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Home , Alexander Butterfield, Bernard Barker, Charles Colson, Mark Felt, Virgilio Gonzalez

Stories from the Historical Committee Our History

Watergate: Forty Years Later

by Angelo Lano (1960-1989)

The nature of an FBI agent’s work is anonymous. Usually us. Work quickly it involves collecting facts, often with a team of agents whose summed up the names will disappear in a myriad of files over the ensuing facts of the case years and decades leaving only the larger story for future for us as they then generations to study. When I became an FBI agent, I fully stood. Earlier in expected and hoped to remain one of those “anonymous” the evening, the team members who would fade from the scene into obscurity cops had arrested with only the case record remaining. As fate would have it – five males inside that was not to be. the offices of For me, the Watergate story began routinely enough the Democratic on the night of June 17, 1972 when the telephone rang at National my home. The caller was Ernie Belter, an FBI agent and Headquarters. Washington Field Office Technical Supervisor. Belter told me Four of them gave rather matter-of-factly that five men had just been arrested, Hispanic names trying to burglarize an office at the . with the fifth Nixon leaving Bob Kunkle, the SAC, wanted me to get the facts along with simply calling the identity of the burglars, and report back to him. Kunkle himself “Ed Martin.” They clearly didn’t look like ordinary assured me that it all could be wrapped-up “in a couple of knuckleheads either. All wore business suits and rubber hours.” gloves; all were carrying sequentially numbered C and F Such off-hour calls were not unusual for me. When Series one hundred dollar bills totaling $3,500, and one of I arrived as a second office agent at WFO in June 1968, I them had a handie-talkie device. Work then showed me a was assigned to the C-2 Squad where I handled a mixed carrying bag containing two Minolta 35 Millimeter cameras collection of reactive cases such as Theft of Government along with a “fire alarm” housing unit containing a small Property, Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property as microphone attached to wires and three black devices well as bombing matters and even Illegal Interception of with attached clips and more wires wrapped in tissue Communications. So, I wasn’t alarmed by Belter’s call or paper. (Belter later confirmed that they were police radio Kunkle’s orders. scanners.) The now infamous Watergate Complex is actually a None of them were talking. Reinforcing this reality was cluster of five ultra-exclusive office buildings, condominiums the sudden appearance of a local attorney named Douglas and hotel situated in Washington’s DC’s Foggy Bottom Caddy, demanding to consult with his “clients.” What neighborhood overlooking the Potomac River and next door struck us all as odd was that none of the five had been to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Among its permitted a telephone call. When asked how he learned of many “A-List” residents at the time were a handful of U.S. the arrests, Caddy remained silent. At this point, Paul and I senators, ambassadors and other high ranking government looked at each other and without a word passing between officials. Over the previous few years, a number of burglaries us, we acknowledged that this case was going to take a lot had occurred there, including one brazen theft from the longer than a couple of hours. apartment of Rosemary Woods, President Nixon’s personal The mystery only deepened when the FBI’s secretary — I never solved any of them. The Watergate had Identification Division identified the fingerprints of our simply become my beat, on which I worked side by side with suspects. The four Hispanics were , Frank the Burglary Unit of the Metropolitan Police Department Sturgis, and Eugenio Martinez. Ed Martin (MPD). turned out to be James Walter McCord. All five had been About an hour after Belter’s call, C-2 agent, Peter Paul previously fingerprinted by the CIA, with McCord revealed and I walked into MPD’s Second District Office in Northwest as a former FBI agent and Agency employee. MPD had Washington, where, unsurprisingly, I ran into three or four of also learned that McCord was then working as the head my burglary squad buddies. As we made our way down the of security for CREEP – the Committee to Re-Elect the hall, we quickly realized that this was no ordinary break-in, President. when we saw MPD Deputy Chief of Police Larry Monroe and Kunkle, now fully briefed, arranged for search warrants Assistant Attorney, Charley Work waiting for for two rooms rented by the burglars at the Watergate the Grapevine 13 Hotel. The search uncovered additional sequentially to recognize that this crew was not a collection of ordinary numbered “C” and “F” series one hundred dollar bills, two thieves looking for cash and items that could be quickly telephone address books, one belonging to Barker, another to pawned. They were the real deal. Then there were their links someone named “Howard Hunt” and an envelope addressed to the Agency, their sophistication and technical preparation, to a local country club bearing Hunt’s name and address. the large sums of money involved and the nagging silence on Over the next several hours, our investigation really the matter from the CIA. started ramping up with Kunkle calling up additional Five days after my late evening call from Belter, I found agents to begin file reviews and interviews. Our records myself at the White House interviewing soon revealed Hunt as a former CIA employee. A White in the presence of Counselor to the President, . House “Special Inquiry” investigation showed his current After blithely denying any knowledge of a break-in, Colson employment as some kind of consultant to the White House. acknowledged that Hunt had an office in the Executive A call to a White House official, , Office Building; a statement that surprised Dean. In response revealed that Hunt’s boss was Charles Colson, an aide to to Dean’s question about our interest in Hunt’s office, I President Nixon. While Peter Paul and Don Stuckey scoured explained that a federal subpoena had been Washington for Hunt, other agents began making late night issued for Hunt, who was still missing. I suggested that the calls to Langley to determine the current relationship of the contents of Hunt’s office could be useful in leading us to him, five men with CIA. Secret Service agents were now awake, and any calls placed from his telephone could advance the tracing the one hundred dollar bills while agents FBI’s investigation as well. Dean agreed to offer any and all started beating the bushes for information on the four Cubans assistance. and their links with the CIA and Hunt. In the midst of all Dean was lying. On June 26th the basic rules of evidence of this, I briefed Henry Peterson, then serving as Deputy exposed him when two C-2 agents, Dan Mahan and Mike Attorney General, who ordered me to call him again at noon King, took custody from Dean of two boxes of evidence on Sunday so he could brief the Attorney General. As for taken from Hunt’s office. (In one box, we found a 25 caliber Kunkle, he briefed , then substituting for the newly pistol and a wig.) Later when Mahan and King returned to appointed Acting-Director, L. Patrick Gray, who was traveling the White House to conduct a chain of custody investigation, in . they learned that Dean had ordered his deputy, Fred Fielding, By Monday, June 19 our investigation had taken us to to collect any and all material from Hunt’s office on June 19 the Howard Johnson Hotel, across New Hampshire Avenue — three days before our interview of Colson. from the Watergate when the hotel manager recognized While we were at the White House pressing Colson, McCord’s photo from the newspaper. McCord had rented two Kunkle was briefing Gray and Felt at FBI Headquarters, just a rooms at the hotel in May, where he had made a number of few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue. The main suspicion long-distance calls including some to a Connecticut number was that the CIA was behind the operation. At the same time, listed to Mrs. A. Baldwin. She turned out to be the mother however, the wily Kunkle warned that it was fairly common of Alfred Baldwin, a former FBI agent and a CREEP Security knowledge that an informal unit based at the White House Officer. (Later that week Baldwin’s attorney refused to make known as the “Plumbers” had been created to investigate him available for interviews until he had spoken with the leaks of information. prosecutors.) Over the ensuing weeks as the investigation gained The next day, Miami reported that the Federal Reserve increasing steam, more and more memorable figures linked Bank in Atlanta had shipped the sequential Series C hundred to the White House and CREEP began to emerge. The names dollar bills to Republic National Bank where Bernard Barker included Jeb Magruder, Hugh Sloan, Dwight Chapin, Donald had an account. Records there showed large April 1972 Segretti, , CREEP’s finance director, together deposits into Barker’s account made up of four checks with former Attorney General John Mitchell who had left his totaling $80,000 drawn on a Mexico City bank and a Department of Justice job to run President Nixon’s reelection fifth check for $25,000 from a Miami bank. Barker then campaign and, of course, the infamous G. Gordon Liddy. withdrew the funds receiving newly minted sequential one hundred dollar bills. (Series F bills had been shipped to Philadelphia’s Girard Bank where the trail went cold.) With thirty-six hours of investigation now behind us, Bob Kunkle asked me candidly who I thought was behind the burglary. I must admit that at that point I believed that it was a botched CIA operation. My feelings were based on the rogues gallery of players then in custody. It didn’t take a Sherlock Holmes Watergate Complex

14 June/July 2014 Everyone would later deny everything, yet all seemed linked in response to Headquarters’ apparent foot-dragging and in some way to the break-in and the money trail. delays of authorization for interviews of John Mitchell and L. Patrick Gray, now back in Washington and in other senior White House and CREEP officials. A now furious command, was under intense White House pressure to get Gray, completely unaccustomed to Bureau communications control of the investigation. What we wouldn’t learn until procedures, demanded to know the identity of the author two years later, just weeks before he resigned, was President who made seemingly disparaging remarks about him. After Nixon’s desperate attempts to deflect the FBI’s attention a few moments of stunned silence around the room, I threw away from White House involvement. In what historians caution to the wind by explaining to him that I wrote it and now call the June 23rd “Smoking Gun” conversation, one that the facts set forth were true; FBIHQ had inexplicably can clearly hear the President on tape at his desk in the Oval ordered the delay of certain interviews of White House Office discussing ways to derail the Bureau’s investigation officials, which the prosecutors considered essential. After I with H.R. Halderman, his Chief of Staff. Halderman outlined insisted that investigators were accustomed to conducting a for Nixon the progress of the case emphasizing the steady complete and thorough inquiry, Gray backed off, indicating unraveling of the money trail. The FBI “is not under control that he would urge Dean to move up the interviews. because Gray doesn’t exactly know how to control them” Over the next five months, our investigation relentlessly Halderman warned Nixon. Even more worrisome was the moved on. By September, a grand jury had indicted the escalating pace of the investigation which was now leading burglars along with Hunt and Liddy. In December, a month into “some productive areas because they have been able to after Nixon’s landslide re-election, Hunt and the five Cubans trace the money.” When Nixon questioned Gray’s reluctance pled guilty. (McCord and Liddy were later found guilty to stop the investigation, Halderman assured him that the after trial.) In February 1973, Judge imposed jail new Acting-Director did want to choke it off, but didn’t know sentences on all seven defendants. Then, in a surprise move how and had no basis to do so. The President then suggested that stunned everyone, the judge revealed his receipt of a a plan that, in effect, constituted the felony of obstruction letter from McCord suggesting that witnesses had perjured of justice. Halderman was ordered to instruct CIA director themselves during his trial and that, in fact, John Mitchell had to tell Gray that the break-in was a covert authorized the break-in and illegal wiretapping. Agency operation and that the Bureau should back off. McCord’s letter was the first crack in the White The order to Helms was a non-starter. First, the CIA House’s stonewalling. It was the beginning of the end. director refused the president’s order for fear of the serious The next eighteen months were a blur of high-profile harm it would do to the Agency. But, there was another criminal investigations, new and startling evidence of more immediate reason. As it turned out, on the night of the criminal conspiracy at the highest levels of our government, burglary, Helms was rousted out of his bed by a CIA official introduction of a new legal term called “Special Prosecutor” calling to inform him about the burglary and the arrests. (and “Saturday Massacre” of Special Prosecutor Archibald A few hours later, the CIA director telephoned Gray, then Cox and the principled resignation of the Attorney General traveling in California. After assuring the new Acting-Director Elliott Richardson). There were also riveting televised Senate that despite the “background of the apparent perpetrators,” hearings, and amazingly accurate newspaper stories by two the CIA had nothing to do with the break-in. Gray listened rookie Washington Post reporters named and politely but said little. Helms then suggested that the . In the midst of this national trauma, Nixon’s investigators examine the relationship of John Erlichman, the Vice-President, , suddenly resigned in the wake President’s domestic policy advisor, with Hunt and McCord. of a federal indictment that sent him to jail as a common Decades later in his memoir, Helms described telling an criminal. As Americans learned more of the shocking details unresponsive Gray that Erlichman was very familiar with of the Nixon tapes, their traditional trust in government the circumstances in which “Hunt was hired for work at the seismically shifted to one of suspicion and disbelief, which White House and McCord’s job on the committee to re-elect continues today. Gone was the Imperial Presidency. the President as well.” As for the President’s men, they fell like dominoes. Gray July 3, 1972 was a date I will never forget. A clearly withdrew his nomination in the spring of 1973 following agitated Gray, now fully aware of the CIA’s position and revelations that he kept Dean up-to-date on the progress desperately struggling to slow the investigation, summoned of the FBI investigation. Colson, Magruder, Stans, Mitchell, Mark Felt, Assistant Director Charley Bates, Kunkle, myself Halderman, Erlichman and Dean, just to name a few, went and another supervisor to his office for a conference on to jail. The President resigned in disgrace and the identity the Watergate case. I was not accustomed to dealing with of “,” the who provided FBI information Directors and Assistant Directors. I didn’t move in those to , remained a topic of speculation for circles. Add to this the fact that I knew nothing of Gray decades to come. So much for a couple of hours of work. except that he was the Acting-Director of the FBI, having You know, as I think back on it, the month of June has replaced the legendary J. Edgar Hoover just weeks earlier, always been somewhat eventful for me in my FBI career. I and now held the most important job in the FBI. So I was arrived at WFO on June 18, 1968. Belter called me on June flabbergasted when he suddenly began yelling and wildly 17, 1972. I got my OP to Baltimore on June 17, 1975. That’s waving a copy of a WFO teletype I had written. I wrote it my story. Now I can slip back into obscurity.

the Grapevine 15