Family & Fatherhood

My Father: The Spy

My father felt used by his superiors. The men at the White House, his boss Charles Colson, and Attorney General John Mitchell saw in him someone who was deeply committed to furthering the aims of democracy around the world, and so he was maneuvered into doing things that, he told me, in his gut he knew were wrong. I learned from him to trust my gut instinct on things. He taught me never to trust other men to put your interests at heart.

Secrecy is a dangerous thing. He said to me shortly before his death: "To make peace with yourself, admit your wrongdoings. But to make peace with God, confess them." I think that's a very telling statement to make. He may have had a chance to confess his -wrongdoings to God, but because of the legal implications, he gave the other task to me. It has cost me the relationship I have with my family. They don't speak to me since I've come out with the revelations he imparted to me shortly before his death. He kept all of his secrets from his immediate family. I didn't even know he worked for the CIA until I was 16. His second wife and his family from that marriage had no idea what my father was involved in. He did it to protect them, but he was still under the oath of secrecy with the CIA. I live a much more open life. I don't keep secrets.

Loyalty to family is everything. I went through all the bugging and photographic equipment that he brought home that night, June 17, 1972, from the Howard Johnson's where he was stationed across from the Watergate complex. We were in the house by ourselves. The rest of my family was in Europe on vacation. I went over every inch of every piece of equipment that he had brought home in this large green suitcase, and rubbed off all the fingerprints. When that was done, we put it all in the trunk of his car and drove it out and threw it into the C&O Canal locks. I transported large sums of cash from a safety deposit bank in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to a hiding place that he had shown me at our home in Potomac, Maryland. There were reporters camped out around our house and down our street. The FBI was already looking for my father. I knew the risks I was taking, but I felt this was my chance to be of value, of service to my father. I wouldn't have done that for anyone outside my family.

He turned tragedy into strength. I respected him so much because he didn't let major tragedies get the better of him. He didn't spend time in bitterness and sulking away. He just bounced back. He had another family. He didn't let those things eat away at him. His lesson to me was that to move on in life, you must turn tragedy into strength. My father's ability to do that was a great motivation to me. I knew that because my father was able to overcome these horrific incidences in his life, I also should have the strength to overcome my personal issues with drug addiction, which is really the only major problem I've had in my life.

St. John Hunt, 54, is the son of the late E. Howard Hunt, the CIA spy who plotted violent revolution in Latin America, planned the Bay of Pigs invasion, and masterminded the Watergate break-in (for which he served three years in prison). On his deathbed, E. Howard told his son about his involvement in the JFK assassination and implicated others at the highest level of government. St. John is newly married to Mona Arnold, has two children from a previous relationship, and is a stepfather to his wife's son. He is studying sociology at the College of the Redwoods and playing in a rock band called Saint John and the Sinners in Eureka, California. Interview by Amy Levin-Epstein.