Word: wiretappings
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Torello revels in the sadistic side of his work. An FBI wiretap once recorded him plotting in Miami to murder a Chicago union boss by taking him out to sea in a powerboat, slitting his throat, chopping up his body and feeding the pieces to the sharks. The FBI intervened. Another FBI wiretap overheard Torello telling how he had hung William Jackson, a 350-lb. loan shark, on a meat hook and tortured him with an electric prod. "He was on that thing three days before he croaked," Torello said excitedly. "He was floppin' around...
...Kissinger denied that he initiated such action, merely approving the taps. John Mitchell and FBI officials state that Kissinger was in control of the taps. Among men of such sterling character it is indeed difficult to determine who is telling the truth. Perhaps a civil law suit filed by wiretap victims will soon serve to clarify some of these matters...
...best way to go," said an FBI official in Washington. "When he works himself into the right place, the undercover man gets direct evidence of criminality. And you don't have the credibility problems that go with an informant-or the legal hassles presented by a wiretap...
Judge Smith found that Nixon was personally liable for damages because he had initiated and overseen the wiretap program without setting specific limits on it. Mitchell, the judge said, was in error because he had failed to review periodically the need for the taps. Haldeman was liable because he too did not put a stop to the monitoring, and in addition used bugs for political spying (after leaving the NSC. Halperin served for a time as an adviser to Presidential Aspirant Edmund Muskie). The judge, however, dismissed charges against three other officials named in the suit, including Secretary of State...
Figuring Damages. Though it is still unclear just how the damages against Nixon and his co-defendants will be computed-the judge left that to a later hearing-Halperin's lawyers want it figured according to the formula now in the federal wiretap law: $100 per day per victim, which for the five Halperins for 630 days would add up to $315,000 against each of the three defendants...