John Sirica

Between 1910 and 1918, the Sirica family lived in various cities across the United States, while Fred worked as a barber and made several unsuccessful attempts at running small businesses.

[1] In 1922, Fred was running a two-lane bowling alley and poolhall, which was raided by the police for violation of the Prohibition-era Volstead Act when liquor was found in the restroom.

[5] Sirica resigned in protest over how the committee dealt with the WMCA radio scandal that year and re-entered private practice.

[7] Sirica rose to national prominence when he ordered President Richard Nixon to surrender his recordings of White House conversations to Federal prosecutors.

[8] One defendant, James W. McCord Jr., wrote a letter describing a broader scheme of involvement by people in the Nixon administration.

His critics said he lacked understanding of people and compassion, that he was guilty of careless legal errors, that he had a misguided view of the purposes of judicial power.

[10] In 1979, Sirica published a book, co-authored with John Stacks, detailing his participation in the Watergate cases under the title To Set the Record Straight.

[1] In the 2022 documentary, Watergate, Blueprint for a scandal by Herzog and Co. aired on CNN In the 2023 HBO Max miniseries White House Plumbers, Sirica is portrayed by F. Murray Abraham.