Martha Mitchell

Martha Mitchell (2 September 1918 - 31 May 1976), wife of United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, sounded the first public warnings about the scandal history now calls Watergate. For this she was the target of the first known modern instance of political gaslighting. History mis-remembers her for her tendency to talk out of turn and exaggerate her own sense of self-importance. In fact, her life and end serve as a warning to anyone who tries to "take down" "powerful people" without sufficent backup and allies.

Early life

Martha Elizabeth Beall was born on 2 September 1918 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She was the only child of George Beall, a cotton broker. When her family lost much of its money in the Great Depression, she switched from private school to public school.

She first married Clyde Jennings, Jr., an officer in the United States Army, in 1946, after the Second World War. They divorced in 1957. In that same year she met the up-and-coming lawyer John N. Mitchell, and married him in December of 1957.

Role in the Watergate affair

John N. Mitchell became friends with the future President Richard M. Nixon when their respective law firms merged, to form the firm of Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander and Mitchell. In 1969, the newly elected President Nixon named Mitchell his Attorney General.

In 1972, Mitchell left the Nixon administration and ultimately became director of the Finance Committee for the Re-election of the President, known to history as simply "Committee to Re-Elect the President," or CREEP for short. At about this time, Martha Mitchell gained a reputation for listening in on her husband's telephone calls and meetings, and then gossiping about these to her media friends. And one of the things she liked to "gossip" about, were the "dirty tricks" by CREEP officers to ensure Nixon's re-election. These included the initial bugging of the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate apartments.

In the middle of June 1972, the Mitchells traveled to Newport Beach, California, to attend some fund-raisers, presumably for CREEP. While there, John Mitchell received warning about his wife's tendency to "gossip." So he hired former FBI Agent Steve King to isolate Martha and ensure that she would not be talking anymore.

One week later (17 June 1972) came the Watergate Break-in.

Five days later (22 June 1972), former Agent King literally held Martha Mitchell captive in Newport News for four days.

Though of course John Mitchell was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury, no one ever charged him with subornation of kidnapping.

Martha Mitchell suffered public shame, got the blame when John Mitchell separated from her in 1973, and apparently never saw her daughter again. On 31 May 1976, Martha Mitchell, then in hospital at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, lapsed into coma. She subsequently died.