The Forgotten Story Of Frank Wills, The Security Guard Who Foiled The Watergate Break-In

The Forgotten Story Of Frank Wills, The Security Guard Who Foiled The Watergate Break-In

"When you're Black and you do something wrong, everybody's always criticizing loud… but when you're Black and do something good, nobody pays any attention." In June 1972, security guard Frank Wills changed history when he discovered that five men carrying bugging equipment and White House phone numbers had broken into the Watergate hotel — a moment that would eventually lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974. As the nation untangled what had happened at the Watergate hotel, Wills briefly became something of a minor celebrity, giving interviews, making speeches, and even earning a raise. But as the clamor around Watergate increased, Wills faded into the background. He struggled to find a job and came to believe he'd been "blackballed," and eventually died of AIDS in 2000, destitute and forgotten. Learn more about Frank Wills, the security guard who sounded the alarm on Watergate: Now the story In details On June 17, 1972, Frank Wills discovered burglars in the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel, setting off a sequence of events that led to President Nixon's resignation. Frank Wills’ job at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. was fairly dull and didn’t pay that well. But in June 1972, that job suddenly thrust him into the spotlight of history and transformed him from a 24-year-old security guard to a main player in the Watergate scandal. On the night of June 17, Wills noticed that someone had taped over the lock on one of the hotel’s stairwell doors. He alerted the police, who discovered five men in the Democratic National Committee headquarters. They had bugging equipment with them — and White House phone numbers. Wills’ chance discovery knocked down the first domino of the Watergate scandal and eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974. But for Frank Wills, notoriety came at a heavy price. Frank Wills’ Critical Part In The Watergate Scandal On June 17, 1972, Frank Wills was about 30 minutes into his shift at the Watergate Hotel when he noticed something odd. While on patrol in the parking garage, he found gaffer tape holding down the lock on a stairwell door. Wills removed it. At first, he thought nothing of it. “A lot of times we’d have engineers doing work late at night. They’d place something in the door because they’d be coming right back so I really didn’t pay much attention to it,” he later said, according to The Guardian. But after he briefly left the hotel to get an orange juice across the street, Wills came back and found the tape back in place. Suspicious, he called the police and made an official note in his security log: “1:47 AM Found tape on doors; call police to make [an] inspection another inspection.” A team of plainclothed detectives arrived, and Wills followed as they made their way through the hotel. On the 6th floor, where the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters, they found men hiding in the dark. “One person, then two persons, then three persons came out, and on down the line,” Wills recalled, according to the Los Angeles Times. The five men were James McCord, Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and Virgilio Gonzales. They were dressed in suits and ties and carried bugging devices, $2,300 in crisp dollar bills, and phone numbers that connected to the White House. As it soon became clear, McCord was the security director of the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP) and he and the others had ties to an informal group of White House aides known as the “Plumbers.” Loyal to the president, Richard Nixon, their job was to staunch leaks. But in the moment, neither Wills nor the detectives knew what they’d found. Wills certainly didn’t know that that moment would change his life. “We didn’t have any idea about who these people were and what they were up to…[and] what this was connected to,” Frank Wills later said according to the Los Angeles Times. “I had no idea.” Before long, the whole world would find out. What Happened To Frank Wills? In the years after Watergate, Frank Wills’ life took a dark turn. He struggled to find work, and was convicted of shoplifting sneakers in 1983 (though Wills always insisted upon his innocence). He briefly worked for the comedian Dick Gregory, helping to sell health supplements, but eventually made his way back home to South Carolina, where Wills moved in with his mother.