The Attorney-General who rebuffed President Richard Nixon at the height of the Watergate crisis has died. Elliot Richardson was the hero of the “Saturday Night Massacre” in October 1973 when Nixon fired the Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.
Richardson resigned rather than dismiss Cox and the Deputy Attorney-General William Ruckelshaus was fired for similarly refusing to obey Nixon’s directive.
Cox was eventually dismissed by Robert Bork who paid the penalty years later when his nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by the US Senate.
Richardson was 79. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Boston, Massachusetts.
