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Slow Burn - Se1 - Ep01 - Martha HD Watch [Full Movie] [Full Storyline]Full EP - Full
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04:48So in the South, everything revolves around football.
04:53And I was captain of what we call the Zebra Girls,
04:57which is like the little palm squad.
04:59Z-E-B-R-H-S
05:03Zebras, zebras are the best!
05:07Let's go Z!
05:09On the Thursday night of homecoming,
05:11we have a big bonfire.
05:13That night, I actually had my cheerleader uniform on.
05:17And then when it was time to announce the queen,
05:20oh my gosh, I mean, it just makes me want to tear up, I swear.
05:24They said, your 1982 homecoming queen is,
05:29and then they did a drum roll, and they said,
05:31Mandy Ebbett!
05:32And I literally jumped up out of my seat.
05:36My mouth is like this.
05:37They have a picture, and it's in the yearbook.
05:39My mouth is as big as it could be.
05:41I screamed. I could not believe it.
05:48I'm Mandy Ebbett Ware.
05:50I am a true Southern Belle.
05:54Wait a second, where was the story going?
05:56Okay, so, my dad is Bob Ebbett.
06:01He's pretty much a man about town.
06:04He's a mover and shaker, that's for sure.
06:06I'm Bob Ebbett, and I own Ebbett Enterprise.
06:09And we own the Martha Mitchell House.
06:12Oh, that's right, Martha Mitchell.
06:18This is the Martha Mitchell home.
06:21It was built by her grandfather.
06:24I have been the caretaker of this house for the last 40 years.
06:27And I have the responsibility to make sure it doesn't disappear.
06:35Bob Ebbett bought the Martha Mitchell house in 1975,
06:40just a year before she died.
06:42Martha was special.
06:45During her funeral, every major news person,
06:49ABC, NBC, they even had people from England
06:53writing a story about it.
06:59And I knew from that day that this old house,
07:03it was a historical house after that,
07:05because if she hadn't have been historical,
07:08they wouldn't have showed up here.
07:14Martha Mitchell was born up there in the bedroom right up over us.
07:22Across the hall upstairs, we have Martha's bedroom
07:26when she was a teenager.
07:28This painting that's hanging on the wall here
07:31was commissioned for the inaugural ball.
07:35You can look at that, and she's a southern belle, isn't she?
07:38No, she's a southern lady there.
07:46So a southern belle would definitely be very demure.
07:50We have a genuine graciousness to us
07:53and just want to make people feel at home
07:57or part of the family.
07:58It's usually a little bit upper-middle class
08:01to, you know, upper-middle class.
08:08When Martha was young, the most famous version
08:10of a southern belle was a character
08:12in one of the most popular movies of the time,
08:14Gone with the Wind.
08:18The character's name was Scarlett O'Hara.
08:21And in addition to her beauty,
08:22she was known for her willfulness
08:24and her departure from social norms
08:26for women of her era.
08:28Scarlett was bold and uncompromising.
08:32Martha Mitchell would grow up to become the real thing.
08:35I have to say today, I've had a lot of people calling
08:40and talking about the Martha Mitchell house,
08:42and they also talk about what's happening in D.C.
08:46And some of the ladies will say,
08:48I wish she was around now.
08:50I bet you she'd give them her tongue.
08:55And they just seemed to think
08:57that Martha saved the world at one time,
09:00and they need somebody like her up there again.
09:07In 1946, Martha married a salesman named Clyde Jennings,
09:11and the couple moved to an apartment in New York City.
09:16A friend picked up on hints of unhappiness
09:18in a wonderful Wall Street lawyer named John Mitchell.
09:25John Mitchell.
09:25John Mitchell.
09:26He was a prince of a guy.
09:27Always had a pipe.
09:29Kind of easy going.
09:31But Martha was a character.
09:34She was very talkative.
09:39John and Martha started seeing more and more of each other,
09:42spending evenings sharing Chinese food in the village.
09:50Soon, Martha left her first husband,
09:52and officially became Martha Mitchell.
09:58John Mitchell was a decent man.
10:01He was an investment bond lawyer up there in New York,
10:04and probably was minding his own business
10:06and never intended to get involved with politics.
10:10There's one thing for certain about New York.
10:13There's only one direction to go,
10:15and that's up.
10:21In 1967, Mitchell's law firm merged with that of another
10:25very successful young lawyer, a man named Richard Nixon.
10:38The two grew fond of each other.
10:40Mitchell advised Nixon regarding his political aspirations.
10:44And in the run-up to the 1968 election,
10:47Mitchell helped spearhead Nixon's first successful presidential campaign.
10:55Nixon eked out a slim victory that election year against Hubert Humphrey,
10:59just enough to install him in the highest office in the country.
11:02In 1969, Nixon thanked his friend Mitchell
11:05by offering him an extremely high-profile job.
11:08That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
11:11Attorney General of the United States.
11:15And Martha was right there next to him.
11:19While John Mitchell busied himself with the affairs of the president,
11:23his wife found ways to amuse herself.
11:26What's your life like in Washington?
11:29It's just so different that one cannot tell you,
11:33because even when I tell my own friends what life is like,
11:36and they look at my long schedule, they don't believe me.
11:43Of course, a political life isn't like a normal person.
11:48They can do and say what they please.
11:51Right.
11:51But I do say what I please.
11:52Yeah.
12:08I've been called everything in this town, girl.
12:11It doesn't make any difference.
12:17Martha's transition from small-town Southern Belle
12:19to media-savvy D.C. socialite was remarkably smooth.
12:23Over the course of Nixon's first term as president,
12:26she became a bona fide celebrity.
12:28Over time, she gradually developed this persona of this public figure,
12:33an image of herself as flamboyant.
12:37She liked the attention.
12:38How are my boyfriends?
12:41Has he confided anything in you?
12:43Well, I understand that that rumor was started
12:45because somebody made a telephone call and said it was Martha Mitchell.
12:51Martha Mitchell liked to talk,
12:53and she particularly liked to talk to reporters,
12:57between about, like, 1 a.m. and 3 a.m.
13:01Oh, ladies and gentlemen.
13:04To tell them all the gossip that she heard
13:06and just share her opinions more broadly,
13:08which was really unusual for cabinet members' wives in the era.
13:13Please excuse me.
13:15Martha's late-night calls were legendary,
13:17and a red rotary telephone became an iconic symbol associated with her.
13:23If you don't call me,
13:25I will call you.
13:33But you're a woman whose husband is powerful in the country.
13:37I mean, has anybody ever tried to stop you from talking out loud?
13:41Because, see, I'm sure you realize that could be dangerous for a political party.
13:45A wife speaking out.
13:46I mean, that's always been like, ugh.
13:48I would think they would try to say, uh, gee, Miss Mitchell, maybe you shouldn't make those statements.
13:52But nobody ever does.
13:53Oh, heavens no.
13:54They laugh at me.
13:57Is this the party to whom I am speaking?
14:00Yes, this is Martha Mitchell.
14:02Tell me, Mrs. Mitchell, do you have any time at all left over for hobbies?
14:07Yes, I like to read the funny papers.
14:09The funny papers.
14:11Which ones are your favorites?
14:13The New York Times and the Washington Post.
14:16Mrs. Mitchell, you know, it's gems like that that make me understand why they call Washington, D.C., Martha's Vineyard.
14:26Hello?
14:27Hello?
14:28With her fondness for gossip and her cozy relationship to the press, Martha walked the line of getting on Nixon's
14:35bad side.
14:36On one occasion, he told his chief of staff in a meeting, we have to turn off Martha.
14:42One might wonder why a man as powerful as the president would be bothered by the day-to-day musings
14:47of a cabinet member's wife.
14:49But Martha was not merely a talker.
14:51She also listened, closely, to her husband's conversations, to his meetings with staff, to late-night phone calls between their
15:00apartment and the White House.
15:05But here, we should take a step back from Martha for a moment.
15:09To understand how she got herself mixed up in this in the first place, it helps to know a little
15:14bit about how her husband's boss conducted himself in office.
15:18Because whatever concerns Nixon may have expressed about Martha, they could have only been heightened by a major obsession of
15:24his.
15:27Leaks.
15:29An FBI report that leaked out yesterday said...
15:32To find the sources of unauthorized leaks to news...
15:34...expressed some unhappiness over leaks on the talks in Washington.
15:43There are leaks to the press because somebody wants to show off.
15:48They have more power than they do or that they actually have the power.
15:53There are leaks to get back at someone. Vengeance leaks.
15:57There are all kinds of reasons that people leak.
16:01Nixon hated leaks. He hated when classified information, even just private information from the White House, would make it out
16:09into the newspapers.
16:12I think it is time in this country to quit making national heroes out of those who steal secrets and
16:20publish them in the newspapers.
16:23And if you're Richard Nixon, gearing up for re-election, trying to fix those leaks, who do you call?
16:35In 1971, this so-called plumber's unit is created.
16:41The head of the unit was a guy named Howard Hunt, a former CIA operative who also wrote spy novels.
16:49One of the people he hired was G. Gordon Liddy, by far and away the most zealous, over-the-top
16:57enthusiast.
16:59He was former FBI.
17:01Bud Krogh, who had been active in Nixon's drug policy.
17:06There was David Young, who was a Kissinger aide.
17:10There was a whole kind of cluster of these shady figures, some with some government experience or police experience.
17:22The plumber's job, as the name suggests, was to plug leaks.
17:29All of it was done behind closed doors.
17:32It could only be effective if you didn't know what was going on.
17:38They would do almost anything on the president's behalf, because to stop leaks in the White House is like trying
17:49to stop Niagara Falls with a squeegee.
17:56With his team of plumbers occupied, Nixon focused on winning a second term in the White House.
18:01He quietly set up campaign offices one block up Pennsylvania Avenue, a stone's throw from the White House.
18:09And in 1972, he officially formed the Committee to Re-Elect the President.
18:14Committee for the Re-Election of the President, may I help you?
18:16Which critics referred to by the acronym CREEP.
18:19The Committee to Re-Elect was unlike any political campaign I had been in before or after.
18:29My name is Roger Stone.
18:31In 1972, I was the youngest member of the Committee to Re-Elect the President.
18:39It ran like a corporate headquarters.
18:41Burnt orange carpets, ringtone phones, no posters on the wall, no campaign paraphernalia anywhere in sight.
18:51It really ran like a button-down, IBM-type corporation.
18:56The Committee was initially headed by a Nixon aide named Jeb Magruder,
19:00though it was generally agreed upon that he was just keeping the chair warm for John Mitchell.
19:04Jeb Magruder, I remember it, I was impressed at how highly polished his shoes were,
19:10and how letter-perfect he looked. He looked like a Ken doll.
19:15In addition to high-level operatives like Magruder, and fresh new political workers like Stone,
19:21somehow, many of the former plumbers made their way onto the CREEP staff.
19:27One of these was a man named James McCord, a former CIA officer with zero prior experience in politics.
19:34Jim McCord was the Director of Security.
19:37He sat at a desk right near the front door, and I knew him to say good morning to,
19:43and I had to go to him to get my photo ID to get into the office after hours.
19:50I thought he was kind of a spooky character, to tell you the truth.
19:55...next Monday, but first the Attorney General and the campaign.
19:58Confirming the public's speculation, John Mitchell eventually resigned his role as Attorney General
20:03to head up Nixon's re-election campaign.
20:06This had been expected.
20:07Mitchell said that he could most benefit the American people by helping to keep Mr. Nixon in the White House.
20:23Together with the band of former plumbers and the President himself, Mitchell strategized about how to keep Nixon in the
20:29Oval Office for a second term.
20:32Martha, on the other hand, looked at it a little differently.
20:36Martha didn't like this move from being Attorney General, because she regarded that as a demotion.
20:42And she decided that if her husband was going to be head of the Committee to re-elect the President,
20:46that she herself was also going to work.
20:50And so she campaigned for Richard Nixon very hard.
20:58She was very politically conservative, and although she didn't agree with Nixon on everything, she believed that he was the
21:05right man for the country.
21:05Hello everybody! Isn't this a great, great day? I'm having so much fun.
21:20While the Committee to re-elect the President was the official engine of Nixon's campaign,
21:27there remained an undeniable connection between its offices and staffers at the White House.
21:31My office at the start of the President's re-election campaign was doing a lot of the work.
21:43My name is John Dean. I was White House Counsel, otherwise known as Counsel of the President.
21:50The campaign wasn't really our job, but we found ourselves just taking on these responsibilities, so they got done.
22:02Well, how are you?
22:03At this point, Mitchell was still Attorney General.
22:05Committee for the re-election of the President, may I help you?
22:07And the Committee to re-elect was just getting its bearings.
22:10And the re-election committee didn't have a lawyer.
22:15So, Bud Krogh said, do you know Gordon Liddy?
22:19I said, no, I don't. I don't know him at all.
22:22He said, well, he's a former FBI agent, he's a good lawyer, and Ehrlichman thinks he would be ideal over
22:29there.
22:31Ehrlichman was one of Nixon's closest advisers.
22:35And at his suggestion, Creep hired Gordon Liddy, one of the plumbers, as general counsel for the campaign.
22:42One day, my secretary said, Gordon Liddy wants to see you in his office right away.
22:49I thought that was strange.
22:51So I knocked on the door.
22:54He said, come in.
22:55I walked in.
22:56He said, shut the door.
22:58I shut the door.
22:59He was looking down at a paper.
23:02He looked up to me and he said, get a fucking haircut.
23:06You represent the President of the United States.
23:10Now get the hell out of here.
23:12And he looked back down.
23:14There was this tremendous desire among Nixon's people to show how tough you were.
23:22This was meant to impress the boss.
23:26As the committee soon found out, there was a lot to Liddy's background that was left out of the introduction.
23:32They realized today that they were trying to get Liddy out of the White House.
23:39They think he's a loser, he's trouble, he's a loose cannon.
23:45So they pawn him off on myself and John Mitchell.
23:51I had been told to tell him that one of his assignments would be to gather political intelligence.
23:57That Mitchell clearly wanted that to be part of the General Counsel's responsibility.
24:02The problem is nobody had any idea that Liddy would flip that upside down.
24:17Jeb Magruder, the number two man at the re-election committee, calls me and said,
24:22Liddy has developed his intelligence gathering plans for the campaign and he wants to present them to Mitchell.
24:31Would you attend? Because I just think you should be there.
24:40At this meeting, Liddy has charts on an easel that I later learned he had had the CIA prepare.
24:50And he uses a series of gemstones as the keys.
24:55There's crystal, there's ruby, there are all these different plans.
25:09He says to Mitchell, General, what we're going to do to deal with the anti-war demonstrators
25:15is we're going to kidnap their leaders and drug them and take them below the border
25:23and keep them out of commission during the campaign.
25:30And Mitchell kind of puffs on his pipe and says,
25:33Well, Gordon, I don't know if that's necessary.
25:39He had other things, like he was going to intercept ground-to-air communications
25:45with the president's opponent's airplane by having a chase plane.
25:54He went on and on with these different plans.
25:59And I was dumbfounded.
26:02At one point, I look over at Mitchell, who's puffing his pipe, and he kind of winks at me.
26:09Like, he's just hearing this out.
26:11He doesn't want to cause a ruckus over it and throw Liddy out the window,
26:15which is what he should have done.
26:16I kept my mouth shut for a long time until Liddy finally said,
26:22We also have a plan, General, to crack the inner circles of the Democratic Party.
26:32Will the 36th annual convention of the Democratic Party please come to us?
26:38Liddy says down in Miami near the convention center,
26:43we are leasing a houseboat that'll be on a canal.
26:48And it's got a two-way mirror on it.
26:52And we will record the Democratic Party officials who will lure to these houseboats with hookers.
27:07Who will get them to fess up some of the inner secrets of the Democratic Party.
27:22And at that point, I said, Gordon, I said, you've got to be kidding.
27:26And he shoots daggers in his looks at me when I interrupt his presentation.
27:32And he turns to Mitchell and he says, General, I want to assure you,
27:37these are the finest girls from Baltimore.
27:39They're very competent.
27:42But when Liddy says that he can do all this for a million dollars,
27:47Mitchell very clearly says, Gordon, that's far more money than we were going to spend on something like this.
27:53Why don't you go back to the drawing boards for something more realistic?
27:58John Mitchell seems to think that while some of Liddy's stuff is either too expensive or too ridiculous,
28:07that other elements are perfectly fine.
28:11And so what I said is, the things you all are discussing should never be discussed in the office of
28:19the Attorney General.
28:20I just thought it was insane and was giving everybody a way to end this thing.
28:25And I didn't know if that would end it or what would end it.
28:35Dean's warnings didn't seem to stick and Liddy did not get kicked out of the office.
28:40With orders to trim his budget, he got to work.
28:44And Mitchell turned his attention to another aspect of campaign life.
28:47The parties.
28:58It was here in Southern California, where the fate of the Mitchells would ultimately unravel.
29:05Richard Nixon was a California native.
29:07And throughout the years, he would return to his home state in search of support for his political campaigns.
29:15In June of 1972, my husband and I hosted a Hollywood Nixon soiree.
29:26My name is Carol Carruthers, Mrs. A.J. Carruthers.
29:30In the 70s, we were living in Brentwood and also in Pacific Palisades.
29:35We did have a lovely, large circle of friends.
29:39A lot of them were in show business, were in film and television.
29:43Marianne Mobley and Gary Collins were very dear friends of ours,
29:47and they wanted to host a fundraiser for the Republican Party.
29:53So they asked if they could use our house, because we had a larger house
29:57and we lived on the Palisades Cliffs overlooking the ocean, so it was a nice setting.
30:02And so we said, sure, of course.
30:15During the 72 campaign, the committee to re-elect the president went west many times.
30:20And the glamorous Hollywood soiree was a common event.
30:27These parties were held at lavish beachfront homes like Carol's,
30:30and they were meant to attract donors as well as high society interest.
30:35You get a sense of what it felt like to be immersed in Nixonland in the summer of 1972.
30:42It was a lighthearted affair, a very nice gathering.
30:47It was a lovely day and full of glamorous people.
30:53Some politicians who were there as well. Statesmen, I should say.
30:59John and Martha Mitchell were the main attraction.
31:02There was a lot of press outside in the front of the house,
31:06and they were all waiting for John and Martha Mitchell to come.
31:10She loved the campaign trail, and she was a big draw by this time.
31:14They knew that if they invited Martha, the event would be sold out, packed to the gills,
31:18if she was going to be there, because she was such a media sensation.
31:23You're really in demand, aren't you?
31:25Well, I don't know about that.
31:27But do you like show business or politics?
31:29Well, they are very similar.
31:36Martha loved celebrities, and there were plenty of them.
31:41Here we see Charlton Heston, Clint Eastwood, and John Wayne.
31:47One of the monkeys was there, and it was Mickey Donuts, and that was kind of exciting for the boys.
31:53The one that stands out the most was one of the monkeys.
31:57I was eight years old in 1972.
32:01One of the things that I remember most clearly about that day was walking around the house,
32:08and in particular walking around in the front yard because the party was going on in the back,
32:11so my brothers and I were kind of hanging around in the front yard.
32:15And at one point we found grown men in suits hiding in the bushes.
32:22We found out later that they were Secret Service men, but at the time we didn't even know what a
32:27Secret Service man was.
32:28So it was confusing and surprising, and we thought it was hysterical.
32:33So my brothers and I kept going up to them, you know, right up to them and saying,
32:36Hi, what are you doing here? Why are you in the bushes?
32:41It was no wonder the Secret Service was swarming the place.
32:44First Lady Patricia Nixon, someone who always held Martha at a cool distance, was also in attendance.
32:51There was two such totally different women.
32:54Martha was up and vivacious and very celebrity conscious.
33:00And I think Patricia was always uncomfortable in that circumstance.
33:06Patricia was very low-key and not flashy at all, and I think she thought that Martha was sort of
33:13a flighty kind of person.
33:16So I don't think that they were close friends.
33:20But aside from the tension between the two political wives, the party was a great success, bringing in thousands of
33:27dollars for the Nixon campaign.
33:29At the same time, there were hints of other pressing business in the air.
33:34There were some Secret Service men who came in looking rather agitated and said,
33:40Could they use a phone someplace that was private?
33:43And so they went upstairs to my office.
33:48And I heard someone talking to Jeb Magruder.
33:53Then Marianne told me very quietly that there had been a break-in, and that's what they were concerned about.
33:58But she said, Don't tell anybody. So, of course, I didn't.
34:13There was a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters.
34:19Everybody thought it was nothing more than just a local Washington, D.C. B&E, as they called it, break
34:26-in and entry.
34:29I'm Leslie Stahl, correspondent at 60 Minutes.
34:34When it happened, CBS thought they should send someone because it was the Democratic Party headquarters.
34:42So they sent the new kid.
34:46They didn't think this was important at all.
34:48I didn't have a camera.
34:50I was just sent to cover the arraignment of the burglars.
34:55So I walked in with very little hope that I was going to have a real story.
35:02According to police, five men were caught with bugging equipment inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate.
35:10While trying to install eavesdropping equipment, the burglars broke through a fire escape door.
35:15By the time the first news of the burglary was trickling in over the airwaves, John Mitchell would have been
35:20fully aware of the situation.
35:23And in looking at images of that day, you begin to see them in a new light.
35:28What was going on behind the scenes?
35:31And how concerned was Mitchell in this moment?
35:40At one point during the afternoon, John Mitchell walked out to the edge of our property, which overlooked the ocean
35:48and down to the Pacific Coast Highway down the cliffs.
35:54There was not a fence.
35:56And he was awfully close to the edge.
36:00And so I just pulled him back and said, I think you should step back a little bit.
36:06And he just said thank you very much and commented on what a pretty view it was.
36:11And then went back inside.
36:15But I know what he was thinking as he looked out over that vast ocean to what was going to
36:22come next.
36:35When John Mitchell learns about this, he is very eager to get on a flight back to Washington, D.C.
36:40to handle things.
36:42But he can't show that this bothers him at all because he's not even supposed to know about this burglary.
36:50And he didn't say a word about any of this to Martha.
36:57Because the last thing that he wants is to have his very nosy, very gossipy wife, Martha Mitchell, sniffing around.
37:09So he decides to keep Martha back in California.
37:21Martha, unaware of the trouble back in D.C., was looking forward to spending the weekend unwinding by the pool.
37:29And by the next morning, the Mitchells had arrived at their usual vacation spot.
37:37Further south toward Newport Beach, there are six lovely miles of sun-warmed sand for those who care.
37:44And who doesn't?
37:47Newport Beach is one hour south of Los Angeles.
37:54A modern hotel has long since replaced the Newporter Inn, which operated on these grounds in 1972.
38:00Back then, the Newporter Inn was a favorite of the Mitchell family.
38:04And it was a comfortable place for John to leave Martha while he went back east.
38:11John just told her that he needed to go back to Washington, but that everything was fine and she could
38:16stay on the west coast and enjoy the sun and the beach and not worry about anything going on back
38:23in Washington.
38:25John Mitchell quietly got his staff together and flew back to D.C.
38:38They left me in California.
38:45I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know exactly what it was.
38:50For the first day, John Mitchell kind of keeps her busy with pool parties and meeting with people, things like
38:56that.
38:57But then he has to kind of just make sure that she's in lockdown.
39:01Most of the offices have been checked for electronic bugs and none has been found.
39:06This Democratic National Committee break-in is going to be a story.
39:10It's going to be a story in the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
39:14One of the suspects, James McCord, operates his own security company in Washington.
39:19And he knows that if she hears about the Watergate break-in, the gig is up.
39:25Because one of the burglars is a man named James McCord.
39:30This is a police photograph of James W. McCord.
39:34He is one of five persons surprised and arrested yesterday inside the headquarters.
39:38James McCord was somebody who Martha Mitchell knew because he had worked as kind of a bodyguard for John Mitchell.
39:45And he was somebody who had been driving her kids back and forth to school.
39:50So Martha Mitchell knew that he was somebody connected to John Mitchell and the committee to re-elect the president.
39:56And so she would know that he was connected to the administration and that the administration was involved.
40:01Well, thank you very much.
40:02So he's got to keep her away from the television, away from the radio, away from the newspapers.
40:07McCord is a former CIA employee.
40:09It cleans and shines.
40:20So he has some of his people, including a bodyguard named Steve King, keep her huddled away in a room.
40:39But the quarantine did not last long.
40:42Despite King's best efforts, within the first days after the break-in, Martha got her hands on a copy of
40:49the L.A. Times.
40:51She sees James McCord's picture and, predictably, flips out.
41:00I call it the shock treatment.
41:02I didn't know anything that was going on.
41:05Why did they let me go all this time without knowing about the break-in at Watergate?
41:11Why did they leave me out here?
41:13Why did they suggest that I stay in California?
41:19In the article, Martha's husband was quoted saying that McCord wasn't really a member of the committee to re-elect
41:25the president.
41:27Former Attorney General John Mitchell said McCord and the others were neither acting on behalf of the campaign committee nor
41:33with its consent.
41:34All McCord had done for Creep, according to Mitchell's statement, was help install their security system months before the burglary.
41:41Mitchell said he was surprised and dismayed at the reports.
41:44Martha knew that her husband was lying, but she didn't know why.
41:49And so she does what Martha Mitchell does best.
41:52She sneaks away, finds a telephone, and she calls Helen Thomas, who covers the White House for UPI.
42:02He was in California and she sounded unhappy and she sounded, I thought, low and a bit lonely.
42:11John Mitchell and Richard Nixon's worst fears were about to come true.
42:14The mouth of the South herself, Martha Mitchell, knew that something was going on.
42:19And she was going to talk about it.
42:24And I've never talked to her yet, but what I haven't gotten a good news story.
42:28And the Democratic headquarters alleged bugging incident had broken out and that was my immediate question.
42:34Well, what do you think about that?
42:36And this really set her off.
42:43She doesn't say, listen, I've got the dirt on James McCord.
42:47That would have made all of this a lot easier.
42:49Instead, what she says is that her husband needs to get out of the committee to re-elect the president.
42:56That she will leave him if he doesn't leave politics.
42:58And she said, I've given John an ultimatum.
43:01She said, pretty soon, I mean, we're into a conversation.
43:05And at this point, maybe she would have spilled the beans.
43:08But according to Helen Thomas, the thing that happened next is that she hears Martha yelling that somebody is taking
43:15the phone away from her.
43:18And then the line goes dead.
43:37That was the beginning of my being held a prisoner.
43:44I am up calling Helen Thomas and this bodyguard rushes in and jerked out the telephone.
43:55Mitchell then tries to escape.
43:59And in the kind of wrestling back and forth with the bodyguard, Steve King, she somehow puts her hand through
44:05a plate glass door.
44:08There's blood everywhere.
44:09It's an absolute mess.
44:13They also call in a psychiatrist.
44:17She recalls being held down in the bed while someone injects her with some kind of psychotropic drug.
44:34Meanwhile, back in Washington, Helen Thomas had heard enough to know something was up.
44:41And I heard her saying, get away, get away.
44:44And I didn't know what was happening.
44:46And then there was a phone disconnect.
44:47And she was just launching into something.
44:50And it was very clear that somebody didn't want her to talk.
44:54So then I tried very hard to get in touch with John Mitchell and finally got him on the phone.
44:59And he was not too perturbed.
45:02He said, I love that little girl.
45:05And he said, there, there, I've promised her that I am going to leave positive.
45:11So it seemed that everything was going to be all right.
45:16But everything was not going to be all right.
45:19In fact, things were about to get very ugly.
45:25After getting her hand stitched up at a local hospital, Martha flew back east.
45:30But she remained furious at her husband and deeply shaken by her experience.
45:35No, no, no, no.
45:36When I got back to New York, I had both arms and bandages.
45:41Was it the bodyguard, Steve King, who did that to you?
45:44Right.
45:45And how could he dare to do that to the wife of the former attorney general and now head of
45:50Crete?
45:50And why could they keep me in one room for so long, David?
45:54I don't know.
45:55Because I was the greatest challenge they had?
45:58I can answer your question.
46:06Earlier this week in one of her celebrated phone calls,
46:09Martha Mitchell threatened to leave her husband, John, unless he quit politics.
46:13She also claimed she had been manhandled by security agents working for President Nixon's re-election committee.
46:22Martha started to blow the whistle on Watergate.
46:29And the Republicans began to portray her as crazy, so that we wouldn't believe her.
46:36The Nixon administration was putting out the line, a line that was put forward by John Mitchell, her husband as
46:41well,
46:41saying, poor Martha.
46:44She's just gone a little crazy.
46:46Poor Martha.
46:47She had to go to a mental institution.
46:49Poor Martha.
46:49She's an alcoholic.
46:50She needs to go dry out.
46:53These White House rumors are persistent.
46:56Martha Mitchell's crazy.
46:57Martha Mitchell's an alcoholic.
46:59Martha Mitchell's this.
47:00Martha Mitchell's that.
47:02And putting out those stories, especially at a time when women weren't taken that seriously,
47:09it was a pretty easy way to discredit her by saying that she was hysterical.
47:14And that's exactly what the Nixon administration did.
47:19Some people feel that perhaps Martha is imbibing a bit, or maybe she's a little bit high when she makes
47:25some of these calls.
47:26What do you think?
47:26You brought up the rumor that is going around that Martha Mitchell drinks a lot.
47:30Yes.
47:31Do you do that?
47:32I drink as much as anybody else does.
47:35You said, Barbara, a lot of people say that I drink, that I'm an alcoholic.
47:39This is the normal thing that the White House has put out about people they want to discard and get
47:46rid of.
47:46You think the White House tried to have you?
47:48I can document it, and I have.
47:50Do you drink, Martha?
47:51Do you drink when you make those phone calls?
47:53I am what?
47:54When I make phone calls?
47:55Phone calls.
47:58To be fair, Martha did like to drink.
48:02Johnny Walker Black on the Rocks, to be precise.
48:05And she took pills.
48:07She lived an indulgent lifestyle that, to an outsider, could very well appear to be, well, crazy.
48:13And if you think about it, her story sounds insane.
48:18Martha, are you still in control of yourself, of your mind?
48:22Well, I feel I am.
48:23Like, nobody held you hostage and threw you through a plate glass door, and then held you down and injected
48:28you with drugs.
48:29Is it possible that you are a paranoid person?
48:32I mean, this sounds crazy.
48:34Let me ask you the obvious question.
48:37What is obvious?
48:39Are you crazy?
48:40Yeah.
48:45So, maybe she was crazy.
48:48The question is, does that mean she was wrong?
48:52Even I fell under the sway of this campaign to make her seem like she was nuts.
49:00The smear campaign worked.
49:02Over the next few months, the story of the break-in would drift away.
49:06But the unflattering portrayals of Martha would linger.
49:10As she had requested, John resigned from creep.
49:13Former attorney general said he was quitting in order to be able to devote more time to his wife and
49:18family.
49:19In the eastern, midwestern, and southern states indicate that if this trend could be...
49:25And in November, Nixon would win re-election, handily.
49:28President Nixon will be re-elected in a landslide.
49:33And it may, may surpass the record popular vote...
49:38Despite his resignation, the scrutiny of John Mitchell and his role in the Watergate affair remained.
49:45And over the course of the following year, things would get worse for the Mitchells.
49:49When did you first hear a bugging plan?
49:51When did you learn about bugging?
49:52On June 17th.
49:54Were discussions of bugging ever held in your presence with G. Gordon Liddy or Jeb Stuart Magruder?
50:02No such operations were ever approved by me at any time under any circumstances.
50:08Mr. Mitchell.
50:09Mr. Mitchell has become the follow-up guy.
50:13Don't you agree with me?
50:16By the spring of 1973, Martha began to fully defend her husband against the gathering storm of Watergate.
50:24And you can place all the blame right on the White House.
50:28And if you've got any sense at all, you'll go out and find out where it is.
50:33What do you mean on the White House?
50:36What do I mean on the White House?
50:39The blame on the White House.
50:40Well, where do you think all this originated?
50:43Do you think my husband's that stupid?
50:46And whom do you think he's been protecting?
50:49Whom?
50:50I have no idea who.
50:51The President and I have never discussed the Watergate aspects and those details, except insofar as they affected the campaign.
50:59Why not?
51:00Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen.
51:03Why not, Mr. Mitchell?
51:05The news was tightening around John Mitchell.
51:09So you boys go out and get some information.
51:12That's what I'm asking you.
51:14Go out and get some information.
51:17And Martha Mitchell was kind of the canary in the coal mine.
51:21And she kept telling us, this is going to unravel.
51:24Something awful is happening.
51:26You know, isn't it horrible?
51:28Isn't it unbelievable that John and I, we go to Washington and try to do something good for our country,
51:35and what do we end up?
51:37Isn't it horrible?
51:40I'll tell them.
51:41I'll tell them.
51:42I'll tell them all.
51:43And you know what they're going to do?
51:44They'll probably end up killing me.
51:46But I depend on you, the press, to protect me.
51:51Your wife has said, or at least been quoted as saying, she felt her life was even in jeopardy.
51:57Well, I don't know who quoted her as saying it, but she looks pretty good to me, and I think
52:01she's in pretty good shape.
52:03Did she in fact say that?
52:19The man is not John Mitchell.
52:25He's another person.
52:28Just a few months ago, he was still telling me I was the most wonderful woman on the earth.
52:33You just don't change overnight like that, unless something happens.
52:40After her experience in California, Martha had made one request of her husband.
52:45It came down to a question of loyalty.
52:48He had to choose between her and his old friend, Richard Nixon.
52:53Ultimately, John chose the latter.
52:57The strain of the past few weeks has been obvious.
53:00He's a very angry man.
53:02Come on, fellas, we gotta get that plane.
53:14As far as John Mitchell's concerned, he's dead.
53:18Absolutely dead.
53:19He doesn't exist.
53:22Well, you're separated now and planning to get divorced, are you, at some point?
53:27Will you ever marry again, do you think?
53:29No. No. No.
53:32Why not?
53:33Why not?
53:34Well, I've lost my trust in human nature.
53:37But lost your trust in human nature because you've seen too much what?
53:42Because I have loved a man to the hilt, and then all of a sudden everything turns out to be
53:49lies.
53:51How can you take it?
53:52How can you trust anybody?
53:55How can you believe in anybody?
53:57How can you believe in anybody?
53:58It's impossible.
54:08Here are more details in the news, and here is Lew Wood. Good morning.
54:11Good morning, Barbara. Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
54:14As you have learned, Martha Mitchell, who was known for her outspoken comments at the time of Watergate, died this
54:19morning in a New York hospital.
54:21She had been under treatment for some months for bone cancer.
54:23Martha died in 1976, estranged from her husband and ravaged by bone cancer.
54:43Martha passed away in the big New York hospital all by herself and alone.
54:50If she had been around here, I'm certain, without a doubt, she wouldn't have been alone.
54:56So, I guess that's the price you pay when you leave home, isn't it?
55:02If she was around now, I'd no tell her what would be going on.
55:09After her funeral, Pine Bluff erected a bust in her honor.
55:13On the bust's granite pedestal, there is an inscription.
55:17You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
55:23She kept telling us, this is big. The whole structure of our system is going to unravel.
55:33She was a major figure. Doesn't get enough credit for her bravery.
55:43Psychologists talk about a phenomenon in which someone gets diagnosed as delusional, because they're saying things that seem totally crazy
55:49and implausible.
55:50But then it turns out that they're not crazy at all.
55:53And what they're saying is true.
55:55They call that phenomenon, the Martha Mitchell effect.
56:12In the aftermath of the break-in, Martha was not the only one raising hell over crazy, implausible things.
56:19And as we will come to see, there were plenty of those to go around.
56:26Wads of foreign currency in the hands of CIA operatives.
56:29President Nixon has cooled down an iron curtain of secrecy.
56:32Death threats wielded in Capitol Hill elevators.
56:35He's proved himself to be a gutless coward.
56:39Recording devices hidden in the Oval Office.
56:41If cancer be removed immediately.
56:43Anybody who would be in politics right now would do the same thing as Nixon is doing.
56:47Repeat Nixon now! Repeat Nixon now! Repeat Nixon now!
56:51It would all unfold on television.
56:53In the living rooms of millions of Americans who, like Richard Nixon, had no idea how any of it would
57:00turn out.
57:01The story keeps getting stranger.
57:04And we're just getting started.
57:05I actually realized what had happened.
57:10And that was the beginning.
57:39And we were all örnees putting you back in theшиб石.
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