W. Mark Felt , the former FBI official who ended one of the United States ' most intriguing political mysteries when he identified himself as `` Deep Throat '' -- the nickname for the anonymous source who helped guide The Washington Post 's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the Watergate scandal -- has died .
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w. mark felt fbi official end united states intriguing political mystery he identify `` deep throat nickname anonymous source helped guide washington post pulitzer prize-winning investigation watergate scandal die
W. Mark Felt , the former FBI official who ended one of the United States ' most intriguing political mysteries when he identified himself as `` Deep Throat '' -- the nickname for the anonymous source who <m> helped </m> guide The Washington Post 's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the Watergate scandal -- has died .
Mark Felt , 'Deep Throat ' in Watergate reports , dies
Former FBI official had storied role in Washington Post investigation that brought down Nixon
W. Mark Felt , the former FBI official who ended one of the United States ' most intriguing political mysteries when he identified himself as `` Deep Throat '' -- the nickname for the anonymous source who <m> helped </m> guide The Washington Post 's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the Watergate scandal -- has died .
He was 95 .
A controversial figure who was later convicted of authorizing illegal activities in pursuit of members of the radical Weather Underground , Felt died of heart failure Thursday at his home in Santa Rosa , Calif . , his grandson Rob Jones said .
Felt was deputy associate director of the FBI in 1972 when he began supplying information to Bob Woodward , who with Carl Bernstein made up The Post 's investigative duo who doggedly pursued the story of the Watergate break-in and a conspiracy that led directly to President Richard M. Nixon , who ultimately resigned .
The reporters continued to keep Felt 's name a secret , but in 2005 , at the age of 91 , Felt told Vanity Fair magazine , `` I 'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat . ''
His disclosure ended a mystery that had intrigued Washington insiders and journalists for three decades and provided the grist for many hotly debated newspaper and magazine articles .
While Felt 's name was raised as a suspect on several occasions , he always managed to deflect attention , usually by saying that if had been Deep Throat he would have done a better job of exposing the wrongdoings at the White House .
His disclosure in a Vanity Fair article by his family 's lawyer , John D. O'Connor , provoked a national debate:
Was he a hero who should be lauded for sparing the country the strain of further high crimes and misdemeanors by the Nixon White House ?
Or was he a traitor who betrayed not only his president but his oath of office by disclosing grand jury information and the contents of FBI files ?
For the most part , reaction split along political lines .
`` There 's nothing heroic about breaking faith with your people , '' said commentator Patrick J. Buchanan , a former Nixon speechwriter .
Felt `` disgraced himself and dishonored everything an FBI agent should stand for . ''
But Richard Ben-Veniste , a key lawyer in the Watergate prosecution team , said Felt 's role showed that `` the importance of whistle-blowers should n't be underestimated , particularly when there are excesses by the executive branch of government -- which in this case went all the way to the executive office . ''
Felt 's moment in history began to unfold shortly after five men in business suits were arrested at the Watergate complex in Washington on June 17 , 1972 , after breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee .
Nixon press secretary Ron Ziegler dismissed the incident as `` a third-rate burglary , '' but details gradually tumbled out tying the burglars to the president 's re-election campaign .
Misdeeds in the White House were uncovered , hearings were conducted in the House of Representatives and Senate , and for the first time in American history a president was forced to resign .
The relationship that defined a generation in journalism began about 1970 when Woodward was a Navy lieutenant assigned to the Pentagon as a watch officer .
In his book , `` The Secret Man : The Story of Watergate 's Deep Throat , '' published after the Vanity Fair article appeared , Woodward wrote that he met Felt when he delivered a package of documents to the White House and struck up a conversation with him in a waiting room .
From that initial meeting , Woodward cultivated a friendship that would pay off handsomely after he entered journalism .
Felt began to provide tips to Woodward when he was a cub reporter at the Montgomery County Sentinel , a suburban Maryland newspaper , and later at The Post , where he was tipped by Felt on stories about the investigation of the 1972 shooting of George C. Wallace , the Alabama governor then running for president .
When Woodward was assigned to the Watergate break-in , he again pressed Felt for help .
His request came during a crucial moment in the FBI 's history:
Felt 's mentor , the legendary founding director J. Edgar Hoover , had died the month before the break-in , and Assistant Attorney General L. Patrick Gray III had been named acting director .
Felt feared -- and his suspicions were later proven right -- that Gray was too close to the Nixon administration to conduct an uncompromised investigation .
Felt agreed to help Woodward but only on `` deep background , '' a term meaning that `` the information could be used , '' Woodward wrote , `` but no source of any kind would be identified in the newspaper . ''
Felt insisted on using covert rules he had learned while working in the FBI 's espionage section during World War II .
If Woodward needed to talk to Felt , he would move a flower pot with a red cloth flag in it to the front of his apartment balcony .
If Felt needed to talk to the reporter -- to correct something The Post had written or to convey other information -- he would circle page 20 in Woodward 's home-delivered copy of The New York Times and draw clock hands on the page to indicate the time of the meeting .
He resisted telephone contact in favor of clandestine 2 a.m. encounters at an underground parking garage in Rosslyn , Virginia .
The two met from June 19 , 1972 -- two days after the break-in -- to November 1973 , five months after Felt left the FBI .
Within the paper , only Woodward and Bernstein knew the identity of Deep Throat , a name borrowed from a notorious pornographic movie of the era .
But Felt dealt only with Woodward , and Bernstein did not meet him until 2008 .
When Nixon left office on Aug. 9 , 1974 , the two reporters shared the secret with Post Editor Benjamin C. Bradlee , who until then had only known that the source was a high Justice Department official .
Nixon , according to Woodward , had suspected Felt of being the confidential source and assumed him to be part of a Jewish cabal out to get him .
According to Vanity Fair , Felt had no religious affiliation .