WASHINGTON (AFP) – The man known as Deep Throat, the secret informant in the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of president Richard Nixon in 1974, has died, his family said Friday. He was 95.
Mark Felt , the "most famous anonymous source in American history," died in his sleep Thursday at a California hospice, reported Bob Woodward, one of the two Post journalists who exposed the Watergate affair.
Felt was associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when he began helping the reporters. After revealing his identity in 2005, he said he never considered himself a hero, but was just "trying to help."
His daughter Joan Felt said he had a big breakfast Thursday before saying he was tired, and went to sleep, the Post said. "He slipped away," she added.
Felt was already in poor health when he revealed three years ago he was the shadowy informant of late-night meetings in dark garages.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," Felt told Vanity Fair in an article published in June 2005 which finally revealed his identity.
Felt's family had no idea about his secret until 2002, when Felt's close friend and frequent social companion, Yvette La Garde, told his daughter Joan that Felt had confided to being Woodward's source in unveiling the scandal.
The Vanity Fair article said Joan confronted her father, who initially denied it, but after she explained La Garde's disclosure, he responded: "Since that's the case, well, yes I am."
Deep Throat became the iconic representation of a whistleblower after being the protagonist of the book and movie "All the President's Men." He was memorably portrayed in the movie as urging the two young reporters to "follow the money."
He kept his role secret for 33 years, not even telling his family. Indeed in memoirs and several media interviews, Felt had repeatedly denied he was Deep Throat.
But it was his crucial input that led Woodward and Carl Bernstein to a series of investigative scoops about the Nixon administration's involvement in the June 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in the US capital.
The burglars, who were seeking to plant listening devices to spy on the Democrats during an election campaign, were tried and found guilty.
The scandal -- including the White House's attempts at cover-up -- ultimately led to Nixon becoming the first US president to resign in disgrace in August 1974.
In a 2006 interview with CNN's Larry King, Felt was asked if he liked being called Deep Throat -- the name Woodward and Bernstein gave him in their book on the scandal.
Felt replied that he was "proud of everything Deep Throat did -- yes, I like being related to him."
Felt's daughter told King: "He's always said that Deep Throat is a personality that was created by Bob Woodward, a name that was created. He likes to say that he's the person that they called Deep Throat."
After confessing to his role in an article for Vanity Fair magazine, Felt was simultaneously hailed as a hero and denounced as a villain.
Felt's grandson, Nick Jones, described his grandfather as "a great American hero," adding Felt was pleased at finally being "honored for his role as 'Deep Throat.'"
But former Nixon aides were harsh in their criticism.
G. Gordon Liddy, a Nixon operative who served four and a half years in prison for engineering the Watergate break-in, said Felt "violated the ethics of the law enforcement profession."
Former Nixon speechwriter and now TV news pundit Pat Buchanan bluntly labelled him a "traitor."
Felt's name was no stranger to the perennial Washington dinner party game of identifying Woodward's source.
The list of likely suspects had included former Nixon White House aide Diane Sawyer, who is now a television presenter, Nixon's chief of staff Alexander Haig and FBI director at the time Patrick Gray.
Some even argued that Deep Throat was in fact several people, merely a literary invention.
When asked in an interview how he would like to be remembered, Felt however downplayed his image.
"I want to be remembered as a government employee who did his best to help everybody. I would like a reputation of trying to help people," he said.
