page_title: Louis J. Russell
section_title: Watergate scandal
hierarchical_section_title: Louis J. Russell / Career / Watergate scandal
caption_attribution_description: English: A photo of the Watergate Complex taken from a DC-9-80 inbound to Washington National Airport on January 8, 2006.
context_page_description: Louis James Russell was an American special agent and investigator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and a private detective agency involved in the Watergate scandal.
context_section_description: In 1971, Russell was working for General Security Services a security guard service whose clients included the Watergate offices. After the Watergate break-in in 1972, James W. McCord Jr. "refused to discuss Russell under any circumstances and ... would not discuss Watergate with any writer who so much as expressed interest in Lou Russell." From June 20 to July 2, 1973, Russell was working for a detective agency that was helping George Herbert Walker Bush—then chairman of the Republican National Committee—prepare for a press conference.
  According to attorney Gerald Alch, McCord hired "an old associate of his" [Russell] to his company Security International, Inc. Bob Smith, aide and office manager to attorney Bernard Fensterwald recounted that McCord had obtained a contract to provide security to the Republican National Committee. Unable to cash McCord's checks, Russell brought some dozen checks over time to Fensterwald's office at the "Committee to Investigate Assassinations", which Fensterwald would cash. During the Watergate break-in, Russell was checked into a Howard Johnson's Motel across from Watergate.
  Russell died of a massive heart attack on July 2, 1973, at his daughter's home in Calvert County, Maryland.
caption: Russell was involved in the Watergate scandal
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