WASHINGTON: Remembered as America's shiftiest and darkest president, Richard Nixon had a serious drink problem, he beat his wife and may have been gay, according to a new book by a former White House correspondent. The book titled 'Nixon's Darkest Secrets' , a biography by veteran journalist Don Fulsom , suggests that Nixon was an alcoholic who beat his wife and had links to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America's most powerful mobster. The book claims that homophobic Nixon, who lied to his country about his involvement in the Watergate scandal and went down in history as America's shiftiest and darkest president, may have been gay himself. "If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician," the Daily Mail said. Nixon was the 37th president of the US, serving from 1969 to 1974, and had to resign due to the Watergate scandal. "Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia-connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon ," the paper said. Bebe Rebozo was a short, swarthy, good-looking Cuban-American businessman with a history of failed relationships with women and close alliances with Miami's Mafia chiefs. Fulsom used recently revealed documents and eyewitness interviews - including with FBI agents - to shed new light on long-standing suspicions among White House insiders that Nixon may have been more than just good buddies with Rebozo. "He claims Nixon's relationship with Pat, his wife of 53 years, was little more than a sham. A heavy drinker whom his own staff dubbed 'Our Drunk' , Nixon used to call his First Lady a 'f*** ing bitch' and beat her before, during and after his presidency," the Daily Mail quoted Fulsom as saying.
