The five burglars nabbed by the police officers were James McCord (above), Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martnez, and Frank Sturgis, according to ABC News. All of the burglars were ultimately connected to President Nixon’s reelection campaign. James McCord was the security chief of the Committee to Re-elect the President, and the other four burglars had CIA connections, according to Britannica. The burglars had been sent in to fix wiretaps which had previously been placed in the offices, but which were no longer working, according to History. Initially, President Nixon insisted he wasn’t connected to the burglars, and the public bought his story; he was reelected to the office that fall. It wasn’t until a journalistic investigation was published after the election that Nixon faced consequences for his role in the break-in, and ultimately resigned.
In the meantime, the burglars themselves faced prison time on charges of conspiracy and burglary. All of the burglars involved were convicted and sentenced to at least a year in prison, though McCord’s sentence was eventually commuted to only four months, according to ABC News.
For his part in uncovering the crime, security guard Frank Wills was given an award by the Democratic National Convention, acknowledging his “unique role in the history of the nation,” according to The New York Times.
