G. Gordon Liddy | |
|---|---|
 Liddyc. 1998 | |
| Born | George Gordon Battle Liddy (1930-11-30)November 30, 1930 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | March 30, 2021(2021-03-30) (aged 90) Mount Vernon, Virginia, U.S. |
| Education | Fordham University (BA,LLB) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5; includingTom |
| Criminal information | |
| Criminal charge | Conspiracy, burglary, illegalwiretapping |
| Penalty | 20 years imprisonment; commuted to 8 years imprisonment by PresidentJimmy Carter |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1952–1954 |
| Rank |  First Lieutenant |
George Gordon Battle Liddy (November 30, 1930 – March 30, 2021) was an American lawyer andFBI agent who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping for his role in theWatergate scandal during theNixon administration.[1]
Working alongsideE. Howard Hunt, Liddy organized and directed the burglary of theDemocratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in May and June 1972. After five of Liddy's operatives were arrested inside the DNC offices on June 17, 1972, subsequent investigations of the Watergate scandal led to Nixon's resignation in 1974. Liddy was convicted of burglary,conspiracy, and refusing to testify to the Senate committee investigating Watergate. He served nearly 52 months in federal prisons.[2]
He later joined withTimothy Leary for a series of debates on multiple college campuses, and similarly worked withAl Franken in the late 1990s. Liddy served as a radio talk show host from 1992 until his retirement on July 27, 2012.[3] His radio show wassyndicated in 160 markets byRadio America and on bothSirius Satellite Radio andXM Satellite Radio stations in the United States.[4] He was a guest panelist forFox News Channel in addition to appearing in a cameo role or as a guest celebrity talent on several television shows.
Liddy was born inBrooklyn on November 30, 1930.[5] His father, Sylvester James Liddy, was a lawyer; his mother was Maria (Abbaticchio) Liddy.[6] His family was ofIrish andItalian descent, and Liddy had a strictCatholic upbringing.[7] He was named forGeorge Gordon Battle, a notedattorney andTammany Hall leader.[5] He was raised inHoboken[8] andWest Caldwell, New Jersey.[9] He attendedSt. Benedict's Preparatory School, his father's alma mater, inNewark.[6]
Liddy was educated atFordham University, graduating in 1952.[6] While at Fordham he was a member of the National Society ofPershing Rifles. Following graduation, Liddy joined theUnited States Army, serving for two years as anartillery officer during theKorean War era. Although he attained the rank offirst lieutenant, he was not deployed overseas, having been assigned to an antiaircraftradar unit in Brooklyn for medical reasons.[5][6] In 1954, he was admitted to theFordham University School of Law,[6] earning a position on theFordham Law Review.[10] After graduating in 1957, he worked for theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) underJ. Edgar Hoover.[6]
Liddy began his career with the FBI in 1957,[1] initially serving as a field agent in Indiana and Denver.[11] While stationed in Denver, he made a significant arrest on September 10, 1960:Ernest Tait, a notable criminal who had twice appeared on theTen Most Wanted.[11]
At age 29, Liddy became the youngest[12] bureau supervisor at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.. Under the mentorship of deputy directorCartha DeLoach,[1] Liddy secured a position on directorJ. Edgar Hoover's personal staff, even acting as Hoover'sghostwriter.[12] Despite his achievements, Liddy was also known for his reckless behavior among his fellow agents,[1][13][14] highlighted by two particular incidents.[15]
The first incident took place inKansas City, Missouri, during a covert operation. He was arrested but was subsequently released after contactingClarence M. Kelley, former FBI agent and the then-chief of theKansas City Police.[1][15] The second incident involved an FBIbackground check that Liddy conducted on his future wife before they got married in 1957.[1][15] Liddy later claimed this action was a routine precautionary measure.[16]
Prior to his departure from the FBI in 1962, Liddy sought admission to various bars, leveraging his professional contacts. His application for admission to theUnited States Supreme Court was supported bySolicitor GeneralArchibald Cox.[17][18]
Liddy resigned from the FBI in 1962 and worked under his father as apatent attorney in New York City until 1966. He was then hired by District Attorney Raymond Baratta as a prosecutor inexurbanDutchess County, New York, after providing references from the FBI.[12] In 1966, he led a drug raid on theHitchcock Estate (then occupied byTimothy Leary) inMillbrook, New York, leading to an unsuccessful trial. Although the case generated much publicity, other lawyers complained that Liddy received credit for something in which he played a relatively small role.[12][13] He was also reprimanded for firing a revolver at the ceiling in a courtroom.[13][14] In 1969, a drug raid directed by Liddy atBard College scooped up, among others,Donald Fagen andWalter Becker, who later formed the bandSteely Dan and wrote the song "My Old School" about the raid. Liddy is referred to in the lyrics as "Daddy Gee".[19]
During that period, Liddy ran unsuccessfully for the post of District Attorney. In 1968, he continued to seek office by running in theRepublican Party's primary election forNew York's 28th congressional district. Employing the slogan "Gordon Liddy doesn't bail them out; he puts them in", he lost toHamilton Fish IV in a close race.[16] Liddy then accepted the nomination of theConservative Party of New York State and ran in the general election against Fish and the Democratic candidate, Millbrook businessman John S. Dyson. Fearing that Liddy might tip the election to Dyson, Fish turned to the district's Republican leader, State Assemblyman Kenneth L. Wilson, to get Liddy out of the race. Wilson's office dispatched the matter to the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, resulting in Liddy being offered a potentialRichard Nixon administration political appointment at theUnited States Department of the Treasury; this prompted him to officially suspend his campaign.
After serving as county director of Nixon's successfulpresidential campaign, he began the aforementioned political role as a special assistant fornarcotics andgun control at the Treasury Department's Washington, D.C. headquarters in early 1969. Shortly thereafter, he helped to establish the country's contemporarysky marshal program under the aegis of theUnited States Marshals Service.[6]
Beginning in 1970, he served withGordon Strachan andDavid Young as an aide toDomestic Affairs AdvisorJohn D. Ehrlichman in theExecutive Office of the President at the behest ofEgil "Bud" Krogh, who had worked on initiatives with Liddy at the Treasury Department. He served as the nominal general counsel to the finance committee of theCommittee to Re-elect the President (CRP) from 1971 to 1972.[20] Subsequently, Krogh, Liddy, Young, and Erlichman were indicted for conspiracy to commit burglary in September 1973.[21]
After serving in several mid-level law enforcement and domestic policy roles in theNixon administration, Liddy was moved to Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign in 1971 order to extend the scope and reach of theWhite House Plumbers "special investigations unit", which had been created in response to damaging leaks of information to the press.[22] Liddy's own name for the group was ODESSA, a reference toescape plans made by the Nazis.[23]
At CRP, Liddy concocted several plots in early 1972, collectively known under the title "Operation Gemstone". Some of these were far-fetched, intended to embarrass theDemocratic opposition.[24] These included kidnappinganti-war protest organizers and transporting them to Mexico during theRepublican National Convention (which at the time was planned forSan Diego), as well as luring mid-level Democratic campaign officials to a house boat in Miami, where they would be secretly photographed in compromising positions with prostitutes. Most of Liddy's ideas were rejected byAttorney GeneralJohn N. Mitchell (who became campaign manager in March 1972), but a few were approved by Nixon administration officials, including the 1971 break-in atDaniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in Los Angeles. Ellsberg had leaked thePentagon Papers toThe New York Times.[25] At some point, Liddy was instructed to break into theDemocratic National Committee offices in theWatergate Complex.[26]
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Liddy was the Nixon administration liaison and leader of the group of five men who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Complex. At least two separate entries were made in May and June 1972; the burglars were apprehended on June 17.[27] The purposes of the break-in were never conclusively established. The burglars sought to place wiretaps and planned to photograph documents. Their first attempt had led to improperly-functioning recording devices being installed. Liddy and Hunt masterminded the break-in from the Watergate Hotel Room 214, where they could look right into the DNC office,[28] but Liddy claimed he did not actually enter the Watergate Complex at the time of the burglaries; rather, he admitted to supervising the second break-in which he coordinated withE. Howard Hunt, from room 723 in the adjacentHoward Johnson Hotel. Liddy was convicted ofconspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping.[29]
Liddy was sentenced to a 20-year prison term and was ordered to pay $40,000 in fines. He began serving the sentence on January 30, 1973. He claimed that on arrival he sang theHorst Wessel Song, the Nazi Party anthem.[5] On April 12, 1977, PresidentJimmy Carter commuted Liddy's sentence to eight years, "in the interest of equity and fairness based on a comparison of Mr. Liddy's sentence with those of all others convicted in Watergate related prosecutions", leaving the fine in effect.[30] Carter's commutation made Liddy eligible for parole as of July 9, 1977. Liddy was released on September 7, 1977, after serving a total of four and a half years of incarceration.[31]
Liddy was charged with two counts ofcontempt of Congress in March 1974, on the same day that he and the three Cuban burglars were charged with the Watergate-related crimes.[32] Following abench trial on May 10, 1974, Liddy was convicted of contempt for his refusal to answer questions of the Special Subcommittee of Intelligence of the House Armed Services Committee, which was investigating the CIA's links to the break-in of the offices of Dr. Lewis Fielding, the psychiatrist to Daniel Ellsberg.[32] Liddy was found guilty and was handed a suspended jail sentence and probation; the judge stated that the sentence was lenient because Liddy was already sentenced to prison on the Watergate charges. Liddy became one of very few people in American history to be convicted of criminal contempt of Congress.[citation needed]
In 1980, Liddy published an autobiography, titledWill, which sold more than a million copies and was made into atelevision film. In it, he states that he was willing to kill during the Ellsberg break-in, and that he once made plans with Hunt to kill journalistJack Anderson, based on aliteral interpretation of a Nixon White House statement, "we need to get rid of this Anderson guy".[25][33]
In the early 1980s, Liddy joined forces with formerNiles, Illinois, policeman and co-owner of the Protection Group, Ltd., Thomas E. Ferraro Jr., to launch a private security andcountersurveillance firm called G. Gordon Liddy & Associates.[34]
Liddy emerged to host his own talk radio show in 1992. Less than a year later, its popularity led to national syndication throughViacom'sWestwood One Network, and throughRadio America in 2003. His radio show wassyndicated in 160 markets, and was on bothSirius Satellite Radio andXM Satellite Radio stations in the United States.[4] Liddy's show ended on July 27, 2012.[3] He was also an occasional guest panelist for theFox News Channel.
In 1994 and 1995, Liddy repeatedly told listeners of his radio program to shoot federal law enforcement officers, giving instructions to aim for their heads.[35] In many of these statements he referenced shooting in self-defense. After theOklahoma City bombing, whenPresident Clinton denounced the "many loud and angry voices" in conservative talk radio, Liddy responded that the head is a difficult target to hit and that he used pictures of the President andHillary Clinton for target practice.[36]
Liddy was sued for defamation in 1999 by Ida "Maxie" Wells, a secretary whose desk at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate was said to have been a target of the last Watergate break-in in order to find evidence related to an alleged prostitution ring kept in Wells' desk. Wells' suit accused Liddy of defamation.[37] Liddy denied the allegation, and the judge dismissed the suit, commenting that "no 'reasonable jury' could have found in favor of the plaintiff."[38]
In addition toWill, he wrote the nonfiction books,When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country (2002), andFight Back! Tackling Terrorism, Liddy Style (2006, with his son,[39] Cdr. James G. Liddy, along with J. Michael Barrett and Joel Selanikio). He also published two novels:Out of Control (1979) andThe Monkey Handlers (1990).[6] Liddy was one of many people interviewed for the biography ofAbbie Hoffman,Steal this Dream, byLarry "Ratso" Sloman.[40]
In the mid-1980s Liddy went on the lecture circuit, being listed as the top speaker on the college circuit in 1982 byThe Wall Street Journal. He later joined onetime foil Timothy Leary in a series of debates billed as "Nice Scary Guy vs. Scary Nice Guy" on the college circuit as well;[6] Leary had once been labeled by Liddy's ex-employer Richard Nixon as "the most dangerous man in America".[41] The lectures were the subject of a 1983 documentary film,Return Engagement.[42]
In 1994, the British documentary companyBrian Lapping Associates sent producersNorma Percy and Paul Mitchell to interview many of the conspirators for its series titledWatergate, in which an unrepentant Liddy talked frankly about his role. He was filmed at home while sitting in front of his sizable collection of firearms and describing "how he had been ready, if ordered, to go straight out and kill Jack Anderson, the Washington D.C. columnist."[43] At one point he was filmed wielding one of his pistols before the TV camera. It was made clear that, at the time of filming, the gun collection was registered in his wife's name, as he was ineligible for a license.[44]
Liddy acted in several films, includingStreet Asylum,[45]Feds,[46]Adventures in Spying,[47]Camp Cucamonga,[48] andRules of Engagement.[45] He appeared on such television shows asThe Highwayman,Airwolf,[48]Fear Factor,[47]Perry Mason, andMacGyver.[48] He had recurring roles inMiami Vice andSuper Force,[48][49] and guest starred inAl Franken'sLateLine.[47] On April 7, 1986, he appeared atWrestleMania II as a guest judge for a boxing match betweenMr. T (withJoe Frazier andThe Haiti Kid) versusRoddy Piper (withBob Orton andLou Duva).[50][51] In April 1987 he appeared as a celebrity partner for a week on the game showSuper Password, playing againstBetty White.[52]
Liddy appeared in the 1993 Golden Book Video release ofEncyclopedia Brown: The Case of the Burgled Baseball Cards as Corky Lodato. InMiami Vice, he acted withJohn Diehl, who would later go on to portray Liddy himself inOliver Stone's movieNixon (1995).[53] During his two guest appearances inMiami Vice, Liddy played William "Captain Real Estate" Maynard, a shadowy former covert operations officer whomSonny Crockett knew from his military service inSouth Vietnam.[54]
Liddy co-starred on18 Wheels of Justice as the crime boss Jacob Calder from January 12, 2000, to June 6, 2001.[55][56] He appeared on a celebrity editionFear Factor, the show's series finale, on September 12, 2006 (filmed in November 2005). At 75, Liddy was the oldest contestant ever to appear on the show. He beat the competition in the first two stunts, winning two motorcycles custom built by Metropolitan Chopper.[57]
Liddy was also an interviewee in the 2006 documentaryThe U.S. vs. John Lennon,[45] as well as a commercial spokesman forRosland Capital, selling gold on television commercials.[58]
Liddy was married to Frances Purcell-Liddy, a native ofPoughkeepsie, New York, for 53 years until her death on February 5, 2010. She was a teacher.[59] The couple had five children:Thomas, Alexandra, Grace, James, and Raymond.[6] Raymond became a deputy attorney general but was convicted of possession of child sexual assault materials and disbarred.[60] James was a Navy SEAL who co-authored with his fatherFight Back: Tackling Terrorism Liddy Style in 2006 and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Tharimmune, a position he was appointed in June 2025.[61]
In his later life, Liddy was an opponent ofanimal experimentation.[62]
Liddy died on March 30, 2021, at age 90, at his daughter's house inFairfax County, Virginia, while suffering fromParkinson's disease.[6][5]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)"My Old School" is the pair's most overt song about their alma mater, a sarcastically chipper-sounding remembrance of the time Becker and Fagen, along with several dozen other students, found themselves caught up in a trumped-up drug raid during an election cycle.
Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests.
His wife has a federal firearms license but he does not, because of a disputed burglary conviction from 1964.
