James W. McCord, Jr.

James W. McCord, Jr. (born January 26, 1924 in Waurika , Jefferson County , Oklahoma , † June 15, 2017 ) was one of the five burglars into the Watergate building and thus one of the central figures of the Watergate affair .

He spent his school days at McLean and Electra High School in Texas . In 1949 he received his degree in business administration from the University of Texas . In 1965 he obtained a Master of Science degree from George Washington University . From 1942 to 1943 he was with the FBI in New York and Washington, DC , where he was involved in radio surveillance operations. From 1943 to 1945 he served in the US Army Air Corps . Between 1948 and 1951 he was employed by the FBI as a special agent in San Diego and San Francisco . At the CIA he was head of the personal protection department from 1951 to 1979. From 1962 to 1964 he held a leading position for the CIA in Europe.

McCord received the Distinguished Service Award for excellence in duty from the then director of the CIA, Richard Helms . In 1970 he left the federal service after 25 years. McCord was not just a technician in his capacity, he was a professional in assessing personalities. In this capacity, for example, he was a member of the interrogation team that interrogated the pilot of the U-2 that was shot down over the Iranian-Soviet border in 1959. Former CIA chief Allen Welsh Dulles once called McCord "my best force."

After retiring from the federal public service, he made his first independently before from Jack Caulfield and Al Wong for security chief of CRP was proposed. He was hired by Gordon Liddy as the new head of security, especially because he was very knowledgeable about electronic espionage. On May 27, 1972, McCord put the bugs on the phone of Larry O'Brien's secretary, Fay Abel, and the phone of Spencer Oliver , then executive director of the Organization of Democratic Party leaders, when the first break-in was made into the Watergate Hotel, Democratic headquarters of the individual states. The first bug was unreliable and only unimportant calls were made over the tapped phone. The second bug didn't work at all. For this reason, a second break-in was ordered by Attorney General John N. Mitchell - which he later denied. During the second break-in, McCord taped the garage door so it wouldn't close. Later, when the air was apparently clear, the five burglars sneaked into the underground car park. There they found, however, that the tapes on the door had been removed. The operation was still not canceled and new tapes were put on the door and the break-in continued. The new tapes were discovered again by the security service and the police were alerted. She then arrested the burglars.

In the Watergate trial, McCord pleaded “not guilty”. From the start, federal judge John Sirica did not believe the intruders had acted alone. The co-defendant James W. McCord eventually delivered a letter to the judge on the threat of a long prison term. The judge read this letter out loud to the audience. McCord confirmed:

1. that the burglars had remained silent until then due to political pressure
2. that McCord had sworn perjury over it
3. that other political figures were also involved in the break-in.

Then a commotion broke out in the courtroom. This letter was the first tear in the White House's cover-up. So this trial was not the end but the beginning of the scandal. McCord was then released on a comparatively mild bail of $ 100,000. McCord is said to have received $ 25,000 from the Committee for the Re-election of the President's bribe fund to pay his attorneys. He later wrote a book about the break-in: The Watergate Story: Fact and Fiction .

Web links

• James W. McCord, Jr. in the nndb (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nationwide Gravesite Locator.Retrieved April 3, 2019