E Howard Hunt, Watergate break-in organizer, dies

MIAMI, Jan 24 (Reuters) E Howard Hunt -- organizer of the Watergate break-in and mystery figure in conspiracy theories on the assassination of President John Kennedy -- has died at age 88.

''He died after a lengthy bout of pneumonia'' at North Shore Medical Center in Miami, his son, Austin Hunt, said yesterday.

Hunt, who also worked as a CIA agent and spy novelist, was the man President Richard Nixon went to when he wanted to plug the information leaks in his administration. It was the work of his ''plumbers'' and the attempt to cover it up that led Nixon to be the only U S president to ever resign from office.

For his role in the scandal, Hunt served 33 months in prison after being convicted of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping.

Hunt left a two-decade career with the CIA to go to work for Nixon when he became president. He was listed as a consultant to the president but in reality ran a secret unit with G. Gordon Liddy to perform surreptitious and sometimes illegal activities.

Hunt organized a break-in at Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington. The event went wrong when the five burglars were arrested inside the office.

Even worse for Hunt was that his name appeared in the address book on one of the burglars. This was noted by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward and started him on the long road to unravel the scandal and drive Nixon from office.

It was Hunt's efforts to pressure the White House into providing large amounts of money to buy the Watergate burglars' silence that set in motion the cover-up that brought Nixon down. Hunt had threatened to ''blow the White House out of the water'' if he did not get his money.

Hunt was also a target of conspiracy theorists in the assassination of Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

On that day, shortly after the shooting, three men -- the ''railroad bums'' of lore -- were taken into custody and then released. Grainy photographs of two of the men, according to conspiracy theorists, were said to resemble Hunt and Frank Sturgis, who later would be one of the Watergate burglars.

Hunt said he was in Washington that day and FBI photo analysis said the man in the picture was not him, but the rumor persisted.

Born on October 9, 1918 in East Hamburg, New York, Everette Howard Hunt graduated from Brown University and entered the military service in World War Two. He ended up at the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA.

When the war ended, he almost naturally drifted to the CIA where he was put in charge of psychological warfare. He served in many spots around the world but mainly in Latin America.

Hunt was known to be involved in the 1954 overthrow of the left-leaning government in Guatemala, as well as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba nearly a decade later.

Hunt wrote more than 30 spy and action novels under his own name and another couple of dozen under other pseudonyms.

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