The former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, W. Mark Felt, has been identified as Deep Throat by Vanity Fair magazine.

W. Mark Felt, 91, was second-in-command at the FBI in the early 1970s. His identity was revealed by Vanity Fair magazine, scooping the Washington Post.

The revelation was confirmed by Bob Woodward on the Washington Post’s website at 5.29pm Eastern time.

Felt’s family issued a statement which said: “The family believes my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice. We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well.”

Felt suffered a stroke several years ago and lives with his daughter, Joan, in Santa Rosa. It appears he kept his Deep Throat identity a secret from his family until 2002. According to the family statement, Felt said: “I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal, but now they think he was a hero.”

• Read the Vanity Fair article
• Read the Washington Post confirmation

May 31

• Deep Throat Revealed (PBS News Hour)
• Former FBI Official says he was Deep Throat (Detroit News)

June 1

• FBI’s No. 2 Was ‘Deep Throat’ (Washington Post)
• Deep Background: The Best Kept Secret in Washington Nearly Stayed That Way (Washington Post)
• Conflicted And Mum For Decades (Washington Post)
• The Illuminating Experience of Being Kept in the Dark (Washington Post)
• Contemporaries Have Mixed Views (Washington Post)
• All The News That’s Fit For Print (Washington Post)
• Would Deep Throat Be A Hero in 2005? (Washington Post)
• News Hour Panel Discusses Deep Throat Revelation (PBS)

June 2

• How Mark Felt Became Deep Throat: Bob Woodward (Washington Post)
• A 33-Year-Old Pledge Was Kept at a Price: The Post’s Lost Scoop (Washington Post)
• In the Prelude to Publication, Intrigue Worthy of Deep Throat (New York Times)
• Transcript of Woodward and Bernstein on Larry King Live (CNN)
• Revelation Ends Last Best Secret (Detroit News)
• Dan Rather Discusses Deep Throat with Larry King (CNN)
• The Lessons of Deep Throat (Washington Post)
• Ben Bradlee Reflects on Deep Throat and Watergate (PBS News Hour)

June 3

• Three Decades Later, ‘Woodstein’ Takes a Victory Lap (New York Times)
• Woodward and Bernstein, Dynamic Duo, Together Again (New York Times)
• Deep Silence on Redford Place (Washington Post)
• Tapes Show Nixon Suspect Felt (CNN)
• Bush, Deep Throat and the Press (Washington Post)
• The Secret that Didn’t Reach Washinton’s Lips – Sally Quinn (Washington Post)
• Woodward’s ‘Deep Throat’ Book on Tap for July Release (USA Today/Yahoo)
• Mark Shields and David Brooks Discuss Watergate (PBS News Hour)
• Beyond Deep Throat: The Cast of Watergate (NPR)

June 4

• Behind Deep Throat’s Clandestine Ways, A Cloak-and-Dagger Past (New York Times)

June 5

• Life Lessons From Watergate: David Brooks (New York Times)
• Classmates Bridge a Watergate Rift (New York Times)
• Notes From The Underground: Larry David (New York Times)
• Who Knew, and When Did They Know It? (Los Angeles Times)

June 7

• Watergate Weighs on Today’s White House (Los Angeles Times)
• ‘Throat’ the Bums Out (Wall Street Journal)

Other

• Teachers’ Lesson Plan (PBS News Hour)
• 2002: New Claim of Deep Throat’s Identity (The Guardian)