Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: Do Billions Make You Perot's Set, Paranoia and Pennypinching Are
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 09:14:31 EST
Message-ID: <62.1992Nov1.091431@AmeriCast.com>

Do Billions Make You Batty?;In Perot's Set, Paranoia and Pen-
nypinching Are Normal<By Stephanie Mansfield=

THE OTHER day when Ross Perot finally gave his official explana-
tion of why he pulled out of the presidential race last summer -
sinister forces were plotting to put a hex on his daughter just
as she was getting ready to walk down the aisle - political op-
ponents were quick to label the mini-mogul "crazy" and
"paranoid."

Now maybe Perot figured he couldn't pay for his daughter's wed-
ding and the campaign at the same time ("Daddy! We must have
70,000 full-blown Oceana roses at $9 a stem or Aye'll jes dayh!")
but it seems to me that what Perot is exhibiting is classic Bil-
lionaire Behavior. Of course he's paranoid. Yes, he's eccentric.
Crazier than Imelda Marcos at Shoe Town.

Having spent several years researching American Tobacco Co.
heiress Doris Duke (estimated worth: $1 billion), I'm convinced
that the species is an elite, special forces branch of the monied
set. As Cole Porter once said, there are the rich and then there
are the rich rich. Ross Perot certainly fits that last category.
For example, when it was alleged - though not substantiated -
that Perot had conducted his own private investigation of
President Bush's sons, my initial reaction was, "That's not poli-
tics, it's money."

Billionaires, as a group, have few hobbies other than investigat-
ing other people, including their own family members. Doris Duke,
in her prime, had a battery of private investigators and former
FBI men who were kept on retainer for general snooping purposes.
Employees were routinely checked out and made to sign legal docu-
ments promising not to divulge details of their employment. By
some standards, that was considered downright progressive. Howard
Hughes's top right-hand man for years never even met his bil-
lionaire boss.

One of Duke's former intimates, who threatened to sell his story
of his years with her, was approached by a man claiming to be a
Hollywood producer. The man "purchased" the story. Of course, the
"producer" was actually on the Duke payroll. Private eyes also
kept tabs on her nephew, whose mail was opened. Duke's own mail
was routinely shredded and distributed in separate waste baskets.
When she tired of a lover, a "burglary" was staged at her New
Jersey estate and the man was accused of stealing priceless jade
pieces. He left, with only a toothbrush.

Perot, it was reported, also asked political consultants last
summer to sign confidentiality agreements and once had an opera-
tive on his payroll telephone Mrs. Perot pretending to be an edi-
tor from a well-known womens' magazine just to see if his wife
would blab.  (Unfortunately, she did.) There are unconfirmed re-
ports that he had a daughter put under surveillance because of
her choice in boyfriends.

There are other characteristics common to billionaires:< Besides
Not Trusting Anyone, billionaires, as a rule, also exhibit a
Bizarre Sense of Thrift. Duke spent $27 million for a Boeing 737
and then chastised an underling for putting too much postage on a
letter. To save money, she used to rip out the Paris labels from
her couture dresses to avoid paying duty on the purchases. She
once spent $5,000 to have a truckload of seaweed shipped from
Newport to New Jersey so she could put it in her bathwater; she
thought it was a bargain because the seaweed was free! Jack Kent
Cooke once spent an afternoon scouring Middleburg thrift shops
for a $15 jacket for his former wife, Suzanne.

I can only imagine a billionaire in the White House. After spend-
ing $45 million of his own money to get into office, Perot would
eliminate toilet paper in the East Wing wash rooms - a first stab
at wiping out the national debt.<No One Ever Disagrees With a
Billionaire. They are, as a group, insecure, short-tempered bul-
lies who are used to getting their own way. To indulge their
every whim, cohorts and employees will go to extraordinary
lengths. Often, this involves Moving Things. Duke once had her
estate manager move a grand piano from her New Jersey compound to
her penthouse in New York. The New York piano was then moved to
Newport and the Newport piano moved to New Jersey. She once had
three men tear out a bathtub from her New York pied a terre and
had it shipped to her home in Bel Air. "They call rich people
like her eccentric," her farm manager later remarked, shaking his
head, "but if it were you or me, we'd be in an institution."

Perot, once in office, would move Arkansas to Wyoming and Wyoming
to Nebraska. To save money, Nebraska would be blown
up.<Billionaires Like to Improve on Mother Nature. For her home
in Hawaii, Duke once had an entire coconut grove uprooted and
moved from a downtown square to her Diamond Head property.
Without obtaining the neccesary permits, she then had a breakwa-
ter built in her harbor and tried, unsuccessfully, to block pub-
lic access to her beach. In Newport, she once had a rock, weigh-
ing several tons, moved from her beachfront to a downtown park.

Perot recently had an offshore reef in front of his vacation home
in Bermuda dynamited.<Billionaires Never Lose. When Doris Duke
bought up old row houses in Newport and had them renovated, she
charged the tenants for storm windows put in before their occu-
pancy. When the tenants refused to pay, she had the storm windows
taken out.

Perot initially agreed to help raise funds for the Vietnam
Memorial, didn't like the design and backed out to create his own
monument.<Billionaires Will Try Anything. Running for president
is one way to relieve boredom. So is funding a commando raid in
far-off lands to free POWs.  Diving in the warm waters off the
Bahamas (as Duke once did) looking for the fountain of youth is
another pastime, as well as hosting a coming-out-tea-party for
your two pet camels. Buying, selling and moving sport franchises
is another diversion among the wacky billionaire set, as is bail-
ing out corrupt deposed dictators' wives.<Billionaires Love Dis-
guises. Think of Howard Hughes, with his Fu Manchu manicure.
Doris Duke also made a habit of dressing like a bagwoman and en-
joyed mingling - incognito - with the little people. Billionaires
always suspect that no one - with the exception of their guard
dogs - loves them for themselves. They are rarely disappointed.
Billionaires love to surprise people. Duke would often give her
staff less than 30 minutes notice when she would be arriving at
Newport or New Jersey.  Then, after elaborate last-minute
preparations for meals, etc. were put into motion, she would
abruptly take off for parts unknown.

Jack Kent Cooke's former wife said the billionaire suffered from
claustrophobia and that she had to put him in the car at 2 a.m.
with his bathrobe on and ride around for hours with the windows
down. Perot is also said to appear and disappear without notice.
"You never knew where he'd be," said one former employee. "No one
had any warning."<Billionaires Know How to Get Rid of People.
When one of her farm supervisors was hospitalized for cancer,
Duke fired him with no severance.  When he refused to vacate his
house on her estate, she had the heating oil supply cut off. Then
she had her security forces forcibly remove the man and his wife.
On another occasion, she ran over her interior decorator and
killed him.

The family sued her for over $1 million. In the end, billionaires
generally being Above the Law, she forked over $75,000 - slightly
less than the cost of a new pair of drapes.

Last summer, after leasing expensive Dallas apartments for his
campaign staff, Perot abruptly threw the staff out.  He then sent
in a small platoon of security staff to dismantle his political
adviser Ed Rollins's computer system. While Duke grudgingly paid
one former employee of 30 years a pension of $12 a month, "the
only thing we ever got was the finger," one former Perot staffer
told me.<Billionaires Have a Way With Words, education and re-
finement being a hindrance to raking in piles of money.  Folksy
sounding Perot comes from a long line of plain-speaking bil-
lionaires: "Never tell nobody what yer goin' to do till you do
it" (Cornelius Vanderbilt); "A billion dollars isn't what it used
to be" (John Paul Getty); " "Politics is like making sausage. It
ain't beautiful, but an awful lot happens" (Ross
Perot).<Billionaires Love to Build Replicas of Well-Known Build-
ings. Hearst's castle at San Simeon is a good example, So is
Doris Duke's Indo-Persian palace in Hawaii, modeled after the Taj
Mahal. Her father tried to duplicate Versailles on his New Jersey
estate but only got the foundation in. If Perot loses, he will no
doubt start construction on a large white house with a portico
and columns and a huge foundation. (See Billionaires Never
Lose.)<Billionaires Love America. And who can blame them? In what
other country could rampant capitalism, greed and paranoia be so
richly rewarded?  When Doris Duke put up the $5 million bail for
her friend Imelda Marcos, she said she was doing it as an act of
patriotism. Marcos called Duke "the Statue of Liberty."

Perot's bid for the presidency is also being billed as an act of
patriotism. He wants to be a servant. (See Billionaires Love Dis-
guises.)< Stephanie Mansfield, a Washington writer, is the author
of "The Richest Girl in the World" (G.P. Putnam's Sons).<02:58
11-01C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)