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Show ... material about Anderson to Republican members of the Senate and to the press." At one point, Hunt tried to persuade Dita Beard to repudiate her memo. He turned up in Denver at Dita's hospital bedside under the name of Edward Hamilton, an alias he would also use at various stages of the Watergate incident. He had donned makeup and a cheap red wig for the occasion, a wig which was askew, giving him the appearance of a French mime. Dita's son. Bull, later described Hunt's appearance as "very eerie; he had a red wig on cockeyed, like he put it on in a dark car." As The Washington Post reported it, the White House was "coordinating a continuous effort to discredit Anderson." The Plumbers were assisted in this effort by another Watergate figure, Robert Mardian, who then headed the Justice Department's Internal Security Division. He ordered my house staked out, but I learned the makes and license 's numbers of three autos used by men. With nine children, I was able to command a far more reliable s. counter-espionag- e squad than My kids had a lot of fun spotting the cars. They reported back that they could see men with binoculars, bringing to our neighborhood an exhilarating air of intrigue. They located the main lookout atop a knoll near a church about a mile from my door. Mar-dian- Mar-dian'- They're after me now' retaliated by also sending members of my staff to watch Mardian's house and to tail him wherever he went. When the investigator thus became the investigated, he had conniptions. A source in his office told us he kept wailing: "They're after me now!" I also suspected, but could never prove, that the Nixon crowd tapped my telephones. I was only slightly surprised, therefore, by a letter mailed to me on April 15, 1972. It was written by William Haddad, a New York entrepreneur who, until a dozen years ago, had been a investigative reporter. Haddad told me he had learned from a private investigator of plans to tap the telephones of the Democratic National Committee. Haddad understood the plot had been hatched by a group of advertising men, known as the November Group, who had been recruited for the Nixon campaign. As it turned out, I was personally acquainted with some of the Waterbug-gerFrank Sturgis, an incurable soldier of fortune who had roamed the world in search of danger, excitement and fighting, had been a friend of mine for many years. I had written in PARADE about his exploits fighting for and then I prize-winni- s. against Fidel Castro. He introduced me in Miami to Bernard Barker, short and swarthy, who was known to his associates as "Macho" ). They spoke of Eduardo, their CIA superior during the Bay of Pigs, who I only recently realized was E. Howard Hunt. Ihey were a collection of romantics, forever seeking adventure, forever finding misadventure. On April 17, 1971, exactly 10 years after the Bay of Pigs, Barker found a note pinned to his door : "If you are the same Barker I once knew, contact me fat a Miami hotel." The note was signed by Eduardo. Thus the Water-bugger-s, recruited from the Bay of Pigs bunglers, were assembled for their biggest caper. (he-man- A familiar face had everything but a road sign pointing to the story. My press notices claimed I was an investigative reporter; I had been alerted to the Watergate plot two months 'n advance; and I had personal ties with the Waterbuggers. Yet I was quite oblivious of the conspiracy when on June 16, 1972, I was making my way through Washington's National Airport to catch a plane to Cleveland. I recognized a familiar face and stopped to chat. It was Frank Sturgis. I asked what he was doing in Wash"Private business," he said, ington. with a conspiratorial smile. He introduced me to Eugenio Martinez, the locksmith who was to pick the Watergate locks that night. I made a mental ncte to find out what Sturgis was up to, then I hurried on to Cleveland. Next day, I read on Page 1 what Sturgis had been up to. He had been captured, with the rest of the Cuban "Mission Impossible" team, inside the Watergate. I 'Fighting Castro' looked him up immediately in the old red brick building that houses the District of Columbia jail. He would say only that the Watergate project was part of their fight against Castro. In return for their services, they had also been promised, said Sturgis, that some Cuban refugees suffering from the fog and distance of London would be allowed to come to Miami. Sturgis told me he'd been paid only expense money and didn't know what legal assistance he would get. With his assent, I went to court and sked that he be paroled in my custody. The Justice Department, distrusting my charitable intentions, suspected I might pump him for more answers and vigorously objected to releasing Sturgis in my care. He was remanded, therefore, to his cell block. (My court appearance in Sturgis behalf also disturbed the Democrats. After I printed details of Larry O'Brien's expense accounts, the Democrats issued a statement suggesting I had received information stolen from their offices by the Waterbuggers. I had managed, as usual, to gain the enmity of both political parties.) Continuing my pursuit of the Watergate story, I learned from FBI sources the gist of the preliminary findings. It was necessary, however, to document the details. I asked my sources to bring me the FBI investigative reports. It is much easier to quote a confidential FBI report than it is to pry the details from a long list of people associated with the story. But while I was trying to pry the documentation loose from FBI files, two young reporters from The Washington Robert Mardian, then the head of the Justice Departments Internal Security unit, ordered Anderson tailed, only to find himself being followed. Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, got the story by hard leg work. They printed the startling details of the e operation behind the Watergate break-iMy search for documentation, meanwhile, led me to the Hunt papers. While the melodramatic G. Gordon Liddy had shredded his Watergate documents, Hunt, the author of 46 obscure novels, the literary apparently recognized value of this hush-hus- h material. He packed his documents into eight cardboard boxes, obtained clearances to move the sealed boxes out of the White House, then arranged for a trusted associate, Roy Sheppard, a federal employee, to pick them up and stash them in his basement. I dealt with Sheppard through his lawyer, Peter Wolfe, who was deeply spying-sabotag- n. continued He vard Hcr.t stashed eight boxes of Watergate evidence in a friend's home. Anderson nearly intercepted it, but Hunt reclaimed it just in time. E. I a PARADE article name Fiorini, co-e- r with Anderson on Cuban freedom fighters, posing for this stony-face- d even looked After (left). (right). Sturgis grimmer Watergate photograph capture, In 7967 Frank Sturgis, using the S |