Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 024-097
Date: Monday, May 15, 1972 at 6:45 PM
Participants: White House operator; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Kleindienst, Richard G.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/024-097

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello?
[0:01] I am at the Kleindienstamm, at the Black Steers.
[0:05] Dick, the President just talked to Ehrlichman, and he'll be calling you on, or Pat Gray, on getting the FBI into this thing.
[0:13] We're concerned about not getting the identity and details on this guy.
[0:19] You're concerned about what?
[0:20] Getting the identity and details on the assailant.
[0:23] Yeah, there were three of them.
[0:25] Okay.
[0:26] Hello?
[0:27] Yeah.
[0:28] Dick?
[0:30] You probably have forgotten the Kennedy assassination, but the Secret Service was a wipeout.
[0:37] It will be a wipeout this time.
[0:39] I have directed that the FBI get into this case because there was a federal officer, a Secret Service man shot, second point.
[0:46] Yeah, I did that five minutes after the gunshot.
[0:47] Right.
[0:48] But the main thing is, get somebody over there.
[0:51] I think it should be Pat Gray, and if not Pat Gray, yourself.
[0:55] with on our side who gets in and questions the son of a bitch before the left-wing press and the rest gets in and does it.
[1:02] Do you understand?
[1:03] On the assailant?
[1:04] Yes.
[1:05] Mr. President, I'll tell you what they're doing with him now.
[1:07] What are they doing?
[1:08] He's locked up in a jail and they've got a police cordon around the jail so nobody can get to him.
[1:14] But my God, you mean nobody can go in and question him?
[1:18] Why not?
[1:19] Because of Miranda and all the rest?
[1:21] Well, sure.
[1:21] If you went in and questioned that kid right now, I think the best thing to do is to keep him isolated from everybody.
[1:28] We've got to find out, though, what the situation is.
[1:31] What do you mean?
[1:31] You're going to put him there?
[1:32] Does he have a lawyer?
[1:33] Has he said who he is?
[1:35] Does anybody know anything?
[1:37] All you're depending upon is the Maryland police?
[1:39] Now, good God, we've got a better FBI.
[1:41] The FBI were out there 15 minutes after it occurred.
[1:43] And what are they doing?
[1:46] What have they found out?
[1:48] They've investigated it.
[1:49] They know the general identity of the person.
[1:51] There were three teenage boys who were involved in the thing.
[1:54] Why?
[1:55] They have him in custody, and they are being, you know... What, the three teenage boys were doing something, too?
[2:01] There were three people, three teenage boys who were involved in this, Mr. President.
[2:05] What were they doing?
[2:06] One of them had a gun, and the other two were with him.
[2:09] Yeah, but I mean, this was the teenager that shot.
[2:12] Yeah, yeah, that's our latest information.
[2:15] Well, the thing that we got here at the White House was a 35-year-old man.
[2:18] Yeah, that was incorrect, sir.
[2:20] Incorrect.
[2:20] They were teenagers, huh?
[2:21] Yes, sir.
[2:21] They're all under custody.
[2:22] One of them was rather severely beaten.
[2:25] All white?
[2:26] All white.
[2:27] There's no racial overtones involved.
[2:28] Right.
[2:30] And they are completely kept away.
[2:31] There will be no reporters or anybody else like that.
[2:34] That's the point.
[2:36] You've got to be sure...
[2:37] Let me say, the first news must not be in the Washington Post.
[2:41] Now, just make sure of that.
[2:43] God damn it, be sure that the FBI gets here before they do.
[2:46] That's all I ask.
[2:48] Any interview of that person right now, I think, would be impossible, Mr. President.
[2:53] What are you going to do, just leave him there?
[2:56] At the present time, until we establish that there's a federal offense, at which time we'll get out an indictment and we'll have them transferred.
[3:02] But I think they're very well secured.
[3:05] That was my latest information.
[3:06] There's no federal... You don't consider it as a federal offense?
[3:09] Yes, sir, it is.
[3:10] Sure.
[3:10] Well, then I'd establish it and get them out of there right away.
[3:14] Okay.
[3:14] Okay, sir.
[3:15] Bye.
[3:15] I've been working on it all.