Archibald Cox, the special Watergate prosecutor whose firing by the White House ignited a political furor that eroded support for then president Mr Richard Nixon, has died at age 92, his family said today.
Cox died last night at his home in Brooksville, Maine, his wife, Phyllis, said.
In what came to be billed as "the Saturday Night Massacre," Mr Nixon in October 1973 ordered the removal of Cox, who had been seeking access to White House audiotapes involving discussions about Watergate.
Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than carry out the order. Cox was finally fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork, whose nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court more than a decade later was rejected by the Senate.
Cox's ouster aroused widespread anger, even among Mr Nixon's fellow Republicans. The president was later forced to relinquish the tapes and resigned in August 1974 after the beginning of impeachment proceedings tied to the 1972 break-in at Democratic headquarters at the Watergate building in Washington and subsequent cover-up.