Sad Epilogue

Twelve months for $12

Of the 20 or so men who served prison terms for their Watergate crimes, uncooperative G. Gordon Liddy did by far the longest stretch (52 months). Only four others served as long as a year: E. Howard Hunt, former Attorney General John Mitchell and Presidential Aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Prison terms for Perjurer Dwight Chapin (eight months), Burglary Plotters Jeb Magruder (seven months) and Egil Krogh (four months), Cover-Up Conspirator Charles Colson (seven months), Illegal Fund-Raiser Herbert Kalmbach (six months), John Dean (less than five months) and Dirty Trickster Donald Segretti (four months) seemed light to some, just to others.

Now another key figure in the historic incident is serving time: Frank Wills, the $80-a-week night-shift security guard who discovered the Watergate break-in and called police. Wills, 35, has been unemployed and living with his mother in North Augusta, S.C. Last week Wills was convicted just across the state line in Augusta, Ga., of shoplifting shoes. He said they were to be a gift for his son, 15. In any case, unlike almost all of the Watergate criminals. Wills got the maximum jail sentence: twelve months for stealing a $12 pair of sneakers. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.