E. Howard Hunt

Everette Howard Hunt (born October 9, 1918 in East Hamburg, New York, United States) worked for the White House under President Richard Nixon, figured in the Watergate Scandal, and was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison.

Related Topics:
October 9 - 1918 - East Hamburg, New York - United States - White House - Richard Nixon - Watergate Scandal

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Hunt, along with G. Gordon Liddy and others, was one of the White House's "plumbers", a secret team of operatives charged with fixing "leaks". Information disclosures had proved an embarrassment to the Nixon administration when defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg sent a series of documents, which came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, to the New York Times.

Related Topics:
G. Gordon Liddy - Plumbers - Daniel Ellsberg - Pentagon Papers - New York Times

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During World War II, Hunt served in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Air Force, and finally, the Office of Strategic Services. An employee of the CIA from 1949 to 1970. In 1949 he established the first post-war CIA station in Mexico City. During this period he wrote several spy novels: East of Farewell (1942), Limit of Darkness (1944), Stranger in Town (1947), Bimini Run (1949) and The Violent Ones (1950).

Related Topics:
World War II - U.S. Navy - U.S. Army Air Force - Office of Strategic Services - CIA - 1949 - 1970 - Mexico City

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Hunt organized the bugging of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office building and was also found to be responsible for a break-in at the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

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The Rockefeller Commission of the U.S. Congress in 1974 regarded Hunt and Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis as suspects in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Support for this claim came from a figure from the 1960s counterculture, Kerry Thornley, who believed he had on several occasions from 1961-63 conversed with Hunt (whom Thornley claimed used the alias "Gary Kirstein") regarding plans to assassinate John F. Kennedy while Thornley had been living in New Orleans.

Related Topics:
Rockefeller Commission - U.S. Congress - 1974 - Frank Sturgis - 1963 - John F. Kennedy - Kerry Thornley - New Orleans

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Hunt's wife Dorothy was killed in the December 8, 1972 plane crash of United Airlines Flight 533 in Chicago. Congress, the FBI, and the NTSB investigated the crash but did not find any basis for determining that the crash was not purely accidental. $10,000 was found in Dorothy Hunt's handbag, and was generally regarded as part of the "hush money" paid to Watergate defendants in an attempt to procure their silence regarding White House involvement.

Related Topics:
December 8 - 1972 - United Airlines - Chicago - Congress - FBI - NTSB

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In 1981, Hunt won $650,000 in a libel suit against Liberty Lobby, a right-wing organization, after it published an article accusing him of being involved in the conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy. The author, Mark Lane, defended Liberty Lobby in a second trial in 1985, and he successfully overturned the original libel award. Lane outlined his theory about Hunt's and the CIA's role in Kennedy's murder in a 1991 book, Plausible Denial.

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In addition to his work at the CIA—which included nontrivial roles in the Guatemala coup and the Bay of Pigs Invasion—Hunt was a prolific author, primarily of spy novels. He declared bankruptcy in 1995 and lives in Miami, Florida.

Related Topics:
Guatemala coup - Bay of Pigs Invasion - 1995 - Miami, Florida

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A fictionalized account of Hunt's role in the Bay of Pigs operation appears in Norman Mailer's 1991 novel Harlot's Ghost.

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