G. Gordon Liddy, Watergate mastermind and former Dutchess prosecutor, dies at 90
G. Gordon Liddy, who masterminded the Watergate burglary after serving as an assistant district attorney in Dutchess County, died Tuesday at age 90.
His son, Thomas Liddy, confirmed the death but did not reveal the cause, other than to say it was not related to COVID-19.
Liddy, a former FBI agent and Army veteran, was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and illegal wiretapping for his role in the Watergate burglary, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. He spent four years and four months in prison, including more than 100 days in solitary confinement.
“I’d do it again for my president,” he said years later.
Before he was thrust into the national spotlight, Liddy was a Dutchess County resident who served as assistant district attorney in the mid-1960s.
In that capacity, he is known for leading the 1966 drug raid on the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, which then was occupied by LSD guru Timothy Leary, and for the 1969 politically motivated drug raid at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson that involved, among others, students Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who went on to form the band Steely Dan. They immortalized that raid in their song “My Old School,” in which Liddy is referred to as “Daddy Gee.”
Liddy was outspoken and controversial, both as a political operative under Nixon and as a radio personality. Liddy recommended
assassinating political enemies, bombing a left-leaning think tank and kidnapping war protesters. His White House colleagues ignored such suggestions.
One of his ventures — the break-in at Democratic headquarters at the Watergate building in June 1972 — was approved. The burglary went awry, which led to an investigation, a cover-up and Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
Liddy also was convicted of conspiracy in the September 1971 burglary of defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, who leaked the secret history of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers.
After his release from prison, Liddy — with his piercing dark eyes, bushy mustache and shaved head — became a popular, provocative and controversial radio talk show host. He also worked as a security consultant, writer and actor.
On air, he offered tips on how to kill federal firearms agents, rode around with car tags saying “H20GATE” (Watergate) and scorned people who cooperated with prosecutors.
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, George Gordon Battle Liddy was a frail boy who grew up in a neighborhood populated mostly by German-Americans. From friends and a maid who was a German national, Liddy developed a curiosity about German leader Adolf Hitler and was inspired by listening to Hitler’s radio speeches in the 1930s.
“If an entire nation could be changed, lifted out of weakness to extraordinary strength, so could one person,” Liddy wrote in “Will,” his autobiography.
Liddy decided it was critical to face his fears and overcome them. At age 11, Liddy roasted a rat and ate it to overcome his fear of rats. “From now on, rats could fear me as they feared cats,” he wrote.
After attending Fordham University and serving a stint in the Army, Liddy graduated from Fordham University Law School and then joined the FBI. In addition to his stint in the Dutchess County District Attorney’s office, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress from New York in 1968 and helped organize Nixon’s presidential campaign in the state.
When Nixon took office, Liddy was named a special assistant to Treasury and served under Treasury Secretary David M. Kennedy. Liddy later moved to the White House, then to Nixon’s reelection campaign, where his official title was general counsel.
Liddy was head of a team of Republican operatives known as “the plumbers,” whose mission was to find leakers of information embarrassing to the Nixon administration. Among Liddy’s specialties were gathering political intelligence and organizing activities to disrupt or discredit Nixon’s Democratic opponents.
While recruiting a woman to help carry out one of his schemes, Liddy tried to convince her that no one could force him to reveal her identity or anything else against his will. To convince her, Liddy held his hand over a flaming cigarette lighter. His hand was badly burned. The woman turned down the job.
Liddy became known for such offbeat suggestions as kidnapping war protest organizers and taking them to Mexico during the Republican National Convention; assassinating investigative journalist Jack Anderson; and firebombing the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank in Washington where classified documents leaked by Ellsberg were being stored.
Liddy and fellow operative Howard Hunt, along with the five arrested at Watergate, were indicted on federal charges three months after the June 1972 break-in. Hunt and his recruits pleaded guilty in January 1973, and James McCord and Liddy were found guilty. Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974.
After the failed breakin attempt, Liddy recalled telling White House counsel John Dean, “If someone wants to shoot me, just tell me what corner to stand on, and I’ll be there, OK?” Dean reportedly responded, “I don’t think we’ve gotten there yet, Gordon.”
Liddy claimed in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that Nixon was “insufficiently ruthless” and should have destroyed tape recordings of his conversations with top aides.