(Bettman/CORBIS)John N. Mitchell, '31
Attorney General
of the United States
1913-1988
John Newton Mitchell was born in Detroit in 1913 and graduated from Jamaica High School in N.Y. City. He received his law degree from Fordham Law School, passing the N.Y. Sate Bar examinations in 1938. He joined the law firm of Judge James H. Caldwell and then served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy as commander of motor torpedo boats in the South Pacific where he Won the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. He then returned to his law firm, which became Caldwell, Trimble and Mitchell. He was soon recognised as one of the nation’s leading experts in public finance. He became a Law partner of Richard M. Nixon who, as president, appointed him Attorney General of the United States in 1969.
Mitchell was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate cover-up trial and served 19 months of a 2 1/2-to-8 year prison sentence. H. R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were his co-defendants in that trial. President Nixon was one of 18 un-indicted co-conspirators in the Watergate scandal. He died of a heart attack in 1988 and was buried in Section 7-A at the Arlington National Cemetery by virtue of his war service and in deference to his rank.
(The information above was obtained on 12/24/05 from the website of the Criminology Research Institute - Hall of Fame.
Mitchell (far left, meeting with Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and John Ehrlichman on May 26, 1971) was the first United States Attorney General ever to be convicted of illegal activities and imprisoned. He also served as campaign director for the Committee to Re-elect the President, which employed Watergate burglar James W. McCord, Jr. in a "security" capacity.
Mitchell was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up on Long Island in New York. He earned his law degree from Fordham University and was admitted to the New York bar in 1938. Except for three years' service as a naval officer during World War II where he was a PT Boat commander and received the Silver Star, from 1938 until 1968 Mitchell practiced law in New York City.
Richard Nixon met John Mitchell when Mitchell's municipal bond law firm merged with Nixon Mudge Rose Guthrie & Alexander in 1967. The two men became friends, and in 1968, with considerable trepidation, Mitchell agreed to become Nixon's presidential campaign manager.
During his successful 1968 campaign, Nixon turned over the details of the day-to-day operations to the superbly organized Mitchell. After he became president in January 1969, Nixon appointed Mitchell attorney general. Mitchell remained in office from 1969 until he resigned in 1972 to manage President Nixon's successful reelection campaign. As attorney general, Mitchell believed that the government's need for "law and order" justified restrictions on civil liberties. He advocated the use of wiretaps in national security cases without obtaining a court order and the right of police to employ the preventive detention of criminal suspects. He brought conspiracy charges against critics of the Vietnam War, and demonstrated a reluctance to involve the Justice Department in civil rights issues. "The Department of Justice is a law enforcement agency," he told reporters. "It is not the place to carry on a program aimed at curing the ills of society."
On February 21, 1975, Mitchell was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury and sentenced to two and a half to eight years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up, which he dubbed the White House horrors. Tape recordings made by President Nixon and the testimony of others involved confirmed that Mitchell had participated in meetings to plan the break-in of the Democratic party's national headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. In addition, he had met, on at least three occasions, with the president in an effort to cover up White House involvement after the burglars were discovered and arrested.
Around 5 P.M. on November 9, 1988, he collapsed from a heart attack on the sidewalk in front of 2812 N St., N.W., Georgetown, Washington, DC. That evening he would die at George Washington University Hospital. He was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
His wife Martha passed away in 1976. The "Martha Mitchell effect" is named after John Mitchell's wife.
Above excerpted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (12/24/05)
John Mitchell and Lawyers, New York City, 1974"Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell had been indicted in the Watergate scandal and was happy to be acquitted in his first trial. His lawyers kept saying, "I knew you could do it, I knew you could do it.," and they kept pouring themselves glasses of Scotch.
"There was something sad about it all. And yet Mitchell was one of the few who had never badmouthed his boss. That says something about him.
"I stayed until the other press had left. When the men heard I was from Scotland, they raised their glasses and sang songs by Scottish vaudevillian Harry Lauder."
Image and caption from the Digital Journalist website on 12/24/05.
JAMAICA HIGH SCHOOL NOTEWORTHY ALUMNI : : : : : : : : 12/24/05