Frank Wills (security guard)

[2] After dropping out of high school in 11th grade, Wills studied heavy machine operations in Battle Creek, Michigan[3] and earned his equivalency degree from the Job Corps.

[3] In June 1972, Wills, at the age of 24, was working as a private security guard at the Watergate office building on the shores of the Potomac River.

[3] In the early hours of the morning of June 17,[5] Wills noticed a piece of duct tape on one of the door locks when he was making his first round.

The five men arrested were Bernard L. Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, James W. McCord Jr., and Frank Sturgis.

He then struggled staying employed because media opportunities and appearances kept him away from work, most of which consisted of minimum wage jobs.

[8] In the mid-1970s,[8] Wills finally settled in North Augusta, South Carolina, to care for his aging mother, who had suffered a stroke.

[9] By the time of his mother's death in 1993,[8] Wills was so destitute that he had to donate her body to medical research because he had no money with which to bury her.

I did what I was hired to do but still I feel a lot of folk don't want to give me credit, that is, a chance to move upward in my job".

[3] Otherwise, Wills tended his garden, made the local library his study, and led a quiet life with his cats.

[4] Musician Harry Nilsson dedicated his 1973 album A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night to Wills for his role in bringing down Nixon.

[12] An alternative version of events is depicted in the 1994 film, Forrest Gump, in which Wills (voice actor uncredited) is alerted to the burglary when answering a call from the eponymous hotel guest who was disturbed by the burglars’ flashlights.

In 2004, an imaginary scene of Wills discovering the taped door latches was enacted in the film She Hate Me, directed by Spike Lee, starring Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington.

In 2017, Wills discovering the taped door latches was enacted as the closing scene of the film The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.