By Staff
Washington's celebrated secret source who helped bring down President Richard Nixon when I was in high school turns out to be J. Edgar Hoover's FBI second in command, W. Mark Felt.
Solving the second great mystery of our time (after the JFK assassination) May 31 didn't bring the closure I always imagined.
What really blows my mind is that the intrepid Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post investigative reporters, immortalized on screen by Robert Redford (Bob Woodward) and Dustin Hoffman (Carl Bernstein), were scooped at divulging their carefully-kept Watergate secret by Vanity Fair, which moves at the speed of a magazine.
The piece unmasking Deep Throat, who proved more Anonymous than Joe Klein on the Clinton administration in "Primary Colors," was written by San Francisco attorney John D. O'Connor.
O'Connor earned his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1972 after receiving a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame in 1968.
When the book (1974) and film (1976), "All the President's Men" came out, Felt was said to be shocked at his niche in history tagged with a tawdry title cheeky journalists borrowed from the Linda Lovelace porn movie.
Felt repeatedly denied any role, but Nixon suspected as early as February 1973, according to his tapes.
Felt may seem paranoid, but he knew first-hand of Nixon's willingness to use wiretap surveillance and "plumber" break-ins to plug leaks.
In hindsight, Felt seems a logical leaker. Angry at being passed over for the top job, which Hoover had since the beginning.
Angry at Nixon bringing in an outsider, Assistant Attorney General L. Patrick Gray III.
Determined not to let the White House impede the FBI's Watergate investigation.
His anti-Nazi espionage comes shining through when Felt insists Woodward summon him with a signal, a flower pot on the reporter's balcony.
Felt contacted Woodward by inking a clock face on page 20 of that day's New York Times.
Felt, 91, lives in California and is frail from a 2001 stroke.
His family is doing him no favor by trying to cash in.
His legacy's pendulum could easily swing from hero to villain with his motives laid bare.
Woodward, Bernstein and Post Executive Editor promised not to reveal Deep Throat's secret identity until he died.
Woodward knew Felt's family was at least considering going public because they approached him about dropping the bombshell in a book.
Woodward said his reservations stemmed from Felt's mental condition.
He wondered whether his source was competent to release him from their longstanding agreement.
Ultimately, Woodstein continued to protect their source.
So it wasn't Diane Sawyer, Henry Kissinger or Pat Buchanan, among the household names nominated over the years.
John Dean, who tried to cover up Watergate for Nixon, frequently fanned speculation.
I think the last time this long-running parlor game appeared in this space was when an investigative reporting class at the University of Illinois sleuthed out definitively that deputy White House counsel Fred Fielding was Deep Throat to worldwide publicity.
Another magazine, Atlantic, concluded in a 1992 piece by Jim Mann that Deep Throat "could well have been Mark Felt."
Felt wrote indignantly in his own 1979 memoir, The FBI Pyramid, "I never leaked information to Woodward and Bernstein or to anyone else!"
In 1980, Felt was indicted and convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Weather Underground dissidents.
President Ronald Reagan pardoned him.
Elaine Has Benes: "Seinfeld's" Emmy-winning Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as "Old Christine" in a new midseason CBS sitcom.
Fresh from singing in 2002's "Watching Ellie," Louis-Dreyfuss, 44, plays a divorced mother and owner of a women's 30-minute-workout gym.
She must contend with her ex-husband's new young girlfriend, also named Christine. "Seinfeld," the greatest show of all time, ran on NBC, 1990-98.
Tigers reach .500: Detroit, 26-26 after winning six of seven, including a three-game sweep over Baltimore the previous weekend, beat the birds 5-3 June 3. This is the latest in a season to be at .500 since my birthday in 2000.
The AL East-leading Orioles usually own the Tigers (0-6 in 2004, but 5-1 in 2005). Kyle Farnsworth picked up his first save since 2002 with the Cubs.
Ibrahim Parlak freed: The Harbert restaurant owner was released June 3 from Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek.
The Kurdish immigrant accused of being a terrorist in his native Turkey was arrested last July. Now he's reunited with his 7-year-old daughter.
Parlak was given asylum in the United States in 1991. He has lived in Berrien County for 11 years and serves Middle Eastern food at Cafe Gulistan.
Parlak was ordered deported in December by an immigration judge, but on May 20, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn ruled that Parlak, 43, should be freed on a $50,000 appeal bond.
His release was delayed to let the government appeal, but none was filed. Cohn's 18-page opinion praised Parlak as a model immigrant, not a threat or likely to flee, and questioned the government's motives.
Yet U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington maintains he is a terrorist and vowed to fight his appeal of the immigration judge's ruling.
Subway said June 2 it's ending its free sandwich promotion because of concerns that counterfeiters have been creating and selling copies of the chain of 23,000 restaurants in 82 countries' proof-of-purchase stamps and cards.
Engaged: Reigning This Year's Girl Paris Hilton, 24, accepted a marriage proposal from her boyfriend of eight months, Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, 27.
Chasin' the cheese: No relaxing Memorial Day cookouts May 30 at Cooper's Hill, near Brockworth, England.
Dozens of contestants pursued a seven-pound chunk of Double Glouchester that can reach speeds of 70 mph, leaving competitors with bruises, sprains and even broken limbs.
Winner Chris Anderson left on a stretcher with a sprained ankle. First to reach the bottom claims the cheese. The Cooper's Hill Cheese Roll includes seven races - four downhill.
American idle: Two Florida teenagers find a homeless man, 53, in the woods and beat him with their fists and sticks and kick him to death for "something to do" and "for fun," according to Volusia County sheriff's investigators.
Christopher Scamahorn, 14, and Jeffery Spurgeon, 18, confessed and were charged with murder May 29. They admitted returning to the woods three times after the first attack to pummel the victim some more.
Obits: Eddie Albert (Heimberger), who as Oliver Douglas gives up his New York law practice for a Hooterville farm on TV's "Green Acres" from 1965-71, died May 26 at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 99. Born in Rock Island, Ill., he grew up in Minneapolis.
Thurl Ravenscroft, who as Kellogg's Tony the Tiger for more than 50 years thought Frosted Flakes were "grrreeat!" died May 22 at 91 in California.
Henry Corden, voice of cartoon caveman Fred Flintstone's "Yabba-dabba-doo!" for more than two decades, died May 19 in Encino, Calif. He was 85. Corden took over when original voice Alan Reed died in 1977. He also contributed to "Jonny Quest," "The Jetsons," "Scooby-Doo" and "The Smurfs."
Eric Forman escapes Wisconsin for "Spider-Man 3": Topher Grace, 26, who starred in "That '70s Show," joins the cast with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst for the continuing adventures of wallcrawler Peter Parker. So does "Sideways" and "Wings" star Thomas Haden Church for the film opening in May 2007. Shooting is expected to begin in 2006. Director Sam Raimi didn't reveal Grace's character.
The 2005 All-Star Game July 12 will be the fourth played in Detroit and the first since the one I remember at Tiger Stadium in 1971. The American League snapped an eight-game losing skid, 6-4, thanks to six home runs hit by future Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Roberto Clemente and Reggie Jackson's memorable shot.
14.5 percent: San Francisco has the smallest share of children 18 and younger of any major U.S. city, according to the Census Bureau. Kids are even scarcer than in Detroit (31 percent), New York (24 percent) or retirement havens such as Palm Beach, Fla. (19 percent). Perhaps because a two-bedroom starter home can set you back $760,000.
She faces charges for concocting a bogus story for police about being kidnapped and sexually assaulted.
Wilbanks is charged with making a false statement and filing a false police report. If convicted, she could get up to six years in prison and $11,000 in fines. She might also be ordered to reimburse more than $50,000 spent searching for her.
Amnesty International May 25 rips the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a flop, calling it "the gulag of our time." At Soviet camps, often in Siberia, political prisoners died from hunger, cold and overwork.
It's the London-based human rights group's harshest review yet of American detention policies and ranks us with Haiti and Sudan.
Some 540 men are being held at the Navy base on suspicion of ties to Afghanistan's toppled Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network.
The U.S. government has also been criticized for not charging or trying prisoners classified as enemy combatants, who enjoy fewer legal protections than prisoners of war receive under the Geneva Conventions.