John Dean

On February 4, 1962, he married Karla Ann Hennings and had a son with her. However, they divorced in 1970 and he married Maureen Kane on October 13, 1972.

John Wesley Dean was born in Akron, Ohio, and was raised in Marion for a couple of years, before the family moved to Flossmoor, Illinois. He then attended Staunton Military Academy for high school and Colgate University for his undergraduate course. However, he shifted to The College of Wooster in Ohio, from where he finally completed his B.A. in 1961.

In 1965, he earned his ‘Juris Doctor’ degree from Georgetown University Law Center, following which he joined a law firm in Washington, D.C.

From 1966 to 1967, Dean was recruited as the chief minority advisor to the Republican members at the ‘United States House Committee on the Judiciary’. He was then employed as the associate director of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws for two years.

In 1968, during President Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign, he volunteered to write position papers on crime and the following year, he served under Attorney General, John N. Mitchell as the associate deputy in office.

Richard Nixon, the then president, was impressed with Dean’s commitment and appointed him as the personal counsel and the existing counselor, John Ehrlichman, was re-appointed as the chief domestic advisor.

During the campaign in 1972, Dean and a couple of other former FBI agents and members of Committee of the Re-Election of the President presented an initial plan for intelligence operations which was unapproved. They were asked to scale down the plan and attempts to spy on the Democratic National Committee were carried out.

The burglars broke in at the Watergate complex twice, both of which took place in 1972. After the offenders were taken into custody and questioned, Dean took the evidence and money and destroyed some of it before the remainder was found by investigators.

‘Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush’ drew attention to the military and administrative issues that were carried out under the President’s tenure. Although this book attracted negative publicity, it was rated by critics as one of the ‘boldest publications’ by a former-White House member, in the last decade.