Overview

Bernard Leon Barker (1917-2009) was a Cuban-American who served as one of the five burglars arrested inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. Barker was born in Havana to an American father and Cuban mother, served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II (where he was shot down and held as a POW), and later became deeply involved in anti-Castro Cuban exile activities. Barker had a long relationship with the CIA dating to the late 1950s and early 1960s. He served as a fieldagent during the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and maintained contact with former CIA officer E. Howard Hunt, who recruited him for the White House Plumbers unit and later for the Watergate break-in. Barker believed he was participating in a national security operation aimed at identifying foreign (specifically Cuban) funding of the Democratic Party. Barker recruited fellow Cuban exiles Virgilio Gonzalez and Eugenio Martinez, along with Frank Sturgis, for the break-in team. They were arrested alongside James McCord inside the DNC offices early on June 17, 1972. Barker was found carrying $6,300 in consecutively numbered $100 bills that were later traced to Nixon campaign funds laundered through a Mexican bank, one of the first threads that connected the burglary to the Nixon re-election campaign. Barker pleaded guilty to conspiracy, burglary, and wiretapping in January 1973 and was sentenced to 18 months to 6 years. He served approximately 14 months before being released. Judge John Sirica later reduced his sentence. Barker maintained throughout his life that he believed he was serving his country. He died in 2009 at age 92.

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Related Investigations (1)

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Sources & Documentation

3 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports