Hughes’s right-hand man dies aged 90

The mad king went in 1976. Now his most trusted courtier has joined him. Robert Maheu, who worked for the FBI and CIA before he became confidant and right-hand man to the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, has died aged 90 in Las Vegas. Maheu was the public face, the enforcer and the shield to the reclusive Hughes from 1955 to 1970. Not only did he hold power of attorney for Hughes as he descended into madness but he had to attend the frivolities required by very rich men. He spied on Hughes's love interests, including Ava Gardner (pictured), the Los Angeles Times notes in its obituary of Maheu. He also blackmailed Hughes's blackmailers into keeping their mouths shut.

On one occasion, he received a phone call from Hughes at 3am asking him to persuade a doctor whom he admired to move from Santa Monica to Las Vegas to be his personal physician.When Maheu told Hughes that the doctor had nine children and would be unlikely to uproot his family, Hughes bellowed: "I'm not asking you why they didn't exercise birth control. I want his brilliant talent by my bedside for the rest of my life." Hughes's money prevailed but he refused to see the doctor when he learned that he was also a psychiatrist.

Once Hughes rented the top floor of the Desert Inn in Las Vegas for 10 days. Hughes didn't gamble and when the stay stretched into 15 days, the management, keen to let their best rooms to high rollers, demanded that he leave. Hughes rang his advisor and asked what to do. Maheu told him, "If you want a place to sleep, buy a hotel." So Hughes bought the Desert Inn for $13m. As soon as he learned how vast profits could be made from gambling, he started to buy casinos. (Continued below)

As a freelance agent for CIA, Maheu's most famous assignment was to arrange the assassination of Fidel Castro in Cuba. He recruited two big Mafia bosses, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancan, who planned to use poison. The plot, however, was dropped after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

Maheu recalled: "He finally told me that he did not want to see me because of the way in which he had allowed himself to deteriorate... and he felt that if I ever in fact saw him I would never be able to represent him."