Mark felt, the FBI agent, who became Watergates “Deep Throat”

While he worked as No. 2 of the FBI, Mark felt secretly worked together Washington Post Reporter Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein examined Watergate.

After the shock and outrage of the Watergate scandal, there was also a mystery. Who was “deep neck”, the secret source that was carried out on which information was carried out Washington Post Reporter Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein? When Deep Throat revealed himself as Mark Felt, a former FBI official, this question was replaced by another: Who was Mark Felt?

The second highest official of the FBI during the Watergate scandal believed that potential personal and political reasons to lick information. After the death of J. Edgar Hoover, he was given for the top job in the FBI and had the feeling that he had an overview of President Richard Nixon's abuse of power because he had tried to hinder the investigation of the FBI for Watergate.

But for decades, felt secret as a “deep neck” and denied several occasions that he had ever leaked information. Mark only felt his role in Watergate in the last chapter of his life when he admitted Vanity fair In 2005: “I am the guy you used to call deep neck.”

Mark Fells emerging star in the FBI

William Mark was born on August 17, 1913 and felt grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho. After graduating from the Twin Falls Senior High School and the University of Idaho, he felt to Washington, DC to work for the US Senator James Pope.

Finally, the feeling of visiting George Washington University Law School at night, and in 1940 acquired a degree in Jurasta.

After he had officially come to the FBI in January 1942, she worked in various FBI offices before returning to Washington, DC to join the spy section of the division of domestic secret services. In this capacity, Mark has the feeling of having spent a large part of the Second World War to track down the spies of the axis spies.

It wasn't the only thing he was doing. J. Edgar Hoover, who was the head of the FBI at the time, also felt the feeling. After monitoring the FBI offices of Salt Lake City and Kansas City, she returned to Washington, DC in 1962 to monitor the training at the FBI Academy. He then became head of the FBI inspection department in 1964 and the deputy deputy director in July 1971.

This brand was third behind Hoover and Clyde A. Tolson. However, both Hoover and Tolson became older and in poor health, and a large part of the FBI's daily operations were felt.

But when Hoover died in May 1972 – and Tolson retired – Mark did not find Mark to lead the FBI. Instead, President Richard Nixon has a loyal official of the Ministry of Justice called L. Patrick Gray III. Responsible.

Not long after that, Mark Felt began to contribute details about the Watergate scandal for reporters The Washington Post.

How Mark felt was “deep neck”

The Watergate scandal began on June 17, 1972, when a security guard discovered a burglary in the Watergate Complex in Washington, DC. The guard of Frank Wills alerted the police, who found five men at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. The intruders had error equipment, 2,300 US dollars in cash and telephone numbers of the White House.

In particular, a burglar was James McCord, the security director of the committee, who re -election (famous as a creep). McCord and the other burglars also had connections to a group of helpers from the White House, who are known as the “plumber” and whose task was to prevent licks. And Bob Woodward, a young Washington Post The reporter, who was sent to cover the indictment of the burglars, felt that this was not an ordinary slump.

When Woodward started stinging, he decided to turn to a high -ranking government source he had met before: Mark felt. They had crossed the paths in the White House in early 1970 when Woodward was a lieutenant of the Navy who handed over classified news to the National Security Council. After the obituary of fur in The New York TimesThe two men did a conversation and felt that Woodward gave his number.

When Woodward stretched out with him just a few days after the Watergate break -in, he agreed to speak to him. He confirmed that the official of the White House E. Howard Hunt was involved in the burglary that Woodward gave the ammunition he needed to continue to follow the story. Woodward described his source as “my friend” (MF), but the then editor Howard Simons called himself a “deep neck” after a pornographic film from 1972.

Although Carl Bernstein, Woodward's reporting partner, found that he largely confirmed that information that he and Woodward had already had had become an important source. Despite great personal risk, he continued to meet Woodward, and he and Woodward worked hard to keep his identity secret. For example, if Woodward wanted to speak to felt, he would move a flower pot with a red flag on his balcony.

This means that it is worth noting that Woodward and Bernstein had many sources; The feeling was far from the only person they worked with.

Finally, the White House discovered that the feeling had made some information. In a recorded conversation of the White House on October 19, 1972, Nixon's chief Haldeman Nixon informed about the promotions of felt to which the President replied: “Why would he do that about the devil?”

Nevertheless, the role of the felt in the Watergate scandal was largely a secret. The awareness that Nixon wanted to overcome the Watergate scandal -if Nixon had ordered the CIA to demand the FBI -continued to feel important information for Woodward and Bernstein.

Ultimately, the scandal consumed the president. As a survey of office, Richard Nixon resigned from office in Schauen on August 9, 1974.

And Mark felt quietly.

A separate scandal, retirement and a breathtaking revelation at the end of life

Although Mark left the FBI until June 1973, he was soon caught in a notorious scandal. He was found guilty

Surprisingly, Richard Nixon said on behalf of Filz – and President Ronald Reaganed did not feel long after his conviction.

At about the same time, the feeling wrote his memoirs, The FBI pyramid: from the insidein which he emphasized that he had played a role in the Watergate scandal. “I never leaked information,” said “to Woodward and Bernstein or others!”

In the meantime, the public debate about the identity of Deep Throat lasted. Figures such as Henry Kissinger, the deputy lawyer of the White House, Fred Fielding, and the senior judge William Rehnquist were all as possible. It became so noticeable, although he emphasized his participation in Watergate.

“In my responsibility as a loyal employee of the FBI, it would be contradictory to violate information,” she said in 1999.

Six years later, however, Mark felt admitted to the truth. In 2005, when Feel – then encouraged 91 years old and encouraged by his family to close before his death – worked with one Vanity fair Piece, said, “I am the guy you used to call deep neck.” He had reluctantly revealed his identity, but reported that this could help his family financially as soon as he died.

Woodward and Bernstein confirmed that the feeling that the feeling said the truth-and the decades of secret of the deep neck was solved.

Felt on December 18, 2008 at the age of 95, but his family benefited from the revelation that he was deep. I felt that the books were mobilized A G-Man life: the FBI, the “deep neck” and the struggle for honor in Washington And Mark felt: the man who brought the white house downwhich was later made a film from 2017 with Liam Neeson.

Ultimately, however, Mark felt almost as puzzling as deep neck. He belonged to a world with high political operations and sensitive studies and was apparently most convenient in the shade. Even today, his exact motivations for working with Woodward and Bernstein during the Watergate scandal – and all inner battles that he may have fought for leaky information on reporters – are only known to him.

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After reading about Mark Felt, better known as Watergate Source “Deep Throat”, you can see how Nixon “Klempner” Gordon Liddy became one of the most loyal henchmen of the president. Or learn how Martha Mitchell, the wife of the Attorney General John Mitchell, tried to tell the world of Watergate.