Scope and Content Note
The papers of Louis Patrick Gray III (1916-2005) span the years 1931-2008. The collection focuses on Gray's time as acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the administration of President Richard M. Nixon and the impact of this period on his life in the following years. The papers are organized into eight series: General Correspondence, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Legal File, Speeches and Writings, Alphabetical File, Closed, Classified, and Oversize.
While the L. Patrick Gray III Papers contain material relating to his military career in the United States Navy, his work as a lawyer in private practice, and his positions in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Department of Justice in the early years of the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, the major focus of the papers is Gray’s experience as the acting head of the FBI, following the death of J. Edgar Hoover, from May 1972 to April 1973. The Watergate Affair is a key topic; the papers chronicle the FBI investigation into the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, Gray’s actions at the time, and his recounting and explanation of these events during testimony at congressional hearings and before grand juries, while under investigation by the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and in preparation for writing a book. The changes and tensions in the FBI following the death of J. Edgar Hoover are another topic covered in the material. The collection also chronicles Gray’s indictment, along with W. Mark Felt (associate director of the FBI), and Edward S. Miller (head of the FBI's Domestic Intelligence Division), for allegedly authorizing break-ins aimed at locating Weather Underground (Weatherman) fugitives while he was acting director of the FBI. Originals and copies of memoranda, reports, notes, testimony, and correspondence relating to Gray’s actions and those of others in the FBI in response to events in 1972 and 1973 appear in numerous series throughout the collection because Gray used documents from his personal FBI files as background and exhibits in hearings and legal proceedings and as resource material for a prospective memoir. Some documents contain dated comments written by Gray when he reviewed them in later years. Additional material was compiled by his son, Ed Gray, in the preparation of Gray’s posthumous memoir. W. Mark Felt figures prominently in the collection.
A small General Correspondence series contains letters received by Gray and copies of his responses. They are primarily of a personal nature and most date from the 1970s and 1980s. Correspondents include FBI agents and officials, figures from the Nixon administration, and friends. A number are letters of support and congratulations when the charges against Gray were dropped in 1980. A file of correspondence with W. Mark Felt also contains notes on telephone conversations and copies of letters Gray sent to his lawyer in response to one of Felt’s letters.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation series comprises files generated during Gray’s year as acting director. Position papers on issues, practices, and proposed changes at the FBI, memoranda to special agents in charge, notes Gray took at meetings, and notes he added to routing slips illuminate the actions of the FBI under his leadership. Information relating to the Watergate Affair is scattered throughout the collection, but among the material found in this series is the Watergate detailed memoranda file Gray used at his confirmation hearings, general investigation division summaries of the break-in investigation, a compilation of questions and answers, and digital files containing scans of the FBI’s Watergate file obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Other files relate to the hijacking of aircraft, the George C. Wallace assassination attempt, the American Indian Movement occupation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and the Weatherman. Also included are a compilation of press clippings about Gray and the FBI during that period, congratulatory correspondence, and letters sent to Gray after the withdrawal of his nomination. Some documents that had once been part of Gray’s FBI files are now part of other series. The Legal File series contains documents Gray used as exhibits when he testified before the Watergate hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, as documentation submitted in response to the investigation by the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and as part of his defense in the United States v. Gray. Although United States v. Gray centered on actions taken with regard to the Weatherman, documents pulled together as general exhibits also pertain to the FBI response to other events including the Watergate burglary investigation and the American Indian Movement occupation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Speeches delivered by Gray as acting FBI director and documents he gathered as resource material for his memoir are located in the Speeches and Writings series.
The Legal File series documents Gray’s involvement in congressional hearings, grand juries, investigations, and federal and civil legal cases in the years after his resignation from the FBI that stemmed from his tenure as acting director. Gray's relationship with his lawyers is evident throughout the series. Notes Gray wrote for his lawyers describe his memories and thoughts about the issues under consideration and explain the documents he reviewed to prepare for testimony or plan his legal defense. His detailed notes of telephone conversations and correspondence with his attorneys recount his feelings about the legal investigations and prosecution as well as statements about him in the press. Gray’s files are supplemented by those kept by his lawyer, Stephen H. Sachs. The bulk of the files relate to the Watergate Affair and United States v. Gray. FBI memoranda, notes, and reports relating to the investigation into the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, press reporting on the investigation, and leaks to the press are included in a set of numbered exhibits pertaining to Gray’s Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. Additional documents relating to Gray’s actions were submitted in response to requests by the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and are filed with material on that investigation. Among the files compiled during the course of United States v. Gray are discovery documents and exhibits pertaining to the FBI procedures and the response to terrorism and events of the period. Gray v. Bell, the lawsuit Gray filed against Attorney General Griffin Bell and others after the charges against him were dropped, is among the material pertaining to civil litigation in which he was involved. Transcripts and notes about grand jury testimony are filed in the Closed series.
The Speeches and Writings series features writings, recordings, and resource material that Gray created and compiled for a book project he began in the 1970s and early 1980s but discontinued until the end of his life when his son, Ed Gray, resumed work on the memoir and published In Nixon’s Web: A Year in the Crosshairs of Watergatethree years after his father's death. Among the book project material are handwritten narratives, sample chapter drafts, recordings, and edited transcripts of tape recordings Gray made in 1978-1979. A numerical file contains resource material that Gray compiled; original folders with his original labels have been retained. Among the material relating to In Nixon’s Web are digital files documenting Ed Gray’s research and resource material, including scans of documents from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s papers at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and transcripts and recordings of conversations from Nixon’s White House tapes. Typescripts of speeches and remarks delivered by Gray while at the Department of Justice and the FBI are also part of this series.
The Alphabetical File series contains material pertaining to other phases of Gray’s life, including his tenures as executive assistant to secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Robert Finch, and assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Civil Division. Appointment books, photographs, and a scrapbook supplement those files. A grouping of military papers document Gray’s twenty-year career in the United States Navy and includes copies of Gray’s letters to friends and relations that provide details about his family life. Files from the Pat Gray Legal Defense Fund document the effort by United States Naval Academy classmates and other supporters to ease the financial burden of years of legal defense. A press problems file reveals Gray's reaction to statements about him in the press, and his annotations in books written by others about the FBI offer Gray's thoughts on their accounts of him and his tenure there. Material from the last year of Gray's life focuses on his private and public response to W. Mark Felt's announcement in 2005 that he was "Deep Throat," the informant who assisted Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with their reporting on the Watergate Affair.
The remaining series comprises a Closed segment of material relating to grand jury testimony, Classified documents, and Oversize items.