Intrigued by the vigil, a piece of duct tape on the door of the building that houses the Democratic Party’s headquarters in Washington helped uncover the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon after he informed the police on June 17. 1972.
It turns out that there was a loud scandal behind the failed “robbery” he had just discovered. Five men were assigned by White House officials to install spyware and photograph internal documents in search of information relating to Nixon’s opponents. Two years later, and for the only time in the country’s history, a Republican president accused of trying to whitewash the case was forced to resign to avoid the humiliation of his dismissal.
“Adhesive Point on the Door”
On the night of June 16-17, 1972, 24-year-old security guard Frank Wells was making his usual tour of the corridors of the majestic Watergate building in the American capital when he noticed a piece of duct tape on the door lock in the basement. , preventing it from blocking. At first, this did not bother him, so he took off the tape, put it in his pocket, and went on his way.
However, upon his return, he noticed another piece of paper and suspected him of an attempted robbery. Please call the police immediately. Wells played his part for a few seconds at the start of All the Presidents, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. “I found a piece of duct tape on the door and called the police for a search,” he wrote in the National Archives’ Watergate Register. Police arrived on the scene “within a minute or a minute and a half,” police officer John Barrett told ABC News in 2017. He was with his colleague Paul Lieber in civilian clothes.
This probably did them good, as Alfred Baldwin, who was supposed to be on guard during the invasion with five men, did not immediately see them. Perhaps he was interested in watching a horror movie on TV. “He was staring at the TV. It was already too late when he told the others about it, so they ran and hid like mice,” Barrett said.
adrenalin
When they entered the building, two police officers noticed pieces of tape on several doors. They realized that something was suspicious. “Adrenaline suddenly kicked in,” Paul Lieber told ABC. They discovered offices that had been randomly searched and suspected that the men were still inside the building. Farha searches for their hall after another. Suddenly, John Paris noticed a hand. He said: “I was very afraid. I could yell, ‘Get out, put your hands up or I’ll hit you in the head.'” “Ten hands went up and out,” he explained. On the other side of the street, a Baldwin held a walkie-talkie in his hands. And he said, “I heard a whisper saying, ‘They’ve arrested us.’
tear gas
And the five stops are James McCord, Virgilio Gonzalez, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martins and Bernard Parker. The two police officers quickly realized that this was not the “routine” event John Barrett had claimed. He explained that the five men were dressed in uniforms and ties, “with listening devices, tear pens, lots of reels of film, door and lock repair equipment, and thousands of dollars in hundred-dollar bills.” On June 18, 1972, The Washington Post published its first article on the subject. It was signed by Alfred E. Lewis, a police journalist. But Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are on the list of his employees. After that, two young reporters took on the case, investigating the details of the case and winning the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for the paper for the scandal that toppled Richard Nixon and his presidency.
