Early in the morning on June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a 24-year-old security guard at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C., noticed that a door lock had been taped open.
President Nixon directed his henchmen, The Plumbers, H R for Harry Robbins “Bob” Haldeman and John Daniel Erlichman and AG John Newton Mitchell to prepare what became known as the Nixon Enemies List following the Ellsberg fracas... and many found themselves published there.
Diana Bonnor Lewis, my Nixon hating mother, was among them... she and her family were watched by the FBI of J. Edgar Hoover. That whole business caused me to pay attention... as a student.
Deep Throat was credited for feeding the WaPo reporters ... and I wondered who he might be. As I aged, I grew well connected and acted.
I found Deep Throat living in Santa Rosa, California, and called his isolated single frightened daughter, Joan Felt... repeatedly, till she answered.
W. Mark Felt was living in her garage... suffering with occasional aspirational pneumonia and from the rising damp in the walls of her garage.
It took a while to gain her confidence. John D. O’Connor, her incredible lawyer, helped. She had him call me.
She had three sons... to enhance their lives and their diminished pride in their heroic, courageous, ignored grandfather who had fed the downfall of Nixon - and been criminalised and pardoned... as his wife committed suicide with Felt’s service revolver in their kitchen -
I called California schools and we paid for their education with silent directed donations that became their scholarships.
We worked with colleagues and local construction people to drain the walls of that garage to address the mold caused by the rising damp, and sent in retired Harvard Medical School professors to address Mark’s health concerns, and Joan’s.
Along the way - well before, somehow... mysteriously, of course .. certain reporters not associated with WaPo learned the identity of William Mark Felt Sr., who had worked for the FBI.. So, Deep Throat was discovered, breaking the informational control monopoly of WaPo reporters Carl Milton Bernstein and Robert Upshur “Bob” Woodward... who had done nothing for Felt and his family, then living in poverty and unwell as their Pulitzer driven fame soared - crediting them with the disclosures that led the to outing the whole mess of Watergate Plumbers and the financiers, some 70 others to fame and fortune, some from jail - all working their stories - see John Wesley Dean III - George Gordon Battle Liddy Esq., et al - and turning their lemons to lemonade as Mark Felt faded out and died and his grand kids went on to live normal lives... free of the blinding light... of disclosure.
The Washington Post reporters were credited and made millions off the courage of one man and their newfound fame.
The suffering and suicide of that man’s wife and and the suffering and agony of their daughter - and her three boys - were ignored...
I am so glad you shared this here and want to see it in our history. I knew about Mark Felt but not the part about his family. This is great information to add to Heather's letter today. Thank you for caring about them.
Sandy, thanks for your service to the Felt family. It is a reminder that the important thing is to remember we are dealing with people, not just stories, ideologies, prizes, or egos.
Helping the wonderful Felt family helped me as much as it helped them. It was an honor to help a man whose courage and integrity saved us from Richard Nixon, Spiro “Ted” Agnew, and the fascist mob of then... that mob did not retire. Trump Inc., is CREEP and AG John N. Mitchell - then jailed. The beat goes on - a republic if you can keep it. Bill Barr is a fraud, too - and Mike Pence married to his Mother is another insipid ambitious mess.
I recoil every single time the clip plays of Barr fake laughing at that book written by D'Souza in the hearings. Attempts to distance himself from Team Crazy reak of oily self serving duplicity.
I wonder how many lives are being ruined by the Trump fiasco. Some deservedly so, but others not. I know one orange faced person whose life needs to be ruined behind bars. And soon.
Perhaps if actual, real history, could be included in the textbooks of our schools, and teachers and their students encouraged to carry on critical thinking conversations about real and actual choices made by nefarious, bigoted, individuals drooling over greed, power, and control of those they deem less than, what an enlightened world we might be. Naïve I suppose, but one can dream. The Gilded Age is alive and well. :/
W. Mark Felt was a gutsy genius, an honest FBI man with integrity, working within a corrupt administration under corrupt FBI Directors, threatened by the White House team of deadly killers, conspirators, hardened criminals with an evil racist fascist White House - the stress Felt endured landed at home, on his wife and her daughter, and all hell broke loose. Meanwhile, two hot shot celebrity craving reporters created their response and it paid them well to Hide the Hero - for W. Mark Felt was the story, and by hiding him from stardom they assured theirs. The WaPo team lathered themselves in MSM idolatry as they hid the star. These two deserve praise for reporting and opprobrium for ignoring our hero to enrich themselves.
Thank you for helping Mark Felt Sandy, and going above and beyond to help his family. He was a hero for sure. What a tragedy that he didn’t get the recognition he deserved when he was still alive. I’ve known about his story for some time, but what I didn’t know is how then WaPo reporters Bernstein & Woodward made millions off one man’s courage, one man who took incredible risks to himself and his family to do what was right for our country. Shame on them for not compensating Felt. If it wasn’t for Felt they would not have had the story.
For his part, let’s be clear, Deep Throat DID want anonymity. Desperately. He feared his own FBI and Watergate collaborators willing to kill him. Nixon was no saint. But fear evaporates in SUNSHINE, and once the tapes were outed, once Judge Sirica ruled, with the Saturday Night Massacre and Archibald Cox standing up, it was time. Felt deserved the Nation’s highest award, not indictment. He was shamed much like we are now shaming a man hiding in Moscow .. for his troubles. And another coming from England. We Americans have a long way to go.
Yes, Felt should have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Snowden should have received it as well. Snowden caught my eye because I did similar work in the army (ASA, 1966-70) but on a lower level. (My level was somewhere between Snowden and Manning.) Snowden is intelligent, patriotic, and courageous. He performed an heroic act for the American people. All Snowden is guilty of is telling the American people that their government is spying on them, recording their phone calls and monitoring their internet use. Big deal. I knew that 50 years ago. In the Army Security Agency, we had an open motto as written on our decal--"In God We Trust. Everyone else we monitor."
Thank you for this link! Just read it, and I feel better. Having vaguely, barely remembered Sussman, I can't stand the latest round of late night visitations from the remaining two. It takes a village....
Sandy: Have you shared this powerful story publicly? If not, or if you’d like to make it available in book form, I would like to help you. I have a small book publishing company and could shepherd you through the process of making an ebook, paperback and hardcover edition so that your knowledge would not be lost to history. No charge to you for this. You can reach me directly at eFitzgeraldPublishing@gmail.com.
Thank you Sandy, for bringing Mark Felt back into the picture. Unfortunately, a government that lies to its people is not soon found out. As a result me and a bunch of my friends (hi-school grads) were drafted or just 'signed up' to beat the draft. In 1970 I was in Guam, the PI, and Thailand pushing B52's loaded with racks of 250 pounders and a bombay with 500 pounders bound for rice-paddies. Some of my friends never made it back. And the rich got richer.
Not experienced enough as an editor for a book as important as this will be, Sandy! So glad a small publisher found you in these comments! What I am paricularly good at is stumbling over typos before final edit.
One edit for you (because I am a better R.N. than editor): "aspirational pneumonia" should read "aspiration pneumonia" (drop "al"). So look forward to your important book.
Thank you for sharing this information. It certainly brings home the human cost of other people's avarice and drive for fame and fortune. Often the truly courageous go unnoticed, while those who loudly toot their horns get all the attention. I was and continue to be opposed to how Nixon's reputation was scrubbed clean, while at the same time we are all still paying for his deceit.
Sandy, all I can say is, "wow!" You are right about Woodward and Bernstein, they are NOT the heroes here. Have watched the series 'Gaslit'? While grossly fictionalized, it portrays Felt as alarmed and uncomfortable from the start with Director Patrick Gray's complicity.
And portrays John Dean as a real sleaze, something that was lost on me as I only viewed him from his Watergate testimony.
I think of Dean as a bit like Michael Cohen. Men who did dirty work for "the Boss," but ultimately are redeeming themselves with truth and service to the truth.
I enjoyed Gaslit, perhaps because I like Julia Roberts (from Pretty Woman to Martha Mitchell!) Another anti-hero, she played her part in the great reveal, too.
You, too, Sandy, have brought light to a shadowed story that needs to be publicized in a sensitive and important way. Whistleblowers are heroes but at an extreme personal cost. Your tenacity in locating Mr. Felt and entering into his family’s lives is to be honored. Yet equally important is not only the back-story to the WaPo Watergate reporting, which is a sensational story, but more important telling, is the negative consequences of being a national crises whistleblower. Hopefully, the telling of your story, which is the ending of Mr. Felt’s, will motivate others to act to support whistleblowers via public means (significant legislative funding) or non-profit support. Whistleblowers are necessary for the common good.
What a colossal sacrifice Mark Felt made for our country. I can only imagine how frightened he and his wife were. I am deeply saddened by her suicide. Yours is a remarkable story that rings true, the extraordinary price often paid by people who are honest about crimes committed by the powerful. I will always be grateful that you spoke about this history today.
Roger Stone was a pariah in 1972 and remains one to this very day. What sane person would have a tattoo of a known criminal on his back. He was and will always be a disgrace.
The January 6 Committee, I'm sure, will link him to the Proud Boys and reveal his connection to the attempted coup. And from there, presumably, another prison sentence could await — this time without Trump in a position to pardon him.
Being that this has now become a war against America, the criminality, I believe, has risen to the ultimate crime against our democratic republic: TREASON.
I would love to see Stone and his "Nixon" tatt behind bars, together. Sweet justice for America, that one. What often happens to men in jail I will not speak of, but Nixon's criminal's face on the back of one of America's terrorists is just out of the worst kind of movie. Who is/are the author/authors of all these tragic tales in our America? Corporatocracy and dark moneyed interests must be dealt with this time around.
Yes, but worries me and I *just* had this thought—if DT or one of his/those minions win in the next election, all..I mean all of these crooks could be pardoned. Downright scary !!
I am very curious to learn who got all those pardons Jared was assiduously working on. Probably a lot of pocket pardons that will be revealed as I dictments roll out. I take comfort in the fact that they can be challenged as criminally given. Like a bribe to coconspirators.
And remember that Rumsfeld and Cheney were a part of that same administration. They learned well the lesson “Some are above the law”. We suffer the fall out of that today. In one way Liz is just another woman cleaning up after a sh*tslinging daddy and his bros party at the expense of the American People.
President Nixon directed his henchmen, The Plumbers, H R for Harry Robbins “Bob” Haldeman and John Daniel Erlichman and AG John Newton Mitchell to prepare what became known as the Nixon Enemies List following the Ellsberg fracas... and many found themselves published there.
Diana Bonnor Lewis, my Nixon hating mother, was among them... she and her family were watched by the FBI of J. Edgar Hoover. That whole business caused me to pay attention... as a student.
Deep Throat was credited for feeding the WaPo reporters ... and I wondered who he might be. As I aged, I grew well connected and acted.
I found Deep Throat living in Santa Rosa, California, and called his isolated single frightened daughter, Joan Felt... repeatedly, till she answered.
W. Mark Felt was living in her garage... suffering with occasional aspirational pneumonia and from the rising damp in the walls of her garage.
It took a while to gain her confidence. John D. O’Connor, her incredible lawyer, helped. She had him call me.
She had three sons... to enhance their lives and their diminished pride in their heroic, courageous, ignored grandfather who had fed the downfall of Nixon - and been criminalised and pardoned... as his wife committed suicide with Felt’s service revolver in their kitchen -
I called California schools and we paid for their education with silent directed donations that became their scholarships.
We worked with colleagues and local construction people to drain the walls of that garage to address the mold caused by the rising damp, and sent in retired Harvard Medical School professors to address Mark’s health concerns, and Joan’s.
Along the way - well before, somehow... mysteriously, of course .. certain reporters not associated with WaPo learned the identity of William Mark Felt Sr., who had worked for the FBI.. So, Deep Throat was discovered, breaking the informational control monopoly of WaPo reporters Carl Milton Bernstein and Robert Upshur “Bob” Woodward... who had done nothing for Felt and his family, then living in poverty and unwell as their Pulitzer driven fame soared - crediting them with the disclosures that led the to outing the whole mess of Watergate Plumbers and the financiers, some 70 others to fame and fortune, some from jail - all working their stories - see John Wesley Dean III - George Gordon Battle Liddy Esq., et al - and turning their lemons to lemonade as Mark Felt faded out and died and his grand kids went on to live normal lives... free of the blinding light... of disclosure.
The Washington Post reporters were credited and made millions off the courage of one man and their newfound fame.
The suffering and suicide of that man’s wife and and the suffering and agony of their daughter - and her three boys - were ignored...
I am so glad you shared this here and want to see it in our history. I knew about Mark Felt but not the part about his family. This is great information to add to Heather's letter today. Thank you for caring about them.
Sandy, thanks for your service to the Felt family. It is a reminder that the important thing is to remember we are dealing with people, not just stories, ideologies, prizes, or egos.
Helping the wonderful Felt family helped me as much as it helped them. It was an honor to help a man whose courage and integrity saved us from Richard Nixon, Spiro “Ted” Agnew, and the fascist mob of then... that mob did not retire. Trump Inc., is CREEP and AG John N. Mitchell - then jailed. The beat goes on - a republic if you can keep it. Bill Barr is a fraud, too - and Mike Pence married to his Mother is another insipid ambitious mess.
I recoil every single time the clip plays of Barr fake laughing at that book written by D'Souza in the hearings. Attempts to distance himself from Team Crazy reak of oily self serving duplicity.
I never liked Barr....he needs to go to jail! He helped to allow Trump to do what he did until he was afraid. Now he is trying to save his hindend!
Yes.
exactly.. and I agree 100%
In 2019 I made a meme with Barr's pic, captioned "It's very appropriate when a toady actually looks like a toad."
(Oh, come on, didn't everybody think it?)
I wonder how many lives are being ruined by the Trump fiasco. Some deservedly so, but others not. I know one orange faced person whose life needs to be ruined behind bars. And soon.
“ That operative, who sports a tattoo of Nixon on his back, was Roger Stone, who went on to advise Donald Trump’s political career.”
And so the world turns as we watch, this time in broad daylight, history repeat itself….
Isn't it amazing....history does repeat itself!
Perhaps if actual, real history, could be included in the textbooks of our schools, and teachers and their students encouraged to carry on critical thinking conversations about real and actual choices made by nefarious, bigoted, individuals drooling over greed, power, and control of those they deem less than, what an enlightened world we might be. Naïve I suppose, but one can dream. The Gilded Age is alive and well. :/
Santayana.
Actually, I think it's an old oligarchy chess game plan, that has backup plays whenever it runs into a hitch with it's victims.
Capitol cops died, suicide is a tell.
Another weasel would be Roger Stone. Sometime I wonder if he was the “mastermind” (ha, ha) of both these repulsive events.
No doubt he played a significant role in the attempted overthrow. He has been surrounded by his pals for protection - white nationalists!
Sandy, your kindness to the Felt family is remarkable. It will always be this way: the actions of the true hero become co-opted by the manipulators.
W. Mark Felt was a gutsy genius, an honest FBI man with integrity, working within a corrupt administration under corrupt FBI Directors, threatened by the White House team of deadly killers, conspirators, hardened criminals with an evil racist fascist White House - the stress Felt endured landed at home, on his wife and her daughter, and all hell broke loose. Meanwhile, two hot shot celebrity craving reporters created their response and it paid them well to Hide the Hero - for W. Mark Felt was the story, and by hiding him from stardom they assured theirs. The WaPo team lathered themselves in MSM idolatry as they hid the star. These two deserve praise for reporting and opprobrium for ignoring our hero to enrich themselves.
Thank you for helping Mark Felt Sandy, and going above and beyond to help his family. He was a hero for sure. What a tragedy that he didn’t get the recognition he deserved when he was still alive. I’ve known about his story for some time, but what I didn’t know is how then WaPo reporters Bernstein & Woodward made millions off one man’s courage, one man who took incredible risks to himself and his family to do what was right for our country. Shame on them for not compensating Felt. If it wasn’t for Felt they would not have had the story.
❤
Wow, thank you for that. I thought Deep Throat wanted to remain anonymous and hidden. Had no idea of what that family suffered…
For his part, let’s be clear, Deep Throat DID want anonymity. Desperately. He feared his own FBI and Watergate collaborators willing to kill him. Nixon was no saint. But fear evaporates in SUNSHINE, and once the tapes were outed, once Judge Sirica ruled, with the Saturday Night Massacre and Archibald Cox standing up, it was time. Felt deserved the Nation’s highest award, not indictment. He was shamed much like we are now shaming a man hiding in Moscow .. for his troubles. And another coming from England. We Americans have a long way to go.
Yes, Felt should have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Snowden should have received it as well. Snowden caught my eye because I did similar work in the army (ASA, 1966-70) but on a lower level. (My level was somewhere between Snowden and Manning.) Snowden is intelligent, patriotic, and courageous. He performed an heroic act for the American people. All Snowden is guilty of is telling the American people that their government is spying on them, recording their phone calls and monitoring their internet use. Big deal. I knew that 50 years ago. In the Army Security Agency, we had an open motto as written on our decal--"In God We Trust. Everyone else we monitor."
So, yes, "We Americans have a long way to go."
Amusing! Sandy
Woodward and Bernstein also saw fit to downplay in the book and eliminate in the movie, the WaPo editor Barry Sussman, without whom the whole story would have been a simple local break-in and forgotten. https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/06/watergate-three-woodward-bernstein-history/661218/
Thank you for this link! Just read it, and I feel better. Having vaguely, barely remembered Sussman, I can't stand the latest round of late night visitations from the remaining two. It takes a village....
Damn. Firewall. One of these days I'll probably have to subscribe to The Atlantic . 🙄
The Atlantic subscription is worth it.
Do. Editor Jeffrey Goldberg has elevated The Atlantic.
The Atlantic is very affordable. And so worth it. Do it.
It's the best $50 you'll ever spend on top-shelf journalism!
It's worth it.
Hmmm, bummer. I was able to get "in" and don't subscribe, although I've been meaning to. ;)
I think they allow each of us a limited number of free reads per month before we hit the paywall.
Simply put, Sussman got royally screwed.
Yes. Yes. They hog the limelight.
Sandy: Have you shared this powerful story publicly? If not, or if you’d like to make it available in book form, I would like to help you. I have a small book publishing company and could shepherd you through the process of making an ebook, paperback and hardcover edition so that your knowledge would not be lost to history. No charge to you for this. You can reach me directly at eFitzgeraldPublishing@gmail.com.
Use 518.963.4206 no message machine home or 973.379.4446 iPhone WhatsApp or Signal or direct ... Or send yours... sblewis@fastmail.fm is mine. Sandy
I’ll be in touch next week to discuss the possibilities, Sandy.
Democracy hard at work. Lovely to see, you two.
Sandy
Go team, go!
How kind of you, Patrice! Thank you.
Of course, with corroboration of at least two sources. Just my two cents.
Thank you Sandy, for bringing Mark Felt back into the picture. Unfortunately, a government that lies to its people is not soon found out. As a result me and a bunch of my friends (hi-school grads) were drafted or just 'signed up' to beat the draft. In 1970 I was in Guam, the PI, and Thailand pushing B52's loaded with racks of 250 pounders and a bombay with 500 pounders bound for rice-paddies. Some of my friends never made it back. And the rich got richer.
🥺
Ty Sandy. This is the history that needs to be shared.
Sandy write a book! We will all buy it!
Send money
If I get elected Democrat County Treasurer in a Republican voting County! That will also make the history books!
Where might that be, Sharon?
Clay County Indiana. I am running because Heather said to!
😎
Beautiful, important thing you did, Sandy. And Historical. I haven't the money. But I'm an okay 1st editor.
I’m old.
I know that feeling.
Probably younger than me!
You edit? Experienced?
Not experienced enough as an editor for a book as important as this will be, Sandy! So glad a small publisher found you in these comments! What I am paricularly good at is stumbling over typos before final edit.
One edit for you (because I am a better R.N. than editor): "aspirational pneumonia" should read "aspiration pneumonia" (drop "al"). So look forward to your important book.
Sharon Stearley, have a title in mind?
Title?
The guys that threw Deep Throat under the bus-that made millions etc! I would like to know more about why your mother was on the list~
Sandy, you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for your compassion and kindness to Felt and his family.
Thank you for sharing this information. It certainly brings home the human cost of other people's avarice and drive for fame and fortune. Often the truly courageous go unnoticed, while those who loudly toot their horns get all the attention. I was and continue to be opposed to how Nixon's reputation was scrubbed clean, while at the same time we are all still paying for his deceit.
That story needed to be told. Thank you.
Thank you Sandy for “the rest of the story”.
Sandy, all I can say is, "wow!" You are right about Woodward and Bernstein, they are NOT the heroes here. Have watched the series 'Gaslit'? While grossly fictionalized, it portrays Felt as alarmed and uncomfortable from the start with Director Patrick Gray's complicity.
And portrays John Dean as a real sleaze, something that was lost on me as I only viewed him from his Watergate testimony.
Sorry, but I can’t see Dean as a “sleeze.” We need one today, and a Mark Felt.
I think of Dean as a bit like Michael Cohen. Men who did dirty work for "the Boss," but ultimately are redeeming themselves with truth and service to the truth.
I enjoyed Gaslit, perhaps because I like Julia Roberts (from Pretty Woman to Martha Mitchell!) Another anti-hero, she played her part in the great reveal, too.
Yes!
You, too, Sandy, have brought light to a shadowed story that needs to be publicized in a sensitive and important way. Whistleblowers are heroes but at an extreme personal cost. Your tenacity in locating Mr. Felt and entering into his family’s lives is to be honored. Yet equally important is not only the back-story to the WaPo Watergate reporting, which is a sensational story, but more important telling, is the negative consequences of being a national crises whistleblower. Hopefully, the telling of your story, which is the ending of Mr. Felt’s, will motivate others to act to support whistleblowers via public means (significant legislative funding) or non-profit support. Whistleblowers are necessary for the common good.
Do unto others..
A beautiful story of your gift to the Felts. You have amazed me once again.
An inspiring start to my day.
What a colossal sacrifice Mark Felt made for our country. I can only imagine how frightened he and his wife were. I am deeply saddened by her suicide. Yours is a remarkable story that rings true, the extraordinary price often paid by people who are honest about crimes committed by the powerful. I will always be grateful that you spoke about this history today.
Thank you Heather.
I'm old enough to remember when this was an unthinkable act by the Government Administration.
Little did I know, this was child's play compared to what this Nation would become..
Be safe. Be well.
👍🏼
"
Same ❤️
Roger Stone was a pariah in 1972 and remains one to this very day. What sane person would have a tattoo of a known criminal on his back. He was and will always be a disgrace.
The January 6 Committee, I'm sure, will link him to the Proud Boys and reveal his connection to the attempted coup. And from there, presumably, another prison sentence could await — this time without Trump in a position to pardon him.
I dream. He was upset that he was deemed too young to go to jail for Nixon. That’s not a problem now.
Hell no! Not a problem now, indeed. All of the pardons Jared and his daddy-in-law issued, should be revoked, when he is convicted of sedition.
Being that this has now become a war against America, the criminality, I believe, has risen to the ultimate crime against our democratic republic: TREASON.
I would love to see Stone and his "Nixon" tatt behind bars, together. Sweet justice for America, that one. What often happens to men in jail I will not speak of, but Nixon's criminal's face on the back of one of America's terrorists is just out of the worst kind of movie. Who is/are the author/authors of all these tragic tales in our America? Corporatocracy and dark moneyed interests must be dealt with this time around.
Yes, yes, a million times YES! But will it happen? Will the good guys win in the end?!
Please, don't let this be another sequel... it's time. It's our turn...
Yes, it is time, Cynthia. All all the darkness is having light shed upon it. Take heart-- we shall prevail!
Is that a possibility?! 😲
Ha!
Hopefully, DOJ is close to indicting him! 🙏🏼
That would be a true ' coup' .
Yes, but worries me and I *just* had this thought—if DT or one of his/those minions win in the next election, all..I mean all of these crooks could be pardoned. Downright scary !!
He has promised this at rally this week. 800 some.
Well, I won't pardon. If I get a chance I will 'pior a vida' as they say here in Portugal.
🤞🙏
I am very curious to learn who got all those pardons Jared was assiduously working on. Probably a lot of pocket pardons that will be revealed as I dictments roll out. I take comfort in the fact that they can be challenged as criminally given. Like a bribe to coconspirators.
If I ever make it to the moon the first thing I’m going to do is go and scratch his name off of the plaque on the leg of Apollo 11.
Thank you for the giggle today. Love it! Need it!
And remember that Rumsfeld and Cheney were a part of that same administration. They learned well the lesson “Some are above the law”. We suffer the fall out of that today. In one way Liz is just another woman cleaning up after a sh*tslinging daddy and his bros party at the expense of the American People.