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What Happened to Dorothy Hunt? Unraveling the Mysterious Death of Howard Hunt’s Wife

‘White House Plumbers,’ the HBO series about the Watergate Scandal, features Dorothy Hunt, who is undoubtedly the most fascinating character and is portrayed by Lena Headey. She is the mother of Lisa, Kevan, St. John, and David and the first spouse of E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson). She is portrayed in the series as a former spy. She and Howard met in China, fell in love, and eventually got hitched. She is kept informed when Howard gets involved in the CRP’s (the Committee for the Re-Election of the President) operation to spy on the DNC. Dorothy is the first to see that things are not going as planned and that it reminds her of the Bay of Pigs invasion, another significant error in Howard’s career. We have all the information you need if you’re wondering what happened to Dorothy.

What Happened to Dorothy Hunt?

Dorothy Wetzel joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after being born on April 1st, 1920, in Ohio. She allegedly met Hunt while she was stationed in Shanghai, China. She was eventually dispatched to Paris, France, where she worked as the Economic Cooperation Administration’s point of contact with the American Embassy. Even after Howard’s Bay of Pigs invasion gaffe, Dorothy and Howard later moved back to the United States and established themselves in Maryland, where they lived comfortably.


On December 8, 1972, United Airlines Flight 553 crashed in Chicago, Illinois, killing Dorothy. The Washington Post claims that despite the passage of more than fifty years, it is still unknown whether foul play was involved in her death. She is portrayed as quite the force of nature in “White House Plumbers” with great accuracy. Nixon referred to Dorothy as “the savviest woman in the world” in a February 1973 conversation between John Dean and him that was recorded. She had the entire picture in her head.

How Did Dorothy Die?

Dorothy’s demise has generated a lot of rumours throughout the years. Inside Dorothy’s handbag, authorities discovered a bundle of $100 bills totaling $10,000 after the collision. Additionally, just before flying, she reportedly purchased a $225,000 flight insurance policy at Washington National Airport.

Dorothy was named as the “paymistress,” according to The Washington Post, who gave hush money to the Watergate defendants and their families in order for them to withhold important information from the investigators. According to Howard’s 2007 autobiography “American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond,” Dorothy was allegedly sending the funds to a Chicago-area cousin to invest in Howard Johnson hotels. Nixon’s chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, thought this was probably accurate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and the US Congress all conducted investigations into the collision before concluding that pilot error was to blame.

In “American Spy,” Howard described in detail how his wife had a meeting with a man who went by the name of Mr. Rivers and instructed her to find out the monthly costs and legal fees associated with each arrestee. Dorothy followed the instructions, but discovered that the amount of money she was given was far less than what had been agreed upon.

According to Howard, his wife became unhappy with the part that Mr. Rivers had wanted her to play. He had asked her for budgetary details, and although these had been accepted, the payments had never been made in full. Now that the election had been won, Dorothy believed that the White House would be less likely to keep its promises because she was dealing with a buddy of Mr. Rivers. In addition, she couldn’t shake the impression that, as a woman, her arguments were taken less seriously than those of men, like myself. She advised me to call Colson and try to explain the issue to him for these reasons. She had provided the Miami defendants with particular financial guarantees at Mr. Rivers’ request, but the money had only partially materialised. Additionally, their attorney was making unsettling noises.

Howard was motivated by this to speak with Charles Colson, Director of the Office of Public Liaison, and emphasise the urgency of their financial situation. Howard moved to Miami, Florida after being freed, where he met Laura, a teacher. At the time, he was roughly 60 years old. Austin and Hollis were their two children from their marriage. On January 23, 2007, pneumonia claimed his life. St. John allegedly claimed that the CIA murdered his mother in a book he wrote in 2015 titled “Dorothy, “An Amoral and Dangerous Woman”: The Murder of E. Howard Hunt’s Wife – Watergate’s Darkest Secret.”

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