Deep Throat's FBI boss dies

L. Patrick Gray III, who ran the FBI when Mark Felt was leaking information about the Watergate burglary as Deep Throat, died yesterday at 88.

Mr Gray died in Atlantic Beach, Florida, of complications from pancreatic cancer, his son Edward Gray said in a statement.

President Richard Nixon picked Mr Gray to head the FBI in 1972 after the death of the legendary Director J. Edgar Hoover. But he was never approved by the Senate as permanent director because of suspicions about his involvement in the growing Watergate scandal.

As acting director, Mr Gray's No. 2 man was Mr Felt, a long-time FBI agent. Mr Gray said in an interview last month he was "shocked" and felt "deep inner hurt" when he learned that Mr Felt was reporter Bob Woodward's mysterious source in the Washington Post's stories of the scandal that forced Mr Nixon to resign.

"He told me time and time again he was not Deep Throat," Mr Gray said of Mr Felt on ABC News' This Week programme on June 26.

"He was under suspicion by everyone but his immediate boss, because I was working with the man on a daily basis, and he presented to me a picture of an honorable individual doing his job," Mr Gray said in the interview.

Mr Gray was forced to withdraw his nomination for the director's spot in 1973 amid suspicions he was passing FBI information on the Watergate scandal directly to the White House.

With congressional investigations rapidly becoming the focus of the nation, the White House gave him no support. In March of 1973, Nixon aide John Ehrlichman decided the White House should allow Mr Gray to "twist slowly, slowly in the wind" and not help him, according to White House tapes.

Mr Nixon picked Mr Gray, a former Justice Department official, to replace Mr Hoover in the hopes the lawyer and Navy veteran would conduct a thorough "housecleaning" of the FBI and bring it under presidential control.

Presidents had been reluctant to challenge Mr Hoover because of his vast collection of files containing secret information and generally high public approval. Mr Hoover had created a kingdom at the nation's top law enforcement agency that few could challenge.

Mr Felt, who had spent more than three decades at the FBI, acknowledged in his autobiography that he was disappointed at being passed over for the FBI top job. That may have been a factor in his becoming Deep Throat.

Mr Gray made a major effort to impress his boss. He admitted providing raw FBI investigative files to White House counsel John Dean and destroying several files found in the White House safe of E. Howard Hunt, the organiser of the Watergate break-in.

Although Mr Dean had been told to "deep six" some incriminating evidence in the river on his way, he instead gave the documents to Mr Gray.

"I distinctly recall Mr Dean saying that those files were political dynamite and clearly should not see the light of day," Mr Gray said in congressional testimony.

But he always denied complicity in the cover-up, and said he had opposed White House efforts to stop the investigation on the grounds of a CIA connection.

The Watergate scandal grew after the break-in at Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington. Many of Mr Nixon's top aides and advisers went to jail for their roles in the scandal and cover-up, but not Mr Gray.

Mr Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, after being linked to the cover-up.