"A SHARP-EYED GUARD SAW THE TAPE & CALLED POLICE"

DNC HQS BURGLARIZED BY NIXON OPERATIVES

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On June 17, 1972, five burglars broke into  Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel here in the Nation's Capital.  According to Constitution Daily...

"The burglars used tape to hold open the latches on door locks at the DNC office.  A sharp-eyed guard, Frank Wills, saw the tape and called police."

 The burglars, arrested after being caught in the act, included...

James W. McCord, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez and
Eugenio Martinez.

McCord was later linked to Richard M. Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President*.    The FBI learned of a connection to E. Howard Hunt**, former long-time CIA operative, through an address book taken from Barker. 

Why did Nixon's re-election committee break-in to the DNC headquarters? 

According to J. Anthony Lukas, they "were trying to determine what Lawrence F. O'Brien, the chairman of the DNC, knew about some shady dealings between Nixon and Howard Hughes and ... trying to dig up some dirt with which to persuade the Democrats to withhold what they knew about the Nixon-Hughes relationship."

While Ron Zeigler, President Nixon's press secretary, referred to the break-in as a "third-rate burglary,"  an extensive investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Watergate, led to Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974.

*Committee to re-elect the President (CRP) was a fund raising organization for Richard M. Nixon organized in 1970 & opening offices in Washington, D.C. spring 1971.  Its activities included money laundering & illegal slush funds.  CRP paid $500,000 for legal defenses of the Watergate burglars.
 
**Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. (1918-2007) was born in Hamburg, NY & graduated from Brown University (1940).  EHH Jr. served in the US Navy, Army Air Corps & Office of Strategic Services during WWII.  He was a CIA officer from 1949 to 1970.  EHH Jr. also published 73 novels.

SOURCES

"10 fascinating facts about Watergate 42 years later," The Constitution Daily, www.blog.constitutioncenter.org/

"Why the Watergate Break-in?," by J. Anthony Lukas, The New York Times, November 30, 1987, www.nytimes.com/

Watergate Security Guard's Notes

June 17, 1972

"TO ASSURE NIXON'S RE-ELECTION IN 1972"

FIVE ARRESTED FOR BREAK-IN OF DNC HQ AT WATERGATE HOTEL

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On June 17, 1971, the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel was burglarized here in the Nation's Capital.  Five intruders were arrested.  They included...

James McCord*, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, and 

Eugenio Martinez.   Three of the five burglars were Cuban exiles and one was a Cuban-American.

The Constitution Daily writes...

"The burglars used tape to hold open the latches on door locks at the DNC office.  A sharp-eyed guard, Frank Wills, saw the tape and called police."

The reason for the break-in was to assure President Nixon's re-election in 1972 by collecting information to sabotage the Democratic presidential campaign.

Ron Zeigler, President Nixon's press secretary, referred to the incident on June 19, 1972 as a "third-rate burglary."

As a result of the investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Watergate, President Nixon was forced to resign on August 9, 1974.

JFK+50 UPDATE

Keith Sharon of the L.A. Daily News shares a surprising story about the break-in.  The burglars might not have been caught but for the tenacity of a DNC intern named Bruce Givner** who stayed late Friday night, June 16, 1971 making long-distance phone calls.

The break-in was scheduled for 9 p.m. and the burglars were awaiting the GO signal from a man stationed in the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge across the street from the Watergate Hotel.  The signal did not come until after midnight when the intern finally left.  The long delay contributed to the operation's failure.

*James Walter McCord, Jr. was born in 1924 in Waurika, Oklahoma & educated at Baylor, the University of Texas & George Washington University.  JWM served in the USAF Reserve and CIA where he directed, in 1961, a counter-intelligence program against the Fair Play for Cuba Committee of which Lee Harvey Oswald was a member.

**Bruce Givner lives in Bel Air but grew up in Lorain, Ohio.  He studied history at UCLA where he enrolled in a summer internship program.  BG did not get a "prize" assignment, but was put with the DNC in Washington, D.C.

SOURCES

"10 fascinating facts about Watergate 42 years later," The Constitution Daily, www.blog.constitutioncenter.org/

"The man who stayed late:  The Watergate story you've never heard," by Keith Sharon, June 14, 2019, Los Angeles Daily News, www.dailynews.com/

Watergate Security Guard's Notes

June 17, 1962