Voting Station

Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo

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Financier

The Resume

    (November 17, 1912-May 8, 1998)
    Born in Tampa, Florida
    Florida businessman and bank owner
    Introduced by U.S. Senator George Smathers to Richard M. Nixon (1950)
    Became Nixon's personal friend and confidant for 44 years until the ex-president's 1994 death
    Investigated by a congressional committee for accepting a $100,000 Republican Party campaign contribution earmarked for Nixon from Howard Hughes and stashing it in a safety deposit box (cleared of any wrongdoing)
    Died of a brain aneurysm in a Miami hospital at age 85

Why he might be annoying:

    His Cuban immigrant parents nicknamed him 'Bebe' as he was their youngest child ('bebe' is Spanish for 'baby').
    He married Claire Gunn in 1931, divorced her four years later without consummating the marriage, then later married her again for a brief period.
    His first impression of Nixon (as told to Smathers), '...He doesn't know how to talk, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't chase women, doesn't know how to play golf, doesn't know how to play tennis... he can't even fish,' yet somehow a friendship was formed.
    Rumors persisted that the two were not just good friends but secret lovers.
    He paid for an investigation of John F. Kennedy, Nixon's 1960 presidential opponent, to find dirt to use in an unsuccessful smear campaign.
    It is believed he had ties with the Genovese crime family, and money laundered by the mob used his bank for their deeds.
    He had business relationships with two of the Watergate burglars and arranged for E. Howard Hunt to spy on a former Cuban investment partner of Nixon.
    In 1976 he was investigated for bank fraud over a loan taken out at the Hudson Valley National Bank, New York, but it was repaid with interest and the bank filed no charges.
    He sued The Washington Post for libel and lost (1978).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He started as an airline steward, then operated a retread tire business and bought some coin laundries.
    From there he bought and sold land in Miami, started his own financial institution (the Key Biscayne Bank) and became a self-made millionaire.
    In 1964 when he opened his bank in Key Biscayne, Nixon was his first customer (safety deposit box #1).
    He received a letter in 1974 threatening to have him murdered.
    He was with Nixon when the president decided to resign his office and stood by him until he died.
    During the 5+ years Nixon was in office, he helped triple the president's net worth, from $307,000 to nearly $1 million.
    Like the true friend he was, he stated in a Miami Herald interview of Nixon, 'He was everything they say he's not. He's a very sensitive man, very thoughtful and, of course, very brilliant.'

Credit: Scar Tactics


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 5 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 84.62% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 17 Votes: 94.12% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 20 Votes: 55.00% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 18 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 72 Votes: 63.89% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 70 Votes: 72.86% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 61 Votes: 60.66% Annoying