In May, McCord assigned former FBI agent Alfred C. Baldwin III to carry out the wiretapping and monitor the telephone conversations afterward.[21] McCord testified that he selected Baldwin's name from a registry published by the FBI's Society of Former Special Agents to work for the Committee to re-elect President Nixon.[citation needed] Baldwin first served as bodyguard to Martha Mitchell—John Mitchell's wife, who was living in Washington.[citation needed] Baldwin accompanied Martha Mitchell to Chicago.[citation needed] Eventually the Committee replaced Baldwin with another security man.[citation needed]
On May 11, McCord arranged for Baldwin, whom investigative reporter Jim Hougan described as "somehow special and perhaps well known to McCord",[citation needed] to stay at the Howard Johnson's motel across the street from the Watergate complex.[citation needed] Room 419 was booked in the name of McCord's company.[citation needed] At behest of G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, McCord and his team of burglars prepared for their first Watergate break-in, which began on May 28.[22]
Two phones inside the DNC headquarters' offices were said to have been wiretapped.[23] One was Robert Spencer Oliver's phone. At the time, Oliver was working as the executive director of the Association of State Democratic Chairmen. The other phone belonged to DNC chairman Larry O'Brien. The FBI found no evidence that O'Brien's phone was bugged;[citation needed] however, it was determined that an effective listening device was installed in Oliver's phone. While successful with installing the listening devices, the Committee agents soon determined that they needed repairs. They plotted a second "burglary" in order to take care of the situation.[23]
Sometime after midnight on Saturday, June 17, 1972, Watergate Complex security guard Frank Wills noticed tape covering the latches on some of the complex's doors leading from the underground parking garage to several offices, which allowed the doors to close but stay unlocked[citation needed]. He removed the tape, believing it was nothing[citation needed]. When he returned a short time later and discovered that someone had retaped the locks, he called the police[citation needed]. Responding to the call was an unmarked car with three plainclothes officers working the overnight "bum squad"—dressed as hippies and on the lookout for drug deals and other street crimes[citation needed]. The burglars' sentry across the street, Alfred Baldwin, was distracted watching TV and failed to observe the arrival of the police car in front of the hotel[citation needed]. Neither did he see the plainclothes officers investigating the DNC's sixth floor suite of 29 offices. By the time Baldwin finally noticed unusual activity on the sixth floor and radioed the burglars, it was already too late.[24] The police apprehended five men, later identified as Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard Barker, James McCord, Eugenio MartÃnez, and Frank Sturgis.[19] They were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. The Washington Post reported that "police found lock-picks and door jimmies, almost $2,300 in cash, most of it in $100 bills with the serial numbers in sequence ... a short wave receiver that could pick up police calls, 40 rolls of unexposed film, two 35 millimeter cameras and three pen-sized tear gas guns".[2
No comments:
Post a Comment