<SANITIZED> CONTACTS WITH E. HOWARD HUNT (W/ATTACHMENTS)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 01482420
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2017
• Case Number: F-2007-00094
• Publication Date: May 25, 1973

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MEMORANDUM FOR:.
2 wty 1Q1') 3 nirs,
Associate Deputy Director for Operations
SUBJECT:
Contacts
(b)(3)
with E. Howard Hunt
1. Attached are two copies of a Memorandum for the
Record prepared by
(b)(3)
Operations, detailing long personal association with
(b)(3)
E. Howard Hunt. informed me that
was
unaware of the requirement to provide such a memorandum until
early in the morning of 25 May, having been working most of
the week at an outside office,
not in Headquarters building.
2. I shall also contact________________
and ask him
(b)(3)
to prepare a similar memorandum,
as it is apparent
from
paragraph 4 of has
(b)(3)
also had a long history of association
with Mr. Hunt.
(b)(3)
Attachments: As Stated
DDO/DCEA:
O&I - ADDC
1 - DDO
1- CEA
1 - DCEA
I. - DCEA/CH
Theodore G. Shackley
Chief, East Asia Division
mjg 25May73
(Oki 'DENTli'\L
) EYE...) ONLY .
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
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25 May 1973
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: E. Howard Hunt
1. I have been asked by DCEA/China
to make a statements for the record on my association with E. Ho-
ward Hunt who has been convicted for his part in the Watergate
case.
2. Mr. Hunt and I served together during World War II
in the Office of Strategic Services. After the war I saw
Mr. Hunt socially with my late husband, who (b)(3)
was his commanding officer. Our meetings were infrequent and
were in New York at places like 21 and other social clubs.
(b)(3)
3. My nisi ARefiLy Lontaet wiih Mr. Huni. was in 1962 whun
I returned PCS Tracy Barnes was setting up the (b)(3)
Domestic Operations Division and Mr. Hunt was assigned Chief
of the C.A. section. He asked that I become his assistant. I
worked with him until I joined at Headquarters, (b)(3)
three years later. During this time I saw Mr. and Mrs. Hunt
and children frequently on social occasions. Mr. Hunt came
down to our farm to train his German short haired pointer and
has mentioned it in his books. I was very fond of Dorothy Hunt,
who was killed in the Chicago airplane crash.
4. I lost contact with the Hunts when they went to Spain
but resumed our friendship when he came back and was Chief,
EUR/CA. When he retired from the Agency I frequently had lunch
with him and two other Agency friends at Blues Alley)Georgetown,
and other places. who also once worked with (b)(3)
Mr. Hunt in D.O. and usually (b)(3)
accompanied me.
5. Mr. Hunt led me to understand that his work for the
White House was mainly in the public relations field. He was
quite covert in discussing his duties and did not at any time
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mention any of the activities which have subsequently come to
light during the trial. During this time, I asked him to do a
favor for me in line with his PR duties at the White House. I
had been working with our legal staff and Mr. Drury Blair of
the Senate Legal Staff in preparation of a private bill (S629)
for the rJlief of for whom we (b)(3)
had obtained U.S. citizenship. The bill was signed by Presi-
dent Nixon, and I asked' Mr. Hunt if he could get the ball point
pen the President used go I could give it to He did (b)(3)
this favor for me.
6. When news of Mr. Hunt's part in the Watergate case
broke in the newspapers, I was on vacation but I wrote him and
Dorothy from Rome reaffirming our friendship and belief in him.
I received a letter from Mr. Hunt saying not to worry, that he
had an excellent lawyer and that everything would be all right.
7. My next contact was at Mrs. Hunt's funeral. I had
never seen a man so desolate and in state of shock. He was
physicalll.sustained by his children during the services. After
the burial he came over to me with tears streaming down his
cheeks and said that nothing mattered any more, that he felt
personally responsible for Dorothy's death and .didn't know how
he would carry on if it weren't for the children, especially
for David, who was only ten years old.
8. He took the children to Florida over Christmas. His
wife had purchased the tickets for this trip and he thought it
would ease tensions all round to have a change of scene. I
understand he obtained special permission from the court to go.
9. As the trial developed and it became apparent that
Mr. Hunt would probably go to jail, I became concerned for the
children, especially for David. I telephoned Mr. Hunt sometime
after Christzos and went to see him with Mrs. Goodrich. At
that time he said he had obtained the services of a housekeeper
who had been with the family in Latin America and who knew the
children from their babyhood. Mr. Hunt seemed depressed but
not despondent at this time. He was making plans to have his
affairs taken over by William Buckley; he was seeing to neces-
sary repairs around the house and discussed having David see a
psychiatrist. (The children at David's school had been cruel
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about his father and the boy was beginning to show withdrawal
signs.) Mr. Hunt wanted the children to remain at home, which
would be a haven for them, with all their animals around, and
reminders of their mother and father in the books, pictures,
music.
10 T saw Mr Runt again on 14 February. He invited me
and to a Valentine Day luncheon. I felt
at :his meeting that he.was in much better control of himself.
He has a caustic tongue and was belittling part of the televi-
sion program on which he had appeared with Mr. Buckley and a
Cuban. He thought the Cuban had strayed too far from the main
thrust of the program. He also said, when I asked him about
his writing a book about the Bay of Pigs and Agency clearances,
that he felt the Agency had "blown his cover". Therefore, he
felt no sense of responsibility. I later discovered that
Mr. Hunt had asked the Agency to be allowed to reveal his as-
sociation and had been granted this request. from on on the Director's staff, when we were
discussing Mr. Hunt and I told him that I had been in touch
with him.
11. The last time I saw Mr. Hunt wad in early March at
his home. We discussed a personal matter which has no bearing
nn the frinl; or is of Avency interest. I offered to help in
any way I could with the children and promised him I woula keep
in touch with Miss Stella the housekeeper, which I have done.
Mr. Hunt said he had just finished a crash course in trans-
&.endental meditation and that it had already helped him face
his future with a certain equanimity. He said he had no finan-
cial worries, that David would be spending the summer with
Artime, his godfather, in Latin America, and that his only
sadness was the fact that former friends seemed to have de-
serted him. I had the strong feeling, although he didn't
state it, that he had done what he had done because he be-
lieved he was right. He is a man of very strong convictions,
although often caustic and bitter.
12. I wrote to Mr. Hunt in jail three times. My letters
attempted to make him feel that friends had not forgotten him.
I mentioned several who had asked to be remembered. I de-
scribed spring on the farm and the animals and tried to inject
humor and a few bits of gossip into the letters, realizing that
they would probably be opened. I sent him an Easter card and
a little booklet on 1000 facts which I thought might be diverting.
Miss Stella said I couldn't send magazines because they probably
wouldn't reach him.
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(b)(3)
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(b)(3)
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13. I received two letters from Mr. Hunt. In one he was
critical of McCord's testimony about Dorothy. He said he was
a "swine" to bring her name into the trial. (Any mention of
his dead wife seemed to draw an agonized response.) He also
said he hoped the people at the Agency wouldn't be too angry
at his testimony but said he had 'told it as it was.' Other-
wise, his letters discussed his view from his cell, the food,
reading matter, and hisxhildren.
14. As you can see from the foregoing account, my friend-
ship with Mr. Hunt is the reason for my continuing to be in
touch with him. I do not believe in deserting friends when
they need help. He has had his whole world crash about him
and has come through with considerable courage. I do not con-
done what he did, and it has only been in recent weeks that
have learned through the press of the Agency's involvement in
the case. I do not believe anything have said to Mr. Hunt,
or him to me, has jeopardized the Agency to which I hold a
deep sense of loyalty. Mr. Hunt is a gentleman and a patriotic
American, albeit a deeply introspective person who perhaps lives
a great deal more than we suspect in the pages of his own books.
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