Politics/Government

As the United States Congress moves into another round of impeachment hearings, who will remember Frank Wills.

When security guard Frank Wills made his rounds through the Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in Washington, DC on June 17, 1972, at 12:20a.m. he noticed an office door open and the lock covered with tape. He removed the tape, closed the door, and continued his rounds.

During his next set of rounds at 1:47a.m. Wills saw the same door open and the lock taped. Housed behind the unlocked doors was the Democratic National Committee Office. Suspicious, Wills called the District of Columbia Police. They arrested five men.  All of them tied to the Committee to Reelect the President (Nixon), and so began the Watergate investigation leading to the resignation of President Richard Milhous Nixon on August 9, 1974. 

Wills earned $80.00 per week as a security guard. After the Watergate break-in, he worked for Dick Gregory and made some money appearing on talk shows. 

In the movie All the Presidents Men, viewers see a glimpse of Wills. Simeon Booker in a 1976 Jet Magazine article stated, “The audience lustily applauded, showing a sensitivity and a recognition which was not given him by the authors who could not have written the best-selling book (which doesn’t mention his name) or made the movie if there had been no Frank Wills.”

Wills died September 27, 2000, in poverty.