FBI Memorandum of July 21, 1972 on Watergate

[Douglas Caddy]

The following is excerpted from the 1974 hearings of the U.S. Committee on the Judiciary on the Nomination of Earl J. Silbert to be United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Silbert was the original Watergate prosecutor:

Senator Hart: Now, by the middle of July [1972], wasn’t the bulk of the case presented in the indictment known to you?

Mr. Silbert: No, sir.

Senator Hart: Let me make the record a little fuller. The July 21, 1972, FBI summary memorandum, which if there is no objection we will have printed at this point in the record, indicates fairly fully the evidence of the conspiracy of the seven, their actions, even the financial trail of the money. The so-called Mexican and Dahlberg checks which came into CREEP were cashed in the bank of Mr Barker and later were traced when some of the bills were found on the defendants.

[The summary memorandum referred to follows:]

U.S. Department of Justice

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Washington, D.C., July 21, 1972

JAMES WALTER McCORD, Jr.

Burglary of the Democratic Party National Headquarters

Washington, D.C.

There follows a summary of pertinent investigation conducted of the captioned matter through

July 20, 1972:

Burglary and Arrests: At approximately 2:30 a.m., June 17, 1972, officers of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) apprehended five individuals in an executive conference room of the Democratic Party National Headquarters located on the 6th floor of the Watergate Apartments, 2600 Virginia Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. At the time of the arrest, the subjects had in their possession burglary tools, electronic and photographic equipment and were wearing surgical-type plastic gloves.

Those arrested were identified as James Walter McCord, Jr., using the alias Richard Warren; Bernard Barker, using the alias Frank Carter; Eugenio Rolando Martinez y Creaga, using the alias Gene Valdes; Frank Anthony Sturgis, also known as Frank Anthony Fiorini, using the aliases Joseph Di Alberto and Edward Hamilton; and Virgirio Gonzales, using the alias Raoul Godoy.

All subjects refused to be interviewed, refused to state for whom they were working, from where they came or their purpose for being in the building. They were all charged with Burglary, Section 1801, Title 22, District of Columbia Code, and were held on $50,000 bond except for McCord, a Rockville, Maryland resident, whose bond was set at $30,000. All but Sturgis have since been released from District of Columbia jail on bond.

McCord, who appears to be the leader of this group, retired from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on August 31, 1970, and at the time of his arrest he was Chief of Security for the Committee to Reelect the President. The remaining subjects are all known to have Cuban backgrounds and either worked with or participated in CIA activities against the Castro Government.

Note: The remainder of the lengthy summary memorandum is omitted here but can be read in its entirety on page 83-89 of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. The summary memorandum firmly establishes for the legal and historical record the approximate time of the arrests of the five individuals in the Watergate building.