Watergate conspirator tells of plot to murder journalist

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 8

Watergate conspirator tells of plot to murder journalist

NZPA-Reuter New York Gordon Liddy, the silent man of the Watergate scandal, has written a book telling of plots to kill his co-conspirator, Howard Hunt, and the muckraking newspaper columnist, Jack Anderson, “Time” magazine has reported. Mr Liddy, a key figure in the White House’s secret unit carrying out “dirty tricks” during the Nixon Administration, said neither plot was carried out because the orders

never came from above. ‘‘Time’’ published extracts from his book, entitled “Will,” which it said had been printed under extreme security. Mr Liddy said the plot to kill Anderson was hatched because he was reported to have compromised an American agent abroad. Mr Hunt’s death was plotted after he decided to talk to Federal prosecutors about the break-in a t the Democratic National Headquarters in Washington’s Watergate

building in 1972, he said. Mr Liddy, who led the break-in, himself repeatedly refused to answer any questions about his role in the affair which eventually resulted in President Nixon’s resignation. He was paroled in 1977 after serving nearly five years of a 26-year sentence for conspiracy, burglary, and attempting to eavesdrop on private conversations. Mr Liddy said in his book that a plot to poison Anderson with L.S.D. implanted on the steering

wheel of his car was dismissed as impractical. Mr Liddy, by his account, volunteered to assassinate Anderson on a Washington street but eventually was advised by Mr Hunt to forget the idea because a direct order never came down from, above. On Mr Hunt, Mr Liddy said he expected to receive orders to silence him and arrange to have his-food poisoned. “I waited, but because the message never came, Hunt lives,” he .said.