The CHAIRMAN. "and that I sit here, and that we cannot hold hands." Is that correct?

Mr. LEV. This is her

The CHAIRMAN. Is that correct?

Mr. LEV. That is correct, but is her

The CHAIRMAN. Writing to you?

Mr. LEV. I am sorry I asked you to read this.

Well, I think that is enough.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Lev, the Chair and the committee cares nothing about it other than as it ties into a relationship that is not altogether social. I am not trying to delve into all of the social aspects of your relationship with Mrs. Hort or anyone else. But as this will tie into other testimony that will be presented and some that has been, I wanted you to identify the note.

If I am reading it correctly, since we have gone this far we may as well put it all in the record.

Mr. Lev. All right.

The CHAIRMAN. As I read here: "Too bad you are sitting there and that I sit here, and that we cannot hold hands."

Did you write that to her or did she write that to you?

Mr. LEV. She wrote to me.

The CHAIRMAN. She wrote it to you?

Mr. LEV. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. I am trying to see if all of this business relationship is on the up and up.

You know what I mean, don't you?

Mr. LEV. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Then who wrote this, you or her: "We will change the seat later. Your husband will talk to the colonel." Is that correct? Mr. LEV. Let's see now. It is a misspelling in here. It means her husband.

The CHAIRMAN. "will talk to the colonel."

Mr. LEV. Her husband and myself will talk to the colonel.

The CHAIRMAN. What colonel are you referring to?

Mr. LEV. I am referring to Colonel Painter.

The CHAIRMAN. Colonel Painter?

Mr. LEV. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. You are going to talk to him about this contract? Mr. LEV. No, sir, no contract. That was the plastic. That was the plastic.

Senator BENDER. You were sitting alongside the colonel, and her husband was sitting with her, and then you wanted to change seats? Mr. LEV. I cannot remember exactly the seats, whether we changed. I know who was there at that time. She come in on, it must have been, on a Saturday, I believe on Saturday. I don't believe it is Friday. Maybe it is Friday. I don't know exactly.

Mr. KENNEDY. She came in Sunday morning, and she got there at 9:17 in the morning.

Mr. LEV. Sunday morning?

Mr. KENNEDY. That is right.

Mr. Lev. I cannot recall exactly. Sunday morning. She called me to my home, and at the same time she must have arrived together. Mr. Rubin must have arrived with them together, because he called me to my home. He has never mentioned them to me.

The CHAIRMAN. All right. The original note, together with the transcription of it, will be made exhibit 74, for the record.

(Exhibit No. 74 may be found in the files of the subcommittee.) Mr. Counsel, do you want to proceed?

Mr. KENNEDY. That note was passed between you on the plane going back to New York, isn't that correct?

Mr. LEV. With her?

Mr. KENNEDY. Yes.

Mr. LEV. No, I never went with her.

Mr. KENNEDY. Where would you write a note if she was sitting with her husband on 2 seats, and you were sitting with Colonel Painter in another 2 seats? Where else would you have written that note?

Mr. LEV. I must have left over that note for her.

Mr. KENNEDY. You were looking at one another and passing the note back and forth. When did you write it back and forth to one another, if you didn't travel by plane back?

Mr. LEV. I did not travel with her. I am positive, positively sure. Mr. KENNEDY. When did you write the note?

Mr. LEV. She came in by train and left by train.

Mr. KENNEDY. When would you have written the note? What would be the circumstances under which you would have written the note if it wasn't on the plane going back together?

Didn't you meet out at the airport?

Mr. LEV. Maybe she wrote me that note on that morning they went out sightseeing, sightseeing that Monday.

Mr. KENNEDY (reading):

and we will talk about it tomorrow evening, all of us together. Too bad that you sit there and I sit here and we cannot hold hands.

It doesn't sound like she is out sightseeing.

Mr. LEV. Because she went out sightseeing and I was away.
The CHAIRMAN. You didn't go with her?

Mr. LEV. No.

The CHAIRMAN. It could not have been written while you were sightseeing, then. You were not with her.

Mr. LEV. That was I left over a note to her and that was her writing. I believe she handed over to me that note at dinnertime. I cannot remember exactly. I can't remember exactly. She handed it over to me and I give her back.

The CHAIRMAN. Let's get a little more information about this trip to Chicago.

Why were Mrs. Hort and her husband out to Chicago to see you at that time?

Mr. LEV. On this plastic deal, the plastic.

The CHAIRMAN. On the plastic deal?

Mr. LEV. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. You were coming to New York the next day or two. Why would they make a trip out there on the plastic deal on Sunday and Monday, when you came back to New York on Monday yourself and would be there?

Mr. LEV. Mr. Chairman, I would definitely not know.
The CHAIRMAN. You would definitely not know?

Mr. LEV. No.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean that this trip was arranged for them to come out there and confer with you on business matters without your knowing about it?

Mr. LEV. Definitely.

The CHAIRMAN. Who arranged it?

Mr. Lev. I did not arrange that.

The CHAIRMAN. I said who?

Mr. LEV. I think, I personal believe, that Mr. Rubin must have. The CHAIRMAN. Rubin arranged it?

Mr. LEV. It must be.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you not know that they were coming?
Mr. LEV. No.

The CHAIRMAN. And didn't you meet them when they came in?

Mr. LEV. I met them in the afternoon, late in the afternoon.

The CHAIRMAN. Didn't you meet them when they came in, when they arrived?

Mr. LEV. No.

The CHAIRMAN. And didn't you know they were coming?

Mr. LEV. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. That is correct, you knew they were coming?
Mr. LEV. I did not know.

The CHAIRMAN. You did not know they were coming?

Mr. LEV. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. How did you happen to be down at the railroad station when they came in if you did not know they were coming? Mr. LEV. At the railroad station?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, to meet them there.

Mr. Lev. I wasn't there.

The CHAIRMAN. Are you positive about that?

Mr. LEV. I am positively.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Lev, don't you know that this whole trip was arranged to come out there to close, as they understood it, this business deal, and after they had been there you had told them that another deal had come up and that you would have to defer this until some time later?

Mr. LEV. That is correct, but I did not meet them in the railroad station.

The CHAIRMAN. That is correct, they came out to talk to you about this, what you call the plastic deal?

Mr. LEV. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. And they did talk to you about it?

Mr. LEV. They talked to me.

The CHAIRMAN. And they brought contracts out there to be signed

up, did they not?

Mr. LEV. No, no contracts. It was a survey.

The CHAIRMAN. You call it a survey?

Mr. LEV. It was a survey, yes, about three-quarters of an inch thick.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you go over it with them out there?

Mr. LEV. No, I just told them-no, I did not took the survey.

The CHAIRMAN. What happened?

Mr. LEV. I called Colonel Painter.

The CHAIRMAN. You did what?

Mr. LEV. I told Colonel Painter about it. I don't remember whether I took with me, or Colonel Painter went in. They were staying in the Morrison Hotel. He looked it over and then he took it over on the train-train or plane, I don't remember how he come in-and he told me it is definitely not for me.

The CHAIRMAN. He told you definitely it wasn't for him?
Mr. LEV. That is right. Not for me.

The CHAIRMAN. For you?

Mr. LEV. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. When did you notify the Horts, either Mrs. Hort or Dr. Hort, that you were not going to go through with the deal? Mr. LEV. Well, let's see now. I cannot recall exactly.

The CHAIRMAN. Let's get it about exactly.

Mr. LEV. I think I told her also when we had dinner together, Mr. and Mrs. Hort, Colonel Painter, and my little girl, 11 years old, and Rubin was there. I told her, I says, "We are working now on this white contract, and if we are going to get the white contract, we are certainly not going into the deal."

The CHAIRMAN. State that again. What did you say?
Mr. LEV. "We are bidding on a white-hat contract-
The CHAIRMAN. Bidding on the white-hat contract?

Mr. LEV. That is correct; "and if we get it, we will be the lowest responsible bidder, and we are certainly not going into the deal.”

The CHAIRMAN. If you got the white-hat contract, you were not going into the deal?

Mr. LEV. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. When did you tell them that? You say you told her, I believe.

Mr. LEV. I told her and I told him at the same time, I believe.
The CHAIRMAN. At the same time?

Mr. LEV. I believe it was.

The CHAIRMAN. When? And where were you when you told them?
Mr. LEV. Well, I believe I told them at the dinnertime once.
The CHAIRMAN. At Chicago?

Mr. LEV. At Chicago, yes.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, you told them that that night, at dinner, after they arrived in the afternoon?

Mr. LEV. Not in the afternoon. That was in the evening, when we had dinner.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, they arrived in the afternoon and you were having dinner that evening?

Mr. LEV. That evening, yes.

The CHAIRMAN. And it was at dinner you told them you were not going to go through with the deal if you got the white-hat contract! Mr. LEV. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that your testimony?

Mr. LEV. That is as much as I could remember.

The CHAIRMAN. That may prove to be pretty important in the course of these hearings, and I want you to be as specific as you will.

Mr. LEV. Well, Mr. Chairman, I definitely do not actually remember whether I told her at the dinner or whether I told her in New York. I don't remember exactly. But it was a short time. There was a short time.

The CHAIRMAN. All right.

Well, at the time that you were at dinner that evening, when you say you told them that if you got the white-hat contract you would not go through with the other deal, had you at that time gone over the so-called survey that you have been talking about?

Mr. LEV. The survey?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. LEV. The survey? I believe that Colonel Painter was late in the afternoon looking at it at the Morrison Hotel, and he also take him along I cannot remember whether he went on the plane or the train-going to New York.

The CHAIRMAN. He went to New York after you had dinner that evening. I am not talking about what he did after dinner. I am talking about what he did before dinner when you say you told them that you would not go through with the contract if you got the white-hat deal.

Mr. LEV. I do not remember exactly, but I told him at the dinner or I told him shortly afterward. I cannot recall exactly. It is pretty hard for me to remember exactly the specific detail.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, it might be very important. In other words, you do testify, or do you, that you did tell them before they left Chicago to go back to New York?

Mr. LEV. I told them to go to New York because, in the first thing, I was very much surprised they come in, and Rubin did not even told nie. He didn't told me. It looks to me like Rubin come in the same time. Or maybe-No, no. Pardon me. I am going to change.

Rubin come in by plane, because he called me from the plane. Whether he called me from the plane or called me from the train, I don't know. He told me he called me from the plane, so I assumed it was from the plane. They come in by train. Rubin must know about them, why they come into Chicago.

The CHAIRMAN. Did they come out there on the ostensible purpose of closing a business deal with you?

Mr. LEV. That is correct, the plastic, yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Notwithstanding you were coming to New York the next day?

Mr. LEV. Was it on the next day?

The CHAIRMAN. Monday would be the next day after Sunday. Mr. LEV. Yes, but what date would it be? Colonel Painter come in, you say, the 5th. I can figure that out.

Mr. KENNEDY. Tuesday was the 5th.

Mr. LEV. Was it opened on the 5th?

Mr. KENNEDY. That is right. You came back to New York on the 4th.

Mr. LEV. On the fourth I come in, and Colonel Painter came in a trip before. I cannot recall exactly, but if it was a trip before the fourth, it must have been on the third.

Mr. KENNEDY. What was on the third?

Mr. LEV. Colonel Painter must have come in on the third and I come in on the fourth.

Mr. KENNEDY. She was upset that she didn't get the contract anyway, is that true, that you wouldn't go through with the contract with her?

Mr. LEV. Very much.