It would seem that Audrey Felt was possibly the only honorable person in the family.
Posted on 04/23/2006 3:13:19 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
How do you keep it a secret when your wife shoots herself with your .38? (Just curious...not plotting anything here). I mean, aren't there investigations and items in the news and stuff?
That's the question that popped into my mind, too.
I guess being the number 2 man at the FBI, you gain some connections.
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.
Looks like she's gotten over her communal, hippie ways.
His daughter was a drug taking hippie who participated in the "sexual revolution" - you can translate that into what it really meant. His wife killed herself. He colleagues hated him.
Lets add up the numbers. He was number two...under J. Edgar...and stayed there a long long time...so when J. Edgar was finally gone...you would anticipate you'd get the offer...and people were so scared of the FBI and J. Edgar's control...that you were never on the list. All through those years...the junior guys at the FBI probably made routine jokes about J. Edgar and the whole management staff.
Your wife probably lived on the edge of this entire joke...never happy. Her daughter was into drugs and the new age. And then you toss in the information flow that this guy provided the Post...which the wife must have known something about this. Its not a pretty picture. A guy selling kitchen sinks In Ripley, Miss...has a happier life. That really speaks for the big picture.
From what I remember is the media or the government won't publicize the suicide unless it's by a famous person, there was a chance of foul play or it was done in a public place.
It would seem that Audrey Felt was possibly the only honorable person in the family.
Yes she might have written her own book and was silenced.
Popped in to your mind, eh?
Actually, since this guy has been lying about everything for his entire life, I see no reason to believe him on this matter at this late date. A heart attack is a good cover for suicide, but suicide is an even better cover for murder.
You sound like you were one of those colleagues?
You could ask Hillerbeast, if she could tell you about her former lover, Vince Foster.
I was wondering how Mr. Felt could write a book, when he has "dementia"? How can anyone believe anything in said book? It was clearly written by the daughter, who stands to make some money off of it.
The book will not grace my book shelves!
Felt doesn't like Bob Woodward giving out his name as Deep Throat!
Such a shame, I really enjoy seeing some peoples past come back to bite them in their a**.
I my self have witnessed people who did bad things in their past have to live with it in their older age. It is not a pleasant thing to see.
I knew of a man in my community, who in his younger days was involved in killing a deputy sheriff with a group of his friends. It was an accident and some of them served time for the crime, he did not.
He told a close friend of his when he grew older, no one knows how I dread to see night falling.
The crime he had committed was eating at his sole and he couldn't rest.
I hope all the people in our government who have caused death and, discomfort for others will experience the same agony.
A look at Ted Kennedy might be a good example, he tries drowning his with alcohol.
Good points. I will not be reading it either.
One possible case in point: the death of Louis Adamic, the pro-Tito leftist writer.
Unless a celebrity is involved, most major papers do not report on suicides. The family can write the obit as desired.
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