50 Years Later, Watergate Burglar Frank Sturgis Is the Scandal’s Most Shadowy Figure (Guest Blog)

Journalist Steve North recalls his encounters with the felon who had ties to Castro’s Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs and maybe even JFK’s assassination

watergate frank sturgis
Watergate Hotel; (inset) Frank Sturgis (Getty Images)

Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox reportedly once said the case was like a jigsaw puzzle, and Frank Sturgis was a piece of the puzzle that didn’t quite fit.

Sturgis is best known as one of the five men arrested 50 years ago, on June 17, 1972, while breaking into, bugging and burglarizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington’s Watergate office and hotel complex. But Watergate was, in my view, one of the least egregious misdeeds in the mysterious and intriguing career of this shadowy figure.

Sturgis served 14 months in a Florida federal prison after being convicted of the crime.

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