Jeb Magruder, Nixon aide imprisoned for Watergate, dies at 79

DANBURY, Conn., May 16 (UPI) -- Jeb Stuart Magruder, the Nixon aide who orchestrated Watergate and went to prison for it, has died. He was 79.

A Connecticut funeral home said Magruder, who was living as a Presbyterian minister following his prison term, released a notice explaining the politician-turned-preacher had died Sunday due to complications from a stroke.

A close ally of President Nixon, Magruder served as deputy campaign director, aid to chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, and deputy communications director.

Magruder was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and served seven months behind bars, before being released in 1976.

In his 2002 book, G. Gordon Liddy -- who went to jail for executing the plan to record Nixon's rivals in the Watergate Hotel -- asserted it was Magruder who gave the order, saying, "[He] asked me whether I could make a second, unscheduled entry into the Watergate. I told him I could."