White House Call Girl: The Real Watergate Story by Phil Stanford

Author:Phil Stanford [Stanford, Phil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781936239894
Publisher: Feral House
Published: 2013-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

Burglary #1

About the end of April, Liddy gets a message to report to Magruder at his office. Liddy arrives in a grumpy mood, expecting more non-Gemstone related assignments that will further draw down on the approved budget. He is, however, not prepared for this:

“Gordon,” says Magruder, “do you think you could get into the Watergate?”

In their discussions so far, no one has mentioned Watergate, but Liddy knows what he means. As he writes in his book, he’s been thinking about burglarizing the DNC, too—but later, after the Democrats finish their convention in July. That’s when the winner would start using it as a campaign headquarters.

Sure, says Liddy. It can be done, but isn’t it a little early?77

Magruder doesn’t miss a beat. “How about putting a bug in O’Brien’s office?” he says. Larry O’Brien, of course, is the DNC chairman.

“For that, it’s a bit late,” says Liddy. As Liddy and Magruder both know, O’Brien had already moved his base of operations to Miami. In fact, Liddy and Hunt’s team has been trying to figure out how to bug him down there.

“Okay, so he’s in and out,” says Magruder. “There’s still plenty of activity over there. We want to know whatever’s said in his office, just as if it was here, what goes on in this office.”

Liddy thinks it’s all a bit strange but he agrees to do the job.

“The phones, too,” says Magruder. “And while you’re in there, photograph whatever you can find.”

Liddy wants to argue, but it’s clear to him that Magruder is just relaying orders.

“Get in there as soon as you can, Gordon. It’s important.”

On May 22, a Monday, Hunt’s crew arrives from Miami. They check into a run-down hotel on 14th Street and spend the next few days checking out the city. They stop by the Watergate office building, take the elevator up to the 6th floor, and, from the hallway, take a look at the DNC offices. They also stop by the Howard Johnson Motor Inn, directly across the street from the Watergate. That’s where the bugs will be monitored, once they’ve been placed inside the DNC.

On Friday, using aliases, they check into the plush Watergate Hotel, which adjoins the Watergate office building. That night they throw a catered party for themselves in one of the hotel’s banquet rooms. The idea is to stay there until all the waiters have gone home, then make their way through a basement corridor to the Watergate office building—but somehow, there’s a screw-up.

As Hunt and McCord explain to Liddy the next day, they had to wait so long for the lights to go out in the DNC, an alarm was activated along the corridor route, making it impossible for them to carry out the mission. A decade later, researchers would realize that no such alarm78 ever existed.

Saturday night, they try again. The burglars actually enter the Watergate office building. Back at the HoJo command post, everything is looking rosy—at least until Liddy is informed that they weren’t able to get into the DNC offices because their lock-picking expert, Vergilio Gonzalez, didn’t have the right tools.

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