Virgilio R. González

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Virgilio R. "Villo" González (born May 18, 1926 in Cuba ) was one of five intruders into the headquarters of the Democrats in the Watergate Hotel . He was the "locksmith" of the burglar group.

González was initially the driver of the Cuban naval officer Felipe Vidal Santiago. After Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba, they both emigrated to Miami , Florida . There they joined the Cubans in exile. In the winter of 1962 a rumor arose that two Red Army officers in Cuba wanted to defer to the United States . A small group with González and Eugenio Martínez (another later Watergate burglar) set out on a secret mission to Cuba in June 1963 to find these officers. However, this action was unsuccessful, so they returned again.

González was already involved in the break-in of the psychiatrist's office of defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg (because he leaked the secret Pentagon papers on the Vietnam War to the press).

At the time of the break-in, room 314 in the Watergate Hotel was rented to Sturgis and González. In the Watergate trial , he pleaded “guilty.” González is also said to have received $ 10,000 from the Committee for the Re-election of the President's bribe fund to pay his lawyers.