W. Mark Felt Sr. , the associate director of the FBI during the Watergate scandal who , better known as `` Deep Throat , '' became the most famous anonymous source in American history , died yesterday .
yesterday
w. mark felt sr. associate director fbi watergate scandal well know `` deep throat famous anonymous source american history die yesterday
W. Mark Felt Sr. , the associate director of the FBI during the Watergate scandal who , better known as `` Deep Throat , '' became the most famous anonymous source in American history , died <m> yesterday </m> .
Lawman 's Unwavering Compass Led Him to White House Showdown
W. Mark Felt Sr. , the associate director of the FBI during the Watergate scandal who , better known as `` Deep Throat , '' became the most famous anonymous source in American history , died <m> yesterday </m> .
Felt died at 12:45 p.m . at his home in Santa Rosa , Calif .
On Tuesday , Oct. 10 , 1972 , Washington awoke to this startling news:
`` FBI agents have established that the Watergate bugging incident stemmed from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of President Nixon 's reelection and directed by officials of the White House and the Committee for the Re-election of the President , '' The Washington Post reported .
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein wrote that story , but it would not have been possible , they would later tell the world , without the clandestine help of the most famous unnamed source in history , W. Mark Felt -- the man they called `` Deep Throat . ''
He was the associate director of the FBI , and he guided the reporters , all along insisting that Watergate was not an isolated incident but part of a wider conspiracy designed to destroy Democratic presidential candidates who might run against Nixon .
Instead , the Watergate scandal subsequently destroyed the Nixon presidency .
Facing impeachment , Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace less than two years after that day in October when , one of his key lawyers would later say , it was apparent that `` in a general way and with the help of Deep Throat , ( Woodward and Bernstein ) figured out Watergate . ''
Felt died Thursday at his home in Santa Rosa , Calif .
He was 95 .
As the second-ranking official in the FBI , Felt possessed authoritative knowledge of what came to be known as the Watergate conspiracy .
Felt had personally witnessed the Nixon administration 's attempt to subvert the bureau 's investigation into the complex of crimes and coverups that began unraveling with a 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee 's headquarters at the Watergate complex in Northwest Washington .
`` He helped stiffen the spine of The Washington Post , which went out on a limb more than any other publication did , and broke stories that other outlets shunned , '' said Mark Feldstein , a George Washington University faculty member who is writing a book on Nixon and the media .
`` Had Woodward not run with it , Felt had a network of connections in Washington , ( other reporters ) he was talking to ... but no one knew of his connection to Woodward . ''
Felt , a dashing figure with a full head of silver hair and a reputation as a taskmaster , adamantly denied over the years that he was Deep Throat , even though Nixon suspected him almost from the start .
Nixon ordered interim FBI director L. Patrick Gray to fire Felt five times .
But Gray , convinced by Felt 's denials , never did .
A master of bureaucratic infighting and misdirection , Felt seized upon a Post story that had not used him as a source .
In a bold stroke , he denounced it in an internal memo and ordered an investigation into the leak .
`` Expedite , '' he commanded .
The next day , in a notation on another memo that passed across his desk , he pointed to a prosecutor as the source of the leak .
`` I was impressed .
My guy knew his stuff , '' Woodward wrote in `` Secret Man : The Story of Watergate 's Deep Throat '' ( 2006 ) .
`` The memo was an effective cover for him , the very best counterintelligence tradecraft .
Not only had he initiated the leak inquiry , but Felt appeared to have discovered the leaker . ''
Felt had insisted on remaining completely anonymous , or on `` deep background . ''
A Post editor dubbed him `` Deep Throat , '' a bit of wordplay based on the title of a pornographic movie of the time .
The source 's existence , but not his identity , became known in Woodward and Bernstein 's 1974 book , `` All the President 's Men , '' and in the subsequent movie version , in which actor Hal Holbrook played the charismatic but shadowy source .
It was n't until May 30 , 2005 , that Felt 's family revealed his identity in an article for Vanity Fair magazine .
The story , written by San Francisco lawyer John D. O'Connor , did not make clear why Felt , who was suffering from dementia , admitted his role after more than 30 years .
Woodward confirmed the revelation , and the secret was finally out .