W. Mark Felt

William Mark Felt, Sr. (born August 17, 1913) is a former agent and top official of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was revealed in 2005 to be the Watergate scandal informant nicknamed "Deep Throat."

Early FBI years

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover liked to move Bureau agents around so they would have wide experience. Hoover, Felt observed, "wanted every agent to get into any Field office at anytime. Since he had never been transferred and did not have a family, he had no idea of the financial and personal hardship involved."{{ref|HooverNoFamily}}

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After completing sixteen weeks of training at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, and FBI Headquarters in Washington, Felt was first assigned to Texas, working in the field offices in Houston and San Antonio, spending three months in each. He then returned to the "Seat of Government," as Hoover called FBI headquarters, and was assigned to the Espionage Section of the Domestic Intelligence Division, tracking down spies and saboteurs during World War II. The Espionage Section was abolished in May 1945 after V-E Day. After the war, he was again in the field, sent first to Seattle, Washington. After two years of general work, he spent two years as a firearms instructor and was promoted from agent to supervisor. Upon passage of the Atomic Energy Act and the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Seattle office became responsible for completing background checks of workers at the Hanford plutonium plant near Richland, Washington. Felt oversaw these checks.{{ref|Espionage}}

Related Topics:
FBI Academy - Quantico, Virginia - Texas - Houston - San Antonio - Espionage - World War II - 1945 - V-E Day - Seattle, Washington - Atomic Energy Act - Atomic Energy Commission - Hanford - Plutonium - Richland, Washington

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In 1954, Felt returned briefly to Washington as an inspector's aide. Two months later, Felt was sent to New Orleans, Louisiana, as assistant special agent in charge of the field office. When he was transferred to Los Angeles, California, fifteen months later, he held the same rank there.{{ref|TransferNewOrleansLosAngeles}} In 1956, Felt was transferred to Salt Lake City, Utah, and promoted to special agent in charge. The Salt Lake office included Nevada within its purview, and while there, Felt oversaw some of the Bureau's earliest investigations into organized crime with the Mob's operations in the casinos of Reno and Las Vegas{{ref|MobNevada}} (It was Hoover's, and therefore the Bureau's official position at the time, that there was no such thing as the Mob). In February 1958, he went to Kansas City, Missouri, in his memoir dubbed "the Siberia of Field Offices",{{ref|SiberiaOfFieldOffices}} where he oversaw additional investigations of organized crime.{{ref|MobKansas}}

Related Topics:
1954 - New Orleans, Louisiana - Los Angeles, California - 1956 - Salt Lake City, Utah - Nevada - Organized crime - Reno - Las Vegas - 1958 - Kansas City, Missouri

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He returned to Washington in September 1962. As assistant to the Bureau's assistant director in charge of the Training Division, Felt helped oversee the FBI Academy.{{ref|FeltReturnToDC}} In November 1964, he became assistant director of the Bureau, as chief inspector of the Bureau and head of the Inspection Division {{ref|FeltToInspectionDivision}}. This division oversaw compliance with Bureau regulations and conducted internal investigations.

Related Topics:
1962 - FBI Academy - 1964

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On July 1, 1971, Felt was promoted by Hoover to Deputy Associate Director, assisting Associate Director Clyde A. Tolson.{{ref|FeltMadeAsstDirector}} Hoover's right-hand man for decades, Tolson was in failing health and no longer able to attend to his duties. Richard Gid Powers wrote that Hoover installed Felt to rein in William C. Sullivan's domestic spying operations, as Sullivan had been engaged in secret unofficial work for the White House. In his memoir, Felt quoted Hoover as having said, "I need someone who can control Sullivan. I think you know he has been getting out of hand."{{ref|FeltMemoirControlSullivan}} In his book, The Bureau, Ronald Kessler said, "Felt managed to please Hoover by being tactful with him and tough on agents."{{ref|KesslerOnFeltTactfulness}} Curt Gentry called Felt "the director's latest fair-haired boy," but who had "no inherent power" in his new post, the real number three being John P. Mohr.{{ref|GentryOnFelt}}

Related Topics:
July 1 - 1971 - Clyde A. Tolson - William C. Sullivan's - White House - John P. Mohr

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