By JENNIFER KAY, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI SHORES, Fla. - E. Howard Hunt may hold a controversial niche in American history, but mourners at his funeral Monday expressed only admiration for the man who helped organize the Watergate break-in.
Hunt died Jan. 23 after a bout with pneumonia. He was 88.
We're sad he never got to see it in its finished form," Austin Hunt said. Hunt always insisted he wasn't a Watergate burglar, often saying he preferred the term "Watergate conspirator." He eventually spent 33 months in prison for helping plan the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, leading to the greatest scandal in American political history and the downfall of Richard Nixon's presidency.
While working for the CIA, Hunt recruited four of the five actual burglars, who had worked for him in the Bay of Pigs invasion. The four also had ties to Miami, where part of the Watergate plan was hatched. Hunt said their goal at the Watergate was to see whether Fidel Castro's Cuban regime had given money to the campaign of Nixon's Democratic opponent, George McGovern. It hadn't. Fallout from the break-in led Nixon to resign Aug. 9, 1974.
Hunt's son, Austin, said it was touching to have close friends and family pay tribute to his father. "They were proud of my father and the things that he did," Austin Hunt said after the service. "He was remembered well."
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