WATERGATE PLUMBERS

There were 5 burglars arrested on June 17, 1972 at the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee:

1. Bernard L. Barker - a realtor from Miami, Florida. Former Central Intelligence Agency operative. Barker was said to have been involved in the Bay of Pigs incident in 1962.
2. Virgilio R. Gonzales - a locksmith from Miami, Florida. Gonzalez was a refugee from Cuba, following Castro's takeover.
3. James W. McCord - a security co-ordinator for the Republican National Committee and the Committee for the Re-election of the President. McCord was also a former FBI and CIA agent. He was dismissed from his RNC and CREEP positions the day after the break-in.
4. Eugenio R. Martinez - worked for Barker's Miami real estate firm. He had CIA connections and was an anti-Castro Cuban exile. Click here to read Martinez's account of the burglary.
5. Frank A. Sturgis - another associate of Barker from Miami, he also had CIA connections and involvement in anti-Castro activities.

The five men were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. The burglars were indicted by a Grand Jury on September 15, as were:

• G. Gordon Liddy - from Washington, counsel to the Finance Committee to Re-elect the President, a former FBI agent, former Treasury official, and former member of the White House staff. During the investigation, Liddy refused to answer questions and was fired from his job.
• E Howard Hunt Jr. - from Washington, a former White House consultant and CIA employee. Hunt was a writer of espionage novels and had worked on declassifying the Pentagon Papers.