Deep Throat's other secret: Wife's death was suicide

Washington Post via Seattle Times ^ | Sunday, April 23, 2006 | Lynne Duke

[lunarbicep]

W. Mark Felt, who for nearly 33 years denied he was Deep Throat, also held a tragic secret from most of his family: It was suicide, not a heart attack, that felled his wife after years of strain from Felt's FBI career and ensuing legal troubles.

In his new book, "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being 'Deep Throat' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington," Felt reveals for the first time that Audrey Robinson Felt, his wife of 46 years, shot herself in 1984 with his .38-caliber service revolver.

The book, co-authored with John O'Connor, the lawyer whose Vanity Fair article last year revealed Felt as Deep Throat, also reveals Felt's discomfort with the famous moniker given him by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, The Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story and brought down President Nixon.

The book also tells of Felt's anger at what he believed was Woodward's violation of their source-reporter relationship. Felt did not want to be described in any way in print, but Woodward described him and called him "Deep Throat" in 1974 in "All the President's Men."

In "The Secret Man," Woodward's 2005 book on Felt's outing as Deep Throat, Woodward also describes Felt's anger at "All the President's Men." Felt had wanted their agreement to be "inviolate," Woodward wrote. But Woodward wrote that he thought he had "some leeway" because Felt had not previously objected to Woodward's other published references to the secret source.

Felt, 92, who has dementia, had been reluctant to publish a book on his secret identity. But his daughter, Joan Felt, convinced him by saying a book could potentially make enough money to pay off some of his grandsons' school bills.

[prion]

Unless a celebrity is involved, most major papers do not report on suicides. The family can write the obit as desired.

Yeah, but it's his family he supposedly managed to keep it from. And isn't the #2 at the FBI a kind of celebrity?

[jdm]

I thought all heart attacks came with exit wounds. /sarc

[Tijeras_Slim]

A vile little man.

[adorno]

.... and how do we know who pulled the trigger in wife's death?

Exactly what I was thinking!

How do we know that she actually killed heerself? No doubt she knew too much and was probably dangerous to the people that she had information about, including most definitely her husband.

But in any case, that gun was used to kill the wrong person.

[jocon307]

"How do you keep it a secret when your wife shoots herself with your .38?"

Exactly, how do you manage to say: she had a heart attack?

And good to know the guy has dementia, that makes him very reliable.

His daughter is really a greed monger, I don't get a good vibe from her at all.

[SkyPilot]

Nope. I have read about them though.