Carl Shoffler, Alfred Baldwin and Doug Caddy

[John Simkin]

Carl Shoffler was the policeman who arrested the Watergate burglars. Shoffler should not have been on duty that night. Shoffler’s shift ended at 10.00 pm on 16th June, 1972. He volunteered for an extra shift and then parked his car close to the Watergate building. He was therefore in a good position to take the call and arrest the burglars.

Shortly after the Watergate break-in, Shoffler told his former commanding officer, Captain Edmund Chung, that the Watergate arrests were the result of a tip-off. He also revealed that he knew Alfred Baldwin. It was implied that Baldwin was the one who tipped him off about the break-in. Shoffler also told Chung that if he ever made the whole story public, “his life wouldn’t be worth a nickel”.

Chung told his story to Sam Ervin’s Senate Committee but they decided to believe Shoffler who claimed that his former commanding officer made the story up in an attempt to blackmail him.

Ervin also refused to believe Robert “Butch” Merritt. He claimed that shortly after the Watergate break-in, Carl Shoffler offered him money to begin a sexual relationship with Doug Caddy, the man that E. Howard Hunt recruited as his lawyer. Merritt was used by the police and the FBI to spy on the New Left.

The Senate Committee also dismissed Merritt’s story. It was even claimed that it was clearly not true as “there was no reason to suspect that he (Doug Caddy) was anything but heterosexual”.

There is also another interesting aspect to this story. Merritt lived above a pornography shop at the corner of Columbia Road and Eighteenth Street. His landlord was Walter R. Riggin. It was later discovered that Riggin held sex parties. Two men who knew Riggin via these parties were Carl Bernstein and John Paisley.

According to a police report written by Lieutenant George F. Richards, Riggin’s sex parties were linked to intelligence gathering. Bernstein admitted that he had attended these parties and that he had accepted gifts from Riggin. However, it is not clear what Bernstein provided in return for these gifts.

[Ashton Gray]

This goes to my questions to Caddy in the Who Was Douglas Caddy Representing, and When? about his due diligence in defense of his "clients" concerning the bizarre police response. His due diligence appears to be wholly absent, which is a vast vacuum where some intense, serious lawyering should be. It is especially curious to me given this link:

• Caddy—>Merritt—>Shoffler
  

Of course, when Mr. Caddy tells it, that is strictly a one-way street going the other way:

• Shoffler—>Merritt—>Caddy
  

I would tend to think that it could go both ways. (So to speak.)

Ashton Gray

Edited July 4, 2006 by Ashton Gray

[J. Raymond Carroll]

This goes to my questions to Caddy in the Who Was Douglas Caddy Representing, and When? about his due diligence in defense of his "clients" concerning the bizarre police response. His due diligence appears to be wholly absent, which is a vast vacuum where some intense, serious lawyering should be. It is especially curious to me given this link:

• Caddy—>Merritt—>Shoffler

Doug Caddy was not retained to solve the mysteries of Watergate, his sole responsibility was to ensure that his clients received a competent defense. How does it benefit a man accused of burglary if his lawyer holds a press conference to say: "It's not fair, someone knew my clients were committing burglary and squealed to the dastardly cops, who then caught my clients red-handed. It's not fair , I tell you.

Of course, when Mr. Caddy tells it, that is strictly a one-way street going the other way:

• Shoffler—>Merritt—>Caddy
  

I would tend to think that it could go both ways. (So to speak.)

Ashton Gray

I suppose it was always inevitable that, sooner or later, it would come to this.