Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon posing for the camera ouhs58.org

A new book alleges that former President Richard Nixon had a gay affair with Florida businessman Charles Bebe Rebozo.

Nixon's Darkest Secrets by former UPI reporter Don Fulsom alleges that the long-time friendship between Nixon and Rebozo was possibly of homosexual nature.

Rebozo was a Florida banker but was considered to be one of Nixon's closest confidantes during his presidency. The two first met in 1950 when Nixon was then a congressman and continued the friendship until the former president's death in 1994.

At the time of Nixon's death, a former Republican campaigner commented on the closeness between the two men.

They were inseparable -- you just can't imagine how close two men could be, said Louis P. Fineman. Richard Nixon would come to Miami feeling defeated, and he'd go to Bebe like a Father Confessor. It was as if Bebe had the key to unlock Richard Nixon's soul.

It was as if Bebe had the key to unlock Richard Nixon's soul.

Nixon was married 53 years to Thelma Pat Nixon until her death in 1993. The couple had two children together and appeared happy together in their public appearances.

Pat Nixon largely stayed out of the public eye after her husband resigned from the White House in 1974.

Nixon was forced to resign the presidency after the Watergate scandal in 1972. Nixon aides were caught breaking into the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C, which eventually led to intense pressure on Nixon to leave the White House.

In addition to allegations that Nixon might have shared a homosexual relationship with Rebozo, the yet-to-be released book alleges that Nixon had a close relationship with New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello, according to a press release by the book's publisher.

Marcello was long linked to John F. Kennedy's assassination but the mob boss repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder of the former president. Marcello was linked with former union boss Jimmy Hoffa in the killing, but was overheard in prison telling an associate that he had nothing to do with it.