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University of Illinois Department of Journalism |
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This portion of the University of Illinois' Department of Journalism Web site archives the preliminary findings of an investigative report conducted by Knight Chair Professor Bill Gaines and students from his investigative journalism classes.
The investigation's findings were later finalized and presented at the following link:
All information on these Web pages are for archival purposes and are no longer current.
The 7 finalists
Those who remain
Speechwriters, press aides dominant the list of those students could not rule out
- Patrick Buchanan, who later made three tries as a candidate for president, had moved from speechwriter to special assistant to the president by 1973. He was meeting regularly with Nixon's attorneys in April 1973, when prosecutors and Nixon learned that Gray destroyed documents and Throat told Woodward.
Buchanan was born in the District of Columbia, and listed his address in the 1973 "Who's Who in America" as 2500 Virginia Ave, N.W., one mile from Woodward's apartment balcony. He was known to have been a smoker and drank Scotch. His sister worked for the committee to re-elect Nixon.
While Buchanan is perceived to have been loyal to Nixon throughout his administration, Buchanan threatened to resign three months before the break-in a letter to Haldeman because he disagreed with Nixon's recognition of China, according to "The Haldeman Diaries."
Hugh Sloan, Woodward and Bernstein's well-known once-secret source, was interviewed by student Thomas Rybarczyk. Sloan believed that of the names left on the list Buchanan was most likely to be Throat.
Students, when polled for NBC's Dateline broadcast June 14, chose Buchanan as the most likely.
- David Gergen became an important speechwriter, then served as press spokesman for President Reagan. He has been named several times as a prime Throat suspect because he went to Yale two years ahead of Woodward and lived in the same university residence complex. Gergen addressed the issue in his 2000 book, "Eyewitness to Power," claiming he does not remember Woodward from college and had only official contact with him as a White House spokesman.
In 1971, while Woodward was working at the Maryland newspaper, he was introduced to Gergen, Gergen wrote. He did not write of the nature of the gathering or who was their mutual acquaintance. Gergen also served in the Navy at the same time as Woodward.
Gergen twice made appointments for a telephone interview with student Justin Sacher but did not keep either.
Students were told that Gergen smoked, drank Scotch, and at 6 foot 5, could have reached the high ledge in the parking garage where Throat left a message for Woodward that was too high for Woodward to reach. Gergen was married and lived in Virginia.
- Jonathan Rose was also a Yale student two years ahead of Woodward. His position as attorney for White House relations with regulatory agencies did not place him directly with access to information Throat provided, but his father, Chapman Rose, who had known Nixon from his years as vice president, was active as an unpaid advisor to Nixon in 1973 and had access to information concerning Nixon's Watergate strategy, according to Haldeman's memos. Rose was single and lived in Virginia. He was a roommate of Gergen at Harvard law school after they graduated from Yale and got Gergen his speechwriting job at the White House. He denied he was Deep Throat in an e-mail message to student Katherine Williams but could not be reached for an interview.
- Raymond Price, head speechwriter, also attended Yale. He graduated 14 years before Woodward but they could have met at a Yale alumni gathering in Washington. Price wrote a book, "With Nixon." in which he denied being Throat and was highly critical of press coverage. After Nixon resigned, Price stayed on his personal staff. Price was single.
- Stephen Bull, a special administrative assistant to Nixon. He listened to the tapes for Nixon before they were transcribed. Bull told student Rybarczyk that he "cleaned out Nixon's out basket" and had access to all the information Throat gave Woodward, but he said that he was not Throat and he welcomed the student investigation to clear him. Bull was married, smoked and drank liquor, and lived in Bethesda, Md.
- Fred Fielding, top assistant to John Dean, was Haldeman's choice for Throat in his book, "The Ends of Power" because "he is the likeliest candidate in the White House to know and not to know."
A smoker and drinker at the time, Fielding was married and lived in Virginia. Although Dean left in April 1973, Fielding stayed on until 1974 and ran day-to-day operations of Dean's former office.
He had picked up FBI reports for Dean and was in the White House during the entire span of Throat's known contact with Woodward. He helped clean out Hunt's safe of material that was later destroyed by Gray, so he knew early of Hunt's involvement. Also, he would have had access to the memo about the traffic arrest written by the White House staffer who sent a copy of his letter of complaint to Dean's office.
Fielding picked up a package of reports, files, and teletypes for Dean at the FBI on Oct. 2, 1972, according to Mark Felt's book, "The FBI Pyramid." It was a week before Throat confirmed information about Segretti that was attributed to FBI files.
Fielding was an Army captain and served in the Office of Security at the National Security Agency for two years beginning in 1965. He could have come into contact with Woodward, who was in Navy intelligence and reported to the Pentagon during the same years. The students found another chance for them to have met, although far removed. They were members of the same college social fraternity but at different Eastern colleges.
Fielding has denied being Throat. He did not respond to requests for an interview.
- Gerald L. Warren, deputy press secretary under Nixon, worked with Buchanan, Price and Ziegler, he told student Kelly Soderlund. Warren was born in Nebraska in 1930 and was assistant managing editor of the San Diego Union until he came to the Nixon staff in 1969. He stayed on with the Ford Administration until 1975, when he returned to the San Diego Union and became editor.
His home was listed in the 1972 "Who's Who in America" as 3412 O St. N.W., about two miles from Woodward's place, along the route to the White House.
Warren got a favorable write-up in "All The President's Men," while other of the president's men were not being treated kindly: "Tall, spectacled and neatly groomed... he sounded sympathetic at times as if he wanted to sweep the papers off his desk and say: Right, we've got to talk about this."