Nixon wants to get the columnist Jack Anderson. James McCord, a consultant and security goon for the RNC, former CIA and FBI is given a budget. McCord is paired up with old HUAC investigator Louis James Russell.
Russell was struggling to stay sober. Jim Hougan, the author of Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat and the CIA (1984): “Russell’s apartment was a kind of way station for depressed hookers, a safe place with someone who did not mind listening to sad stories. No one objected, then when, Russell chose to idle away his leisure time in the apartments at the Columbia Plaza. He was a friend to many of the girls, a sometime customer, a freelance bouncer and a source of referrals.” Now it was an AA meeting place.
In March, 1972, one of Russell’s first tasks for McCord was to investigate the journalist Jack Anderson. He also purchased $3,000 in electronic eavesdropping equipment from John Leon of Allied Investigators. Russell’s friend, Charles F. Knight, was told that this equipment had been purchased for James W. McCord. He was told to find information that could be used to blackmail Jack Anderson.
This equipment was later used to tape the telephone conversations between politicians based at the Democratic Party National Committee. And a small group of prostitutes run by Phillip Mackin Bailley that worked their trade in the Columbia Plaza. June 9, 1972, Bailley was charged with violations of the Mann Act – basically operating a sex slavery ring. White House lawyers wanted to see the photographic evidence of Bailley’s acts of blackmail – who the women were having sex with. The judge denied Dean’s request. But Dean did copy the address book of clients.
According to Anthony Summers the author of The Arrogance of Power (2000), Russell’s daughter helped the White House investigate the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Liddy calls him a bouncer for the call-girl ring. A bait and bug operation where, presumably, his daughter worked as well. Caulfield and Ulasewicz set up the “happy hooker ring” in New York City with associates of Phillip Mackin Bailley’s madam.
After the Watergate capture, Russell went to work for Security International, a company owned by James W. McCord and a former CIA officer named William Shea. He also carried out assignments for William Birely. According to his daughter, Jean Hooper, this included several trips Rhode Island and Connecticut. In September, 1972, he did some work for Nick Beltrante at the George McGovern offices. Beltrante had been hired by the DNC to sweep for bugs. Russell made sure Beltrante didn’t find any.