Fred LaRue
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Frederick Cheney LaRue, usually known as Fred LaRue, (b. October 11, 1928, Athens, Texas - d. July 24, 2004, Biloxi, Mississippi) was a high-ranking official in the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon who served time in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. LaRue was the first Administration official to plead guilty to involvement in the scandal.
LaRue was a member of a family that made a fortune in the oil business. He was a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He was a heavy financial contributor to Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in 1964. He was also a longtime friend of the powerful Mississippi Democratic Senator James Eastland. After Goldwater lost the election, LaRue began getting involved in Nixon's climb to the 1968 Republican nomination. LaRue was one of the principal architects of Nixon's so-called "Southern strategy" for winning the election, part of which he helped coordinate with advertisements from the campaign office of Strom Thurmond. LaRue also recommended the use of a "special ballad-type song in the current 'country-and-western music style, by which nationally famous artists will sing the message via the radio and TV." The song was called "Bring Our Country Back" and included "alternate" lyrics with the couplet: "Dick Nixon is a decent man/Who can bring our country back." LaRue proposed putting the song on local radio and television programs throughout the South. However, he had difficulty lining up artists to perform the song; everybody either backed George Wallace or did not want to help Nixon. Eventually, LaRue managed to convince Roy Acuff and Tex Ritter to perform versions of the song.
LaRue, with Eastland's help, smoothed the process for the confirmation of many of Nixon's judicial nominees. He was special assistant in an "advisory capacity" to then-Attorney General John Mitchell, who later headed Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President. LaRue attended the Key Biscayne, Florida meeting on March 30, 1972, at which Mitchell and Jeb Magruder approved a "dirty tricks" campaign against the Democratic Party; LaRue always vehemently denied that Nixon himself had any initial knowledge of the planned Watergate break-in. LaRue was known as the "bagman" because he delivered $250,000 in cash to keep participants in the Watergate break-in quiet. He pled guilty to the obstruction of justice in July 1973 and served four and a half months in federal prison.
LaRue denied rumors that he was Deep Throat, the secret informant who was a key source of information for many of the Watergate stories written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for the Washington Post.