| | Daniel F. | Bledsoe | TX - Houston; IL - Chicago; FBIHQ; VA - Quantico; CA - San Diego | 1955 - 1980 | Watergate, American Bar Association | John Ehrlichman | For the FBI Oral History Heritage Project sponsored by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, Inc., which holds the copyright to the material.
Special Agent Daniel F. Bledsoe served in the FBI from 1955 to 1980. This interview took place on August 19, 2009. Interviewed by Brian R. Hollstein.
Raised in California, SA Bledsoe went into the U.S. Marine Corps after high school and fought in the Korean War. After college, he entered on duty with the FBI and was assigned to the Houston Field Office for his first office, where he worked routine cases. He was transferred to the Chicago Field Office and, among other duties, served as the liaison to the American Bar Association. In that role, he met Byron White, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s deputy. He was next transferred to FBIHQ, where he worked the Fugitive Desk with a number of Top Ten arrests.
SA Bledsoe was working the Major Crimes Desk in the General Investigative Division on the day that Watergate broke; in fact, he opened the FBI’s case under the Illegal Interception of Communications statue. SA Bledsoe describes the early hours of the investigation as they unfolded. He notes that L. Patrick Gray had just been appointed as Acting Director of the FBI (just a month after J. Edgar Hoover died) and that Mark Felt was the Associate Director. He tells about the early actions in this case and a try by the White House to have him close it. He turned it over the next day to the eventual case Agent. | Download PDF 1 | | |