Obituary

Watergate figure Fred LaRue dies

BILOXI, Miss. - Fred LaRue, a Watergate figure and high-ranking Nixon administration official who once was rumored to be Deep Throat, has died of natural causes. He was 75.

His body was discovered Tuesday by a maid who entered his hotel room in Biloxi, Coroner Gary Hargrove said. The coroner said he believes Mr. LaRue died Saturday (July 24, 2004).

Mr. LaRue was known as the "bagman" who delivered payoffs to keep participants in the Watergate breakin quiet, and served 41/2 months in federal prison for conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Mr. LaRue served as special assistant to John Mitchell, the former attorney general who later headed President Richard Nixon's re-election committee. Mr. LaRue was at a 1972 meeting with Mitchell and Nixon aide Jeb Stuart Magruder in Key Biscayne, where the plan to break into the Watergate complex allegedly was hatched.

After his political career ended in scandal, Mr. LaRue returned to his home state of Mississippi to work in his family's business.

Mr. LaRue discounted rumors that he was Deep Throat, saying the mysterious source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein was not one person, but probably a combination of people.

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