OBITUARY
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Watergate 'Plumber' Barker Dead at 92
By Harry Kimball
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Posted Jun 6, 09 2:00 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Talk about an eventful life. Bernard Barker, one of the Watergate burglars as well as one of the leaders of the Bay of Pigs invasion, is dead at age 92, the Miami Herald reports. Barker worked for the CIA as a protege of Howard Hunt, flew bombers in WWII, served time as a POW, and even had to fend off rumors that he had a role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Barker served 18 months in prison for the Watergate burglary. His Cuban sympathies (Barker's parents were Cuban) and Bay of Pigs role (he led a brigade and flew with the would-be new president) made him a favorite target of JFK assassination conspiracists, who note that the mission failed because JFK withheld air support. “It's not true,” his daughter said. “But he always suspected that Castro was involved.”