He discovered the Watergate break-in, then died destitute and forgotten

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Katrina vandenHeuvel
@KatrinaNation
Frank Willis of Watergate—Nixon was pardoned for his crimes, Willis was convicted and sentenced to one year in jail for arrest on shoplifting $12 pair of sneakers, a charge he denied. He died in Augusta, GA. in 2000–destitute.

washingtonpost.com
He discovered the Watergate break-in, then died destitute and forgotten
Frank Wills noticed masking tape covering locks on a stairwell door at the Watergate and called the police, setting in motion the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. Soon after Watergate,...
3:51 PM · Jun 17, 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/17/frank-wills-security-guard-watergate/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/XaYy4

It was 30 minutes after midnight on June 17, 1972, when Frank Wills, a security guard patrolling the parking garage at the Watergate office complex in Washington, noticed masking tape covering locks on a stairwell door.

Wills thought perhaps the maintenance crew had taped the doors to keep them from locking. The 24-year-old ripped off the tape, then went for his shift break across the street to the restaurant at the Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge for carryout.

A little more than an hour later, Wills was making another round when he noticed the tape had reappeared.

Suspicious, Wills called police and reported a burglary in progress at the Watergate. The guard, who worked the midnight-to-7 a.m. shift for $80 a week, had discovered what would become the biggest political corruption scandal in U.S. history — so big that it led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.

The guard wrote in blue ink in a security log now stored at the National Archives: “1:47 AM Found tape on doors; call police to make [an] inspection another inspection.”

*snip*

[Karadeniz]

1. Heartbreaking....

[Bluethroughu]

2. I thought exactly the same thing.

[FelineOverlord]

3. He played himself in the movie

Unfortunately the rest of his life was rather sad.

[BigmanPigman]

4. The Watergate series Gaslit covered this man

in one episode. Poor guy couldn't get hired due to his fame. He was miserable moved out of DC. He was eventually forgotten by the public.

[cstanleytech]

7. Sounds like his major problem was getting the short end of the shit stick his entire life.

I can sympathize with that as its been happening all my life as well with the the past 10 years the worst as it feels like I am standing in front of a 20 foot high speed fan that has a conga line of dump trucks dumping their entire load of shit in front of to blow as much as it can on me.

[FailureToCommunicate]

17. What Chin Music said...don't give up.

[BigmanPigman]

20. For my entire life I have been angry that life isn't fair.

Life is hard and cruel.

[cstanleytech]

21. "Life is hard and cruel." You forgot bleak and uncaring.

[BigmanPigman]

22. I know it!

I hope I don't reincarnate (if that is an option). I certainly don't want to go through this Hell a second time. This one is shitty enough. About 35 years ago a friend told me that life wasn't fair and get used to it. I can't get used to it.

[Cyrano]

5. There is something seriously wrong with the human species

Whoever/whatever resulted in our existence really was either drunk, or fucked up beyond repair.

[cstanleytech]

9. Or was a fucking psychopath.

[Upthevibe]

11. Cyrano....

I couldn't agree with you more....

[BigmanPigman]

19. We destroy ourselves.

So much for having a large brain. Humans are extremely flawed and we kill everything good and decent. I sometimes wonder if there had been 3000 years of matriarchy instead of patriarchy if it would have been different.

[dalton99a]

6. Kick

[Samrob]

8. He wasn't the first or the last black American destroyed for doing his job. nt

[LoisB]

13. Amen.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

14. Nixon would have laughed.

Malevolent douchebag that he was.

[IronLionZion]

15. He probably was blackballed from jobs

The GOP was pretty crooked even back then. It's disappointing that no one else would hire him though, like Dems or nonpolitical entities.

[mountain grammy]

16. So sorry to see this

[Just A Box Of Rain]

18. This fine piece was written by DeNeen L. Brown

Credit where credit is due.

[cbabe]

23. Name the street in front of Watergate building Mr. Wills Avenue. DC activists?