I just found out how to get this working. I had a bad faction rating and they would attack me before I could talk to him. To make it work, use a stealth boy to slip past the guards and then you can quickly press e on him to begin the quest.

a thing to note- they will attack you as soon as the dialogue ends, just RUN!!

My girlfriend disguised herself as a prisoner and spoke to him without a problem; however, it seems to be a hit or miss kind of thing because they may let you by without a problem and they may not. No real consistency to it. I think it is a bug in that they sometimes attack regardless of disguise. Haven't checked post patch though.

Well I'm trying it a slightly different way this time since I didn't have enough stealthboys for all of the return trips. I will try to eliminate all but Eddie so it will be easier to try to get the dialogue going. Really annoying.

ok it definitely works. You have to 1 by 1 sneak attack each of his bodyguards. After every one is gone (you can have them chase you and then take them out, even outside the prison) its just him left, and you can sneak up to him and engage the dialogues and then leave. No stealthboy required!

theres not a faction uniform that you could use as a disguise? I had a bad rating for the powder gang in a quest and got into the prison by paying off the guard at the door then wearing the uniform inside. got to be careful but it seems like an easy thing.

At "vilified", I could disguise past everyone in there but the guy at the entrance (I killed him), Hannigan and the Bodyguards.

i was wearing a uniform, it must be a faction status bug. Like the guards think I'm vilified but nobody else does. Anyway it is working. You should save before trying to talk to Eddie because once in a while he goes aggro but you can usually sneak up and engage the dialogue before he goes off.

It's not a bug. The first time you put on a faction uniform the game tells you certain guards and guard dogs will not be fooled and will alert everyone around.

they didn't alert anybody though, and I wasn't vilified. How do you normally start the quest? Anyway the quest was completed so hurray.

The normal way is by being friendly or neutral to them. Side with the Powder Gangers in the Goodsprings conflict, or just don't do the event (haven't actually tried it). Once I was done with Goodsprings, I was "liked" by them and could walk around the NCRCF like I was one of them.

oh thats probably why, it must be tied to that quest. I did the quest and helped the town.

Then there's no way you weren't hostile with the faction.