G gordon liddy biography of martin

American FBI agent, lawyer and Watergate criminal (–)

George Gordon Battle Liddy (November 30, – March 30, ) was an American lawyer and FBI agent who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping for his role in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration.^[1]

Working alongside E. Howard Hunt, Liddy organized and directed the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in May and June After five of Liddy's operatives were arrested inside the DNC offices on June 17, , subsequent investigations of the Watergate scandal led to Nixon's resignation in Liddy was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and refusing to testify to the Senate committee investigating Watergate. He served nearly 52 months in federal prisons.^[2]

He later joined with Timothy Leary for a series of debates on multiple college campuses, and similarly worked with Al Franken in the late s. Liddy served as a radio talk show host from until his retirement on July 27, ^[3] His radio show was syndicated in markets by Radio America and on both Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio stations in the United States.^[4] He was a guest panelist for Fox News Channel in addition to appearing in a cameo role or as a guest celebrity talent on several television shows.

Early years

Youth, family, education

Liddy was born in Brooklyn on November 30, ^[5] His father, Sylvester James Liddy, was a lawyer; his mother was Maria (Abbaticchio) Liddy.^[6] His family was of Irish and Italian descent, and Liddy had a strict Catholic upbringing.^[7] He was named for George Gordon Battle, a noted attorney and Tammany Hall leader.^[5] He was raised in Hoboken^[8] and West Caldwell, New Jersey.^[9] He attended St. Benedict's Preparatory School, his father's alma mater, in Newark.^[6]

College, military, law school

Liddy was educated at Fordham University, graduating in ^[6] While at Fordham he was a member of the National Society of Pershing Rifles. Following graduation, Liddy joined the United States Army, serving for two years as an artillery officer during the Korean War era. Although he attained the rank of first lieutenant, he was not deployed overseas, having been assigned to an antiaircraft radar unit in Brooklyn for medical reasons.^[5][6] In , he was admitted to the Fordham University School of Law,^[6] earning a position on the Fordham Law Review.^[10] After graduating in , he worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under J. Edgar Hoover.^[6]

FBI

Liddy began his career with the FBI in , ^[1] initially serving as a field agent in Indiana and Denver.^[11] While stationed in Denver, he made a significant arrest on September 10, Ernest Tait, a notable criminal who had twice appeared on the Ten Most Wanted.^[11]

At age 29, Liddy became the youngest^[12] bureau supervisor at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.. Under the mentorship of deputy director Cartha DeLoach,^[1] Liddy secured a position on director J. Edgar Hoover's personal staff, even acting as Hoover's ghostwriter.^[12] Despite his achievements, Liddy was also known for his reckless behavior among his fellow agents,^[1][13][14] highlighted by two particular incidents.^[15]

The first incident took place in Kansas City, Missouri, during a covert operation. He was arrested but was subsequently released after contacting Clarence M. Kelley, former FBI agent and the then-chief of the Kansas City Police.^[1][15] The second incident involved an FBI background check that Liddy conducted on his future wife before they got married in ^[1][15] Liddy later claimed this action was a routine precautionary measure.^[16]

Prior to his departure from the FBI in , Liddy sought admission to various bars, leveraging his professional contacts. His application for admission to the United States Supreme Court was supported by Solicitor GeneralArchibald Cox.^[17][18]

Prosecutor and politician

Liddy resigned from the FBI in and worked under his father as a patent attorney in New York City until He was then hired by District Attorney Raymond Baratta as a prosecutor in exurbanDutchess County, New York, after providing references from the FBI.^[12] In , he led a drug raid on the Hitchcock Estate (then occupied by Timothy Leary) in Millbrook, New York, leading to an unsuccessful trial. Although the case generated much publicity, other lawyers complained that Liddy received credit for something in which he played a relatively small role.^[12][13] He was also reprimanded for firing a revolver at the ceiling in a courtroom.^[13][14] In , a drug raid directed by Liddy at Bard College scooped up, among others, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who later formed the band Steely Dan and wrote the song "My Old School" about the raid. Liddy is referred to in the lyrics as "Daddy Gee".^[19]

During that period, Liddy ran unsuccessfully for the post of District Attorney. In , he continued to seek office by running in the Republican Party's primary election for New York's 28th congressional district. Employing the slogan "Gordon Liddy doesn't bail them out; he puts them in", he lost to Hamilton Fish IV in a close race.^[16] Liddy then accepted the nomination of the Conservative Party of New York State and ran in the general election against Fish and the Democratic candidate, Millbrook businessman John S. Dyson. Fearing that Liddy might tip the election to Dyson, Fish turned to the district's Republican leader, State Assemblyman Kenneth L. Wilson, to get Liddy out of the race. Wilson's office dispatched the matter to the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, resulting in Liddy being offered a potential Richard Nixon administration political appointment at the United States Department of the Treasury; this prompted him to officially suspend his campaign. While Liddy's name remained on the ballot (garnering almost five percent of the vote),^{[citation needed]} it was not enough to forestall Fish's election.^{[citation needed]}

After serving as county director of Nixon's successful presidential campaign, he began the aforementioned political role as a special assistant for narcotics and gun control at the Treasury Department's Washington, D.C. headquarters in early Shortly thereafter, he helped to establish the country's contemporary sky marshal program under the aegis of the United States Marshals Service.^[6]

Beginning in , he served with Gordon Strachan and David Young as an aide to Domestic Affairs AdvisorJohn D. Ehrlichman in the Executive Office of the President at the behest of Egil "Bud" Krogh, who had worked on initiatives with Liddy at the Treasury Department. He served as the nominal general counsel to the finance committee of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) from to ^[20] Subsequently, Krogh, Liddy, Young, and Erlichman were indicted for conspiracy to commit burglary in September ^[21]

White House undercover operative

After serving in several mid-level law enforcement and domestic policy roles in the Nixon administration, Liddy was moved to Nixon's re-election campaign in order to extend the scope and reach of the White House Plumbers "special investigations unit", which had been created in response to damaging leaks of information to the press.^[22] Liddy's own name for the group was ODESSA, a reference to escape plans made by the Nazis.^[23]

At CRP, Liddy concocted several plots in early , collectively known under the title "Operation Gemstone". Some of these were far-fetched, intended to embarrass the Democratic opposition.^[24] These included kidnapping anti-war protest organizers and transporting them to Mexico during the Republican National Convention (which at the time was planned for San Diego), as well as luring mid-level Democratic campaign officials to a house boat in Miami, where they would be secretly photographed in compromising positions with prostitutes. Most of Liddy's ideas were rejected by Attorney GeneralJohn N. Mitchell (who became campaign manager in March ), but a few were given the go-ahead by Nixon administration officials, including the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in Los Angeles. Ellsberg had leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times.^[25] At some point, Liddy was instructed to break into the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Complex.^[26]

Watergate burglaries

Main article: Watergate scandal

Liddy was the Nixon administration liaison and leader of the group of five men who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Complex. At least two separate entries were made in May and June ; the burglars were apprehended on June ^[27] The purposes of the break-in were never conclusively established. The burglars sought to place wiretaps and planned to photograph documents. Their first attempt had led to improperly-functioning recording devices being installed. Liddy and Hunt masterminded the break-in from the Watergate Hotel Room , where they could look right into the DNC office,^[28] but Liddy claimed he did not actually enter the Watergate Complex at the time of the burglaries; rather, he admitted to supervising the second break-in which he coordinated with E. Howard Hunt, from room in the adjacent Howard Johnson Hotel. Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping.^[29]

Liddy was sentenced to a year prison term and was ordered to pay $40, in fines. He began serving the sentence on January 30, He claimed that on arrival he sang the Horst Wessel Song, the Nazi Party anthem.^[5] On April 12, , President Jimmy Carter commuted Liddy's sentence to eight years, "in the interest of equity and fairness based on a comparison of Mr. Liddy's sentence with those of all others convicted in Watergate related prosecutions", leaving the fine in effect.^[30] Carter's commutation made Liddy eligible for parole as of July 9, Liddy was released on September 7, , after serving a total of four and a half years of incarceration.^[31]

Liddy was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress in March , on the same day that he and the three Cuban burglars were charged with the Watergate-related crimes.^[32] Following a bench trial on May 10, , Liddy was convicted of contempt for his refusal to answer questions of the Special Subcommittee of Intelligence of the House Armed Services Committee, which was investigating the CIA's links to the break-in of the offices of Dr. Lewis Fielding, the psychiatrist to Daniel Ellsberg.^[32] Liddy was found guilty and was handed a suspended jail sentence and probation; the judge stated that the sentence was lenient because Liddy was already sentenced to prison on the Watergate charges. Liddy became one of very few people in American history to be convicted of criminal contempt of Congress.^{[citation needed]}

After prison

In , Liddy published an autobiography, titled Will, which sold more than a million copies and was made into a television film. In it, he states that he was willing to kill during the Ellsberg break-in, and that he once made plans with Hunt to kill journalist Jack Anderson, based on a literal interpretation of a Nixon White House statement, "we need to get rid of this Anderson guy".^[25][33]

In the early s, Liddy joined forces with former Niles, Illinois, policeman and co-owner of the Protection Group, Ltd., Thomas E. Ferraro Jr., to launch a private security and countersurveillance firm called G. Gordon Liddy & Associates.^[34]

Liddy emerged to host his own talk radio show in Less than a year later, its popularity led to national syndication through Viacom's Westwood One Network, and through Radio America in His radio show was syndicated in markets, and was on both Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio stations in the United States.^[4] Liddy's show ended on July 27, ^[3] He was also an occasional guest panelist for the Fox News Channel.

In and , Liddy repeatedly told listeners of his radio program to shoot federal law enforcement officers, giving instructions to aim for their heads.^[35] In many of these statements he referenced shooting in self-defense. After the Oklahoma City bombing, when President Clinton denounced the "many loud and angry voices" in conservative talk radio, Liddy responded that the head is a difficult target to hit and that he used pictures of the President and Hillary Clinton for target practice.^[36]

Liddy was sued for defamation in by Ida "Maxie" Wells, a secretary whose desk at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate was said to have been a target of the last Watergate break-in in order to find evidence related to an alleged prostitution ring kept in Wells' desk. Wells' suit accused Liddy of defamation.^[37] Liddy denied the allegation, and the judge dismissed the suit, commenting that "no 'reasonable jury' could have found in favor of the plaintiff."^[38]

In addition to Will, he wrote the nonfiction books, When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country (), and Fight Back! Tackling Terrorism, Liddy Style (, with his son,^[39] Cdr. James G. Liddy, along with J. Michael Barrett and Joel Selanikio). He also published two novels: Out of Control () and The Monkey Handlers ().^[6] Liddy was one of many people interviewed for the biography of Abbie Hoffman, Steal this Dream, by Larry "Ratso" Sloman.^[40]

Lectures, acting career and documentaries

In the mids Liddy went on the lecture circuit, being listed as the top speaker on the college circuit in by The Wall Street Journal. He later joined onetime foil Timothy Leary in a series of debates billed as "Nice Scary Guy vs. Scary Nice Guy" on the college circuit as well;^[6] Leary had once been labeled by Liddy's ex-employer Richard Nixon as "the most dangerous man in America".^[41] The lectures were the subject of a documentary film, Return Engagement.^[42]

In , the British documentary company Brian Lapping Associates sent producers Norma Percy and Paul Mitchell to interview many of the conspirators for its series titled Watergate, in which an unrepentant Liddy talked frankly about his role. He was filmed at home while sitting in front of his sizable collection of firearms and describing "how he had been ready, if ordered, to go straight out and kill Jack Anderson, the Washington D.C. columnist."^[43] At one point he was filmed wielding one of his pistols before the TV camera. It was made clear that, at the time of filming, the gun collection was registered in his wife's name, as he was ineligible for a license.^[44]

Liddy acted in several films, including Street Asylum,^[45]Feds,^[46]Adventures in Spying,^[47]Camp Cucamonga,^[48] and Rules of Engagement.^[45] He appeared on such television shows as The Highwayman, Airwolf,^[48]Fear Factor,^[47]Perry Mason, and MacGyver.^[48] He had recurring roles in Miami Vice and Super Force,^[48][49] and guest starred in Al Franken's LateLine.^[47] On April 7, , he appeared at WrestleMania II as a guest judge for a boxing match between Mr. T (with Joe Frazier and The Haiti Kid) versus Roddy Piper (with Bob Orton and Lou Duva).^[50][51] In April he appeared as a celebrity partner for a week on the game show Super Password, playing against Betty White.^[52]

Liddy appeared in the Golden Book Video release of Encyclopedia Brown: The Case of the Burgled Baseball Cards as Corky Lodato. In Miami Vice, he acted with John Diehl, who would later go on to portray Liddy himself in Oliver Stone's movie Nixon ().^[53] During his two guest appearances in Miami Vice, Liddy played William "Captain Real Estate" Maynard, a shadowy former covert operations officer whom Sonny Crockett knew from his military service in South Vietnam.^[54]

Liddy co-starred on 18 Wheels of Justice as the crime boss Jacob Calder from January 12, , to June 6, ^[55][56] He appeared on a celebrity edition Fear Factor, the show's series finale, on September 12, (filmed in November ). At 75, Liddy was the oldest contestant ever to appear on the show. He beat the competition in the first two stunts, winning two motorcycles custom built by Metropolitan Chopper.^[57]

Liddy was also an interviewee in the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon,^[45] as well as a commercial spokesman for Rosland Capital, selling gold on television commercials.^[58]

Personal life

Liddy was married to Frances Purcell-Liddy, a native of Poughkeepsie, New York, for 53 years until her death on February 5, She was a teacher.^[59] The couple had five children: Thomas, Alexandra, Grace, James, and Raymond.^[6] Raymond became a deputy attorney general but was convicted of possession of child pornography and disbarred.^[60]

In his later life, Liddy was an opponent of animal experimentation.^[61]

Death

Liddy died on March 30, , at age 90, at his daughter's house in Fairfax County, Virginia, while suffering from Parkinson's disease.^[6][5]

Portrayals

Publications

Articles

• "American Nightmare" (November ). Chic. vol. 2, no. 1.
• "Ten Things That Make Me Laugh". (January ). Playboy.

Books

• Liddy, G. Gordon (). Out of Control. St. Martin's Press. ISBN&#;.
• Liddy, G. Gordon (). Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy. St. Martin's Press. ISBN&#;.
• Liddy, G. Gordon (). The Monkey Handlers. St. Martin's Press. ISBN&#;.
• Liddy, G. Gordon (). When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country. Regnery. ISBN&#;.
• Liddy, G. Gordon with Cdr. James G. Liddy, J. Michael Barrett and Joel Selanikio, M.D. (). Fight Back: Tackling Terrorism, Liddy Style. St. Martin's Press. ISBN&#;.: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

See also

References