In Nixon's Web

A Year in the Crosshairs of Watergate

L. Patrick Gray, Ed Gray

• Publisher: Times Books
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780805082562
• eBook ISBN: 9781429977265
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: History

The last untold story of the Watergate scandal—by the FBI director who maintained his silence for more than thirty years—"a fast-paced, sometimes chilling insider's account" ( Library Journal) .

"Challenges some assumptions and offers new theories about Watergate." — The New York Times

L. Patrick Gray III was the man caught in the middle of the Watergate scandal. He was a lifelong Republican, but Richard Nixon considered him a threat. Closing in on the conspiracy, Gray became the target of one of Watergate's most shocking acts—Nixon's "smoking gun" attempt to have the CIA stop the FBI investigation. And when the U.S. Senate focused its attention on Gray in April 1973, the White House threw him to the wolves; John Ehrlichman famously advised that he be left to "twist slowly, slowly in the wind."

This book is Gray's firsthand account of what really happened during his crucial year as acting director of the FBI, based on a never-before-published first-person account and previously secret documents. He reveals the witches' brew of intrigue and perfidy that permeated Washington, and he tells the unknown story of his complex relationship with his top deputy, Mark Felt, raising disturbing questions about the methods and motives of the man purported to be Deep Throat.

Gray's book was completed and expanded by his son, the journalist Ed Gray, who has supplemented the text with revelatory excerpts from documents, tape transcripts, and third-party accounts. Every other major figure has told his story, and now Patrick Gray's unique inside account will change the way we think about the crisis that destroyed the Nixon presidency.

"Offers new insights into a piece of history . . . while exposing the liars and cynics." — Chicago Sun-Times

"Gray's meticulous attention to facts and details . . . makes In Nixon's Web an indispensable contribution to the literature of Watergate." — The American Spectator

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Cast of Characters
• Foreword by Ed Gray
• Prologue
• one: “I don’t want to add to your troubles.”
• two: “Everyone knows the director of the FBI.”
• three: “You’ve got to remember, they’re all enemies.”
• four: “So few moist eyes.”
• five: “You heard it. I have no reason to lie.”
• six: “Thirteen avenues of inquiry.”
• seven: “My men just can’t figure this one out.”
• eight: “Not even the president of the United States.”
• nine: “These should never see the light of day.”
• ten: “Mr. President, I have something that I want to speak to you about.”
• eleven: “Intensive investigation continuing.”
• twelve: “That’s a crock and you know it.”
• thirteen: “Contact with an anonymous source.”
• fourteen: “Now why the hell would he do that?”
• fifteen: “There is no hurry for the president to see you.”
• sixteen: “Who stands to gain by such tactics?”
• seventeen: “I think it’s going to be a bloody confirmation.”
• eighteen: “He’s, he’s out of his goddamned mind.”
• nineteen: “The presumption is one of regularity.”
• twenty: “You are getting to me.”
• twenty-one: “Does the FBI have automatic weapons effective up to fifteen hundred yards?”
• twenty-two: “Let him twist slowly, slowly in the wind.”
• twenty-three: “We are going to have to break with Gray, who is killing us.”
• twenty-four: “Is there anything else you ought to tell me?”
• twenty-five: “Take it easy, Gray. We’ll get our day.”
• twenty-six: “The small white flag currently flying at 1425 K Street.”
• twenty-seven: “And this is how your government thanks you.”
• twenty-eight: “And got on with my life.”
• BY ED GRAY
• thirty: The Watergate Books: Fact and Fiction
• A Note on Sources
• Acknowledgments
• Illustration Credits
• Index