Why were Americans so shocked by the "Saturday Night Massacre"
When Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor, refused Nixon's offer to provide transcripts of the White House tapes, Nixon knew that Cox was on the verge of uncovering substantial White House involvement in the Watergate cover-up. On Saturday, October 20, 1973, the president ordered Attorney General Elliott Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused, saying that to do so was unethical and possibly illegal. He resigned rather than fire Cox. Nixon then ordered Richardson's assistant, William Ruckelshaus, to fire Cox, but Ruckelshaus also resigned rather than comply with the president's order. Finally, Nixon turned to the next official in line at the Department of Justice, Robert Bork, who complied with the president's order.
American newspapers soon dubbed Nixon's effort to fire the special prosecutor the "Saturday Night Massacre." Many Americans were shocked by Nixon's dismissal of Cox; resolutions to impeach the president were introduced in the House of Representatives. In November, Leon Jaworski, a prominent Texas lawyer, became the new special prosecutor. Jaworski, like Cox, obtained a subpoena for the tapes.
Public opposition to the "massacre" was so strong that Nixon surrendered some of the tape recordings subpoenaed by Jaworski. One of these tapes contained an 18 minute gap. Many Americans wondered why Nixon's secretary, Rosemary Woods, had erased a portion of the recording. Woods testified that she had erased the tape by mistake, but many Americans suspected that the gap had once contained particularly damaging evidence against the president. The tape's 18 minute silence remains one of the unsolved mysteries of Watergate.