[e. howard hunt] when things needed to be done

E. Howard Hunt has now died of complications from pneumonia, aged 88. Here is an abridged excerpt from Chapter 1 of All the Presidents Men, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, when the story broke open:

Woodward, who had been assigned to write Tuesday's Watergate story, picked up the telephone and dialed 456-1414 -- the White House. He asked for Howard Hunt. The switchboard operator rang an extension. There was no answer. Woodward was about to hang up when the operator came back on the line. "There is one other place he might be," she said. "In Mr. Colson's office."

"Mr. Hunt is not here now," Colson's secretary told Woodward, and gave him the number of a Washington public-relations firm, Robert R. Mullen and Company, where she said Hunt worked as a writer. Woodward walked across to the national desk at the east end of the newsroom and asked one of the assistant national editors, J. D. Alexander, who Colson was … "T he White House "hatchet man," he said.

Woodward called the White House back and asked a clerk in the personnel office if Howard Hunt was on the payroll. She said she would check the records. A few moments later, she told Woodward that Howard Hunt was a consultant working for Colson. Woodward called the Mullen public-relations firm and asked for Howard Hunt.

"Howard Hunt here," the voice said. Woodward identified himself.

"Yes? What is it?" Hunt sounded impatient.

Woodward asked Hunt why his name and phone number were in the address books of two of the men arrested at the Watergate.

The most fanciful claim was that he was one of the three - Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum – who stood on the overpass, observing the execution of JFK. More provable was that he was photographed near a fence at the back of the Texas Book Depository, in a secure area, some hours before Kennedy’s motorcade came by.

Shadowy figure he was and the regular biographical details alone make his story one of interest.