Visiting with Vesco

After fleeing prosecution on charges of masterminding a massive mutual-funds swindle and attempting to obstruct justice, Financier Robert Vesco has made himself about as accessible to newsmen as the Abominable Snowman. Thus it surprised the veteran journalists who had been trying to corner Vesco in his Costa Rican refuge that the first substantial interview with him appeared in the April 5 issue of the fledgling biweekly New Times--and was written by a novice, Neil Cullinan, a political science professor at Fort Valley State College in Georgia. Cullinan's coup was quickly matched by Washington Post Reporter Laurence Stern and CBS'S Walter Cronkite. All three interviews yielded fascinating material on the fugitive's mood and lifestyle. They also demonstrated that reaching such a quarry can produce more self-serving and evasive responses than fresh information.

Cullinan got to Vesco through mutual acquaintances among Costa Rican politicians. The result was a series of conversations in Vesco's opulent retreat outside the capital, San Jose. Throughout one talk, a small handgun rested on a table near the casually dressed Vesco. During another, Vesco unburdened his contempt for American democracy ("goddam mob rule") and sympathy for Nixon's fallen men ("Take John Mitchell, that poor s.o.b., or Agnew ... These people cannot afford to pay what I'm paying in legal fees--well over $1 million a year").

To the Post's Stern, who was surprised to find his interview request granted, Vesco sang a similar refrain, adding: "I wouldn't go back home now if they granted me total immunity." In his televised phone talk with Vesco, which was filmed on both ends and aired on two consecutive nights last week, Cronkite got him to discuss some details of his own case. Vesco insisted that his gift to President Nixon's 1972 campaign was not intended to buy off an investigation of his affairs by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also said that it was Nixon's former political adviser, the late Murray Chotiner, who had told him that $200,000 of the gift should be made in cash. Vesco went on to depict the President and himself as victims of a vague political conspiracy and said that three prominent members of past Administrations had attempted six months before the Watergate break-in to enlist his help in bringing down Nixon. Cronkite failed to ask their names; indeed, the questioning was rather gentle. When Cronkite did ask pointedly if Vesco had ever personally discussed his gift or SEC problems with the President, Vesco allowed a pregnant pause and then feigned deafness.

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