The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate (42 page)

COURTESY JILL MITCHELL-REED

Mitchell, his girlfriend Elizabeth “Bette” Shine, and an unidentified classmate on June 15, 1938, the day Mitchell graduated from Fordham University’s School of Law.

COURTESY JILL MITCHELL-REED

With his parents and Bette on their wedding day, October 12, 1940. Family lore held that the moment Mitchell first saw Bette he vowed to marry her. In a love letter dated May 6, 1937, Mitchell reassured her: “You will certainly be the favorite daughter-in-law as well as the favorite sister-in-law.”

COURTESY JILL MITCHELL-REED

With daughter Jill and son Jack, circa 1950.

COURTESY JOHN BONHAM

U.S. Navy lieutenant Mitchell in the South Pacific, circa 1944.

COURTESY JOHN BONHAM

Mitchell, second from right, steering a PT boat on the high seas. Mitchell served honorably and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but neither official military records nor a privately owned PT boat museum could verify claims that he earned two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star, that he commanded the young John F. Kennedy, or that he rescued Colonel “Pappy” Boyington at sea. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was later said to have discreetly informed the attorney general that the Bureau knew about these exaggerations.

COURTESY JOHN BONHAM

Flush with success on Wall Street and living in upscale Rye, New York, Mitchell entertains an unidentified lady friend as Bette enjoys a cigarette, circa 1953. “I think what killed their marriage is what kills a lot of marriages,” a family friend said of John and Bette. “John was up and coming. He was ambitious. He wasn’t home, and she was lonely.”

COURTESY JILL MITCHELL-REED

With daughter Jill and second wife Martha Elizabeth Beall, circa 1960. Mitchell married Martha at an elopement center in Elkton, Maryland, on December 19, 1957—eleven days after his divorce from Bette was finalized.

COURTESY NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

President Nixon watches as Chief Justice Earl Warren swears in Attorney General Mitchell, January 22, 1969. Martha Mitchell holds the Bible.

COURTESY SAM DANIELS, COLLECTION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Mitchell and his Justice Department team. Top row, from left: Assistant Attorneys General William Ruckelshaus, Will Wilson, Sr., Johnnie M. Walters, Richard McLaren, William Rehnquist, Jerris Leonard, and J. Walter Yeagley. Seated from left: Assistant Attorney General Leo Pellerzi, Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, Mitchell, Solicitor General Erwin Griswold, and Assistant Attorney General Shiro Kashiwa.

COURTESY NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

“Nixon had no really close relationship with anybody,” Henry Kissinger told the author; but Mitchell was the closest thing to a friend Nixon had in government. The president watches as Mitchell introduces him to Justice Department employees on January 30, 1969.

COURTESY NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

The two attend the Los Angeles Rams–Kansas City Chiefs football game on August 23, 1969.