John Mitchell was a giant of the Nixon administration. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as Attorney General [and head of the Committee to Re-elect the President], he possessed powerful political sway. And yet, behind the public appearances and political machinations, his family was quietly falling apart.
Can the Watergate scandal destroy a presidency? Yes — but it was the Mitchell family that really took the hit. His young daughter, Martha Elizabeth Mitchell (Marty to her friends and family), was unwittingly caught directly in the crossfire of such historic happenings. The intelligence hatched in the aftermath of one of America most scandalous scandals loomed over her childhood and family life.
John Mitchell’s Rise to Power
Only one, however, was Richard Nixon’s trusted aide and campaign manager in the ’68 presidential election before scandals unraveled his professional life. After the Nixon win, Mitchell served as US Attorney General. To take on that harrowing position, he relocated his family from New York to Washington D.C.
The Mitchells were public figures in Washington. Martha Mitchell, his wife was a loud socialite who quickly earned the designation of “favorite subject” by the press. As he ran the nation’s legal affairs and served as presidential adviser, his family settled into a public life in the capital.
Growing Up as Martha Elizabeth Mitchell
When Marty Mitchell’s father was sworn in, the future-born January 10, 1961 girl She went to Stone Ridge Country Day School in nearby Bethesda, Maryland, after the family moved to Washington in 1969. Her parents enrolled her in a Roman Catholic school, thinking that she would benefit from the strict discipline they believed she needed.
Marty’s early childhood in Washington was not as grim, however: Despite her father’s immense political stature and her mother’s being a household name, Marty appears to have been somewhat sheltered. And then it happened, that quiet upbringing was destroyed when the Watergate break in takes place in 1972.
The Mother’s Role in the Watergate Scandal
Martha’s Narrative Air Date: September 30, 2022 You can’t get Marty’s story without viewing the conduct of her mommy and namesake — Martha Mitchell. Martha sounded the alarm when she learned that her husband’s political committee was connected to the DNC break-in. This was why she contacted reporters to blow the cover-up open and, in doing this she became the first-ever Watergate whistleblower.
In California, political operatives had held Martha for two days in a hotel management room, drugging her and tearing the telephone from the wall to prevent news of her attack from leaking. That was followed by a nasty smear campaign run by the Republican establishment to discredit her as mentally unstable and drunk cocktail right. The intense media circus related to her mother’s courageous but harrowing journey, overwhelmed the fabric of life in the Mitchell home.
The Devastating Impact on Marty’s Life
John and Martha’s marriage was ruined by the fallout from the Watergate scandal. The couple had split by 1973, leading to a nasty public custody battle over Marty. With custody of his daughter, John Mitchell won.
It created a rift in Marty’s bond with her mother. Martha Mitchell would also tell reporters that her husband brainwashed their daughter into hating her. At the time, Martha said John had told Marty’s school teachers not to allow her visits, and she talked little with her daughter late at night on phone calls that abruptly ceased. As of Martha Mitchell’s death from a rare bone cancer in 1976, the mother did not see her husband nor daughter at all.
Marty disappeared from public life after her father was convicted and imprisoned for his involvement in the Watergate cover-up. She graduated from Georgetown University and continued on as an associate at a Washington real estate consulting firm. She married Paul Savidge in 1989 and was able to create the peaceful, private life that had been forcibly taken from her childhood.
A Quiet Legacy Beyond the Headlines
Indeed, the Watergate scandal forever welded the Mitchell name together. Though Martha Mitchell is now properly regarded as a valiant whistleblower, whose truth-telling came at great cost to her personally, the emotional toll it exacted upon her family was staggering. Marty Mitchell’s story illustrates a nasty little fact of life when it comes to public political corruption: Often, it’s not just the public who is hurt. She watched her family crumble in front of a national audience but ultimately managed to carve out an existence independent from the poisonous atmosphere of Washington politics.
