Herbert Kalmbach, 'most mysterious figure' in the Watergate scandal, dies at 95
By Emily Langer September 29 at 7:13 PM
Herbert W. Kalmbach, a personal attorney to President Richard M. Nixon who was drawn into the Watergate scandal as an alleged bagman and later went to prison for illegal political fundraising that included the peddling of an ambassadorship, died Sept. 15 in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 95.
The death was announced by the family in a notice published in the Los Angeles Times.
Mr. Kalmbach had the distinction, it was written in the New York Times in 1973, of being “the most mysterious figure among the strangely assorted cast of characters in the Watergate affair.” A California lawyer, he was by all accounts a loyal servant to the president, low-key and capable in matters political as well as private, and was virtually unknown to the public before the Watergate investigation that drove his client from the White House.
Mr. Kalmbach had met Nixon through a mutual acquaintance and had supported his political ambitions since Nixon, as vice president, made his first, unsuccessful bid for the Oval Office in 1960. Two years later, Mr. Kalmbach stood by his candidate when Nixon lost a race for California governor and prematurely declared his political career to be over.
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