Nixon's Watergate Tormentor Dies at 92

Archibald Cox, the prosecutor whose investigation into the Watergate affair ultimately led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, died on Saturday. He was 92.

Cox has been widely praised by historians for his backbone while under immense political pressure as he pursued the truth behind the break-in at the Democratic party offices at the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC in 1972.

His demand that the White House turn over secretly recorded tapes prompted Nixon to order that the prosecutor be fired in what became known as the "Saturday night massacre".

That set in motion a constitutional crisis leading to Nixon's resignation in the face of impeachment.

Phyllis Cox, the prosecutor's daughter, said he had died of "old age" at his home in Brooksville in Maine.

Cox was asked to lead the investigation into the Watergate controversy in May 1973.

After his dismissal he returned to Harvard where he had previously been a law professor.

Another prominent Watergate investigator, Samuel Dash, also died on Saturday at the age of 79.