G. Gordon Liddy

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G. Gordon Liddy
Liddy c. 1998
Born
George Gordon Battle Liddy

(1930-11-30)November 30, 1930
New York City, U.S.
DiedMarch 30, 2021(2021-03-30) (aged 90)
Mount Vernon, Virginia, U.S.
EducationFordham University (BA, LLB)
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Frances Purcell
​
​
(m. 1957; died 2010)​
Children5; including
Conspiracy, burglary, illegal wiretapping
Penalty20 years imprisonment; commuted to 8 years imprisonment by President Jimmy Carter
Military career
Allegiance United States
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service1952–1954
Rank Lieutenant

George Gordon Battle Liddy (November 30, 1930 – March 30, 2021) was an American lawyer,

FBI agent, and a criminal who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping for his role in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration.[1]

Working alongside

conspiracy, and refusing to testify to the Senate committee investigating Watergate. He served nearly 52 months in federal prisons.[2]

He later joined with

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, 1930.[5] His father, Sylvester James Liddy, was a lawyer; his mother was Maria (Abbaticchio) Liddy.[6] His family was of Irish and Italian descent. Liddy was named for George Gordon Battle, a noted attorney and Tammany Hall leader.[5] He was raised in Hoboken[7] and West Caldwell, New Jersey.[8] 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 1952.[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. He attained the rank of first lieutenant and was assigned to an antiaircraft radar unit in Brooklyn for medical reasons.[5][6] In 1954, he was admitted to the Fordham University School of Law,[6] earning a position on the Fordham Law Review.[9] After graduating in 1957, he worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under J. Edgar Hoover.[6]

FBI

Liddy began his career with the FBI in 1957, [1] initially serving as a field agent in Indiana and Denver.[10] While stationed in Denver, he made a significant arrest on September 10, 1960: Ernest Tait, a notable criminal who had twice appeared on the Ten Most Wanted.[10]

At age 29, Liddy became the youngest

Cartha DeLoach,[1] Liddy secured a position on director J. Edgar Hoover's personal staff, even acting as Hoover's ghostwriter.[11] Despite his achievements, Liddy was also known for his reckless behavior among his fellow agents,[1][12][13] highlighted by two particular incidents.[14]

The first incident took place in

Kansas City Police.[1][14] The second incident involved an FBI background check that Liddy conducted on his future wife before they got married in 1957.[1][14] Liddy later claimed this action was a routine precautionary measure.[15]

Prior to his departure from the FBI in 1962, Liddy sought admission to various bars, leveraging his professional contacts. His application for admission to the

United States Supreme Court was supported by Solicitor General Archibald Cox.[16][17]

Prosecutor and politician

Liddy circa 1964

Liddy resigned from the FBI in 1962 and worked under his father as a

exurban Dutchess County, New York, after providing references from the FBI.[11] In 1966, 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.[11][12] He was also reprimanded for firing a revolver at the ceiling in a courtroom.[12][13] In 1969, 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".[18]

During that period, Liddy ran unsuccessfully for the post of District Attorney. In 1968, he ran 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.[15] 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. After Wilson's office discussed the matter with the Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, Liddy was offered a position with the Treasury Department which he accepted and withdrew from the campaign. Liddy's name remained on the ballot and while he received almost five per cent of the vote,[citation needed] it was not enough to stop Fish's election.[citation needed]

After serving as county director of

narcotics and gun control at the United States Department of the Treasury's headquarters in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he helped to establish the country's contemporary sky marshal program under the aegis of the United States Marshals Service.[6]

Beginning in 1970, he served with

Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) from 1971 to 1972.[19] Subsequently, Krogh, Liddy, Young, and Erlichman were indicted for conspiracy to commit burglary in September 1973.[20]

White House undercover operative

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

In 1971, after serving in several positions in the

Nixon administration, Liddy was moved to Nixon's 1972 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.[21]

At CRP, Liddy concocted several plots in early 1972, collectively known under the title "

Watergate Complex.[24]

Watergate burglaries

Watergate scandal
The Watergate complex in 2006
Events
List
People
Watergate burglars
Groups
CRP
White House
Judiciary
Journalists
Intelligence community
Congress
Related
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 1972; the burglars were apprehended on June 17.

conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping.[27]

Liddy was sentenced to a 20-year prison term and was ordered to pay $40,000 in fines. He began serving the sentence on January 30, 1973. He claimed that on arrival he sang the

Horst Wessel Song, the Nazi Party anthem.[5] On April 12, 1977, 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.[28] Carter's commutation made Liddy eligible for parole as of July 9, 1977. Liddy was released on September 7, 1977, after serving a total of four and a half years of incarceration.[29]

Liddy was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress in March 1974, on the same day that he and the three Cuban burglars were charged with the Watergate-related crimes.[30] Following a bench trial on May 10, 1974, 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.[30] 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.

After prison

In 1980, 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".[23][31]

In the early 1980s, 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.[32]

Liddy emerged to host his own talk radio show in 1992. Less than a year later, its popularity led to national syndication through Viacom's Westwood One Network and through Radio America, in 2003. Liddy's show ended on July 27, 2012.[3]

In 1994 and 1995, Liddy repeatedly told listeners of his radio program to shoot federal law enforcement officers, giving instructions to aim for their heads.

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.[34]

Liddy was sued for defamation in 1999 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.[35] Liddy denied the allegation, and the judge dismissed the suit, commenting that "no 'reasonable jury' could have found in favor of the plaintiff."[36]

In addition to Will, he wrote the nonfiction books, When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country (2002), and Fight Back! Tackling Terrorism, Liddy Style (2006, with his son,[37] Cdr. James G. Liddy, along with J. Michael Barrett and Joel Selanikio). He also published two novels: Out of Control (1979) and The Monkey Handlers (1990).[6] Liddy was one of many people interviewed for the biography of Abbie Hoffman, Steal this Dream, by Larry "Ratso" Sloman.[38]

Lectures, acting career and documentaries

In the mid-1980s Liddy went on the lecture circuit, being listed as the top speaker on the college circuit in 1982 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".[39] The lectures were the subject of a 1983 documentary film, Return Engagement.[40]

Liddy discussing how the Watergate burglars were caught

In 1994, 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."[41] 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.[42]

Liddy acted in several films, including Street Asylum,

Super Password, playing against Betty White.[50]

Liddy appeared in the 1993 Golden Book Video release of

Sonny Crockett knew from his military service in South Vietnam.[52]

Liddy co-starred on 18 Wheels of Justice as the crime boss Jacob Calder from January 12, 2000, to June 6, 2001.[53][54] He appeared on a celebrity edition Fear Factor, the show's series finale, on September 12, 2006 (filmed in November 2005). 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.[55]

Liddy was also an interviewee in the 2006 documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon,[43] as well as a commercial spokesman for Rosland Capital, selling gold on television commercials.[56]

Personal life and death

Liddy was married to Frances Purcell-Liddy, a native of Poughkeepsie, New York, for 53 years until her death on February 5, 2010. She was a teacher.[57] 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.[58]

In his later life, Liddy was an opponent of

animal experimentation.[59]

Liddy died on March 30, 2021, at age 90, at his daughter's house in Fairfax County, Virginia, while suffering from Parkinson's disease.[6][5]

Portrayals

Publications

Articles

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7864-1718-6
    .
  2. ^ "The Watergate Files: G. Gordon Liddy". Ann Arbor, MI: Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
  3. ^ a b Marcucci, Carl (June 7, 2012). "TVBR.com, Voice of the Broadcasting Industry". RBR.com.
  4. ^ Sirius Satellite Radio, Weekends at 6:00am Eastern on Channel 144.
  5. ^ a b c d e Dobbs, Michael (March 30, 2021). "G. Gordon Liddy, undercover operative convicted in Watergate scandal, dies at 90". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k McFadden, Robert D. (March 30, 2021). "G. Gordon Liddy, Mastermind Behind Watergate Burglary, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  7. ^ Grove, Lloyd. "The Reliable Source", The Washington Post, August 16, 2001. Accessed February 6, 2013. "When G. Gordon Liddy was a puny lad in Hoboken, N.J., he roasted and ate a rat – 'to demonstrate to myself my lack of fear', the convicted Watergate burglar explained in his 1980 autobiography, Will."
  8. ^ Wechsler, Philip (August 27, 1973). "Liddy Is Recalled As Youth in Jersey". The New York Times. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  9. ^ Bloomquist, Randall (May 24, 1992). "Radio Free Liddy". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  10. ^ a b Kernan, Michael (November 1, 1972). "Liddy: Cowboy on the Potomac" (PDF). The Washington Post. Retrieved April 10, 2014.
  11. ^
    ISBN 9780860915294
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  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8214-1287-9
    .
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7432-4302-5
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  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-393-32128-9
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    ISBN 039950768X
    .
  16. ^ "Admissions to the Bar". Journal of the Supreme Court of the United States. 196: 290. May 21, 1962. Retrieved January 13, 2017 – via HeinOnline.
  17. JSTOR 1290112
    .
  18. ^ Mason, Stewart. "My Old School - Steely Dan - Song Info". AllMusic. Retrieved September 5, 2017. "My Old School" is the pair's most overt song about their alma mater, a sarcastically chipper-sounding remembrance of the time Becker and Fagen, along with several dozen other students, found themselves caught up in a trumped-up drug raid during an election cycle.
  19. ISBN 978-1-4381-3071-2
    .
  20. ISBN 978-0-670-02536-7
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  21. ISBN 978-0-670-02536-7
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    .
  24. ^ "Liddy Testifies in Watergate Trial". ABC News. January 6, 2001. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  25. ISBN 0-689-10658-0
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  26. ^ Mark Gollom. "Watergate 50 years later: Last guy to turn out the lights before burglars arrived recalls infamous break-in".
  27. ISBN 978-0-87196-353-6
    .
  28. ^ "Jimmy Carter: Commutation of G. Gordon Liddy's Prison Sentence Announcement of the Commutation, With the Text of the Order". Presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  29. ^ Richards, Bill (September 7, 1977). "Liddy Almost Lost Parole Set for Today". Washington Post.
  30. ^ a b Erick Trickey, Bannon contempt of Congress trial echoes Nixon burglar Liddy’s, Washington Post (July 12, 2022).
  31. ^ "The G. Gordon Liddy Story Continues With Chapter 11". The New York Times. November 12, 1988. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  32. ^ "New 'Bugs' Make Spying Easier". Business Week. July 12, 1982.
  33. ^ "Liddy's Lethal Advice". FAIR. July 1995. Retrieved August 20, 2022. Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests.
  34. ^ McKerrow, Steve (May 17, 1995). "'Shoot for the head' remark earns Liddy an award". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  35. ^ United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit Jul 28, 1999186 F.3d 505 (4th Cir. 1999),
  36. ^ Civil Case No. JFM-97-946, "Memorandum" by District Judge J. Frederick Motz, March 19, 2001, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
  37. ^ "Start-Up". washingtonpost.com. August 29, 2005. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  38. ^ Sloman, Larry (May 20, 2010). "Steal this Dream". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  39. ^ Shapiro, Ari (January 5, 2018). "Nixon's Manhunt For The High Priest Of LSD In 'The Most Dangerous Man In America'". NPR. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  40. ^ IMDB page
  41. ^ William E. Schmidt (May 16, 1994). "Resurrecting an American Tragedy, BBC Series Lays Watergate Bare". The New York Times. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  42. ISBN 9781573921251
    . His wife has a federal firearms license but he does not, because of a disputed burglary conviction from 1964.
  43. ^ a b c "G. Gordon Liddy". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  44. ^ Shafer, Ellise (March 30, 2021). "G. Gordon Liddy, Convicted Watergate Operative, Dies at 90". Variety. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  45. ^ a b c Pedersen, Erik (March 30, 2021). "G. Gordon Liddy Dies: Watergate Felon Who Went On To Showbiz Career Was 90". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  46. ^ a b c d "G. Gordon Liddy List of Movies and TV Shows". TV Guide. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  47. ^ "Liddy Describes Plot to Murder Newsman in '70s". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. June 13, 1991. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  48. ^ "WrestleMania 2 celebrities". WWE Network. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  49. ^ Wolf, Robert (April 4, 1986). "WrestleMania Returns, Coast-to-Coast". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  50. ^ Stein, Gary (March 15, 1987). "Now Notoriety Alone Buys Celebrity Status". Sun-Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  51. ^ "John Diehl". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  52. ^ "Liddy in 'Miami Vice'". The New York Times. Associated Press. October 31, 1985. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  53. ^ "18 Wheels of Justice". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  54. ^ "Old bad guys never die". The Guardian. London. February 8, 2000. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  55. ^ Natale, Anthony (April 26, 2013). "G. Gordon Liddy to attend Spring Carlisle". WPMT. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  56. ^ Sanburn, Josh (April 11, 2011). "G. Gordon Liddy". Time. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  57. ^ "Frances Liddy obituary". Legacy.com. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  58. ^ City News Service (October 16, 2023). "Raymond Liddy, son of Watergate operative, disbarred after child porn conviction in San Diego". NBC 7 San Diego. NBCUniversal Media. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  59. ^ "The Reliable Source". Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  60. ^ "Blind Ambition – Full Cast & Crew". TV Guide. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  61. ^ Erickson, Hal (For AMG) Will: G. Gordon Liddy, "Movies," New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2007.
  62. ^ The Story Behind The Watchmen, by Joshua McConnaughey Archived February 4, 2021, at the Wayback Machine June 6, 2011, Essential Webcomics
  63. ^ "John Diehl". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  64. ^ Fleming, Andrew (August 4, 1999), Dick (Comedy), Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, Dan Hedaya, Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels, Pacific Western, Phoenix Pictures, retrieved December 20, 2023
  65. ^ Radish, Christina (May 2, 2022). "Shea Whigham on 'Gaslit,' Finding Humanity in G. Gordon Liddy, and the Challenges of Playing a Historical Figure". Collider. Valnet, Inc.
  66. ^ Caruso, Nick (April 22, 2022). "Gaslit's Shea Whigham on 'Finding the Human' in Gordon Liddy, and the Sheer 'Insanity' of Starz's Watergate Retelling". TVLine. TVLine Media, LLC.
  67. ^ "White House Plumbers | Official Website for the HBO Series | HBO.com". HBO. Retrieved March 31, 2023.

External links

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