COMMENTS FROM STREET TALK NETWORK ABOUT THIS POST-

1. Do your own research on the information provided and then come up with your own conclusions.

2. This article contains many names and other information that can be researched.

3. Trust your gut feeling on information provided as this post may contain slanted information.

4. Makes you wonder how many other people in America and foreign countries did our own government plot against.

5. If they plotted against our own people what else was our government capable of doing.

The name in the Dallas Times Herald article was E. Howard Hunt, not “E. Howard Hund.” Hunt was a former CIA officer, a covert operative for President Richard Nixon’s White House, and one of the principal organizers of the Watergate burglary.

The September 29, 1975 Dallas Times Herald headline—apparently “Hunt Confides Wild Idea to Drug Writer”—referred to Hunt confiding to a writer about the idea of secretly drugging investigative columnist Jack Anderson. In context, “to drug writer” meant a wild idea to drug the writer, not that Anderson was a “drug writer.”

What started the 1975 news coverage

The story first broke nationally in Bob Woodward’s front-page Washington Post report:

“Hunt Told Associates of Orders to Kill Jack Anderson,” September 21, 1975.

Woodward reported that Hunt had told former CIA associates that, in December 1971 or January 1972, he had received an order from a senior Nixon White House official to assassinate Anderson.

According to Woodward’s sources:

• Anderson’s death was supposed to look accidental.
• A former CIA physician would supply a special
  poison.
• The substance supposedly would leave no
  identifiable trace during an ordinary medical examination or autopsy.
• The order was canceled at the last moment, after
  methods had already been investigated.
• Hunt reportedly worried that the Watergate
  investigation might uncover the assassination discussions.

The original article is preserved here: Bob Woodward’s September 21, 1975 Washington Post article.

Contemporary newspaper databases show that Woodward’s report was immediately repeated across the country. The September 21 Modesto Bee reported that the contemplated substance would come from a former CIA physician, while the September 22 Lima News and Wellington Daily News stated that Hunt had told associates he had once been ordered to assassinate Anderson. These reports were largely summaries of Woodward’s investigation, however, rather than separate, independent investigations.

Why the White House considered Anderson an enemy

Jack Anderson was one of the most influential investigative journalists in the United States. His syndicated “Washington Merry-Go-Round” column appeared in hundreds of newspapers and reached tens of millions of readers.

Anderson had repeatedly embarrassed Nixon and his associates. Among the matters he exposed were:

• A secret $205,000 loan from billionaire Howard
  Hughes to Nixon’s brother Donald.
• The Nixon administration’s secret tilt toward
  Pakistan during the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
• The ITT controversy, involving favorable
  government treatment and a large pledge connected with the 1972 Republican
  convention.
• CIA cooperation with organized-crime figures in
  plots against Fidel Castro.
• Secret national-security documents and internal
  disagreements that the administration did not want made public.

Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the administration’s secret Pakistan policy. Nixon considered him a personal and political enemy. Nixon was recorded demanding that something be done about Anderson, while Attorney General John Mitchell once spoke of wanting to “hang” him.

This hostility had already produced several operations against Anderson:

• The CIA placed him under surveillance in an
  operation sometimes called Project Mudhen.
• Administration operatives attempted to identify
  his confidential government sources.
• A Nixon campaign operative infiltrated Anderson’s
  office.
• Officials contemplated feeding Anderson false
  documents.
• Nixon aides discussed spreading false personal
  allegations to damage his reputation.

The proposed drugging or assassination represented the most extreme extension of that campaign.

The September 29 Dallas Times Herald account

The Dallas Times Herald article appears to have been based on the same interview that Time correspondent David Beckwith conducted with Hunt at the federal prison camp at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Hunt was then serving his Watergate sentence.

In that interview, Hunt attempted to draw a major distinction:

• He denied that he had seriously planned
  Anderson’s murder.
• He admitted that he and G. Gordon Liddy consulted
  a CIA-connected physician about secretly drugging Anderson.
• He claimed the purpose was merely to make
  Anderson act incoherently during a live radio broadcast and thereby
  discredit him.

Hunt attributed the idea to Nixon aide Charles Colson. According to Hunt’s 1975 version, Colson thought Anderson could be neutralized politically if he appeared on the air under the influence of a hallucinogenic substance and began rambling.

Hunt and fellow White House operative G. Gordon Liddy therefore arranged a meeting with a physician associated with the CIA. The physician was subsequently identified as Dr. Edward M. Gunn, an experienced CIA medical and technical consultant.

At the meeting, they considered several possibilities:

1. The steering-wheel method

A skin-absorbed drug would be smeared or painted on the steering wheel of Anderson’s automobile. When Anderson drove the car, the substance would pass through the skin of his hands.

2. A drugged medicine capsule

A pill or capsule containing a hallucinogen would be substituted for one of Anderson’s regular medicines.

3. Drugging food or drink

The men considered administering a substance through something Anderson consumed. His Mormon faith and avoidance of alcohol complicated any plan involving an alcoholic drink.

According to Hunt’s version, all these proposals were abandoned as unpredictable or impractical.

The September 29 editions of other newspapers carried virtually identical language. For example, archived copies of the Norwalk Reflector and Doylestown Intelligencer reported that the three men considered placing a skin-absorbed drug on Anderson’s steering wheel. This demonstrates that the Dallas story was part of a widely distributed national report based primarily on Hunt’s interview.

The Time magazine article

Time published the fuller account under the headline:

“Plots: Not Poison, Just Some Drugs.”

The article is dated October 6, 1975, although the issue’s contents were circulating at the end of September, explaining why Dallas and other newspapers reported the interview on September 29.

Time first summarized Woodward’s more serious allegations:

• Hunt had told associates that he was ordered to
  assassinate Anderson.
• The order allegedly came from a senior Nixon
  White House official.
• A former CIA physician would provide an
  untraceable poison.
• Anderson’s death was to appear accidental.
• The plan was canceled for reasons Woodward could
  not establish.

Time then presented Hunt’s competing version. Hunt admitted that Colson wanted Anderson stopped and that Hunt and Liddy met the CIA physician. But he characterized the conversation as an attempt to embarrass Anderson—not kill him.

The most important passage concerned the automobile. The participants discussed placing a drug on the steering wheel that would enter Anderson’s body through his skin. Hunt said this was rejected as “too chancy.”

That risk had several dimensions:

• Anderson might have an unpredictable reaction.
• He might become impaired while driving and crash.
• Another member of his family might drive the car.
• The substance might affect an innocent person.
• Anderson might be wearing gloves.
• There was no reliable way to control the dose
  received through his hands.

They then considered placing a hallucinogenic pill inside Anderson’s regular medicine supply. That idea was also supposedly rejected because there was no way to know when he would take it—or whether his wife or one of his nine children might take it instead.

The complete contemporary account is available from Time: “Plots: Not Poison, Just Some Drugs”.

Was the steering-wheel substance LSD or an untraceable poison?

The 1975 accounts were inconsistent on this important point.

Woodward’s sources described:

• A poison supplied by a former CIA physician.
• A substance that would be undetectable during an
  autopsy.
• A plan designed to make Anderson’s death appear
  accidental.

Hunt told Time:

• It was a hallucinogenic or mind-altering drug.
• The objective was to make Anderson incoherent and
  discredit him.
• The steering-wheel plan was discussed but
  rejected.
• Murder was supposedly never the real purpose.

Later accounts identified the proposed substance as LSD. Liddy wrote that Hunt initially wanted LSD placed on Anderson’s steering wheel so Anderson would hallucinate. The plan could theoretically serve two purposes:

• A lower or uncertain exposure might make Anderson
  behave erratically and damage his reputation.
• A larger exposure while Anderson was driving
  might cause a wreck that could kill him and look accidental.

Therefore, the language “not poison, just some drugs” should not be understood as proving the scheme was harmless. Secretly administering a strong hallucinogen to someone driving an automobile could readily have produced death or serious injury.

Dr. Edward Gunn and the CIA connection

The physician consulted by Hunt and Liddy was later identified as Dr. Edward Mansfield Gunn. He had worked with the CIA’s technical and medical operations and reportedly possessed knowledge of substances considered in earlier CIA assassination projects.

On March 24, 1972, Hunt, Liddy and Gunn met in the basement dining area of the Hay-Adams Hotel, near the White House. Gunn and Liddy reportedly used aliases because they did not know one another and the matter was highly sensitive.

According to Gunn’s later account to Watergate investigators:

• Hunt said someone was causing serious trouble.
• Hunt wanted a substance that could remove the
  person without leaving evidence.
• Gunn warned that no poison was guaranteed to be
  completely undetectable.
• The men nevertheless discussed LSD or another
  substance applied to a steering wheel.
• They also discussed pills, medicines, induced
  automobile accidents and other methods.

This CIA connection requires careful wording. The evidence does not establish that the CIA director or the CIA as an institution officially ordered Anderson’s assassination. Rather:

• Hunt was a former CIA officer working for the
  Nixon White House.
• He used his CIA contacts to locate a
  knowledgeable physician.
• A CIA-connected specialist discussed possible
  methods.
• Hunt reportedly said the original order came from
  a senior White House official.

Consequently, it is more accurate to call this a Nixon White House operation that sought technical assistance through former or existing CIA connections.

The other proposed methods

Later testimony and Liddy’s account revealed that the steering wheel was only one of several ideas.

“Aspirin roulette”

Hunt and Liddy considered breaking into Anderson’s home and placing a poisoned duplicate of one of his regular tablets in his medicine bottle.

They rejected this partly because:

• Anderson might not take the substituted tablet
  for months.
• His wife or one of his children might take it.
• Locating the correct medicine inside a busy
  household would be difficult.
• A break-in could be discovered.

Drugging a drink

Gunn reportedly mentioned the familiar method of placing a pill in a cocktail. Hunt pointed out that Anderson was a devout Mormon and did not drink alcohol.

A deliberately caused automobile accident

The men considered forcing Anderson’s car off the road or arranging a collision at a location already known for fatal accidents. Such a death could be attributed to dangerous road conditions or ordinary driver error.

A staged street robbery

Liddy reportedly favored killing Anderson in a manner that would resemble random Washington street crime. He suggested attacking or stabbing him and taking his wallet and watch so the death would appear to be a robbery.

These later disclosures make Hunt’s 1975 description of the meeting as a discussion about mere embarrassment difficult to accept at face value.

Charles Colson’s disputed role

Hunt eventually identified Charles Colson as the White House superior who gave him the assignment.

According to Hunt’s later testimony:

• Colson appeared unusually nervous and agitated.
• Hunt believed Colson had just met with President
  Nixon.
• Colson said Anderson had become a major problem
  for the president.
• Anderson was to be stopped “at all costs.”
• Hunt was supposedly authorized to do whatever was
  necessary.
• Colson suggested exploring an apparently
  accidental death involving an untraceable substance.

Colson denied ordering an assassination. Nixon’s personal authorization has never been proved conclusively. Hunt believed Colson would not have initiated something so extreme by himself, but that remains Hunt’s inference rather than definitive proof.

The careful historical conclusion is:

• Hunt and Liddy discussed concrete ways to kill or
  incapacitate Anderson.
• They consulted a CIA-connected physician.
• Hunt said Colson had given him the assignment.
• Colson denied authorizing murder.
• No surviving document or recording definitively
  proves that Nixon personally ordered Anderson’s assassination.

Why the operation was abandoned

The contemporary Washington Post report said the reason was unknown. Later accounts indicate that the discussions ended when Hunt and Liddy were redirected toward another urgent White House operation: the plan to burglarize and bug Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex.

The men met Gunn on March 24, 1972. Within the following months, Hunt and Liddy were deeply involved in planning the Watergate operation. Five burglars were caught inside Democratic headquarters on June 17, 1972, and the resulting investigation ultimately exposed the White House covert operations apparatus.

Thus, Anderson may have escaped partly because Hunt and Liddy became occupied with the operation that eventually destroyed the Nixon presidency.

What the broader 1975 press reported

The story quickly spread beyond The Washington Post and Time:

• The Modesto Bee, September 21, reported
  the proposed poison and former CIA physician.
• The Lima News and Wellington Daily News,
  September 22, reported Hunt’s statement that he had been ordered to
  assassinate Anderson.
• The Burlington Daily Times-News, September
  25, described a CIA-connected poison that supposedly would leave no trace.
• The Dallas Times Herald, September 29,
  emphasized Hunt’s admitted “wild idea” of secretly drugging Anderson.
• The Norwalk Reflector and Doylestown
  Intelligencer, September 29, described the skin-absorbed substance on
  Anderson’s steering wheel.
• Time’s October 6 issue presented Hunt’s attempt
  to recast the affair as a plan to discredit rather than kill Anderson.
• The Senate Intelligence Committee sought Hunt’s
  testimony after Woodward’s disclosure, while the CIA promised cooperation.

It is important, however, not to count every newspaper reproduction as separate corroboration. Many local papers were repeating one of two original reports: Woodward’s Washington Post investigation or David Beckwith’s Time interview with Hunt.

What later evidence established

Later testimony from Hunt, statements and writings by Liddy, Gunn’s account to prosecutors, and congressional investigation collectively established considerably more than was admitted in Hunt’s first Time interview.

The strongest supported conclusions are:

1. Hunt and Liddy genuinely considered covertly administering a powerful drug to Anderson.

2. The steering-wheel method was specifically discussed.

3. They consulted a person with CIA medical and poison expertise.

4. Other methods—including poisoned medicine, a staged automobile collision and a fatal street robbery—were also discussed.

5. Hunt attributed the assignment to Colson and the Nixon White House.

6. Liddy later acknowledged that killing Anderson was regarded as a possible or recommended solution.

7. The operation was never carried out.

8. Nixon’s direct personal order has not been conclusively documented.

A detailed modern reconstruction, drawing on testimony and prosecutorial records, is available in The Washington Post’s 2022 historical investigation. The Senate’s official intelligence investigation is preserved in the Church Committee’s final reports.

Final assessment

The Dallas Times Herald and Time stories captured Hunt’s first public attempt to minimize the episode: he admitted the steering-wheel and drugged-pill discussions but denied an intention to kill Anderson. Woodward’s Washington Post report presented a far darker version—an actual assassination assignment involving an apparently untraceable substance.

The later evidence largely supports Woodward’s conclusion that this went beyond a political prank. Even if one accepts Hunt’s claim that the first objective was to make Anderson ramble incoherently, secretly putting LSD or another skin-absorbed drug on the steering wheel of a moving automobile would have created an obvious risk of a fatal crash. The additional discussions of poisoned medicine, forced automobile collisions and a staged street killing further undermine the claim that the men were interested only in embarrassing Anderson.

The most accurate description is therefore: Nixon White House operatives developed and investigated several plans to incapacitate or assassinate Jack Anderson, sought technical advice through a CIA-connected physician, and abandoned the operation before it was carried out.