Quorum Club
dining club
| Quorum Club link () Spartacus | |
|---|---|
| Successor | The 116 Club |
| Founder | Bobby Baker |
| Interests | sexual blackmail |
| Membership | William Ayres, James Battin, Daniel Brewster, Samuel R. Brown Jr., George H. Buschmann, Burton W. Cameron, Frank Church, John F. Conlon, J. Howard Edmondson, Clayton D. Gasque, Howard E. Haugerud, Walter Jenkins, Selim M. Karagulla, John F. Kennedy, A. F. Matthews, Lewis G. Odom Jr., Scott I. Peek, Bernard E. Pollak Jr., George E. Reedy, Bernard Roeder, Ellen Rometsch, Hugh Scott, Samuel S. Spaulding, Lee Williams, Harrison Williams Jr., John H. Yingling |
| Gentlemen's club in Washington DC. Its membership comprised Congressmen, lobbyists, Capitol Hill staffers, and other well-connected persons. The operators had tapes and photographs of politicians' sexual activities, including JFK and Gerald Ford. | |
The Quorum Club was a private gentlemen's club established in Washington, D.C. in 1961 by Robert "Bobby" Baker.[1] Its membership comprised Congressmen, lobbyists, Capitol Hill staffers, and other well-connected persons.[2] The operators had tapes and photographs of politicians' sexual activities, including JFK and Gerald Ford.[1] If that is the case, in points to a larger sexual blackmail operation.
Own words
According to its charter, the Club was organized to establish, maintain and operate a club for literary purposes, mutual improvement and the promotion of social intercourse.
In an interview with the Senate Historical Office in 1990, the late ]]Roy Elson]], a former Hill staffer, lobbyist, and future 116 member, said many political operatives, members of congress and their associates became Quorum Club regulars as it was one of only three places near the Capitol to get a drink and was a great "place to relax." For those looking for late night entertainment, there was a “whorehouse...up the street,” he noted.[3]
One member heatedly denied reports that table stake poker games were practically a daily occurrence in the club. "I'm sure there has been an occasional card game", he said, just like a lot of other clubs around town.[4]
Baker also built the Carousel Motel in Atlantic City, which became a favorite hideaway spot for Washington insiders during 1962 and 1963.[5][6]
Blackmail
Quorum Club membership was restricted to gentlemen only, but associates were allowed to bring their mistresses and for those desiring female companionship, Baker had an ample supply of "play girls," as FBI agents who monitored the club described them in confidential reports.[3] Baker hired very easy-going and pretty women. The Quorum Club was the setting for the sex scandal between John F. Kennedy and Ellen Rometsch, at the time portrayed as an East German spy. It was claimed that Baker had tapes and photographs of JFK's sexual activities involving Rometsch.[1] If that is the case, in points to a larger sexual blackmail operation.
Baker claimed that Ellen Rometsch returned to the United States in 1964 and had an affair with Gerald Ford during his time on the Warren Commission where he was tasked with investigating President Kennedy's assassination. The affair was used against him by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover who was frustrated that the Warren Commission was not sharing their findings, "So, (Hoover) had this tape where Jerry Ford was having oral sex with Ellen Rometsch. You know, his wife had a serious drug problem back then... Hoover blackmailed...Ford to tell him what they were doing."[1]
Members
The club included 197 carefully selected members. A Washington Post article named several of them; including Four Democratic senators, Frank Church, who in the mid-1970s led the congressional hearings into illegal CIA and FBI activities, which became known as the Church Committee, Harrison Williams of New Jersey, a close ally of organized labor, and rarely sober Daniel Brewster from Maryland; GOP Congressman and future federal Judge James Battin and his colleague Congressman William Ayres, a liberal Republican; and other key aides to LBJ, close friends of President John F. Kennedy, Hill staffers, lobbyists, military officers and executives from 90 companies, primarily weapons manufacturers and banks.[3]
Those included Leonard F. Lee, vice president of the Tennessee Gas Transmission Co. That firm was the owner of a $125,000 Washington mansion in which Baker resided. Edward M. Bostick, president of Melpar, Inc., a defense contractor, is a member.[4]
The two Lyndon Johnson aides Walter Jenkins and George E. Reedy Also were on the roster, as were A. F. (Matty) Matthews, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, aides to Sen. Hugh Scott or (R-Pa.) (George H. Buschmann), Sen. Howard Cannon (D-Nev.) (John F. Conlon), Sen. J. William Fulbright (D- Ark.) (Lee Williams). Burton W. Cameron, a former aide to Rep. George F. Senner Jr. (D. Ariz.) was also on the membership list. Scott I. Peek, who resigned as top aide to Sen. George Smathers (D-Fla.) to enter private business in Miami, was the club's first president.[4]
The staff directors of the a Senate Small Business Committee (Lewis G. Odom Jr.) and the House District of Columbia S Committee (Clayton D. Gasque) and a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (John H. Yingling) were among the members. Other Government members include two Navy admirals (Rear Adms. Samue! R. Brown Jr. and Dernard Roeder), a former Deputy Under Secretary of the Army for International Affairs (Howard E. Haugerud) and three Commerce Department officials (Selim M. Karagulla and Bernard E. Pollak Jr., both of the Office of International Trade Promotion, and Samuel S. Spaulding, Bureau of International Commerce).[4]
Bad press
Baker's net worth climbed from $10,000 in 1954 to more than $2.5 million in 1963, which prompted the FBI to put the Quorum Club under surveillance. The Bureau concluded much of his newfound wealth resulted from corrupt business deals.
J. Edgar Hoover leaked the relationship betwwen JFK and Rometsch the media, leading to a front-page story in the Des Moines Register on October 26, 1963 and a big spread in Life magazine that ran the day the president was assassinated in Dallas. LBJ's incoming administration clamped down on further disclosures. Hoover had a meeting with Mike Mansfield, the Democratic leader of the Senate and Everett Dirksen, the Republican counterpart. What was said at this meeting has never been released. However, as a result of the meeting that took place in Mansfield's home the Senate Rules Committee decided not to look into the Rometsch scandal.[1] In October of 1963, a month before LBJ became president following the assassination, Baker announced his resignation from. He was later tried and sentenced to 15 months in prison for grand larceny.
The bad press led to its closure in 1965.
Legacy
The investigation did not quite kill off the Quorum Club. In 1964, it became a public establishment. Later, when the Carroll Arms Hotel was closed in 1965, it, too, closed. Its accoutrements were auctioned off in 1966. However, even as these last remnants were being sold off, the club was reborn, just around the corner, in Schott's Court. When this location was demolished to make way for a Senate office building, the club moved once again, this time to 3rd Street NE, where it continues to operate today as The 116 Club.[7]
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKbakerB.htm
- ↑ https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75-00149R000100250033-1.pdf
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 https://www.washingtonbabylondc.com/p/the-secret-history-of-the-116-club-a8e
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75-00149R000100250033-1.pdf
- ↑ https://coastalstylemag.com/finding-bobby-baker/
- ↑ https://www.transcend.org/tms/2021/06/how-organized-crime-infiltrated-american-business-after-wwii-and-corrupted-national-politics-from-truman-to-trump/
- ↑ https://thehillishome.com/2020/11/lost-capitol-hill-shady-doings-at-the-quorum-club/