Eastham Historical Society presents John Clarke with” Watergate–The Eastham Connection”

Jack Clarke acted as a local “Deep Throat” informant by providing crucial visitor logs that proved Nixon’s top aide, John Ehrlichman, authorized the pre-Watergate Daniel Ellsberg break-in from a remote Cape Cod beach house. [1, 2]
The Eastham Connection
During the early 1970s, Clarke worked a seasonal job for the Cape Cod National Seashore. Part of his duties included emptying the trash at the Bartlett House, a rustic government-owned cottage overlooking Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, Massachusetts. The property served as a secluded vacation getaway for high-ranking Nixon administration figures. [1]
Breaking the Story
Clarke’s critical involvement unfolded through the following sequence:
The Discovery: Clarke knew that all high-profile White House VIPs staying at the Bartlett House were legally required to register at the nearby Salt Pond Visitor Center. [1]
The Evidence: By tracking these registration logs, Clarke confirmed that White House Counsel John Ehrlichman was staying at the cottage over the 1971 Labor Day weekend. [1]
The Leak: Clarke passed this information to a reporter at the local Cape Codder newspaper. [1, 2]
The Impact: The resulting reporting helped prove that Ehrlichman used the beach house phone to command the White House “Plumbers” to burgle the office of Daniel Ellsberg (the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers). This covert unit later executed the Watergate break-in