Picture the scene for a second. It is late at
night on October 20th, 1973. Oh man, what a night.
Right. Washington, D .C. feels like it's on the
brink of an actual nervous breakdown. The government
is effectively tearing itself apart in real time.
Yeah, it was a Saturday, but I guarantee you
nobody at the Department of Justice was sleeping.
Not a chance. I mean, the attorney general has
just resigned. The deputy attorney general has
just resigned. And the special prosecutor investigating
the president of the United States has just been
fired. The Saturday Night Massacre. Exactly.
It sounds like a title for a horror movie. And
honestly, for the American legal system, it essentially
was. It was arguably the single most traumatic
night in the history of the Department of Justice.
And amidst all this chaos. The phones are ringing
off the hook. News reporters are scrambling all
over the place. And then the physical reality
of it all sets in. Right. The actual on the ground
consequences. Yes, because FBI agents are literally
marching toward an office building on K Street
and they aren't there to investigate a crime.
They are there to seal off the special prosecutor's
office. To completely shut it down. Shut it down,
seize the files, all of it. The order from the
White House was to abolish the office entirely,
wipe it off the map. But when these federal agents
get to the suite, ready to tape up the doors
and take total control, there is one man standing
in the doorway. Just one guy. Yeah, and he isn't
the famous Archibald Cox because he's already
gone. And he isn't... The heavy hitter, Leon
Jaworski, because he hasn't even arrived yet.
It's this guy named Henry S. Ruth Jr. So everyone
in Washington just knew him as Hank. Hank Ruth.
Yeah. And he looks the FBI in the eye and basically
says, you are not touching these files. I'm going
up there. That confrontation right there is the
moment the entire Watergate investigation was
saved. It really is. If Hank Ruth steps aside,
if he just lets the FBI seize those file cabinets
without putting up a fight. The whole case against
Richard Nixon might have evaporated that very
night. So welcome to the deep dive. Today we
aren't focusing on the names you usually see
in the movies, you know, the Nixons, the Woodwards,
the Bernsteins. We are focusing on Hank Ruth.
The man who saved the evidence. And the man who
eventually became the third, yes, the third Watergate
special prosecutor. Which is such a necessary
correction to the history books if you think
about it. We totally love the great man theory
of history. Oh, absolutely. We have Cox the martyr
and Jaworski the closer. But Ruth was the glue.
He was the operational brain who basically kept
the heart beating when the head had been cut
off. The glue. I really like that. And looking
at the stack of sources we have for you today,
his biography, the legal reports from the era,
his obituaries, this guy had a resume that reads
like a literal map. of 20th century American
tension. He really did. He didn't just stumble
into Watergate by accident. No, he did organized
crime, civil rights in the Deep South, and eventually
he even weighed in on the Clinton impeachment
years later. He was this Zelig -like figure popping
up at every major stress test of the American
legal system. But what's so fascinating is that
he was not a showman. Not at all. He was a mechanic.
He understood how the machine of justice worked,
and more importantly, he knew how to fix it when
it broke. Okay, so let's unpack this. Because
you don't just wake up one morning with the nerve
to stare down the FBI. You have to be built for
that. Who was Hank Ruth before that Saturday
night? Well, the foundation is pretty interesting.
He was born in Philadelphia in 1931, went to
Yale, was a member of St. Anthony Hall, then
got his law degree from UPenn in 1955. So a standard
Ivy League pedigree on paper. Exactly. Standard
on paper. But his family background gives us
this little clue to his personality. His father,
Henry Swartley Ruth, was a pioneer in modern
anesthesiology. Wait, anesthesiology? Yes. That
is actually oddly fitting. How so? Well, think
about it. Anesthesiology is all about precision.
Right. It's about monitoring the vital signs,
keeping someone totally stable, managing a literal
life or death crisis calmly while everyone else
in the room is operating. I actually hadn't thought
of it that way. But yes, it is entirely about
discipline. Right. And Hank Ruth took that exact
discipline to the U .S. Army Intelligence Service
first. And then the real training began in 1961
when he joined the Department of Justice. And
we should clarify, this isn't just any DOJ. This
is the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice.
Correct. And that distinction matters immensely.
Before RFK, the federal government, specifically
J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. was surprisingly reluctant
to even admit that the mafia existed as a national
network. Which is crazy to think about now. It
is, but Kennedy changed that. He created the
organized crime section and hired these young,
hungry lawyers to go after systemic corruption.
Hank Ruth was one of those guys. And they didn't
just send him to New York or Chicago immediately.
I was reading about this one case in Redding,
Pennsylvania. It sounds like small -town drama,
but it was massive. It was a crucial testing
ground for him. Ruth teamed up with another prosecutor
named Thomas McBride, and they weren't just looking
for some guy running a numbers racket on the
corner. Right. They were looking at the whole
structure. Yes, the structure that allowed the
racket to exist in the first place. And they
actually found it at the very top. They did.
Their investigation led directly to the indictment
of the mayor of Reading, John C. Kubacki, and
the chief of police, Charles S. Wade. Then think
about that for a second. He's this young lawyer,
and he is indicting the chief of police in his
own town. It takes a very specific kind of fortitude.
You have to be willing to look at a badge or
a title and say that doesn't make you innocent.
It taught Ruth early on that corruption often
wears a nice suit and sits in a fancy office.
Which is a pretty good warm up for investigating
the White House. Exactly. But he definitely didn't
stop there. In 1964, the DOJ sent him down the
Mississippi. This was right after the Civil Rights
Act was passed, right? Immediately after. The
federal government had to send lawyers down south
to enforce the new law because local law enforcement
just flat out refused to do it. That must have
been incredibly tense. It was a very dangerous
time. The Klan was highly active. There was violence
against civil rights workers constantly. And
the local police were often openly hostile to
the feds. So before he ever steps foot in the
Watergate office, Ruth has dealt with mob racketeers.
taken down corrupt mayors, and he's faced the
intense racial hostility of the Deep South. He
was battle -hardened. He wasn't some academic
just theorizing about justice. He had been in
the literal trenches. He also spent time in administration,
too. Oh, right. He was a deputy director for
LBJ's National Crime Commission and worked for
New York City Mayor John Lindsay. Right. So he
knew the bureaucracy inside and out. He knew
how to run an office. He knew the paperwork,
the procedures, all of it. So when May 1973 rolls
around and Archibald Cox is setting up the brand
new Watergate Special Prosecution Force, he needs
a deputy who can actually make the place function
day to day. And he hires Hank Ruth. He hires
Hank Ruth. The number two. The guy who keeps
the lights on. The guy who ensures the subpoenas
are filed correctly and the massive staff is
organized. Cox was the public face, the distinguished
Harvard professor. Ruth was the guy making sure
the engine was actually running. Okay, so let's
fast forward to the main event, the Saturday
Night Massacre. We mentioned it at the top of
the show, but let's really break down the mechanics
of why it blew up the way it did. Because it
wasn't just random. No, it was a slow -moving
constitutional collision. It all came down to
the tapes. Archibald Cox had subpoenaed the White
House recordings. Nixon flat out refused to give
them up. Nixon offered a written summary instead.
Yes. And Cox said, no, I need the actual evidence.
I need the tapes themselves. And Nixon decides,
OK, if you won't take the summary, you're fired.
But here is the catch. The president couldn't
just directly fire the special prosecutor. The
office was created under the specific authority
of the attorney general. Right. So Nixon calls
up Attorney General Elliot Richardson and orders
him to fire Cox. But Richardson's a man of principle.
He refuses. Refuses and resigns immediately.
That's chaos level one. Yeah. Then Nixon calls
the deputy attorney general William Ruckelshaus.
He says, you're the boss now. Fire Cox. And Ruckelshaus
also refuses. He refuses. And he resigns. Chaos
level two. Unbelievable. Finally, they get down
to the solicitor general, the number three guy
at the DOJ, Robert Bork. And Bork agrees to do
it. He writes the formal letter firing Cox. But
Nixon didn't just want the man gone. He wanted
the entire investigation dead. Correct. He ordered
the office completely abolished. He wanted the
charter revoked and all the files turned over
to the FBI. He basically wanted to wipe the slate
completely clean. And that brings us right back
to K Street. It's late. The DOJ leadership has
just decapitated itself. And the FBI agents arrive
at the office. And Hank Ruth is the senior man
left standing there. Now put yourself in his
shoes for a second. The president of the United
States has just ordered your boss fired and your
entire office closed. And these federal agents
standing in front of you have valid orders. Honestly,
most people would just grab their coat and leave.
Most people would. But Ruth didn't. He told the
agents, let me tell you something. I'm going
up there. He just forces his way in. He basically
forced his way into the conversation to ensure
the handover wasn't just a hostile raid. But
more importantly, he turned to his staff, you
know, the young lawyers and secretaries who are
crying and panicking. And he made a compact with
them. A compact. He told everyone, stay in your
offices. Do not go home. Guard the files. Why
was that so critical? Like legally speaking.
Chain of custody. If the FBI had swept in and
seized everything without any oversight and those
boxes just disappeared into some dark room at
the DOJ for a week, any defense lawyer worth
their salt could argue later on that the evidence
had been tampered with. They could say, how do
we know a file didn't go missing? How do we know
a fake one wasn't added? Exactly. By keeping
the staff there, by physically occupying the
space, Ruth preserved the legal integrity of
the evidence. Samuel Dash, the counsel to the
Senate Watergate Committee, said something incredibly
profound about this exact moment. He said, but
for Hank Ruth, there might not have been a Watergate
staff at all. And it is not an exaggeration.
The momentum could have completely died that
night. The files could have been buried forever.
Ruth kept the oxygen flowing to the investigation
when literally everyone else was trying to smother
it. So for the next two weeks, while the whole
country is losing its mind, Ruth is technically
running the show. He was the acting special prosecutor
and he didn't hide either. He publicly called
the firing of Cox, quote, straight obstruction
of justice. He held the line until Leon Jaworski
was officially appointed. And then, and I think
this really speaks to his character, he just
goes right back to being the deputy. Zero ego.
He served Jaworski just as loyally as he served
Cox. They get the indictments. They get the big
Supreme Court ruling. And Nixon resigns in August
1974. But the story does not end there. I think
a lot of people forget this part. Nixon gets
on the helicopter, does the famous V sign, and
leaves. But the special prosecutor's office did
just close up shop the next day. Far from it.
Jaworski actually resigns in October 1974, feeling
like his main job is done. But there is still
a ton of work to do. So President Ford appoints
Hank Ruth as the new special prosecutor, the
third man in the seat. And he had a massive loose
end to tie up, the 18 and a half minute gap.
The famous gap. Three days after the original
Watergate break -in, there was a recorded conversation
between Nixon and his chief of staff, H .R. Haldeman.
And the tape of that conversation had an 18 and
a half minute buzz where the audio was deliberately
erased. Ruth was obsessed with finding out who
did it. He actually questioned Nixon about it
in person, right? He did. Just imagine that scene.
Ruth flies all the way to California to question
the former president. The man who saved the files
questioning the man who tried to destroy them.
Did he actually get an answer? No. Nixon just
gave non -answers. Ruth tried to find out if
it was Nixon's secretary, Rosemary Woods, or
Nixon himself. But he just hit a brick wall.
That must have been infuriating. He later expressed
this deep frustration with the whole, quote,
code of silence. He said it wasn't as though
we had a lot of cooperating witnesses walking
into our office asking to be questioned. So even
with the presidency gone, the cover -up culture
was still holding strong. It absolutely was.
Ruth couldn't legally prove who erased the tape,
but he didn't let that stop the rest of the work.
He stayed in office until October 1975 and submitted
a massive final report, 277 pages. Let's look
at the scorecard from that report because it
is staggering. 55 individuals and 20 corporations
convicted or pleaded guilty. It was a massive
criminal enterprise. It wasn't just some third
-rate burglary like they claimed. It was a systemic
abuse of power involving dozens of powerful people.
And Ruth made sure every bit of it was documented.
But, and here's where it gets really interesting
for you listening, there was one legal conclusion
in that report that might actually surprise people,
especially given how hard Ruth fought against
the administration. You mean the pardon? Yes.
President Ford had pardoned Nixon a month after
he resigned. The country was furious. People
wanted Nixon in handcuffs. Hankruth had spent
years chasing this guy. But what did he actually
say in the report? He concluded that the pardon
was not illegal interference. He stated very
clearly it was an appropriate use of presidential
power under the Constitution. That is just wild.
The guy who literally called the firing of Cox
obstruction of justice says letting Nixon off
the hook is totally legal. It demonstrates his
absolute unshakable integrity. He wasn't a partisan
headhunter. He was a lawyer. He believed the
firing of Cox was a crime because it directly
interfered with an active investigation. Right.
But he also believed the Constitution gave the
president the explicit power to pardon, period.
He didn't like it personally. He clearly wanted
accountability, but he followed the law wherever
it led. He separated his personal feelings from
the legal reality. That is incredibly rare. It
is. He trusted the system even when the outcome
of that system was deeply frustrating to him.
So Watergate finally ends. The report is filed.
Ruth steps down. What does a guy like that even
do next? Well, in a move that might seem totally
contradictory to an outsider, he went into private
practice and became a defense attorney. The ultimate
prosecutor becomes the defender. It's actually
quite common for the best legal minds. He joined
the firm Shea and Gardner. And get this, he ended
up defending high -profile political figures
like Billy Carter. Wait, President Jimmy Carter's
brother, the Billy Beer guy. The very same. During
the Billigate investigation regarding his ties
to Libya, Ruth also defended Hamilton Jordan,
who was Carter's chief of staff. So he went from
prosecuting the president's men to literally
defending the president's men. It really shows
his belief that the justice system only works
if everyone has a vigorous defense. But there
was one moment in the late 80s where his past
came roaring right back. Oh, the Bork nomination.
Exactly. In 1987, President Reagan nominated
Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Now, remember
Bork? He was the guy who pulled the trigger.
He was the solicitor general who fired Archibald
Cox during the Saturday Night Massacre. Correct.
And Hank Ruth came forward to publicly testify
against Bork's nomination. That must have felt
personal. I think it was entirely principled,
though. Ruth's argument wasn't, I hate this guy.
It was that Bork had prioritized the president's
political wishes over the independence of the
justice system. Ah, I see. Ruth felt that if
you are willing to fire a special prosecutor
just because the president tells you to, you
do not have the independence required to sit
on the Supreme Court. And his testimony actually
helped sink the nomination. So at this point,
Democrats must absolutely love him right. He
took down Nixon's crew. He stopped Bork. But
then we get to the 90s. And here is the plot
twist. In the 1990s, Ruth wrote a series of columns
for the Wall Street Journal, and he turned his
sights directly on Bill Clinton. This was regarding
the Lewinsky scandal. Yes, he was scathing. He
outright accused President Clinton of, quote,
presidential perjury and obstruction. So he sees
Clinton doing the same kinds of things, lying
under oath, hiding evidence, and he calls it
straight out. Exactly. He didn't say, well, he's
a Democrat, so it's different. He saw the pattern
of obstruction and he attacked it. That is remarkably
consistent. I mean, he went after a Republican
president for obstruction. He testified against
a conservative judge. And then he went after
a Democratic president for obstruction. It circles
right back to what we said at the beginning.
Ruth was loyal to the law, not to a political
party. If you obstructed justice, he didn't care
if there was an R or a D after your name. He
called it out. He eventually retired to Tucson,
Arizona and passed away in 2012. But looking
back at his entire life, it really feels like
the Saturday Night Massacre is the defining moment.
It has to be. It is the fulcrum of his life and
maybe even of that era of history. Because it's
the exact moment where everything hung in the
balance. You know, we talk about checks and balances
in civics class, like they're these... automatic
machines, like, oh, the court checks the president
and the Congress checks the court. But on that
specific night, the check wasn't a court order
or a document. It was a human being. That is
the most important lesson here, I think. The
system is only ever as strong as the people manning
the posts. When the institutions totally failed,
when the AG resigned and the special prosecutor
was fired, the last line of defense wasn't a
rule book. It was Hank Ruth standing in a doorway
telling the FBI to back off. I'm going up there.
Precisely. If he doesn't do that, if he just
packs up and goes home to his family like anyone
else would, the chain of evidence breaks, the
whole narrative changes. We might not even know
what was in those files today. He was the ultimate
quiet professional. He didn't seek the limelight.
He didn't write some sensational tell -all book
trashing everyone he worked with. He just did
the job. And he accepted the results of that
job, even when it meant Nixon got a pardon. He
trusted the system, but he fought like hell to
make sure the system was actually allowed to
function first. It really is an incredible story
of a man who was always in the room where it
happened, even if history has sort of cropped
him out of the main photo. Hank Ruth, the third
prosecutor, the one who saved the evidence. A
legacy definitely worth remembering. Absolutely.
Now, before I let you go, here's a provocative
thought to chew on. We talked about how Ruth
concluded that Ford's pardon of Nixon was strictly
legal. He spent his entire life fighting for
accountability. Yet he accepted that one man
could wipe away the crimes of another with a
simple stroke of a pen. It is the great paradox
of the presidency. It really is. So ask yourself
this. In our system of checks and balances, is
the presidential pardon the ultimate check against
a vindictive justice system? Or is it the ultimate
loophole that places one person? entirely above
the law. And perhaps the deeper question for
you to think about if Hank Ruth hadn't been stubborn
enough to stand in that doorway that night would
we even have enough evidence to be asking that
question today? That is the question. Thanks
for diving deep with us. See you next time.