by James Rosen
5. Walter Rugaber, “Watergate Spy Says Defendants Were Under ‘Political Pressure’ to Admit Guilt and Keep Silent,” and “Remarks by Principals in Watergate Sentencings,” New York Times, March 24, 1973; CBS Evening News, March 24, 1973; “Mrs. Mitchell Fears Plot to Tie Watergate to Husband,” New York Times, March 28, 1973; Walter Rugaber, “McCord Reported to Link Mitchell to Bugging Plot,” New York Times, March 29, 1973; SSC memo of Interviews with James W. McCord by Samuel Dash [and] Fred Thompson, [conducted] March 23[1973], March 24 [1973] [and] April 13, 1973, [filed] May 9, 1973, RG 460 WSPF Investigative Files, U.S. v. Mitchell (Jencks), McCord, Box 77, NARA; SSCEX, McCord; THD, 595–96; author’s transcript, NT, Nixon-Haldeman, Conversation No. 425-26, EOB Office, March 28, 1973, 8:50 p.m. to 9:09 p.m. (Good Lord); Knappman, Watergate, pp. 24–25.
6. SSC, IV: 1579, 1649; Dean, Blind Ambition, p. 212.
7. SSCEX, Magruder; Magruder, An American Life, pp. 338–45; SSC, IV: 1379; UVM, 4634–39. Magruder said his visit to New York was undertaken at Mitchell’s request, a claim on which Mitchell was apparently never questioned. The Haldeman Diaries also suggests (p. 611) the meeting was Mitchell’s idea, but the White House tapes make clear Magruder had been angling for such a meeting; see WHT, 231, 253. In his Senate testimony, and again at U.S. v. Mitchell, Magruder said it was Mitchell’s idea that they meet with Haldeman; yet in his book, Magruder depicted himself proposing the session with Haldeman.
8. SSCEX, Magruder; SSCEX, Dean; WHT, 229, 288, 514; SSC, III; 1006–7; SSC, IV: 1634; UVM, 3276–77, 4638; THD, 615–22; AOP, 262–79; Magruder, An American Life, pp. 342–43; Dean, Blind Ambition, pp. 222–25; CI, November 2, 1988.
9. WHT, 222–66, 279, 283–341; CI, November 3, 1987 (kettle).
A GREAT TRIAL
1. CI, May 19, 1988 (tarnished), July 1, 1988 (drag, picture).
2. Stans interview; Dean, Blind Ambition, pp. 236–47; WH memo for The Files [from John Dean], Re: Meeting with John Mitchell/ Washington, D.C. Law Office/Time: 1:00–2:20 PM/April 10, 1973, [filed] April 12, 1973, at SSC, III: 1308–10, SSC, IV: 1679–80. Asked about Dean’s refusal to “wire” himself, Mitchell said: “I wish the hell he had, so we would have an accurate description of what took place, not just his recollection.” Mitchell said Dean never divulged that he had begun cooperating with the prosecutors.
Operation Sandwedge was the first proposal for a CRP intelligence plan. Circulated by Jack Caulfield in late 1971—with John Dean’s encouragement—it was rejected “out of hand” by Mitchell, who liked Caulfield but doubted his qualifications. Assigned once to protect Mitchell on a flight to Key Biscayne, Caulfield discovered upon touchdown that he’d left his gun inside the American Airlines lounge at National Airport. “That was the end of Caulfield, as far as I was concerned,” Mitchell chuckled years later; see SSC, IV: 1444 and CI, May 19, 1988.
3. HJC transcript of Haldeman-Magruder telephone conversation, April 14, 1973, at HJC, IV: 709–15; WHT, 300 (guilty as hell), 340–43; UVM, 8123–25; HJC transcript of Mitchell-Ehrlichman meeting, April 14, 1973, at HJC, IV: 725–68. Asked later why he secretly taped Mitchell, Ehrlichman said he had employed the technique on a number of occasions, so “I would be in a position afterward to say exactly what happened.” Asked if Mitchell and the others were aware they were being recorded, Ehrlichman answered sheepishly: “In the—in the main, no” see CBS Evening News, June 6, 1973.
4. WHT, 243 (60 Minutes), 341–78.
5. SSCEX, Magruder; Magruder, An American Life, pp. 345–56.
6. THD, 618; LaRue interviews; Seymour M. Hersh, “Charges Likely,” New York Times, April 19, 1973.
7. Denny Walsh, “Mitchell Retains Prosecutor’s Friend,” New York Times, April 20, 1973; William Hundley, interview with author, March 11, 1992; “Legends in the Law: A Conversation with William G. Hundley,” Washington Lawyer, November 2001.
8. WHT, 733–49; CBS Morning News and CBS Midday News, April 19, 1973; Seymour M. Hersh, “Mitchell Now Says He Heard Bugging Plot Three Times in 1972, but Rejected It,” New York Times, April 20, 1973; CBS Morning News, CBS Midday News, and CBS Evening News, April 20, 1973; “Ex-Attorney General Halted by U.S. Guard” and “Transcript of Mitchell’s News Conference,” New York Times, April 21, 1973; “Watergate: The Dam Bursts,” Newsweek, April 30, 1973; “Text of Indictment” UVM, 8126–29, 8202–6, 8334; “Mitchell Brief Says Silbert Warned Him in ’73 of Indictment,” New York Times, August 5, 1975. Daniel Schorr reported that Mitchell “admitted to the grand jury that he authorized payment of legal fees and expenses for the Watergate defendants”—an assertion that was almost certainly false. While most of Mitchell’s grand jury testimony remains sealed, he never admitted as much in any other forum, and the WSPF never cited such grand jury testimony at U.S. v. Mitchell.
9. Lynn Rosellini, “Prophetic Protestations,” Newsday, April 22, 1973; CBS Morning News and CBS Midday News, April 25, 1973; CBS Morning News, April 27, 1973; Charlotte Curtis, “Martha Mitchell Testifies in Civil Suit,” New York Times, May 4, 1973, and “Mrs. Nixon’s Aide Disputes Mrs. Mitchell,” New York Times, May 5, 1973; “Mrs. Mitchell Tells Nixon to Quit,” Newsday, May 7, 1973; William Sherman, “Martha’s Alive and Kicking,” New York Daily News, May 14, 1973; Newsweek and Time, May 21, 1973; “Prisoner of Fifth Avenue,” Time, June 25, 1973; “Excerpts from Kissinger’s News Conference,” New York Times, August 24, 1973 (orgy).
10. “Summer of Judgment: The Watergate Hearings,” PBS program, [aired] July 27, 1983 (80 million); Gladys Engel Lang and Kurt Lang, The Battle of Public Opinion: The President, the Press, and the Polls During Watergate (Columbia University Press, 1983), pp. 62–93. On Ervin, see Kutler, pp. 256, 370–71; Nixon, Memoirs: Volume 2, pp. 289, 445–46; Paul R. Glancy, Just a Country Lawyer: A Biography of Senator Sam Ervin (Indiana University Press, 1974), pp. 161–99, 218, 236–44; Bruce Allen, Fortas: The Rise and Ruin of a Supreme Court Justice (Wm. Morrow, 1988), p. 407; Bill M. Wise, ed., The Wisdom of Sam Ervin (Ballantine Books, 1973); Herb Altman, ed., Quotations from Chairman Sam: The Wit and Wisdom of Senator Sam Ervin (Harrow Books, 1973); “And the Mess Goes On,” Newsweek, May 21, 1973; AOP, 205; CBS Evening News, February 19, 1973 (Cronkite); and CI, September 29, 1988 (senile). On Dash, see SS CEX, E. Howard Hunt, May 14, 1973 (early morning); Dash v. Mitchell, Tom Wolfe, et al., “How Has the Most Famous Third-Rate Burglary Affected Your Life?” New York, October 22, 1973; Clancy, Just a Country Lawyer, pp. 203–4; William V. Shannon and Stanley Tretick, They Could Not Trust the King: Watergate and the American People (Macmillan Publishing, 1974), pp. 70–74; George V. Higgins, The Friends of Richard Nixon (Ballantine Books, 1976), pp. 263–64; and Victor Lasky, It Didn’t Start with Watergate (Dial Press, 1977), pp. 319–20. On Nixon’s low opinion of Thompson, see George Lardner Jr., “Baker Says He Didn’t Want Supreme Court Seat,” Washington Post, December 19, 1998. By the early 1970s, 97 percent of American homes contained a television set, with one in three homes boasting two or more sets; see Edwin Diamond, The Tin Kazoo: Television, Politics, and the News (MIT Press, 1975), p. 13.
11. “Martha Belts a Reporter,” Daily News, June 20, 1973; “Martha Meets the Press,” Washington Post, June 21, 1973; McLendon, Martha, p. 281 (insults).
12. “Prisoner of Fifth Avenue,” Time; CBS Morning News, June 27, 1973; “Lawyer Says Mitchell Won’t Implicate Nixon,” New York Times, June 29, 1973; CBS Evening News, July 2, 1973; Mary McCarthy, The Mask of State: Watergate Portraits (Harvest, 1975), p. 39 (Observer); McLendon, Martha, pp. 280–88; Sandy Hobbs Perk, interview with author, May 1, 1992. Mitchell met with the committee staff in executive session on July 9; but unlike Magruder and Dean, who were trading their testimony for lenient plea deals, Mitchell deferred extensive interrogation until his public session.
13. SSC, IV: 1601–36.
14. SSC, IV: 1636–52. At trial, Mitchell said his answer to Thompson related “solely to the motivation and rationale for the actions that I did take, [and was] not an affirmation of the recitation of eve
nts that Mr. Thompson had in his question” see UVM, 8336.
15. SSC, IV: 1653–81, 1810–13.
16. WHT, 255; SSC, IV: 1500–03; SSC, V: 1869–92. The official Senate transcript of Mitchell’s testimony contained numerous errors, including an inaccurate rendering of his “great trial” line; the version cited above was taken from a videotape.
17. Lang and Lang, The Battle of Public Opinion, p. 77; Diamond, The Tin Kazoo, p. 44 (Godfather); CBS Evening News, July 10–12, 1973; CBS Evening News, April 5, 1973 (Sevareid); Evan Drossman and Edward W. Knappman, eds., Watergate and the White House, Volume 2, July–-December 1973 (Facts on File, 1974), pp. 139–42 (editorials); McCarthy, The Mask of State, pp. 51–69; H. Dale Crockett, Focus on Watergate: An Examination of the Moral Dilemma of Watergate in the Light of Civil Religion (Mercer University Press, 1982), pp. 59–61; Plato Cacheris, interview with author, September 8, 1993.
BLEED FOR ME
1. CBS Morning News, April 5, 1974.
2. Russell Long, interview with author, May 10, 1996.
3. Harry Schlegel, “Martha: Let Mayor Switch,” Daily News, March 8, 1971 (defender); “Washington’s Own Martha,” Newsweek, November 30, 1970 (liberated); Myra MacPherson, “Nixon Tells Martha to Keep Punching,” Washington Post, May 27, 1970 (respect); Healy, “Martha Always Says Mouthful” (strawberry); Michaelson, “She’d Love to Go Back” (charm). “I just resent this women’s lib business,” Martha reaffirmed; see CBS Evening News, March 1, 1973.
4. Thomas O’Toole, “Martha and the Moon Rocks,” Washington Post, February 13, 1971; Shelton, “Martha Mitchell Plays Role” (river); “Mrs. Mitchell Assails Court’s ‘Nine Old Men,’” New York Times, April 22, 1971; “An Early Morning Interview with Martha Mitchell,” Washington Post, February 20, 1971 (Barbara Walters); Schlegel, “Martha: Let Mayor Switch.”
5. Michaelson, “She’d Love to Go Back” (ten to twenty, slaves); “The Southern Belle,” Washington Post, May 24, 1970 (colored, Negroes); Kandy Stroud, “Between Bites with Martha,” Women’s Wear Daily, January 25, 1971 (Jewish race).
6. Michaelson, “She’d Love to Go Back” (sick); “The Southern Belle,” Washington Post (wonderful); “Mrs. Mitchell Said to Have F.B.I. Guard,” New York Times, July 14, 1970 (Canada); Associated Press, “Martha: ‘The War Stinks,’” Washington Post, September 8, 1970; Thomas, Dateline, pp. 231–32.
7. Dorothy McCardle, “Just One of the Boys: Mitchell Party Hears High-Level Humor,” Washington Post, March 8, 1971.
8. Jennings interview; WH transcript of Ehrlichman–[Martha] Mitchell conversation, WHSF—SMOF, JDE Subject File, 1971 telephone conversations, Box 28, NARA. Asked why Martha never prevailed on John Mitchell to get her son deployed stateside—a favor well within his power to perform—Jennings explained: “My feeling was that…I wasn’t any better than anyone else. And if this [being sent to Vietnam] happened, it was meant to happen, and I didn’t want anybody interfering with it…. So I remember going to Key Biscayne, and I got John Mitchell alone and I explained to him that I had orders to Vietnam, and that I felt I should go, and that I was concerned that…if my mother found out that I was going, that she’d stop it somehow…. I’d felt at that point that John Mitchell would be an understanding stepfather, given his World War II combat experience…. And he did understand, and he said he respected my decisions and he would make sure that he didn’t tell my mother.”
9. Ehrlichman interview.
10. Harries interview; Chennault, The Education of Anna, pp. 173–99; Maxine Cheshire with John Greenya, Maxine Cheshire, Reporter (Houghton Mifflin, 1978), pp. 152–58.
11. Confidential sources, author interview (pregnant, women, affair); William F. Buckley Jr., “John Mitchell, R.I.P.,” National Review, December 9, 1988; J. Robert Mitchell interview.
12. Action for a Separation, New York State Supreme Court, Martha Mitchell v. John N. Mitchell, May 10, 1974 (cruel and inhuman); Affidavit of Stephan H. Peskin, New York State Supreme Court, January 28, 1975 (leadership, Watergate break-in and cover-up); both in WCHC.
13. Answer to Complaint, Mitchell v. Mitchell, February 27, 1975, WCHC (disregarded, justify, alcohol, unfit, harassment); letter to Susie Morrison from John Mitchell, [undated; late 1973], provided to the author by Morrison (sick). Martha denied Mitchell’s accusations, arguing she was “in all respects a dutiful wife [who] maintained her home in a loving and devoted manner” see Complaint Action for Separation, Index No. 33052/74, [undated; 1974–1975], WCHC.
14. Mitchell charged his belongings were “thrown into a heap on the floor of the foyer” of the Fifth Avenue apartment. Martha’s lawyer lamely countered that his client had merely “placed in the foyer [Mitchell’s belongings] so they could be picked up” see Affidavit of William C. Herman, August 12, 1975, WCHC.
15. Affidavit of Lloyd George Soll in Soll, Connelly, and Marshall v. John N. Mitchell, New York State Supreme Court, Index No. 15550–1974, [filed] January 3, 1976, WCHC; UPI, “Mrs. Mitchell Says Her Husband Left Her on Lawyers’ Advice,” New York Times, September 17, 1973. That Mrs. Mitchell had good reason to believe her marriage was soon to dissolve was evident from the New York Times headline of August 27, 1973—fifteen days before Mitchell walked out—that read: “A Friend Reports Mrs. Mitchell Plans to Ask Separation.”
16. Affidavit of Richard Creditor, October 22, 1975, WCHC.
17. Affidavit of John N. Mitchell, August 18, 1975, WCHC.
18. Creditor affidavit (cut back); Affidavit by John N. Mitchell, October 1974, WCHC.
19. Mitchell affidavit, October 1974 (abused, largesse, changed, severe, sustain, expected, phone, dry cleaning, realty); Affidavit of Marvin B. Segal, October 30, 1974 (Amtrak, exorbitant), WCHC.
20. Segal affidavit. The $90,000 Mitchell had spent on lawyers’ fees was, according to Segal, “over and above any legal fees paid” in his behalf by the Nixon campaign committee, which demanded Mitchell be acquitted on all criminal charges before it would cover any of his legal costs. Nor would Mitchell’s lawyers cut him the slack of advancing his fees, claiming they were “prohibited” from doing so.
21. Creditor affidavit; Segal affidavit; Order of Hon. Manuel A. Gomez, Justice, Supreme Court of the State of New York, December 2, 1974, WCHC.
22. Handwritten note [no addressee] from Martha Mitchell, attached to U.S. Individual Income Tax Return[1040] form, 1973, Martha Beall Mitchell; U.S. Individual Income Tax Return [1040] form, 1973, John N. and Martha B. Mitchell; letter to Martha Mitchell from William C. Herman, April 16, 1975; and letter to Marvin B. Segal from William C. Herman, Re: Mitchell v. Mitchell, April 28, 1975; all in WCHC.
23. Affidavit of Marvin B. Segal, February 1975, WCHC; Rhoda Amon, “Martha Mitchell: ‘I’m Basically a Housewife,’” Newsday, March 9, 1975 (your fault).
24. Complaint Action for Separation, Index No. 33052/74, [undated; February 28, 1975], WCHC; McLendon, Martha, pp. 223–
25. McLendon’s claim generated significant press coverage; see, for example, “John Mitchell’s Martha Tells All,” New York Post, May 17, 1979. “John Mitchell never pulled any punches,” the tabloid reported, “except, perhaps, for the one he threw at his late wife, Martha, knocking out one of her front teeth.”
25. UPI, “Mrs. Mitchell Says Her Husband Left Her” (never had a fight). On Martha’s altercation with Marty, see “Martha Admits Scuffling with Daughter at School,” New York Post, December 12, 1974; and McLendon, Martha, p. 386.
26. Ernest Leogrande, “Off the Shelves,” Daily News, September 17, 1975.
27. UPI, “Martha Mitchell Has Blood Disease,” New York Times, October 6, 1975; Associated Press, “Doctor Reports Martha Mitchell Has a Malignant Bone Disease,” New York Times, October 8, 1975; William Hines, “Martha Has Bone Cancer,” New York Post, October 8, 1975; Donnie Radcliffe, “Flamboyant Martha Mitchell Dies at 57,” Washington Post, June 1, 1976 (ribs, vertebrae).
28. “Aftermath: Martha Mitchell,” Washington Post, April 18, 1976 (paying the bills); McClendon, Martha, p.
446 (ignore); Hundley interview (barred); Fleming interview.
29. “Aftermath,” Washington Post (fractured); “Martha Has an Operation Here; Is OK,” Daily News, April 21, 1976 (thin, weak); “Martha Mitchell,” New York Times, April 21, 1976 (spirits).
30. Affidavit of Martha Mitchell, May 12, 1976; Affidavit of John N. Mitchell, May 17, 1976; Affidavit of Marvin B. Segal, May 17, 1976 (exacerbate), all in WCHC.
31. Order of Hon. Manuel A. Gomez, Justice, Supreme Court of the State of New York, May 20, 1976; “Notes on People,” New York Times, May 21, 1976 ($36,000); letter to Linda Francis from William C. Herman, July 2, 1976; and letter to Catherine Foster from William C. Herman, July 12, 1976.
32. Harry Stathos, “Martha Mitchell, 57, Dies of Cancer,” Daily News, June 1, 1976; Radcliffe, “Flamboyant Martha” McLendon, Martha, pp. 422–23.
33. McLendon, Martha, pp. 427, 443–51; Dorothy McCardle, “Martha’s Party at Blair House,” Washington Post, November 20, 1970.
HANDS OF THE GODS
1. Author’s transcript, NT, Nixon-Haig, Conversation No. 434-9, EOB Office, May 9, 1973, 6:35 p.m. to 8:26 p.m.
2. Drossman and Knappman, Watergate, pp. 80–84. Agnew formally acknowledged taking payments in 1967 “and other years,” but denied they “in any way” influenced his official actions. Elsewhere he protested his innocence; see Aaron Latham, “Spiro Agnew Looks for a Good Time,” Playboy, August 1977; and Spiro T Agnew, Go Quietly…or else (Wm. Morrow, 1980). In judging Mitchell “guilty” along with Agnew, Cazenovia College professor John Robert Greene cited a previously unpublished tape from April 14, 1973, featuring Nixon, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman. On the tape, Haldeman can be heard relaying the vice president’s claim that Joel Kline, a Maryland businessman who pleaded guilty to numerous crimes before cooperating in the Agnew probe, had, at some unspecified time, visited Mitchell’s office carrying “a bag of cash which he turned over to Mitchell and which…was allegedly involved in [Kline] receiving some very good government contracts.” Greene, however, ignored Haldeman’s prefatory remark that Agnew had told this story “to scare us into being worried about his case.” Ehrlichman said only that he had heard the same story from David Shapiro, Charles Colson’s lawyer; Nixon was incredulous: “I can’t believe that John Mitchell would take money in his office.” The truth emerged more than a year later, during a bench conference in U.S. v. Mitchell, when Mitchell’s attorney told Judge Sirica: “Mr. Colson made an allegation to Mr. Ehrlichman that somehow Mr. Mitchell was taking kickbacks from a Baltimore contractor. Now when that was going to come out before the Ervin committee, Mr. Colson’s lawyer, Mr. Shapiro, called me up and said, ‘Oh, by the way, you know that information we passed on was entirely wrong’” see UVM, 9804–05. Neither Agnew’s memoir nor the definitive account of his case, by two Washington Post reporters, contained any such allegations against Mitchell; see John Robert Greene, The Limits of Power: The Nixon and Ford Administrations (Indiana University Press, 1992), pp. 166–87; Agnew, Go Quietly; and Richard M. Cohen and Jules Witcover, A Heartbeat Away: The Investigation and Resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (Bantam, 1974). Alexander Haig believed Agnew’s downfall was part of a “conspiracy” by the Democrats. “They already were in liaison with the Baltimore investigation,” Haig said. “They saw the prospect of a converging double-impeachment, and the turnover of the government to the Speaker of the House [Carl Albert], a Democrat—and also a drunk.” Haig recalled that when he was named chief of staff, in April 1973, Democratic lawyer Joe Califano warned: “Al, don’t do it.” Asked why, Califano replied: “Don’t you know we have this guy? We got both of ’em!” Agnew’s grand jury probe was not yet publicly known; see Haig interview.
