The Mysterious Life and Death of James McCord

[Ron Bulman]

10 hours ago, Michael Clark said:

Do you mean Liddy?

No I meant leading.  But Liddy is mentioned on 24 pages.

[Douglas Caddy]

13 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Maybe Doug Caddy can weigh in with an opinion here.

I'm watching a documentary on Watergate, not particularly revealing, when I hear John Dean's taped interview with Nixon, where Dean says [paraphrase], "We're not pros at this, laundering money.  This is what the Mafia does." 

Nixon, famously, responds that he knows where the seven-figure hush money for the plumbers can be gotten.

Of course, this would have been from Mob-connected sources, such as Bebe Rebozo.

Question: In mentioning the Mafia, was attorney Dean doing a variation on leading the witness, for the benefit of the tape recorders?

Dean: We're not criminals, we're not used to dealing --

Nixon: You could get a million dollars, and you could get it in cash.  I know where it could be gotten.

Dean apparently did not mention allusions to the Mob in this conversation when he discussed it before the Senate committee.

David, you opened up an important part of Watergate in posing this question, a part that has never been explored by the Washington Post which has treated John Dean as its darling since the case broke. Dean was heavily involved socially with the mob in Washington headed by Joseph Nesline through Maureen Biner who later became his wife when they married after Watergate broke to secure the marital legal privilege against having to testify against one's spouse. Maureen had been the roommate of Heidi Rikan, the madame who ran the mob's prostitution ring out of the DNC. Rikan was a bridesmaid at their wedding. Dean and Maureen were seen frequently at a mob owned restaurant in Washington.

For further information see: https://www.amazon.com/White-House-Call-Girl-Watergate-ebook/dp/B00E257UFM/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Edited May 5, 2019 by Douglas Caddy

[David Andrews]

6 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

David, you opened up an important part of Watergate in posing this question, a part that has never been explored by the Washington Post which has treated John Dean as its darling since the case broke. Dean was heavily involved socially with the mob in Washington headed by Joseph Nesline through Maureen Biner who later became his wife when they married after Watergate broke to secure the marital legal privilege against having to testify against one's spouse. Maureen had been the roommate of Heidi Rikan, the madame who ran the mob's prostitution ring out of the DNC. Rikan was a bridesmaid at their wedding. Dean and Maureen were seen frequently at a mob owned restaurant in Washington.

For further information see: https://www.amazon.com/White-House-Call-Girl-Watergate-ebook/dp/B00E257UFM/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

It's true, and it's been discussed here before.  But I'm thinking that by mentioning "Mafia" and "criminals" to Nixon, Dean was trying to get the president to make some kind of admission on tape.  And Nixon did, asserting just barely out of context that he knew where a million in hush money could be gotten.

Falling for that leading question, on tape, was Nixon's most dopey moment as a lawyer.  Seeming to agree with Dean that criminality was beyond the pale for the Oval Office would have been the wise play..

Edited May 5, 2019 by David Andrews

[Douglas Caddy]

3 hours ago, David Andrews said:

It's true, and it's been discussed here before.  But I'm thinking that by mentioning "Mafia" and "criminals" to Nixon, Dean was trying to get the president to make some kind of admission on tape.  And Nixon did, asserting just barely out of context that he knew where a million in hush money could be gotten.

Falling for that leading question, on tape, was Nixon's most dopey moment as a lawyer.  Seeming to agree with Dean that criminality was beyond the pale for the Oval Office would have been the wise play..

The Oval Office tapes are revealing in many ways. For example, my law firm assigned me in April 1972 to work with the Lawyers Committee for the Re-election of the President. Accordingly I reported to John Dean in his office in the White House. After Watergate broke the Tapes reveal that Dean kept knowledge of my working relationship with him from President Nixon. This is shown in a Tape conversation between Nixon and Ehrlichman about me on July 19, 1972.. Dean kept our working relationship secret because he was the "Mastermind" of the cover-up and he did not want Nixon to know in the early days of Watergate that I had turned down the "hush money" offered to me by Ulasewicz upon orders from Dean and Kalmbach. Dean did not want Nixon to know how close the scandal was to the White House. Eighteen months passed before Nixon, Haldeman and Ehrlichman realized that Dean to protect himself was keeping key information from them. Dean wove a spider's web to entrap and incriminate Nixon during those months. When the cover-up broke Dean was the first to run to the prosecutors to tell what he knew.

Edited May 6, 2019 by Douglas Caddy

[Shane O'Sullivan]

I have just written a new piece for the Washington Post on James McCord and the revealing PowerPoint presentation he shared with his family two years before he died, which his family shared with me. It includes a link to the PowerPoint presentation and another key McCord memo, which can find here.

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by Shane O'Sullivan

[David Andrews]

Odd that McCord did not speak of a VVAW assassination threat at the time the entire nation wanted to know the purpose of the Watergate break-in.

If Sam Ervin refused to ask questions about the VVAW, despite McCord's memoranda to him, why didn't McCord shout about it when called before the committee?  A contempt charge would have minor compared to the sentence later McCord received.  And, where are these memoranda now?

Odd that the FBI did not approach Larry O'Brien and demand personnel records, or otherwise ascertain who the VVAW mole was among the DNC volunteers.  With "Terrorism" at issue, it took a break-in, and not a subpoena and some stern looks, to find the mole?

McCord had a PowerPoint presentation.  Howard Hunt had videotaped interviews.  What do we feel stopped McCord from pulling the concept of "Terrorism" out of the thin air of modern anxieties, just as Hunt pulled the names of LBJ and Cord Meyer from the suspect pool on the internet? 

Is this a pattern?  Using your family bonds and some noble pocket litter (in modern media formats) to alibi you after you're gone?

Hunt: I refused Harvey and Morales, and was merely a bench-warmer in Dallas.

McCord: I acted from the best humane motives while not working for the CIA, even though I insinuated my self into the West Wing on a CIA assignment to train the Secret Service. 

McCord may have gotten FBI reports on Scott Camil and the Gainesville 8, but they were coincidental to the purpose of the break-in and the engineered police capture.  He kept those reports in his back pocket for apologia.

Edited May 10, 2019 by David Andrews

[James DiEugenio]

Shane:

Here is a query.  How did you meet and greet with McCord's family?

The MSM invaded that little town in PA just recently.  I sent two friends there and no one could locate McCord's family.

[Ron Bulman]

5 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Odd that McCord did not speak of a VVAW assassination threat at the time the entire nation wanted to know the purpose of the Watergate break-in.

If Sam Ervin refused to ask questions about the VVAW, despite McCord's memoranda to him, why didn't McCord shout about it when called before the committee?  A contempt charge would have minor compared to the sentence later McCord received.  And, where are these memoranda now?

Odd that the FBI did not approach Larry O'Brien and demand personnel records, or otherwise ascertain who the VVAW mole was among the DNC volunteers.  With "Terrorism" at issue, it took a break-in, and not a subpoena and some stern looks, to find the mole?

McCord had a PowerPoint presentation.  Howard Hunt had videotaped interviews.  What do we feel stopped McCord from pulling the concept of "Terrorism" out of the thin air of modern anxieties, just as Hunt pulled the names of LBJ and Cord Meyer from the suspect pool on the internet? 

Is this a pattern?  Using your family bonds and some noble pocket litter (in modern media formats) to alibi you after you're gone?

Hunt: I refused Harvey and Morales, and was merely a bench-warmer in Dallas.

McCord: I acted from the best humane motives while not working for the CIA, even though I insinuated my self into the West Wing on a CIA assignment to train the Secret Service. 

McCord may have gotten FBI reports on Scott Camil and the Gainesville 8, but they were coincidental to the purpose of the break-in and the engineered police capture.  He kept those reports in his back pocket for apologia.

I lost interest with "When JFK came into office in 1961 he began to put troops in Vietnam."  Hogwash. 

[Shane O'Sullivan]

7 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Odd that McCord did not speak of a VVAW assassination threat at the time the entire nation wanted to know the purpose of the Watergate break-in.

If Sam Ervin refused to ask questions about the VVAW, despite McCord's memoranda to him, why didn't McCord shout about it when called before the committee?  A contempt charge would have minor compared to the sentence later McCord received.  And, where are these memoranda now?

Odd that the FBI did not approach Larry O'Brien and demand personnel records, or otherwise ascertain who the VVAW mole was among the DNC volunteers.  With "Terrorism" at issue, it took a break-in, and not a subpoena and some stern looks, to find the mole?

McCord had a PowerPoint presentation.  Howard Hunt had videotaped interviews.  What do we feel stopped McCord from pulling the concept of "Terrorism" out of the thin air of modern anxieties, just as Hunt pulled the names of LBJ and Cord Meyer from the suspect pool on the internet? 

Is this a pattern?  Using your family bonds and some noble pocket litter (in modern media formats) to alibi you after you're gone?

Hunt: I refused Harvey and Morales, and was merely a bench-warmer in Dallas.

McCord: I acted from the best humane motives while not working for the CIA, even though I insinuated my self into the West Wing on a CIA assignment to train the Secret Service. 

McCord may have gotten FBI reports on Scott Camil and the Gainesville 8, but they were coincidental to the purpose of the break-in and the engineered police capture.  He kept those reports in his back pocket for apologia.

Interesting questions, David. McCord did discuss the alleged VVAW mole in his Senate Watergate testimony but not the assassination threat. You can find one of his memos on Scott Camil and the VVAW threat at the Republican convention at the link I posted. 

McCord's Secret Service connections and his revelation in the presentation that he headed up the team that brought Nosenko out of Switzerland are very interesting in relation to his claim to Alfred Baldwin that he was in Dallas on the day of the assassination. 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Shane O'Sullivan

[Shane O'Sullivan]

3 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Shane:

Here is a query.  How did you meet and greet with McCord's family?

The MSM invaded that little town in PA just recently.  I sent two friends there and no one could locate McCord's family.

Just as my book went to press last September, I got in contact with his niece (who does not live in that little town in PA) and she confirmed his death and shared an email from McCord, including the presentation, which he had sent to his family in 2015. She told me the rest of the family did not want to talk either to me or the Washington Post, when the Post obituary writers asked me to put them in touch with the family.

Edited May 10, 2019 by Shane O'Sullivan

[James DiEugenio]

Why did they want to keep his death such a secret?

Did you ask her?  Was it at McCord's request?

[Shane O'Sullivan]

She said his children were very private people and didn't want an obituary. McCord's wife died before him and I guess his children just want to get on with their lives and didn't even want to add a comment for the Washington Post obituary.  

There is a great exchange between McCord and John Dean on C-SPAN here during a press conference to promote the BBC Watergate series in 1994.

Edited May 10, 2019 by Shane O'Sullivan

[David Andrews]

I dunno, Shane.  At the time of the hearings, McCord could have had the VVAW and Camil material in his pocket as hole cards to valorize the break-in, and remove CIA from the operation and the impeachment threat that resulted.  When the ploy failed, the excuses were still good for decades of family use.

Why weren't threats to senators' lives the responsibility of the FBI or even Secret Service (given the implied threat to Nixon), but the duty of the White House clandestine ops team? 

John Mitchell couldn't have impressed this mission on FBI, but instead chose Liddy to handle it?  With wiretaps?  Mitchell sat through one of Liddy's insane pre-operational presentations because burglary was a better remedy than the G-Men?

Edited May 10, 2019 by David Andrews

[Douglas Caddy]

5 hours ago, Shane O'Sullivan said:

She said his children were very private people and didn't want an obituary. McCord's wife died before him and I guess his children just want to get on with their lives and didn't even want to add a comment for the Washington Post obituary.  

There is a great exchange between McCord and John Dean on C-SPAN here during a press conference to promote the BBC Watergate series in 1994.

When WMPD Detective Carl Shoffler died in 1996 at age 51,  the U.S. Government required his family members to sign a non-disclosure agreement that forbid public comment. Shoffler, of course, was the Detective who arrested the Watergate burglars after having been given a tip weeks before the burglary that the crime was being planned.

Perhaps McCord's family was required to sign a similar NDA.

Shofller was a Military Intelligence Agent assigned by the Pentagon to the WMPD. When the Intelligence Division headed by Sgt. Dixie Gildon, a close friend of President Nixon, decided in the wake of the Watergate scandal to purge key information from its files, including unsavory information about key Washington players, Shoffler was designated to destroy these files. Instead he took them home and stored them in file cabinets in his garage. Whatever happened to these files after his death is unknown.

 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Douglas Caddy

[Douglas Caddy]

15 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Odd that McCord did not speak of a VVAW assassination threat at the time the entire nation wanted to know the purpose of the Watergate break-in.

If Sam Ervin refused to ask questions about the VVAW, despite McCord's memoranda to him, why didn't McCord shout about it when called before the committee?  A contempt charge would have minor compared to the sentence later McCord received.  And, where are these memoranda now?

Odd that the FBI did not approach Larry O'Brien and demand personnel records, or otherwise ascertain who the VVAW mole was among the DNC volunteers.  With "Terrorism" at issue, it took a break-in, and not a subpoena and some stern looks, to find the mole?

McCord had a PowerPoint presentation.  Howard Hunt had videotaped interviews.  What do we feel stopped McCord from pulling the concept of "Terrorism" out of the thin air of modern anxieties, just as Hunt pulled the names of LBJ and Cord Meyer from the suspect pool on the internet? 

Is this a pattern?  Using your family bonds and some noble pocket litter (in modern media formats) to alibi you after you're gone?

Hunt: I refused Harvey and Morales, and was merely a bench-warmer in Dallas.

McCord: I acted from the best humane motives while not working for the CIA, even though I insinuated my self into the West Wing on a CIA assignment to train the Secret Service. 

McCord may have gotten FBI reports on Scott Camil and the Gainesville 8, but they were coincidental to the purpose of the break-in and the engineered police capture.  He kept those reports in his back pocket for apologia.

WMPD Detective Carl Shoffler told his Confidential Informant Robert Merritt that there were a few topics that Senator Sam Ervin could not explore through the Senate Watergate Committee because there had been death threats against his family members if he proceeded to do so.