All of this talk about Watergate has me thinking of E. Howard Hunt: White House plumber, Watergate conspirator, CIA agent, Bay Of Pigs handler and hack novelist. Hunt wrote dozens of pulpy paperbacks under his own name and a variety of pen names, most notably Robert Dietrich. Here are a few books from the man I call the master of disaster:
Who among us has forgotten the immortal Steve Bentley? Everyone? I’m not surprised at all. Actually, those spy potboilers were Hunt’s most successful tomes. He had to use a pseudonym because he was a spook and so was Steve Bentley. Bentley, however, was a slick right wing spy and Hunt earned the nickname I bestowed on him long ago, the master of disaster. I wish I could claim that inspired this John Hiatt song but it did not:
