Without Reservation: How a Controversial Indian Tribe Rose to Power and Built the World's Largest Casino

by Jeff Benedict

Overview

"The book seems at times like a legal thriller, a psychological drama, a morality tale, and a scandal sheet." — Richard Tambling, Hartford Journal Inquirer

Jeff Benedict, the author of No Bone Unturned, tracks the transformation of the Mashantucket Pequots from a population of one on 214 miserable acres in the early 1970s to today’s largest landowner in Connecticut. Led by a former laborer, Tribal Chairman Richard "Skip" Hayward, the Pequots have become the wealthiest, most politically influential Indian tribe in the United States. In Without Reservation, Benedict exposes startling revelations about the tribe and their casino, Foxwoods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060931964
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/03/2001
Series:	Harper Perennial
Edition description:	1ST PERENN
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.95(d)

About the Author

Jeff Benedict conducted the first national study on sexual assault and athletes. He has published three books on athletes and crime, including a blistering exposé on the NFL, Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, and Public Heroes, Private Felons: Athletes and Crimes Against Women. He is a lawyer and an investigative journalist who has written five books.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Oaths and Vows

Town Hall
June 13, 1969
Groton, Connecticut

"The first thing you need to do is fill out this worksheet," Said town clerk Sally Sawyer, handing a blank form across the counter "After completing it, you give it back to me and I'll type up your marriage license."

Twenty-one-year-old Richard "Skip" Hayward coolly wrote his biographical information under the column labeled "Groom." Looking over his arm, seventeen-year-old fiancee Aline Champoux twirled one of her pigtails. Her long strands of brunette hair dangled over the front of her shoulders and sprawled over her chest. Her thin, nicely shaped legs beneath her miniskirt showed off her early summer tan, her sleeveless halter top drawing attention to her youthful, 108-pound figure.

"You are Aline's mother?" Sawyer asked, turning to fifty-year-old Betty Charnpoux, who stood behind Aline wearing a conservative redand-white-checked summer blouse.

"Yes," said Mrs. Champoux, her mind preoccupied. Days earlier her husband, Leo, a lifelong smoker, had been admitted to a Veterans Hospital in Rhode Island where he was diagnosed with lung cancer. His life expectancy was less than one year.

"When they're finished filling out their portion of the form," Sawyer continued, struggling to make eye contact with Betty, "you'll need to sign the back, granting your permission for your daughter to marry as a minor."

Betty affirmatively nodded her head in silence. Both she and Leo had complained to Aline that she was too young and Hayward too financially undisciplined for marriage. But the onset of terminal cancer had sapped any strength theypossessed to fight Aline over her choice for a husband. Nor would it have done any good. She had fallen hard for Hayward the moment she met him, while on a blind date during her sophomore year.

It was early in 1967 when Champoux, then fifteen, told her parents that she and her best friend, Debbie Sherwood, were going to the Friday night basketball game at their high school in Coventry Rhode Island. Instead, they sneaked off to Ledyard, Connecticut, nearly a forty-fiveminute drive away, to meet Sher-wood's boyfriend, Fran Pyle. When they arrived at Fran's house, he introduced Sherwood and Champoux to his best friend, Skip Hayward, a strapping, six-foot two-inch nineteen-yearold with broad shoulders. Aline immediately noticed his brown eyes and wavy black hair that hung over the collar of his button-down red shirt with yellow polka dots. His blue jeans were held up by a black leather belt, the buckle situated off to the side of his thin waist. Aline thought he looked like Jim Morrison,

When Pyle and Hayward invited the girls dancing, they eagerly accepted. By the end of the night, Champoux had agreed to be Hayward's girlfriend. For a young Champoux, he had the qualities she responded to. He was a great dancer. He loved rock and roll, although his favorite singer was Johnny Cash. He owned a Honda motorcycle and his own horse.

"Here, Aline," Hayward said, handing her the worksheet. "You need to complete your half"

Smirking, Champoux filled in the column under the word "Bride" and handed it back to Sawyer, who reviewed it for completeness.

Groom's Name: Richard Arthur Hayward. Date of Birth: 11-28-47.

Age: 21.

Race: White. Occupation: Pipefitter.

Birthplace: New London, Conn.

Residence: North Stonington, Conn.

"Everything looks good there," Sawyer said, reading on.

Bride's Name: Aline Aurore Champoux.

Date of Birth: 11-22-51.

Age: 17. Race: White.

"Oh, Ms. Champoux, you forgot to fill in line 14," Sawyer said, pointing to the heading "occupation."

"I don't work yet," she said sheepishly. "I just graduated from high school yesterday."

"Oh, well, I'll just put 'student' there," Sawyer said. "Now if you'll wait just a minute, I'll be back with your license."

Hayward reached for Champoux's right hand, smiling confidently as he clenched it tightly while waiting for Sawyer to return. Resting her head against his arm, Aline stared down at the engagement ring on her other hand. Hayward had never formally asked her to marry him. Instead, one day he took her on the back of his motorcycle to Zales, a department store that sold jewelry and paid $100 for a tiny diamond. It was all that he could afford on his meager salary as an apprentice at the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics. He had not attended college and had no career plans. To cut down on wedding costs, Aline sewed her own dress by hand. No wedding announcements were ordered. Instead of a reception, they planned a breakfast with their immediate family.

"Look over the license and make sure that everything is correct as typed," Sawyer said, handing it to Hayward.

Saying nothing, he scanned it, then gave it back.

"Everything is correct?" Sawyer asked.

Hayward nodded.

"OK. Each of you raise your right hand," Sawyer instructed.

Tentative, Aline looked up at Skip, whose eyes were focused on Sawyer's. Wide-eyed, Aline faintly raised her hand, her fingertips barely reaching Skip's shoulder.

"Do you both solemnly swear that the information contained in this license is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, so help you God?"

"Yes," Skip said, his raspy voice drowning out Aline's soft whisper.

"Now, you both need to sign the license right here," said Sawyer, pointing to blank lines beneath their typed names.

Betty looked on in stone silence as Aline signed her name below Skip's. She was too numb to cry. She was losing her husband to a disease with no cure and her teenage daughter to a man with seemingly no future.

Sawyer signed the license and stamped it with the town seal. Folding it, she placed it into a white self-addressed envelope and handed it to Skip. "You give this to the person who is going to be performing the ceremony And it is that person's responsibility to return the license to us after the wedding."

Table of Contents

1	Oaths and Vows	1
2	Quicksilver	14
3	Wall Street Can Wait	20
4	The Iron Lady	30
5	Safe Secrets	41
6	Fierce Advocates	53
7	Joining the Club	60
8	Adverse Possession	69
9	The Firm	79
10	Fractured Diamond	88
11	State Aid	92
12	The Promise	96
13	The Second Mrs. Hayward	106
14	Beneath the Radar Screen	109
15	The Mapmakers	117
16	A Small Price to Pay	123
17	Ronald Reagan Blinks	137
18	Commencement	150
19	Wills, Estates, and Trusts	157
20	Out to Lunch	166
21	Incorporated	176
22	Las Vegas Nights	185
23	Jersey Born	189
24	A Prosecutor and a Prophet	200
25	Secured Transaction	211
26	I Wouldn't Take My Dog to Atlantic City	221
27	Wheel of Fortune	226
28	New Identity	230
29	Ace in the Hole	236
30	The Skip and Mickey Show	243
31	Mr. Lozier Goes to Washington	249
32	Cowboys and Indians	263
33	The Pledge of Allegiance	268
34	The Master Plan	274
35	Damn Yankees	283
36	Race Matters	292
37	Discovery	298
38	Big Boys Don't Cry	306
39	Someone Broke into Your Offices	314
40	The Showstopper	324
41	Swimming with Sharks	328
42	You Can't Take It with You	340
43	I'm Chairman Now	343
44	Dodging the Bullet	350
	Maps	363
	Acknowledgments	365
	Bibliography	367
	Source Notes	382
	Index	387

Editorial Reviews

Benedict argues that Foxwoods is the product of clever lawyering, abetted by asleep-at-the-switch politicians. It’s owners, the Mashantucket Pequotes, are not Pequot Indians—in fact, probably not Indians at all.” — San Francisco Examiner

From the Publisher

Benedict argues that Foxwoods is the product of clever lawyering, abetted by asleep-at-the-switch politicians. It’s owners, the Mashantucket Pequotes, are not Pequot Indians—in fact, probably not Indians at all.

San Francisco Examiner

For thousands of years the Mashantucket Pequot lived in southeastern Connecticut between the Thames and the Pawcatuck rivers. Then in 1636, their fortunes began to plummet. The anti-Pequot war that began that year was only one of the causes of the nation's eventual near-extinction: Poverty, disaster, and real estate plunder forced the tribe to recede into a remote 214-acre vestige of a reservation. In the 1970s, just as the Mashantucket Pequot seemed to be dissolving into irrecoverable history, their fortunes changed as quickly as the spin of a roulette wheel. Without Reservation chronicles how a dwindling group of Indians became the proprietors of Foxwoods, the world's largest gambling arena.

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