This from the guy who orchestrated the Watergate break in to steal the log book showing that his wife was one of the call girls pimped from that location.
That’s the explanation I have come to believe.
Here is what I have concluded about the origin of the Watergate break-in:
Maureen “Mo” Kane (later Dean) shared an apartment with a woman, Heidi Rikan, who ran a call-girl operation out of the Columbia Plaza Apartments near the Watergate office of the DNC. The “black books” in the desk of DNC secretary Ida “Maxie” Wells supposedly contained the names of prominent members of both the Republican and Democrat parties, as well as various dignitaries and athletes. They also contained the names and addresses of Mo Dean and her mother, Irene, and a later version of one of the books contained John Dean’s White House telephone number. John Dean found out about the operation and the black books from Mo Dean through her conversations with her apartment mate, and John presumably orchestrated the Watergate break-in to retrieve the books or at least copy the material in them. He was primarily interested in seeing if any names matched those on the White House roster. Although there have been rumors and speculation about the extent of Mo Dean’s involvement, there has been no documented evidence that Mo Dean was one of the call girls, even though she had a past history of partying and traveling with Heidi Rinkan.