At the time Mark Felt came forward he was not in the best of health (mentally). From what I remember of the incident he was put before the cameras by family members. What was gained by this? If Mark was ill then the question is what did the family gain? Was it just to secure Mark's place in history?
'What do we do now?' - The Candidate
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Mark Felt was 92 years old at the time (May/June 2005) he "came forward" and I don't believe he gave any media-interviews at the time, or ever again until his death on 18 December 2008. If he did grant such an interview, I would love to see the video.
His daughter (and primary caregiver) Joan Felt, on the other hand, did speak with the media on multiple occasions. I don't have links to her exact quotes, but she was fairly candid and straightforward that she was seeking money. I got the impression that it was Joan Felt who truly "came forward", while Mark Felt merely sat in his wheelchair.
I don't know how much (if any) money Felt's family gained as a result of the disclosure. In April 2006, a partially-updated version of Felt's 1979 memoir ("The FBI Pyramid: From the Inside") appeared in bookstores. So (presumably) there was some sort of payment made for the publication of that book. Also, there were reports that Tom Hanks' film-production company paid Felt's family $1m for rights to a TV/film version of the book. Those reports were from about 2006, and I have no idea what (if anything) is going on with that.
Interestingly, Felt had a co-author on his 1979 book -- an author well-known in rightwing political circles named Ralph de Toledano. In 2004, Toledano was contacted by Felt's family, who were seeking to acquire his half of the copyright on the original 1979 book. There was some drama/accusations about whether Toledano was paid (or, paid fairly), or told that a new version of the book was in the offing. When the new version of the book came out, Felt was clearly identified as Deep Throat, even though Felt had made so many public denials of that claim before, including in the '79 book. Anyway, the 2006 version of the book was titled "A G-Man's Life" and authorial credit was given to "Mark Felt and John O'Connor".
Since it would appear that Felt was in no condition to write a new book himself, I'd be interested to know why Felt's family didn't just keep Toledano as the co-author, and avoid the drama with him. I would guess there's a good story in that.
the real Deep Throat!
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