W. Mark Felt, a former number two official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the much-storied 'Deep Throat' of the Watergate scandal, The Washington Post newspaper confirmed May 31.
Putting to rest over three decades of speculation and rumors, then reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and then executive editor Ben Bradlee said Felt was indeed their source for much of the newspaper's investigative reports that led to a move to impeach then President Richard Nixon. Nixon resigned in 1974, before he could be impeached.
Woodward and Bernstein broke the Watergate story, which centered around the White House's attempts to bug the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate office and apartment complex, and subsequent attempts to cover it up.
The Post admission came following a story in Vanity Fair magazine identified Felt as the enigma whose identity has eluded generations of journalists and researchers.
Felt, who retired and now lives in California, is 91 years old.
In a statement, the Post reported, Woodward and Bernstein said, 'W. Mark Felt was 'Deep Throat' and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage. However, as the record shows, many other sources and officials assisted us and other reporters for the hundreds of stories that were written in The Washington Post about Watergate.'
The trio of Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee had agreed to keep the identity of 'Deep Throat' secret until his death. 'We've kept that secret because we keep our word,' Woodward was reported as saying.
Bradlee told the Post it stunned him that 'the goddamn secret has lasted this long.'
