Murder Suspect: G. Gordon Liddy. Murder Suspect

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1 Murder Suspect: G. Gordon Liddy G. Gordon Liddy was born November 30 th 1930 in Brooklyn, New York. He started as a attorney after joining the army and fighting in the Korean War. He also was the youngest Beaurea Supervisor in the F.B.I He later became a prominent figure in the Nixon administration and served many jobs and positions before heading the Committee to re-elect the president in This organization known as CREEP was used to help stop important leeks of Nixon campaign and presidential material. The CREEP leaders were closely related to the so-called Plumbers and were paranoid about the opposition to Nixon. Liddy, who had early been seen as somewhat of a loose cannon, did find many democratic plots and eagerly searched for a way to embarrass and discredit democratic candidates. The biggest scandal Liddy ever organized was the break in at the Watergate Complex. Later on, after his 5 men were caught he would be tried and incarcerated for conspiracy, burglary, and illicit wiretapping. Liddy, an unbalanced man, would be about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 for killing Nixon seeing as he feared serving 20 years in federal prison. Murder Suspect a) Eldridge Cleaver: Cleaver was a political activist, writer and serial rapist best known for being an early leader for the Black Panthers in the late 1960 s and early 70 s. After getting out of jail on a rape conviction in 1966, Cleaver became a Presidential nominee on the Peace and Freedom party. Cleaver was shot during the Oakland riots in Later, in the 1980 s, Cleaver became conservative, and was a member of the Republican Party. b) After COINTELPRO s attempts to break up the Black Panthers, Cleaver advocated the escalation of armed resistance into urban guerilla warfare. Cleaver was strongly against Nixon s use of the FBI to try and break up the Black Panthers and other radical groups in the 60 s and 70 s. c) Cleaver s main motive to assassinate would be to stop Nixon and the Nixon administration from using the FBI to try and break up and infiltrate the Black Panthers. Likelihood of conspiracy to kill Nixon: 7 d) Ho Chi Minh e) f) Ho Chi Minh was President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from He led the People s Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War. Ho Chi Minh wrote in a letter to Richard Nixon in August 1969, The longer the war goes on, the more it accumulates the mourning and burdens of the American people. This shows the determination of Ho Chi Minh to get the Americans out of South Vietnam. Later in the letter, Minh mentioned that [his army was] determined to fight to the end, without fearing the sacrifices and difficulties in order to defend their country and their sacred national rights. Minh had strong feelings towards getting the Americans out of South Vietnam no matter the tolls. In order to reach peace, Minh felt that the Americans

2 needed to leave South Vietnam and end the war of aggression. Ho Chi Minh would have had a strong desire to assassinate Richard Millhouse Nixon. This would have made it easier for the communist North Vietnam to take over South Vietnam. The United States would no longer be focused on the Vietnam War should there be a different President. However, Ho Chi Minh died the morning of September 2, 1969 from heart failure at his home in Hanoi. The likelihood that Ho Chi Minh assassinated Richard Nixon on August 7, 1974 is a 0 out of 10 because Minh himself was already deceased. g) Woodward and Bernstein h) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were two reporters of the Washington Post, responsible for cracking the Watergate scandal, which lead to the resignation of President Nixon. Woodward and Bernstein took interest in the break-in that occurred in the Democratic National Committee s headquarters at the Watergate Complex in Washington DC. The two men teamed up and found a connection between the burglars and president Nixon s re-election committee. Their reporting revealed that the burglary was staged by officials of the Nixon administration and the Committee to re-elect the president. Their reporting also uncovered the political dirty tricks played within the white house- they included wiretapping, burglary, and disruption of Democratic Party Activities. If Woodward and Bernstein worked together in murdering President Nixon, their motives could ve been spurred by their disgust in the corruption present during Nixon s presidency and the want to instate a more competent president or possible paranoia and fear that Nixon was going to work to silence them. Mao Person: Hubert Humphrey Hubert Humphrey was a twice serving senator from Minnesota then was the Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson. Hubert Humphrey was part of the democratic party and was a nominee in the 1968 election against Richard Nixon. Nixon s defeat of Hubert Humphrey in 1968 was a close call in terms of popular votes: 31,783,783 to 31,271,839. However the score of the election (in terms of electoral vote) was much more embarrassing. The count of electoral votes was 301 to 191 in favor of Richard Nixon. Such a humiliating electoral defeat is ample enough reason for Hubert Humphrey to hate Richard Nixon. I would rate the likely hood that Hurbert killed Nixon a 6 out of ten because while he had motive, he was elderly and lacked ability. Since the death of Richard Nixon, the CIA has compiled a list of suspected assassins, agents, and political leaders. After a lot of research, the main suspect has been narrowed down to

3 the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. Ever since Nixon's visit to Russia, Mao had suspected foul play. By assassinating Richard Nixon, Mao hoped to shaken any pacts between the Soviet Union and the United States. By planting objects such as the Cuban cigar near the body (Cuba had been a puppet of Russia for some time), the Chinease government felt that they could slowly shift the blame onto Russia, bringing at best unstable relations but more than likely mutual destruction. This destruction would have allowed for China to become the worlds largest power in place of the United States. With Mao's failing health, he has little to lose Robert F. Kennedy Robert F. Kennedy, brother of president John F. Kennedy, was an increasingly popular political leader in the 1960 s. During his brother s presidency, he was appointed the attorney general. In 1964, he easily won the senatorial election in New York. In March of 1968, he announced that he would be running for president in the upcoming election. In this election, he would be running against Richard Nixon. Nixon, having a solid following, was a major competitor for Kennedy in this election. Also, because he was John F. Kennedy s brother, there must have been a lot of pressure on him to win the election and live up to the expectations placed on him. Therefore, he did have motive to want to kill Nixon. However, Kennedy was assassinated on June 6, 1968 after delivering a speech in Los Angeles; Nixon went on to win the election. It is impossible that he could have killed Nixon on August 7 th, 1974 because he was already dead. On a rating scale from 1-10 on likelihood to kill, he deserves a 1. Nguyen Van Thieu Nguyen Van Thieu was born in Vietnam on April 5th, 1923, and was educated at the National Military Academy in Hue. He joined the armed forces after World War II and by 1963 was chief of staff of the Armed Forces of South Vietnam. Nguyen Van Thieu then was appointed chairman of a 10-member military directorate. He also became Minister of Defense and in 1967 was elected as President of South Vietnam. Nguyen Van Thieu and President Nixon associated with one another for reasons surrounding the Vietnam war. They met at Peace Talks, where representatives from the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the National Liberation Front. Nguyen Van Thieu directly appealed to President Nixon for more financial aid although the U.S. was already supplying the South Vietnamese government with military equipment and providing 1 to 30 billion dollars of financial aid. Nixon later sent a letter to Thieu, promising military help if it appeared that the NLF were winning in South Vietnam.

4 Nguyen Van Thieu had a few motives for killing Nixon. When Nguyen Van Thieu requested for more financial aid, the move was blocked by the U.S. Congress, although Nixon was sympathetic. Later, starved by funds, Thieu had difficulty paying the wages of his large army and desertion became a major problem. It is possible that Thieu blamed and resented Nixon for these problems that arose, even though it was the U.S. Congress that blocked the move for more aid. Also, later on when Nguyen announced in desperation that he had a signed letter from President Nixon promising military help if it appeared that the NLF were winning in South Vietnam, Nixon was no longer in a position to fulfill his promise as he had been forced to resign over Watergate. On April 25th, 1975, President Thieu accused the United States of betrayal, resigned, and left the country. The likelihood of Thieu s conspiracy to kill is a 5 on a rating from 1 to 10. Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg was a consultant to the Defense Department of the White House. He worked under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on the operational plans for general nuclear war. He worked on the Pentagon Papers. He was a consultant to Kissinger and Nixon during the organization of a presentation on operations in Vietnam. President Nixon had learned, shortly after his first federal indictment, that he had also copied the Top Secret NSSM-1 from Nixon s own National Security Council and given it to Republican Senator Charles Mathias. Nixon feared that he had other documents from his own Administration, including nuclear threats and plans for escalation, which had yet to be carried out. Nixon secretly directed criminal actions to prevent him from disclosing such secrets, including the burglary of Ellsberg s former psychoanalyst s office in search of information with which to blackmail him into silence, and later an effort to have him incapacitated totally at a demonstration at the Capitol. Ellsberg knew things about Nixon that he didn t necessarily want to go public, so Nixon kept trying to shut him down using the legal system. Ellsberg would probably have a 7/10 likelihood of killing Nixon. He would want to get revenge at Nixon who had been trying to shut him up and ruin his reputation. Archibald Cox was a lawyer and law professor, who served as US Solicitor General under JFK when he was President. Cox was teaching law at Harvard when he left to be the first special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal. He confirmed Elliot Richardson as the New Attorney General for Nixon. Nixon ordered Richardson to dismiss Cox. Richardson resigned instead, as well as his second-in-command, Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. These resignations left Solicitor General Robert Bork as the highest-ranking member of the Department of Justice. He proceeded to dismiss Cox. The only reason Cox would want Nixon dead is for the forced resignation, however as a member of the law he would like to see justice served, therefore his likelihood of killing Nixon is a 2 at best. Murder Suspects Bob Dylan In the wake of Nixon s murder, Bob Dylan seems next to invisible upon reviewing suspects. Ironically, Bob Dylan had a troubling career, and political affiliations which he wished he had never formed. Instead of distancing himself from the suspects, he actually was a model one.

5 Originally deeply opposed to war and societal demands, Dylan dove into writing many famous protest songs. In doing this, Dylan made his mark as a protester which then affiliated him fully with the entire protest movement of the time. Later, Dylan wished to have removed these connections between him and the protest movement. Since he could not manage this, Dylan s reputation would come back to haunt him. After the 1960 s, the star fell to producing unpredictable art which got him plenty of bad coverage. Having been used to riding high on great publicity, Self Portrait started Dylan s career in the downward direction. Having been in the spotlight for the previous ten years, Dylan most probably did not take his failures following him throughout the early seventies well at all. With these issues, Dylan could have easily turned bitter over a short period of time. During the Nixon administration, Nixon attempted to remove Lennon from the U.S. Fearing his anti-war protest, Nixon hoped removing him would have a drastic effect on protesters. During this time, many famous Americans wrote letters to Lennon and his legal team. Of those that wrote, Bob Dylan was one of the more famous to mail their message. Not only does this bring into question whether or not Dylan could have disliked Nixon, but if his message was exposed, how could Dylan handle a resurgence of his old protest affiliations. With this final culmination of pressures on Dylan, his actions could have led to many outcomes. Without question, Dylan had motive to kill Nixon simply from snapping. While Dylan had ridden high in the 60 s, the seventies were rough, and brought great stress to the former star. With the Nixon attempt at removing Lennon, it is absolutely possible that Dylan Killed Nixon.. a. Robert Bork is an American legal scholar who served as the Solicitor General during Nixon s Presidency. b. b. After the Watergate Scandal, a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, was appointed by the Attorney General to investigate the Watergate break-in. After Cox subpoenaed President Nixon for tape recordings that he refused to hand over, Nixon began what was later referred to as the Saturday Night Massacre. He ordered Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused, and resigned in protest. He then ordered Deputy Attorney General Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. He also refused, and then resigned in protest. Nixon then turned to Robert Bork, who complied with Nixon s command and fired Cox. c. c. Bork did not want to fire Cox because he didn t want to be perceived as the man who did the President s bidding to save his own job. He agreed to do it however, because he knew that Nixon was just going to keep searching until he found someone to fire Cox. This disagreement could have manifested into hatred and then could have motivated him to kill Nixon. His likelihood of conspiracy to kill is a 5.

6 My suspect is Spiro Agnew. He was elected Vice President in 1968 on the Republican ticket with President Nixon. Like many vice presidents, he had hopes of becoming president. Nixon did not think the right winged, racial-repressing man was worthy of such a title and wished he could be replaced. In 1973 Agnew resigned from office after being charged with taking bribes and pleading no contest. He was also charged with tax fraud, bribery, extortion, and conspiracy. After resigning, he never spoke to Nixon or a reporter again. His autobiography suggested that Nixon and the staff would have assassinated him, had he not resigned. Agnew was fed up with the disrespect showed to him in the White House, and probably jealous that Nixon was willing to basically make Connally an alternate president in the election of However, Connally would not accept the position and Nixon once again supported Agnew so that he would still have a chance of winning. Nixon would not defend Agnew from his bribery charges, and staff members asked him to voluntarily resign. At first he refused but eventually did so, claiming that he was practically forced. Agnew said that Nixon naively believed that by throwing me to the wolves, he had appeased his enemies. Clearly, there was a lot of tension between the two that went unresolved. Could this built up pressure and disrespect have led to Agnew playing a part in Nixon s assassination? His motives of revenge and ending the tension could have led to such an act. However, I would rate the likelihood of conspiracy to kill a 4 since Spiro Agnew s criminal activity seemed to end after the bribery lawsuit. Although he might have hated President Nixon, Agnew did not display any evidence of carrying out such animosity on August 7 th, Abbie Hoffman was a political and social activist. He was a founding member of the Youth International Party, a radical youth and counter culture movement. He was known for very theatrical protests. Hoffman was a member of the Chicago 8/7, a group of people who were arrested and charged with conspiracy and inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Hoffman's Yippies came into conflict with Nixon's policies with the occupation of a town in Washington to protest the Invasion of Cambodia, as well as inciting a riot in retaliation of the shooting at Kent State. He was quoted saying "All you kiddies remember to lay off the needle drugs,the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon". Rating to kill 1-2 Alger Hiss In 1948 Richard Nixon was a member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities and urged a federal grand jury to indict former state department official, Alger Hiss, espionage. Nixon was under the impression that Alger Hiss was a Russian spy. In 1950 Alger Hiss was found guilty of perjury which in his being sent to prison. Nixon s accusation resulted in Alger Hiss being convicted.

7 There is a 3/10 chance that Alger Hiss would actually kill Nixon. Hiss ended up serving only 3.5 out of the five years he should have been in prison. His arrest was mostly due to the spread of Mc Carthyism and intense anti communist feelings. Suspect: Sam Ervin Biography: Democrat, Sam Ervin served 20 years in the US Senate and described himself as an old country lawyer. A religious North Carolina native, Ervin fought for civil liberties and became somewhat of a hero. He was more known, however, as the chairman of the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Campaign Practices (Senate Watergate Committee) that helped lead to the downfall and resignation of President Richard Nixon. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield appointed him to this position and it was ironic because before Watergate, Nixon admired Ervin s strict interpretation of the Constitution that was blind of party lines. Previously in 1954, VP Nixon assigned Ervin to a committee to study whether or not McCarthy should be censured, a position few were eager to take. But when later asked about the Watergate scandal, Ervin firmly believed and announced that the President had broken into every home of every citizen of the United States and compared the Watergate burglars to having the same mentality of the Gestapo. To Americans, he was seen as a stern father figure who wasn't confused about what was right and wrong, moral and evil, and who took for granted the moral courage to stand up for what was right. Motive: 4 May have felt betrayed by Nixon, but never really looked up to him that much in the first place - it was more so that he was favored by Nixon than Nixon was favored by him John Ehrlichman-The Untimely Death of Nixon A. John Ehrlichman was a Republican lawyer and veteran navigator for the Air Force during World War Two. B. He became an assistant under President Nixon for domestic affairs. He established a group called The Plumbers who aimed to stop presidential press leaks and attempted to discredit Nixon s political opponents. This group became a major part of the Watergate scandal. Because of this, Ehrlichman was eventually convicted for conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury and sentenced to jail time. C. Ehrlichman was betrayed when he was fired by Nixon in any attempt for Nixon to save his political reputation. Ehrlichman had been a close aide to Nixon during his presidency. Referring to the Watergate Scandal, Ehrlichman was merely acting on Nixon s orders so for him to be punished more severely than Nixon, this would surely sever the ties to all relations they had previously had. I rate Ehrlichman a 9.5 on the likelihood of conspiracy to kill Nixon.

8 General William Childs Westmoreland Gen. Westmoreland was the commanding U.S. Army General during the peak of the Vietnam War. A native of South Carolina, and a West Point graduate, his greatest achievement in Vietnam was repelling the Tet Offensive. Westmoreland believed that the war could be won if they continued large scale artillery and air use to lower the Vietcong s morale and supplies. He soon was sent back home and replaced as acting commander, where he had been criticized as the general who Won every battle until [he] lost the war. As the commanding officer of the entire Army in Vietnam during , it is assumed that he and Nixon had direct talks over many matters of the war, from how it was doing, to troop morale. After he had been sent home, he became the Chief of Staff for President Nixon at the White House. However, Westmoreland, a Republican, was hardly ever sought out for advice from Nixon, and never advanced to the post of chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs. General Westmoreland has a rating of 4 on the likelihood to kill Nixon chart. While he was a man all about honor and showing respect, he still believed that he could win the Vietnam War if he had stayed in control of it and continued his war of attrition. When Nixon replaced him, Westmoreland saw all his time and work go to waste. Not being ever called upon for advice also added to his want for killing Nixon, as it was a slight upon his honor as a Chief of Staff member. The suspect is Warren. E. Burger. He s the 15th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated by Nixon for the position. Nixon liked the way Burger was a strict-constructionist and would be different from Earl Warren in his leadership of the court. Burger s likelihood to kill Nixon is a 2 on the scale from one to ten. His motives could have been that he disagreed with the president about the Executive Privilege to withhold documents that are being requested for investigation in US v. Nixon. Burger said that Nixon, though the President, has to abide by the law like every other citizen. His other motive could be his disagreement with Nixon in US. V. US District Court on removing the Warren Court s right given to people under domestic surveillance that says that the investigators need a warrant. Warren Burger is not a likely candidate to have killed the president. Nixon appointed him to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. They may have different views on certain decisions but they are not mortal enemies. Earl Warren is much more likely to have killed Nixon. Warren was railed against by Nixon during the 1968 Campaign. Nixon disagreed with and called him out on every decision made. At the end of day, Chief Justice Warren Burger was is not a likely suspect in the death of Richard Nixon. Peter W. Rodino: My suspect is Pelligrino Rodino Jr., also known as Peter Rodino. Mr. Rodino, descendent of immigrants from, was an active proponent of civil rights and immigration reform. He was a New

9 Jersey congressman from 1949 to 1989, serving as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from 1973 to his retirement in During this, he oversaw the impeachment hearings of former president Richard Nixon. It was his job to be a fair moderator of Nixon s hearings. During this time was when he may have developed a motive for killing Nixon. During the trials, Rodino worked himself to exhaustion which ended in his hospitalization for six dies. Rodino worked himself to the point of hospitalization in an effort to impeach Nixon just to have him resign leaving his full impeachment plan unfulfilled. My suspect is Helen Gahagan Douglas an actress who later became a politician and greatly impacted American politics. Helen Gahagan Douglas is politically connected to Nixon in many ways. In 1950 Helen ran for the United States Senate in California on the Democratic Party Platform. Helen ran against Nixon and lost. Helen considers that she was victimized by a smear campaign and that Nixon publically exposed her as a supporter of communism, which lost her the election. Douglas s main motive for killing president Nixon is that he pretty much ruined her political career. She retired from politics after her loss in the 1950 election and Nixon gave her the reputation of being a supporter of communism. On a 1 to 10 scale the likelihood of Douglas conspiracy to kill would be a six. She has a reason, but I don t believe that reason is strong enough to make her take Richard Nixon s life. Murder Suspect: Gloria Steinem Gloria Steinem is a writer, editor, and activist for women, children, and all races. Her opinion of Richard Nixon varied directly with his actions regarding women's rights, and I would therefore rate her likelihood of conspiracy to kill at a 5. Although he campaigned as an Equal Rights Amendment supporter in the election of 1968, he did little to aid its passage after he was elected. Yet even before he was elected Ms. Steinem wrote in her article "In Your Heart You Know He's Nixon" (October 28, 1968 issue of New York Magazine) that "we just couldn t imagine going into a polling booth and pulling the lever for this man who had betrayed so much, no matter who the alternative was." After being elected in 1968 Nixon increased the number of female appointments to administrative positions. Nixon was also recorded furiously ranting about her. Suspect: John Dean In the late 1960s and early 1970s, John Dean served as a presidential aide and was later appointed White House Counsel to President Nixon. Under Nixon, Dean was trusted to run some of the covert political operations. He became deeply involved in the Watergate scandal and its cover-up. Dean was given the responsibility to control the political fall out, which

10 involved him paying out large sums of money to the arrested burglars. President Nixon also asked Dean to write a full report on the Watergate scandal, including his involvement. While doing so at Camp David, Dean came to believe that he was becoming a scapegoat for the entire operation. He returned to Washington without completing the report. In April 1973, Nixon asked Dean, along with Erlichman and Haldeman, to resign, but Dean refused. On April 30, Nixon fired Dean. After his dismissal, Dean became a star witness for the prosecution, confirming the president s involvement in the cover-up. Dean himself was charged with obstruction of justice and spent four months in prison. Dean s possible motives for killing Nixon would be resentment for Nixon s firing of him or for the president s desire to turn Dean into a scapegoat, leaving Dean at a 6-7 on the likelihood of conspiracy to kill. Huey Newton Huey Newton was one of the co-founders of the Black Panthers Party for Self-Defense. The group s purpose was initially set up to protect African American neighborhoods from police brutality. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale created this group because they believed that they can protect African American people, but eventually tuned into a Marxist revolutionary group. The Black Panthers were involved in a varied of violent crimes that primarily took place in California, but other places as well. Just like President Nixon, Huey Newton was also invite to China, but before the president had been. Many people within the country were amazing to hear that Huey Newton had been invited, especially before Nixon, and when he returned a press conference was held to hear about the trip. The Black Panthers Party has never been a supporter of Richard Nixon. The Panthers did not agree with the Vietnam and in the 1970s twenty one Black Panthers were charged with plotting the assassination of a police officer, and later that year Black Panther chief of staff was put on trial of plotting the assassination of President Nixon. The Black Panthers never separated their illegal and legal acts from one and another, causing them to always be under attack by President Nixon, and the rest of the government. Jesse Jackson: Jackson is a Civil Rights activist who worked very closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC. After King s assassination, Jackson had a falling out with Ralph Abernathy, King s successor, and proceeded to form the Rainbow Coalition. Jackson is a liberal, who ran for President in both 1984 and He is said to be an anti-semite, and accused Richard Nixon of being less attentive to poverty because 4 out of 5 [of Nixon s top advisors] were German Jew s and their affairs are in Europe and Asia. He would have wanted Nixon dead because they were on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Jesse Jackson s platform included the termination of the Reagan tax cuts, which Nixon wouldn t have liked. Although Nixon voted in favor of Civil Rights, he only took action on desegregating schools when the courts pressured him to. This could have angered Jackson and been motive to kill him. On a scale of 1 to 10 on the likelihood of conspiracy to kill, Jackson was about a 3.

11 Senator Daniel Ken Inouye: Senator Inouye was born on September 7, 1924 in Honolulu Hawaii. He is a Nisei but grew up in a Chinese-American enclave in Honolulu. Inouye was at Pearl Harbor Attack as a medical volunteer. In 1943 he dropped out of the University of Hawaii s premedical program and enlisted in the US Army. Inouye served mostly in Italy and was promoted quickly (Sergeant by 1944 & Lieutenant by 1945). On April 21, 1945, Inouye led assault on a heavily defended ridge near San Terenzo, Italy. During the assault Inouye s right-arm was shot in the elbow a German soldier his arm was too damaged to save and was later amputated in a field hospital. Despite the amputation, he served until his Honorable Discharge is 1947, when returned home to study Political Science at University of Hawaii and Law at George Washington University Law School. He was later elected to House of Representatives and held office until 1963 when he was elected as a senator from Hawaii. In 1973 Inouye was appointed to the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, which was investigated the Watergate Burglaries. It is unlikely (3-4/10) that Inouye killed Nixon because he only has one arm. Bebe Rebozo My suspects name is Charles (Bebe) Rebozo born on November 17, 1912 in Tampa Bay, Florida. The son of Cuban immigrants, Rebozo is now a successful Florida banker and owner of the Key Biscayne Bank &Trust. He is most famous for being a close friend of Richard Nixon after they met through congressman George Smathers. After vacationing together in Key Biscayne the two became very close, continuously golfing, boating, and swimming together. Rebozo was routinely named as Nixon s primary recipient of covert payments. He has been investigated for accepting large covert payments from Howard Hughes on behalf of Nixon. And it was reported that after Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox started to investigate Rebozo's role in Nixon accepting covert payments he was fired. It was also reported that Rebozo has ties to the mafia and has information that could be used to smear Nixon s political opponents. On a scale of 1 to 10, Rebozo is about a 2 on likelihood of conspiracy to kill. Rebozo was claimed to have homosexual relations with Nixon because of there close relationship. With this in mind, Rebozo did not really have a motive to kill Nixon. John Mitchell John Mitchell s political life started when he graduated from Fordham University School of Law and served New York as a municipal bond lawyer. In this job, he met Richard Nixon and the two men became very close friends. When Nixon announced that he was going to run for president, Mitchell agreed to be his campaign manager. When Nixon won the presidency he named Mitchell the new attorney general and he made an unprecedented direct appeal

12 to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that the usual background investigation not be conducted. He remained in office from 1969 to 1971 until he resigned to manage Nixon s successful reelection campaign. He believed that the government s need for law and order justified restrictions on civil liberties. He also believed in the use of wire taps in national security cases without court orders and he believed in the right for police to employ the preventive detention of criminal suspects. In 1973 Mitchell was indicted on federal charges for obstructing and investigation on a financier who had made a $200,000 contribution to the Nixon Campaign, yet he was acquitted. Because Mitchell was a good friend of Richard Nixon, supported all of Nixon s wire taps and spying games, and even took part and was imprisoned for his role on the Watergate Incident, I don t think that John Mitchell had a big motive for killing President Nixon. His rating on the likelihood of conspiracy to kill the President is a 2. H. R. Haldeman After exhaustive research I have completed my evaluation of the suspect H. R. Haldeman (codename: FLATTOP). Haldeman was born in 1920 s Los Angeles to an upper-middle class family. As a young man he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, served in the Naval Reserve, and received an excellent education at the University of Southern California and at the University of California, Los Angeles. It was at UCLA Haldeman made his first contact with John Ehrlichman. Haldeman then went on to work in the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, along with Ronald Ziegler. Ehrlichman and Ziegler both worked in the Nixon administration alongside Haldeman. Haldeman first worked with Nixon during Nixon s vice-presidential election campaign in He also worked in Nixon s 1960 presidential campaign, his 1962 California governor campaign, and served as Nixon s Chief of Staff during the 1968 presidential campaign and held that position through Nixon s terms until he was asked to resign in April 30, During the Nixon administration Haldeman worked closely with the President as one of his closest advisors. Both he and Ehrlichman were notorious for closely guarding the President s secrets. Indeed, it was Haldeman who proposed the predecessor to the Watergate break-in. Haldeman and his underlings created Operation Sandwedge; an intelligence gathering plot with the aim of snooping on the Democratic Party during the 1972 election. It was also intended to counter the intelligence gathering capabilities of the Democratic Party. Haldeman, Nixon, and the select few involved in the scheme were afraid that the Democrates would hire Intertel to serve as a sort of mercenary spy force. Operation Sandwedge was then reworked into Operation Gemstone. The break-in at Watergate was part of Operation Gemstone. Nixon and Haldeman frequently conversed in the Oval Office; however, 18.5 minutes of conversation are missing from the Nixon tapes of his conversations. This gap occurs during a conversation between Nixon and Haldeman. Lastly, barely a year before Nixon s assassination the President asked Haldeman to resign. Haldeman resigned from his position as the Nixon administration s Chief of Staff on April 30, Edmund Muskie

13 Edmund Muskie was a Senator from Maine from In the 1968 Presidential election he ran as the Democratic Vice President and was a candidate for Democratic Presidential nominee for the 1972 election. His run for president was destroyed by the Canuck Letter that revealed Muskie saying disparaging remarks about French Canadians which led Muskie to deliver his Crying Speech which lost him the run for President. During the Watergate scandal, it was revealed that the Nixon's campaign had forged the letter. Muskie had built up resentment towards Nixon, but murder would not advance his ambitious political career. Rating for Muskie to kill Nixon: 5. Ronald Reagan Profile My suspect is Ronald Reagan, he was the 40 th president of the United States and served from Like Nixon Reagan s administration was Republican. Both presidents were huge anti-communism enforcer during the Cold War. However, unlike Nixon Reagan was said to have had influence from his many advisors regarding Cold War politics. Reagan even asked Nixon for help with conflict with the USSR, Nixon also gave Reagan advice on the nation s economy. Although, Reagan never really liked Nixon he did campaign for Nixon when he ran against John F. Kennedy and also when Nixon ran for governor of California in Nixon didn t dislike Reagan, but in his White House tapes he said that Reagan was strange and uncomfortable to be around. On a scale from 1-10 the likelihood of Reagan killing Nixon is a 2 because his only motive would have been personality clashing. If Reagan had motives to kill Nixon, which seems unlikely it would be on the grounds of having contrasting personalities because politically they seemed to support each other in various political issues and were from the same political party. Leonid Brezhnev was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1964 to He practiced a policy of détente, which means the relaxation of strained political relations, to reduce tensions between the US/Soviet superpowers during the Cold War. After Nixon visited Mao Zedong in China in 1972, Brezhnev invited him to three summits in the Soviet Union. This was regarded as a momentous breakthrough in US-Soviet relations. The two started off distrustful of each other, but by the third summit in 1974 Brezhnev greeted Nixon ceremoniously and they acted as friends. There were some problems in the relationship. Nixon angered the Soviets and Brezhnev when he increased the bombings of North Vietnam and ordered incursions into Cambodia. Nixon was also a staunch anti-communist. Brezhnev s anger at these events could be a motive for him to kill Nixon. However, through the summits Brezhnev and Nixon became friends, and the Nixon administration was known for its cordial relationship with the Soviet Union, so it is unlikely that Brezhnev killed Nixon. His rating is a 2. My suspect is John Sirica, who was the Chief Judge of the United States District Court in Washington DC. He had a pretty uneventful career until his role in the Watergate scandal. He

14 ordered Nixon to turn over his recordings of White House conversations and had a strong position in the case. Sirica believed that the Watergate burglars did not work by themselves, and that Nixon had something to do with it. Although Sirica held a hatred for Nixon, there is a very slight chance that he actually killed Nixon, maybe a two out of ten chance. Sirica s dislike for Nixon makes Sirica a suspect, but a very unlikely one. Sirica is a Chief Judge after all, and it would defame the United States District Court if he did kill Nixon. Gerald Ford: Gerald Ford was a major figure in the Republican Party in the era. He first met Nixon in the first year that Ford joined the House of Representatives. From then on, Ford proved to be a supporter and ally of Nixon as Ford encouraged Eisenhower to pick Nixon as his vice president in both of Eisenhower s terms. Through the years, Ford continued to expand his power and influence in the House until he became the Minority Leader. His goal was to be the Speaker of the House and had even declined an invite from Nixon to be the Vice President in his campaign. However once Vice President Agnew was accused of several crimes such as tax evasion, Agnew s resignation allowed Ford to be elevated to the Vice Presidency. Soon after, the Watergate Scandal began to flare up the population against Nixon. Even then, Ford continued to support and defend Nixon until the very end of Nixon s career as President. Therefore, the likely hood that Ford was responsible for Nixon s death on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is as probable as winning the lottery two times in a roll and 10 is as probable as the sun rising tomorrow, is 1. McGovern was the Democratic nominee against Nixon in the 1972 presidential campaign (McGovern replaced President Kennedy due to his assignation. McGovern loved the Kennedys, which explains the ticket to the Kennedy center). Nixon won this election in one of the largest landslide in presidential history, leaving McGovern with only the electoral votes from Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Publicly embarrassed, McGovern has the personal motive to kill Nixon.