L Patrick Gray, FBI chief under Nixon

MIAMI – L Patrick Gray, whose year-long stint as acting FBI director was marked by the Watergate break-in and the ensuing scandal that led to President Nixon’s resignation, has died.

He was 88. Just last month, Gray ended 32 years of silence about his role in the Watergate scandal, telling ABC television “that he had reacted with ‘total shock, total disbelief’” to the revelation that his former deputy, W Mark Felt, was the secret Watergate source known as Deep Throat.”He fooled me,” said Gray.”It was like I was hit with a tremendous sledgehammer.”Nixon appointed Gray, a former Justice Department official and submarine commander, acting FBI director in May 1972 – just weeks before the Watergate break-in – after the death of J Edgar Hoover.Gray was forced to step down in April 1973.Critics alleged he tried to thwart the Watergate investigation – a charge he denied – even as Felt was secretly feeding information to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.When Felt was unmasked as Woodward’s source more than 30 years later, Gray said he believed the trusted deputy had been unhappy at being passed over for the top job and had talked to the Post in order to sabotage him.”I think there was a sense of revenge in his heart, and a sense of dumping my candidacy, if you will,” he told ABC.Gray was never indicted for any Watergate-related misdeeds, but descriptions of him as a Nixon loyalist who helped thwart the investigation and as someone the White House thought could be pushed around dogged him in the years following the scandal.He vigorously disputed the depiction.Born in St Louis in 1916, Gray entered the US Naval Academy in 1936.He graduated from the academy and served aboard submarines in World War II and the Korean War during a 20-year career in the Navy.In 1949 he earned a law degree from George Washington University and in 1960 retired from the Navy to work for then-Vice President Nixon’s in his failed bid for president that year.After Nixon was elected president in 1968, Gray served as an assistant to the secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and on the president’s Cabinet committee on desegregation.In 1970, he was appointed assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division.After he left the FBI, Gray had private law practice in Connecticut.- Nampa-APJust last month, Gray ended 32 years of silence about his role in the Watergate scandal, telling ABC television “that he had reacted with ‘total shock, total disbelief’” to the revelation that his former deputy, W Mark Felt, was the secret Watergate source known as Deep Throat.”He fooled me,” said Gray.”It was like I was hit with a tremendous sledgehammer.”Nixon appointed Gray, a former Justice Department official and submarine commander, acting FBI director in May 1972 – just weeks before the Watergate break-in – after the death of J Edgar Hoover.Gray was forced to step down in April 1973.Critics alleged he tried to thwart the Watergate investigation – a charge he denied – even as Felt was secretly feeding information to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.When Felt was unmasked as Woodward’s source more than 30 years later, Gray said he believed the trusted deputy had been unhappy at being passed over for the top job and had talked to the Post in order to sabotage him.”I think there was a sense of revenge in his heart, and a sense of dumping my candidacy, if you will,” he told ABC.Gray was never indicted for any Watergate-related misdeeds, but descriptions of him as a Nixon loyalist who helped thwart the investigation and as someone the White House thought could be pushed around dogged him in the years following the scandal.He vigorously disputed the depiction.Born in St Louis in 1916, Gray entered the US Naval Academy in 1936.He graduated from the academy and served aboard submarines in World War II and the Korean War during a 20-year career in the Navy.In 1949 he earned a law degree from George Washington University and in 1960 retired from the Navy to work for then-Vice President Nixon’s in his failed bid for president that year.After Nixon was elected president in 1968, Gray served as an assistant to the secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and on the president’s Cabinet committee on desegregation.In 1970, he was appointed assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division.After he left the FBI, Gray had private law practice in Connecticut.- Nampa-AP

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