be a big fish in the small pond of Southern Nevada.
It was Maheu, however, who made that happen. Maheu engineered Hughes’ casino purchases and land deals. By the time Hughes was spirited out of Las Vegas in 1970, much of the Strip and the desert in the Las Vegas Valley was under Hughes’ control.
Hughes’ tenure, though short, created the beginning of the end of organized crime’s control of Las Vegas casinos and the beginning of corporate casino ownership. Beyond his gaming ventures, Hughes bought the land that would eventually become Summerlin.
Maheu liked to point out that Hughes didn’t make Las Vegas what it is today, but he “paved the way.”
It might not have happened without Maheu, who had a resume perfect for the reclusive and paranoid Hughes. Maheu had worked for the FBI and the CIA, and he had dealt with organized crime in the past — the CIA used him as an intermediary to negotiate with the Mafia to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Maheu successfully navigated Hughes’ bizarre behavior as well as the politics and players of the times to help lay the foundation for modern-day Las Vegas. He was not only the right man for Hughes but also the right man for Las Vegas.
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