AMERICAN NOTES: The Forgotten Man

On the night of June 17, 1972, Frank Wills was working as a security guard at Washington's Watergate complex. He noticed on his first round that the latch of a basement door had been taped open. Wills assumed workmen that day had done it; so he removed the tape and continued his patrol. When he came around again, however, he found that the tape had been replaced. Wills called the police. The five Watergate burglars were arrested, and the episode became part of the currently traumatic American history.

Wills alone gained an instant obscurity from the episode. He received...

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