Charles Chuck Colson Dead At 80

Charles ‘Chuck‘ Colson has been described as the Nixon administration’s “evil genius” as he was convicted on charges pertaining to the 1970s Watergate scandal, for which he served seven months in prison. Considered one of Nixon’s hatchet men, Chuck Colson is dead at 80-years-old.

Chuck died Saturday and his death was confirmed by Jim Liske, chief executive of Lansdowne, Virginia-based Prison Fellowship Ministries, which Charles founded. Liske said that the preliminary cause of death stemmed from complications related to a brain surgery Colson had last month, a surgery intended to remove a clot.

Boston.com reports that in 1972, the Washington Post called Chuck “one of the most powerful presidential aides, variously described as a troubleshooter and as a ‘master of dirty tricks.'”

Following his release from prison, Colson proclaimed his redemption by his religious faith and spent the next 35-years ministering. He was quoted in 1993 having said:

“I shudder to think of what I’d been if I had not gone to prison. Lying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it’s not prosperity or pleasure that’s important, but the maturing of the soul.”

Chuck’s criminal actions preceded the Watergate scandal’s break-in as he plead guilty to efforts to discredit Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg. Daniel leaked the secret Defense Department study regarding Vietnam, a study known as the Pentagon Papers. Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with attempts to discredit Ellsberg in 1974.

Colson famously said that he would walk over his grandmother to get the president elected to a second term.

What are your thoughts on Charles Colson’s death?