Episode 063: Angelo Lano – FBI Watergate Investigation

Retired agent Angelo Lano served in the FBI for 29 years. In this episode of FBI Retired Case File Review with Jerri Williams, he is interviewed about being the case agent of the FBI Watergate investigation, starting from the morning of June 17, 1972, when he received a phone call from his Bureau supervisor instructing him to report to the Watergate Complex to investigate a break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. His initial assignment was to identify the five men caught in the act and arrested by local police. However, subsequent investigation by Lano and members of his squad, quickly determined that this was more than just another interstate theft of stolen property case. They learned that the intruders were connected to the committee to re-elect President Richard Nixon and the property crime case morphed into the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. Lano’s investigation produced evidence of a cover-up and led to articles of impeachment being drawn up against Nixon, who resigned from office in 1974. Angelo Lano was one of several FBI agents falsely accused of being Deep Throat, a source of leaks consisting of inside investigatory information for the Washington Post.

Special Agent (Retired)

Angelo Lano

6/10/1960 – 7/2/1989

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following are links to an FBI Overview, original investigative documents and files, transcripts and recordings, and newspaper articles regarding the FBI Watergate investigation and scandal:

Watergate – FBI Famous Cases

FBI The Vault –  Original Bureau records and files from the two-year long FBI Watergate investigation of the break-in and cover-up.

Watergate – The Washington Post

Watergate Fast Facts CNN

The Smoking Gun Tape – This is the transcript and recording of a meeting between President Nixon and his Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman, in the Oval Office on June 23, 1972.

A screenshot of Angelo Lano from his interview about leading the FBI Watergate Investigation on the Discovery Channel documentary—Watergate Scandal – A Third Rate Burglary. He first appears at the 48:58 timestamp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Watergate Complex. The break-ins that initiated the FBI Watergate investigation occurred in the office building in the center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(L-R) Electronics expert and former CIA agent James W. McCord, locksmith Virgilio Gonzalez, Frank Sturgis, realtor with CIA connections Eugenio R. Martinez and former CIA operative Bernard Barker were arrested and convicted of burglarizing the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee on June 17, 1972. (AP Photo/Washington Metropolitan Police)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The front-page headline of the Washington Post on the day that President Nixon, facing impeachment, resigned based on evidence gathered during the FBI Watergate investigation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jerri Williams

View posts by Jerri Williams
Jerri Williams, a retired FBI agent, author and podcaster, jokes that she writes about the FBI to relive her glory days. After 26 years with the Bureau specializing in major economic fraud and corruption investigations, she calls on her professional encounters with scams and schemers to write police procedurals inspired by true crime FBI cases in her Philadelphia FBI Corruption Squad crime fiction series featuring flawed female FBI agent Kari Wheeler. Jerri’s FBI for Armchair Detectives nonfiction series enables readers to discover who the FBI is and what the FBI does by debunking misconceptions about the FBI in books, TV, and movies. Her books are available as ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks wherever books are sold. She’s also the host of FBI Retired Case File Review, a true crime podcast with more than 300 episodes available on all popular podcast apps and YouTube.

7 Comments

  1. Jay brackJanuary 27, 2023

    ??????????

    Reply
  2. Joe DuranJune 5, 2022

    What was the name & ethnicity of Mr. Lano”s partner?

    Reply
    1. Jerri WilliamsJune 13, 2022

      His name is Paul Magallanes. I don’t know his ethnicity. I found this article that attempts to explain his and Angelo Lano’s real life role in Watergate. https://thecinemaholic.com/angelo-lano-and-paul-p-magallanes/

      Reply
  3. JeanDecember 28, 2017

    I am loving your podcast, Ms. Williams, and tell my family and friends to listen as well. This story was particularly interesting to me because I was very young when the Watergate hearings were broadcast on tv, and I remember them on tv every day.

    So far, all of your interviews have been so interesting. I commute to work every day, so in a way, I’m binge listening to them. But I’m catching up so fast that I wish you would do more interviews each week. But that’s ok, I’ll just re-listen to some of my favorites when I catch up.

    Thank you for doing this podcast and I’m looking forward to more.

    Reply
    1. Jerri WilliamsDecember 28, 2017

      Jean – More than weekly? Noooo! Ha ha! I’m actually taking a short holiday break to focus on my next novel and line up podcast guests for 2018. I’ll have a bonus episode for you next week. Thanks for listening!

      Reply
  4. PabloDecember 26, 2017

    Thank you Thank you Thank you!,,
    This is so special! Apparently Angelo Lano didn’t give many interviews…so to hear him personally recount Watergate as seen from his angle is simply priceless.
    For me, he is one of the true heros of watergate. Yes, Woodward and Bernstein are to be rightly given huge credit for keeping the story alive and in the public eye. Their angle was more ‘dramatic’ and ‘Hollywoodian’, if you like….but, from an investigative point of view, it was the FBI that uncovered the facts of the story.
    It is easy to deduce from the interview (and from the very few past interviews that are available) that Angelo Lano is a true professional and, above all, a true gentleman.

    The only question you didn’t ask, that I would have loved you to, regards his contacts (and subsequent incident) with Woodward. It would have been nice to hear his version on that.

    Notwithstanding that, it is an excellent and priceless interview.

    Thank you Ms. Williams, and thank you Mr. Lano!

    Reply
    1. Jerri WilliamsDecember 26, 2017

      Thank you Pablo. I was just as excited as you to hear about the case from Angelo Lano’s investigator viewpoint. I was honored that he allowed me share this part of his FBI story.

      Reply

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