August 1, 1972 - Follow the money. That’s what Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were doing when they discovered and reported in The Washington Post on this date that a $25,000 cashier’s check that appeared to be earmarked for the Committee to Re-elect President Nixon (CREEP) was deposited in the bank account of one of the Watergate burglars, Bernard L. Barker.1
“The check was made out by a Florida bank to Kenneth H. Dahlberg, the President’s campaign finance chairman for the Midwest. Dahlberg [told The Post] that in early April he turned the check over to ‘the treasurer of [CREEP] or to Maurice Stans [formerly secretary of Commerce under Mr. Nixon] himself.’”1
Woodward would later call “the Dahlberg check the ‘connective tissue’ that turned what they thought was a story about a common crime into one of historic dimensions.”2
Dahlberg, who had homes in Boca Raton, Fla., and Deephaven, Minn., “started the Miracle-Ear Hearing Aid Company, which developed one of the first hearing aids to fit inside the ear; it was also one of the first consumer products to use transistors.”2 He also had a connection to another historic Minnesota event. While discussing the cashier’s check, Dahlberg told The Post that “he had just gone through an ordeal because his ‘dear friend and neighbor,’ Virginia Piper, had been kidnapped and held for two days.1 (See July 27, 2012 blog.)
Mrs. Piper’s husband reportedly paid $1 million ransom last week to recover his wife in the highest payment to kidnapers in U.S. history.”1
1The Washington Post; “Bug Suspect Got Campaign Funds”; Washington, D.C.; August 1, 1972; p. 1.
2http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/us/kenneth-h-dahlberg-watergate-figure-and-wwii-ace-dies-at-94.html
“The check was made out by a Florida bank to Kenneth H. Dahlberg, the President’s campaign finance chairman for the Midwest. Dahlberg [told The Post] that in early April he turned the check over to ‘the treasurer of [CREEP] or to Maurice Stans [formerly secretary of Commerce under Mr. Nixon] himself.’”1
Woodward would later call “the Dahlberg check the ‘connective tissue’ that turned what they thought was a story about a common crime into one of historic dimensions.”2
Dahlberg, who had homes in Boca Raton, Fla., and Deephaven, Minn., “started the Miracle-Ear Hearing Aid Company, which developed one of the first hearing aids to fit inside the ear; it was also one of the first consumer products to use transistors.”2 He also had a connection to another historic Minnesota event. While discussing the cashier’s check, Dahlberg told The Post that “he had just gone through an ordeal because his ‘dear friend and neighbor,’ Virginia Piper, had been kidnapped and held for two days.1 (See July 27, 2012 blog.)
Mrs. Piper’s husband reportedly paid $1 million ransom last week to recover his wife in the highest payment to kidnapers in U.S. history.”1
1The Washington Post; “Bug Suspect Got Campaign Funds”; Washington, D.C.; August 1, 1972; p. 1.
2http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/us/kenneth-h-dahlberg-watergate-figure-and-wwii-ace-dies-at-94.html
A photo of the Watergate Complex taken from a DC-9-80 inbound to Washington National Airport on January 8, 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WatergateFromAir.JPG
Lovely photo. Thanks for sharing.
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