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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

FBI chief during Watergate scandal dies at 88


Gray
 (The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press

MIAMI – L. Patrick Gray, the Watergate-era FBI chief whose turbulent year at the agency was sullied by the scandal that led to President Nixon’s resignation, died Wednesday. He was 88.

Gray died at his home in Atlantic Beach of complications from pancreatic cancer, said his son, Ed Gray.

With the recent revelation that his former deputy, W. Mark Felt, was the secret Washington Post source known as Deep Throat, Gray ended more than three decades of silence about his role in the scandal.

“He fooled me,” Gray told ABC’s “This Week.” “It was like I was hit with a tremendous sledgehammer.”

The former Justice Department official and Navy captain was appointed by Nixon as acting FBI director in 1972 after the death of J. Edgar Hoover. Six weeks later, on June 17, five burglars broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington.

With ties to the burglars reaching into the White House, Gray’s FBI investigated the burglary – but Gray later acknowledged handing over FBI files to the Nixon White House.

The disclosure led to his resignation in 1973 and provoked Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman to utter his famous phrase that Gray would be left to “twist slowly, slowly in the wind.” His nomination to be permanent FBI director was withdrawn.