WASHINGTON – L. Patrick Gray, the FBI chief during the Watergate break-in, says he believes deputy W. Mark Felt became the anonymous source known as Deep Throat because he was angry at being passed over as J. Edgar Hoover’s successor and wanted to sabotage Gray.
“I think there was a sense of revenge in his heart, and a sense of dumping my candidacy, if you will,” Gray told ABC’s “This Week” for its Sunday broadcast.
Gray, who was selected to lead the FBI the day after Hoover’s death on May 2, 1972, also says he refused, on five occasions, White House demands to fire Felt or order a lie-detector test over leaks about the Watergate investigation.
On June 17 of that year, five men were arrested in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington. Nixon resigned the presidency on Aug. 9, 1974.
Disagreeing with other Watergate-era figures who have called Felt a traitor to the Nixon administration, Gray said, “I think he was treacherous only to me, a man who trusted him.”
Gray served less than a year as acting FBI director, resigning amid allegations he had destroyed documents in the Watergate scandal.
Wyoming: Search for Scout expands
The search for a 13-year-old Boy Scout who fell into the fast-moving Yellowstone River expanded Sunday into Montana as nearly 250 Yellowstone National Park officials and volunteers scoured the river by kayak and on foot. Luke Sanburg, of Helena, Mont., was pushing logs into the river with other Scouts on Friday when one of the logs clipped his legs and knocked him into the river. He was last seen floating downstream with his head above water, the National Park Service said. Two white tennis shoes, fitting the description of one worn by Luke, were found about five miles downstream from where he entered the river.
Arizona: Slaying suspect sought
Yuma police were searching for a man seen running from a home where six people, including four children, were killed in western Arizona. Authorities released little new information on the case Sunday other than to confirm that the victims included a mother and her four children, ages 6 to 13. Officers responding to a call of shots fired in a residential neighborhood late Friday found a man with a gunshot wound in the home’s back yard. The man, identified Sunday as Luis Rios, 35, died later at a hospital. Once inside the home, officers found the other victims. A cause of death has not been released.
California: Quake near Truckee
A moderate earthquake struck Sunday morning several miles north of Lake Tahoe, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The magnitude-4.8 quake was centered about 8 miles east of Truckee. A Nevada County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher said there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Man handcuffs himself at church
A man was arrested in Los Angeles on Sunday after he handcuffed himself to Cardinal Roger Mahony’s chair during a service to protest the church’s handling of allegedly abusive priests. Several thousand people were attending Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels when James Robertson, 58, walked toward the altar and handcuffed himself to the chair, police said. Mahony, who was delivering the homily about 15 feet away, continued with the service. Robertson did not speak with Mahony.
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