Whether Nixon and Haldeman ever really thought of this conversation again over the next year is unknown—nor is it clear in the moment whether either man registered the depth of the corruption of their scheme. John Ehrlichman, who didn’t know about the conversation, would later come to believe that at least Nixon did and that it ate away at him over the months ahead, becoming to the president the beating, pulsing telltale heart of Edgar Allan Poe.
