Elliott Roosevelt (September 23, 1910 – October 27, 1990) was an American aviation official and wartime officer in the United States Army Air Forces, reaching the rank of brigadier general. He was a son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

As a reconnaissance commander, Roosevelt pioneered new techniques in night photography and meteorological data-gathering, but his claims to a distinguished record on combat missions have been largely discounted. After the war ended, he faced an investigation by the United States Congress on charges of corruption, including accusations that he had recommended the purchase of the Hughes F-11 reconnaissance aircraft ahead of a Lockheed model that was believed to be superior. Ultimately, he was found blameless.

Roosevelt published a book about his attendance at several major Allied war conferences and a controversial exposé of his parents' private life. He also wrote 22 mystery novels. Besides writing, his career embraced broadcasting, ranching, politics and business. He served as the 24th mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, from 1965 to 1967.

Early life

thumb|left|upright=1.2|Roosevelt as broadcasting manager, 1938

Elliott Roosevelt was a son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962). He was named after his maternal grandfather, Elliott Roosevelt (1860–1894). His siblings were Anna (1906–1975), James (1907–1991), Franklin Jr. (1914–1988), and John (1916–1981).

An older brother, Franklin, died in 1909 as an infant.

Roosevelt attended the Hun School of Princeton and went to Groton School, as did his brothers. He refused to attend Harvard College. Instead, he worked a series of briefly held jobs, beginning with advertising and settling in broadcasting in the 1930s, including a management position in the Hearst radio chain.

While Roosevelt operated from Gander in August 1941, FDR detached him and his brother Franklin Jr. to attend the Atlantic Conference (Atlantic Charter) in Argentia between Churchill and FDR, which was nearby. In January 1943, Roosevelt accompanied FDR as a military attaché to the Casablanca meeting and the subsequent Cairo and Tehran Conferences in November–December 1943. At a dinner during the Tehran Conference, Joseph Stalin proposed to round up and shoot some 50,000 German officers and technicians after the war in order to permanently incapacitate Germany. Roosevelt spoke in favor of the proposal who said "I would rather be taken out into the garden here and now and be shot myself".

  • : Assigned to Twelfth Air Force and flew aboard numerous aircraft types during reconnaissance missions for the North Africa campaign in Algeria and Tunisia
  • Northwest African Photographic Reconnaissance Wing, February 1943 – November 1943, as lieutenant colonel and colonel. This was a composite unit with U.S., British, South African, and French squadrons.
  • 90th Photographic Wing, 22 November 1943 – 25 January 1944 at the rank of colonel.
  • : Assigned to Twelfth Air Force, command and control organization that provided photographic reconnaissance to both the Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces. Operationally controlled both 3d and 5th Reconnaissance Groups in Tunisia. The 90th's subordinate units reconnoitered airdromes, roads, marshaling yards, and harbors in Italy after the Allied landings at Salerno.
  • 325th Photographic Wing, 9 August 1944 – 17 January 1945 at the rank of colonel;
  • : Assigned to Eighth Air Force, command and control organization that through subordinate units, flew reconnaissance over the waters adjacent to the British Isles and the European continent to obtain meteorological data. Wing aircraft collected weather information needed in planning operations; flew night photographic missions to detect enemy activity; and provided daylight photographic and mapping missions. The wing also flew photographic missions over the Netherlands in support of Operation Market Garden in September 1944 and operated closely with tactical units in the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944 – February 1945).

Roosevelt stated that he flew 89 combat missions and 470 combat hours prior to being called back for his father's funeral in April 1945 (he did not return to active theaters). His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross. He also received the Order of the British Empire, the Croix de Guerre and Legion d'Honneur, the Moroccan Order of Ouissam Alaouite, and the U.S. Legion of Merit. He ended the war holding the Air Medal with reportedly eleven clusters. As a chase pilot for the Operation Aphrodite flights in 1944, Roosevelt said he witnessed the death of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. over Blythburgh, England (there is no evidence in Aphrodite files that Roosevelt participated in this project, nor did he fly as chase pilot and witness the death of Joseph P. Kennedy).

After the war, Roosevelt no longer played a significant role in aviation, although he maintained a private pilot's license and owned a small aircraft. He briefly served as the president of short-lived Empire Airlines of New York (1946), citing his influence with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which, however, did not result in route awards. Reported attempts to assist Howard Hughes's TWA in obtaining air routes to the USSR also did not succeed.

Warplanes purchasing scandal

In August 1943, Colonel Roosevelt was asked by the Chief of the Army Air Forces, General Henry H. Arnold, to investigate several reconnaissance aircraft under development to select a successor to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (F-4 and F-5 in the recon version), but the reason for Arnold's choice of Roosevelt was not made public. Roosevelt assembled a group of five air officers, including veteran RAF reconnaissance pilot Wing Commander D.W. Steventon. Upon their arrival in Los Angeles, Roosevelt and his group were met by eight limousines arranged by John W. Meyer, a publicist and former nightclub owner who was employed by Hughes Aircraft Company. On his first day in town, Roosevelt was taken by Meyer to the Hollywood film studio of Warner Bros. and introduced to Faye Emerson, an actress with whom Roosevelt was linked romantically (the two would eventually marry). Over the next three days, Roosevelt and his group were seen with Meyer in Hollywood nightclubs and at parties in luxurious mansions in the company of aspiring actresses paid $100–400 per night by Meyer (equivalent to $–$ in ).

On August 11, Howard Hughes showed the group his Culver City aircraft factory, then personally flew them to see the private-venture Hughes D-2, an experimental twin-engine wooden aircraft then being test-flown at a Hughes facility at Harper Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. Roosevelt and his committee, however, fervently recommended the D-2. When Roosevelt returned to the East Coast of the United States, Meyer hosted another round of parties and nightclub outings in Manhattan and arranged for Faye Emerson to accompany Roosevelt. Among many favors, Meyer gave Emerson $132 () worth of nylon stockings, a rare treat during wartime rationing. During these two weeks, Arnold, Elliott Roosevelt, and FDR conferred frequently at the White House, and it is documented that Elliott Roosevelt complained to his father about Arnold's reluctance to order the aircraft.

Major General Charles E. Bradshaw wrote to Arnold to suggest that the Lockheed Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning was much farther along in development and could outperform the D-2 in every important aspect, but was unsuccessful in halting the Hughes contract. Assistant Secretary of War Robert A. Lovett noted to Major General Bennett E. Meyers that "Hughes has got powerful friends here in Washington" and that, if the background of the contract were uncovered, "there's going to be an awful smell." Nonetheless, Hughes was given $43 million (equivalent to $ million in ) to build 100 all-metal aircraft to be designated the Hughes F-11.

In 1947, Roosevelt telephoned Hughes to warn him that a United States Senate subcommittee (the "Brewster Committee", formerly the "Truman Committee") intended to call them both to account for financial irregularities regarding the XF-11 as well as for Hughes' H-4 Hercules, popularly known as the "Spruce Goose". As part of the ongoing "Investigation of the National Defense Program", on August 4, 1947, the subcommittee called Roosevelt and Meyer to testify about the Hollywood and Manhattan parties and women that Meyer had arranged and paid for. Meyer's extensive financial records during such parties showed him paying $200 for "presents for four girls" and $50 for "girls at the hotel (late)". The committee found that Meyer had spent at least $1,000 in picking up Roosevelt's hotel bills as well as his nightclub and party checks, and Faye Emerson's bets at Agua Caliente Racetrack, and that Meyer had arranged for weekends in Palm Springs, California and Washington, D.C. for Roosevelt and Emerson, who eventually married in December 1944 He was later elected a delegate to the 1936 and 1940 DNCs representing Texas, and at the latter convention attempted to secure the nomination of fellow Texan Jesse H. Jones for vice president.

After his father's death, Roosevelt began to drift away from the Democratic Party. In 1946, he endorsed American Laborite Eugene P. Connolly over Democrat Daniel Flynn for Congress in New York's 21st district. In 1947, he gave a speech at a sold-out "Crisis Meeting" hosted by the Progressive Citizens of America at Madison Square Garden in which he attacked the Truman Doctrine for threatening world peace. He further criticized Truman's domestic policies as leading the nation toward another depression, and encouraged PCA members to storm the 1948 DNC and nominate former Vice President Henry A. Wallace for president.

In March 1948 however, Roosevelt abruptly changed course and joined the Draft Eisenhower movement alongside his brother Franklin, denouncing Wallace's proposed third party. Journalist Curtis D. MacDougall posits this sudden shift in opinion was likely the result of "economic pressure" from his mother. She gave him financial assistance throughout her life. In 1947, Eleanor bought from the FDR estate Val-Kill farms, the home she lived in after FDR's death, and deeded the property to Elliott Roosevelt. After he moved to Miami Beach and Havana with his fourth wife in 1952, his brother John bought the Hyde Park tract. Later, the property became the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site.

Roosevelt pursued many different careers during his life, including owning a pre-war radio station network (Texas State Network) in Texas and living as a rancher. He again moved to Florida and was elected mayor of Miami Beach in 1965, then was unseated two years later. the sum of (equivalent to $ in ) to assassinate Pindling.

Roosevelt gave Mastriana a signed check for (equivalent to $ in ) as a down payment on the hit. Mastriana taped all of his conversation with Roosevelt, allegedly using equipment from the U.S. Postal Service. Roosevelt maintained that he was innocent and that Mastriana was lying.

Roosevelt emigrated to Portugal in 1972, but left for England after the Portuguese Carnation Revolution in 1974. He moved back to the United States, living in Bellevue, Washington; Indian Wells, California; and Scottsdale, Arizona. As Roosevelt approached his eightieth year, his final ambition was to "outlive James." However, Roosevelt died at age 80 of heart and liver failure.

  • On July 22, 1933, in Burlington, Iowa, he married Ruth Josephine Googins (1908–1974). They had three children: Ruth Chandler Roosevelt (1934–2018), Elliott Roosevelt Jr. (b. 1936), a Texas oilman, and David Boynton Roosevelt (1942–2022). Roosevelt and Googins were divorced in March 1944. She married Harry T. Eidson on June 23, 1944.
  • On December 3, 1944, at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, he married actress Faye Emerson. They were divorced on January 17, 1950. She died of stomach cancer in 1983 in Spain.
  • On March 15, 1951, in Miami Beach, Florida, he married Minnewa Bell (Gray Burnside Ross). They were divorced in 1960. Minnewa died in 1983.
  • On November 3, 1960, in Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, he married Patricia Peabody Whitehead.