Frank Wills

From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project

Frank Wills (February 4, 1948 – September 27, 2000) was the security guard who uncovered the break in that led to the Watergate scandal.

In June 1972, Wills was working as a private security guard at the Watergate office building, the location of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. On the night of June 17, he noticed a piece of duct tape on one of the doors when he was making his rounds. He removed it, and continued on his patrol. One of the five burglars — James W. McCord, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio R. Martinez, Virgilio R. Gonzalez, and Bernard L. Barker — noticed that the duct tape had been removed, and replaced another piece of duct tape on the door (the duct tape was placed there to prevent the door from locking behind). When Mr. Wills returned, he saw that the tape had been replaced and called in the police. The five men were found in the building and arrested. This triggered the chain of events which exposed the Watergate scandal and eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Wills played himself in the movie version of the book All the President's Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's account of Watergate. He lived in relative poverty most of his life.

Wills died of complications from a brain tumor on September 27, 2000 at the age of 52 in a hospital in Augusta, Georgia.

Copyright

"Original data received from Wikipedia on April 22, 2006. Credit given to original authors can be seen Here."