Mr. VAUGHN. I don't believe anybody's name was mentioned, but I think it was a question of recordings being mentioned. Mr. KENNEDY. Recordings? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Some recordings being made, and that he wanted to get in touch with you about this right away? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir; it was with Mr. Seedman right away. Mr. KENNEDY. And you told him to get in touch with Mr. Cohen? Mr. KENNEDY. Did Seedman subsequently report to you that he had heard some recordings that had been made by a private investigator? Mr. VAUGHN. He told me that he heard them; yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. He heard them in the company of Mickey Cohen? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. And what did he say? What did he report to you about the recordings? Mr. VAUGHN. He said they were unintelligible and he could not distinguish the conversation, and it seemed to be of no value whatsoever. Mr. KENNEDY. Now, the location war between the Coast and the Rowe Co. continued; is that right? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. And you went back to Los Angeles on December 8 ? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. We will come back to these recordings in a few moments, but I want to bring it up to the proper time. You checked into the Beverly Hills Hotel and you stayed there until December 14, 1957; is that right? Mr. VAUGHN. From Sunday night to Saturday morning, and I believe those were the dates, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. During that period of December 8 through December 14, you were in contact with Cohen and Sica on occasions socially, and then Mr. Cohen visited your room at the hotel, did he not? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Quite frequently during that period of time? Mr. KENNEDY. That was just social visits? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Then around December 11, you, without contacting Mr. Seedman, contacted the head of the Coast Co., Mr. Carr, and suggested ending the battle for locations? Mr. VAUGHN. Well, I knew that a meeting had already been set for Wednesday, and I was just trying to anticipate in advance that there would be no difficulties in reaching arbitration. Mr. KENNEDY. So there was an agreement made, that arose out of your efforts! Mr. VAUGHN. I wouldn't say it was out of my efforts, but I was helpful. Mr. KENNEDY. You were helpful? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. And the agreement was that each side would cease offering unduly high commissions to locations; and two, each would retain the locations they had and were servicing; and three, each would refrain from taking the others' locations; and four, each would in the future engage in only "normal competition." Mr. VAUGHN. I don't know that phase of it, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Was that generally along those lines? Mr. VAUGHN. I knew both companies were losing money in all of their transactions and they were just going to stop doing all of these things that they were losing money on. Mr. KENNEDY. These were the sort of things causing the difficulty between the companies Mr. VAUGHN. Some of those things; yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Was there anything that I mentioned that wasn't causing difficulty? Mr. VAUGHN. I didn't get them, and I didn't get them all. Mr. KENNEDY. But generally you were going to stop this jumping of locations? Mr. VAUGHN. I was going to be a third party. Mr. KENNEDY. The two companies were going to stop? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. And the war was going to cease? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. And then somewhere between December 11 and December 12, that agreement was made? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Between the two companies? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. About this time did Mr. Cohen come to you about paying for these recordings, and for the price of hearing these recordings? Did he come to you in connection with that? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, he did, sir. He mentioned it to me and I don't think that he made a specific trip for that, but he did tell me that in the course of conversations. Mr. KENNEDY. That you should pay for the fact that Mr. Seedman heard the recordings? Mr. VAUGHN. He felt that Mr. Otash should be reimbursed for letting Mr. Seedman hear the recordings. Mr. KENNEDY. How much did he want for that? Mr. VAUGHN. Now, this is an item that I completely forgot about until last week, and so much had happened, but to the best of my knowledge the amount was $1,000. Mr. KENNEDY. Where did you get that? Did you agree then to pay Cohen $1,000 for Mr. Seedman hearing these recordings which were unintelligible? Mr. VAUGHN. I discussed it with Mr. Seedman, of course, and the money that was spent was Mr. Seedman's and his company's money, and I naturally would discuss it with him. Mr. KENNEDY. What did he say? Mr. VAUGHN. He said, well, since the whole thing was over with, probably rather than antagonize anybody, even though the recordings were worthless, the money should be paid. Mr. KENNEDY. So did you give Mr. Cohen the $1,000? Mr. VAUGHN. To the best of my recollection; I did. Mr. KENNEDY. What is the question? Mr. VAUGHN. Did I give him the money? Mr. KENNEDY. Is there any question in your mind that you gave him the $1,000? Mr. VAUGHN. There is an area, and I was talking to one of your staff members, there is an area of doubt there, but that is why I say to the best of my knowledge I gave it to him. Mr. KENNEDY. Is the area of doubt on the question of whether you gave him any money or the amount of money? Mr. VAUGHN. The amount of money. Mr. KENNEDY. You gave him some money and you don't know, or you believe it was $1,000, but it could have been $500? Mr. VAUGHN. That is right, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. But your best recollection is that you paid him $1,000? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. You know that you did pay him? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Who was present at the time that you gave the $1,000 or whatever amount it might have been, which we will call $1,000, with the question that you have raised about it. Who was present at the time that you gave him this money? Mr. VAUGHN. To the best of my recollection, there were people in the living room of the suite, and I went with Mr. Cohen to the bedroom of the suite, and gave him the $1,000 at that time. Mr. KENNEDY. Whose suite was that? Mr. VAUGHN. It was my suite, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. You called him in and gave him $1,000? Mr. KENNEDY. Was this in an envelope or cash? Mr. VAUGHAN. To the best of my recollection, it was cash. Mr. KENNEDY. In an envelope? Mr. VAUGHAN. No; just cash. Mr. KENNEDY. In $100 bills? Mr. VAUGHAN. To the best of my recollection; yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Did you cash a check to get the $500 of the $1,000? Mr. VAUGHAN. Yes, sir; I did, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Was that your own personal check? Mr. VAUGHAN. No; it was a check of the Rowe Service Co. in Los Angeles. Mr. KENNEDY. Where did you get the other $500 from? Mr. VAUGHAN. Well again, to the best of my recollection on this other $500 Mr. Seedman gave that to me at the same time. Mr. KENNEDY. Now, did you ever meet the investigator who han dled these recordings? Mr. VAUGHAN. Yes, sir; I did. Mr. KENNEDY. Did you have any conversations with him about the recordings? Mr. VAUGHAN. No, not to my knowledge, we didn't discuss that Mr. KENNEDY. What were the recordings supposed to have been? Mr. VAUGHAN. I didn't hear them, and so I can't say; it would be conjecture on my part, and I actually don't know. Mr. KENNEDY. What did Mr. Seedman report to you as to what the recordings were? Mr. VAUGHAN. He said they were unintelligible and he could not make them out. Mr. KENNEDY. Could you tell the committee why you paid $1,000 to listen to unintelligible recordings, which you didn't know anything about, and you didn't know what they were supposed to be? Mr. VAUGHAN. It is a very good question, and the only answer I can give to you on that was that we wanted to end the whole thing once and for all at that particular time. Mr. KENNEDY. If anybody had come into the hotel room that day, and said, "I have a group of recordings in my box, and nobody can understand them, but I will let you listen to them for $1,000," would you have done it? Mr. VAUGHAN. No, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Why did you do it in this case? Mr. VAUGHN. Well, at the time that the recordings were offered to be hired, no one knew what they contained, that would be my best answer. Mr. KENNEDY. So you found out what they contained, which was nothing. Mr. VAUGHN. But I believe Mr. Cohen probably, or I would say made a commitment on that. Mr. KENNEDY. You didn't make a commitment? Mr. VAUGHN. No; I made no commitment. Mr. KENNEDY. If they didn't contain aynthing, why did you pay him $1,000, Mr. Vaughn? Mr. VAUGHN. Only to end the thing, and Mr. Cohen suggested that Mr. Otash be reimbursed for letting Mr. Seedman hear the recordings. Mr. KENNEDY. Do you feel that because it was Mickey Cohen who made the suggestion, you should pay the $1,000? Mr. VAUGHN. I would say it would have to have some bearing on it, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. And you didn't give the money to Otash anyway. You gave it to Mickey Cohen. Mr. VAUGHN. That is right, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. You don't know whether Mr. Otash received the money; do you? Mr. VAUGHN. No, I don't, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. You just wanted peace; is that right? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. And you felt that Mickey Cohen could give it to you? Mr. VAUGHN. No. I just didn't want any-he had no part of it. We just didn't want Mr. Cohen interfering with our business one way or the other. Mr. KENNEDY. You thought if you didn't pay him the $1,000, he could cause you some trouble? Mr. VAUGHN. No, I don't think that he would have caused trouble because of the $1,000, but rather, just to bring to an end the whole thing, and if that is what it took to make him happy, then the $1,000 at that moment was of small consequences. Mr. KENNEDY. Is that what it costs in Los Angeles to make Mickey Cohen happy-$1,000? Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Kennedy Mr. KENNEDY. You can see why this point would be raised, do you not? Mr. VAUGHN. I don't know, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. But that is how much you had to pay? Mr. VAUGHN. That is what was paid; yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Did you have any other financial dealings with Mr. Cohen? Mr. VAUGHN. Sometime during that second week Mr. Cohen called me and asked me to loan him $3,000 for a few days, which I agreed to do. And that same night his attorney came to my room and secured two checks totaling $3,000. Mr. KENNEDY. His attorney was Mr. Edward Gritz? Mr. VAUGHN. That is right sir. Mr. KENNEDY. He came to your room that night! Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. And you gave him two checks, one for $1,150 and one for $1,850? Mr. VAUGHN. That is right, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. Each made payable to Michael Cohen? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. The checks were endorsed over as loan to Michael Cohen; is that right? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. Mr. KENNEDY. You drew those two checks against your personal account? Mr. VAUGHN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Í present to you what purport to be photostatic copies of the two checks to which you have referred. I ask you to examine them and state if you identify them as such. (The documents were handed to the witness.) Mr. VAUGHN. They are correct, Senator. The CHAIRMAN. They may be made exhibit No. 65. The smaller one will be No. 65 and the larger one will be 65-A. (Checks referred to were marked "Exhibits 65 and 65-A" for reference and will be found in the appendix on pp. 17681, 17682.) Mr. KENNEDY. Why did you loan $3,000 to Mickey Cohen? Mr. VAUGHN. Well, in the back of my mind I guess one of the reasons was that I knew I had a commitment to him or Mr. Sica in March, and that if he didn't pay me back that the $3,000 would be part of that $5,000 that had to be paid in March. Mr. KENNEDY. Did you have any conversation with him at the time you made the loan of $3,000 to that effect? Mr. VAUGHN. No, not at the time the loan was made; no, sir. Mr. VAUGHN. At the end, just before I left Los Angeles, I told Mr. Cohen that that could be considered part of the $5,000 that I owed in March. Mr. KENNEDY. He was going to originally pay you back within a few days, but then it was arranged when you were leaving Los Angeles |