The Times Magazine 19monarchs”. She appeared on talk shows, gave
interviews and was a sought-after speaker at
Republican events.
With her beehive hairdo and southern
drawl, she was dubbed “the Mouth of the
South”. The New York Times called her “the
most talked about, talkative woman” in
Washington. Time magazine wrote, “Martha’s
trademark is her mouth... Agape with laughter
and framed in dimples, it dominates the
Washington social scene – cocktail parties,
state dinners, White House functions, ladies’
luncheons – and shoots off for appreciative
newsmen, telling it as Martha thinks it is.”
She certainly enlivened Nixon’s starchy,
buttoned-down, male-dominated Washington,
but she dealt not just in social gossip. Much of
it was political and she kept herself informed
by eavesdropping on her husband’s telephone
calls or rifling through his papers.
Neither he nor Nixon seemed concerned.
The attorney-general smiled at his wife’s
indiscretions, fondly describing her as his
“unguided missile”. He protested, “What else
can I do but let her speak? She has no
inclination to be quiet. She’s not politically
motivated; she’s just saying what she feels.”
The president called her “spunky” and – as
long as she targeted liberals – told her to “give
’em hell”. J Edgar Hoover, the FBI director,
said, “She is one of the most loveable girls I’ve
ever met. She says what she thinks and lets the
chips fall where they may.”
Then, in March 1972, Mitchell resigned as
attorney-general to head the Committee to
Re-Elect the President – later known by the
derisive acronym Creep – ahead of that
November’s election.
He was by then Nixon’s most trusted friend
and adviser, nicknamed “the heavyweight”. As
attorney-general, he had taken a tough line on
law and order, but he now controlled a secret
slush fund to finance various forms of political
skullduggery, including bugging and bribery.
He also approved the Watergate break-in by
five dubious characters, dubbed “the plumbers”,
allocating $250,000 for the operation.When the “plumbers” were arrested in the
small hours of Saturday, June 17, the Mitchells
were in California for a weekend of fundraising
events with people such as first lady Pat Nixon,the state governor Ronald Reagan and his
wife, and the actors Zsa Zsa Gabor, Clint
Eastwood and John Wayne.
Mitchell swiftly denied any White House
involvement in the break-in. One of those
arrested, James McCord, had been publicly
identified as a member of Creep, but Mitchell
claimed he was merely a private consultant
whom the committee had employed months
earlier to install a security system.
Mitchell’s problem was that his famously
indiscreet wife would know that was a lie.
Martha knew McCord was Creep’s security
chief. He therefore sought to prevent her from
learning of his arrest.
He persuaded her to remain in their hotel
and enjoy the sunshine while he returned
to Washington. He told a former FBI agent
named Steve King to stop her seeing any
newspaper or television coverage of the
burglary. “They had me at a brunch. They had
me at a cocktail party. They had me at a
reception and a dinner all day Sunday. They
kept me going all that day,” she recalled. But
on the Monday morning she spotted McCord’s
picture on the front of the Los Angeles Times
and her suspicions were aroused.
From then on she became, she said, a
“political prisoner”. She tried in vain to speak
to her husband on the telephone. That‘If you could see me,
you wouldn’t believe it.
I’m black and blue. They
don’t want me to talk’
The Mitchells at home with their
daughter, Marty, circa 1970. Left: Martha
Mitchell after testifying in the Watergate
case, 1973. Below: John Mitchell in front
of the Watergate committee, 1973