Thread by @MightyCasey

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust oh, happy to share!
A Watergate "I vas dere, Cholly!" 🧵
First, there was actual break-in. No family involvement there, thank gawd.
Then there was slow-rolling reveal on all of the things via WaPo reportage, which I saw in wire stuff in SFChron, where I lived.
/1

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust This was back in day of three TV channels.
In my Haight apt I had old Admiral b&w massive piece of furniture w/tiny TV screen that was 1st fam TV before I was even born.
What I watched Watergate hearings on.
Mostly nightly news packages, then
THERE'S A SURPRISE WITNESS!
/2

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust I took day off from office gig I had then while uni night school student.
6am-ish PT, hearings gaveled to order ...
BANG
BANG
"The Committee Chair calls ..."
/3

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust "ALEXANDER PORTER BUTTERFIELD"
Almost stabbed myself w/knitting needles I was making afghan with while watching.
Alex Butterfield was known in my family as ...
Uncle Alex.
Not blood, but his wife Charlotte & my mom Bourbon Betty had been friends since girls
/4

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust Charlotte's mom Florence & my nana, Marie-the-Admiral's-wife, were buddies since young Navy wives. Two-gen family friends are blood in military families, ergo Aunt Shaw and Uncle Alex.
Here comes Uncle Alex to the witness chair.
He answers opening questions abt who TF he is
/5

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust Who TF he is/was = Air Force Col, jet jock/aerobat team guy/gunnery instructor, then after AF career he took gig at WH as deputy asst to Haldeman. In that gig, he supervised installation of ... THE TAPING SYSTEM.
So after who TF are you part, during questioning, he said ...
/6

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust "the whole place is wired, and it's all on tape."
Cue the screaming, running around, rending of garments, gnashing of teeth, more screaming.
See, by then ('73) Alex had had it w/WH bullshit, wanted to resign, but Haldeman/Nixon were freaking out that
/7

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust Alex would rat 'em out re tapes, so they asked him if he wanted to be FAA Admin. Alex said, "sure," and took the gig. Got subpoenaed by Watergate Committee. Did NOT weasel like Ollie fucking North (traitor, North, IMO), he showed up and told truth when asked.
/8

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust That truth re tapes was told 7/16/1973.
2 months later I moved from SF to NYC.
Was staying w/my college roomie at her family's place on Long Island.
Got a call from Aunt Junie, another Navy-wife-so-family married to my dad's bestie since plebe year at the Academy ...
/9

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust Junie said "come meet me in the city for lunch."
I did. We went to a deli restaurant at 86th & Madison (now a Ralph Lauren, IIRC), where as we finished lunch she said, "come with me, I want to you meet Martha.'
/10

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust "Martha" = Martha Mitchell, the "mouth of the south" before Ted Turner took that tag. Wife of AG John Mitchell, famous for calling UPI's Helen Thomas to spill on pretty much anything. John Mitchell had just left her, so lotsa headlines there along w/Watergate shit show.
/11

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust Martha was many things. That day, she was animated & hospitable, w/ friend Winnie McLendon visiting her 15rm coop at 85th & Fifth, 1030 Fifth Ave.
Martha asked me (I was 21yo) "do you trust Alex Butterfield?"
I said "yes" wondering why she'd take my word for ... anything?
/12

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust She peppered me w/questions about him for a few minutes.
Oh, did I mention that Aunt Junie was Martha's secy at CREEP (Committee to ReElect the President)? That's the connection there. Junie also knew Alex and Shaw - military aviation is not a huge community - but Martha ...
/13

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust Wanted my input for some reason.
She (Martha) then invited me to stay w/her while I was apartment hunting, so I took her up on that offer.
Phones were bugged, which I knew from clicking on line. I think the apt was bugged, too.
/14

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust I stayed w/her from early Oct thru mid Dec of '73. John had abandoned their coop, moved to the Essex House on CPS. Their daughter Marty was in boarding school somewhere. Calls btwn her and Martha were contentious, which made Martha drink even more.
/15

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust I was asked to help her hire a maid (?!), so I did. Lovely woman, lived in the apt Monday thru Saturday, in her own suite of rooms that were part of the coop. Martha continued to rail about Nixon's duplicity and untrustworthiness. Frankly ...
/16

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust As much as I hated/loathed/despised Tricky Dick and all his minions, this got kinda exhausting. Was glad to head back to CA with my fam, who arrived back in US from a year in Ireland. My dad had gotten a master's in political economy from University College Dublin ...
/17

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust During that time, while entertaining/putting up a friend returning from a European jaunt, that friend offered my retired-from-the-US-Navy-jet-jock dad a job in aviation.
At the FAA.
That friend?
Watergate surprise witness Alexander Porter Butterfield.
/18

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust So mom, dad, my bro'n'sis, and I met up at JFK, then flew together out to San Diego and Xmas w/my grandparents/aunts/uncs/cousins.
I told my 'rents "you will not BELIEVE the stories I've got" over the following weeks.
/19

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust I returned to NYC just after New Year 1974, moved into the UES 5th flr walkup I'd rented as of Jan 1, when Martha took me in her chauffeured limo to sign the lease on. The rental agent was literally struck speechless. I regretted not taking Martha on viewings!
/20

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust When Nixon resigned on Aug 8, 1974, it was hours after Aunt Junie had visited in NYC with Martha, coming for lunch to the restaurant where I was waiting tables at the time. I served her lunch, we talked a bit about what was coming that night.
/21

@janoldenburg @RealCedricDark @jeremyfaust So that's the story on how Watergate impacted me more directly/weirdly than anyone else in my personal network. Everyone I knew, of my age group at least, hated Nixon. My 'rents included, partic my mom.
/22 and fin