John J. McDermott

John J. “Jack” McDermott, former Deputy Associate Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation died peacefully at home in Alexandria on August 10, 2022. He was 96 years old.

He grew up in the Bronx, New York attending All Hallows High School, Holy Cross College, and Iona College before obtaining a Law Degree at Fordham University. His education was interrupted by his service in the US Navy aboard a destroyer escort in the Atlantic during World War II.

Jack enjoyed a remarkable career with the FBI serving in several field offices and was initially assigned to counter-intelligence investigations in Knoxville, Baltimore, and New York, before serving in the Espionage Section at FBI Headquarters. There he worked on the Alger Hiss perjury investigation, where a US State Department official was convicted of lying about his former affiliation with the Communist Party.

Later, he was promoted to the Assistant Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis Field Office, encompassing Minnesota, and North and South Dakota. Three years later, he returned to Washington in the same capacity in the Washington Field Office, which, at the time, was experiencing an unprecedented number of bank robberies. Through improved coordination of efforts with local area police departments, arrest/closure rates improved markedly.

The explosive rise of economic growth in Northern Virginia prompted the FBI to open a new field office and McDermott was designated as its Special Agent in Charge. Known as a “hands on” leader, he personally led his agents in successfully resolving three airline hijackings at Dulles Airport. One of those was a June 4, 1970, shootout, and arrest of Arthur Barkley, after a successful evacuation of the passengers and a physical struggle and gun-fight in the aircraft’s cockpit.

FBI Director L. Patrick Gray then selected McDermott to serve as Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office, where he assumed the direction of the Bureau’s Watergate investigation. At one point in that case, the Treasury Department’s Office of General Counsel directed the Secret Service to withhold evidence from its technical staff regarding the tape-recording system installed in the Oval Office of the White House. McDermott responded with the threat of next day grand jury subpoenas for the entire Secret Service technical staff and possible charges of obstruction of justice. The stonewalling was rescinded within a few hours. Despite the leaking of Watergate information to the news media by the Deputy FBI Director Mark Felt, the Watergate investigation continued with the results provided to the Special Prosecutor’s Office and the appropriate Congressional Staff.

In 1974, he was named Assistant Director and transferred to FBI Headquarters where he successfully managed three separate Divisions before being named Deputy Associate Di-rector.

Throughout his life, Jack was sustained by his faith and his love of family delighting in their companionship. He was passionate in his opinions of politics and sports, frequently teased by family as being “occasionally in error, but rarely in doubt.”

After consulting for a few years, he embarked upon his last career, that of a home care giver for his wife and best friend Mary (Diffley). When Mary developed diabetes later in life, Jack became her devoted caregiver performing all the shopping, cooking, and other household duties. This devotion extended Mary’s life for several years particularly as she developed complications from the disease until her death in 2009.

Their marriage produced four children, David, Bill (wife Barbara), Catherine, and John (wife Pat), four grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. He was a long-standing parishioner of the Basilica of St. Mary in Old Town Alexandria, where he served as a member of the Parish Council and an Usher for over 40 years.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday, August 16th, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Everly-Wheatley Funeral Home, 1500 West Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22302.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at the Basilica of St. Mary, 310 South Royal Street, Old Town Alexandria, VA 22314, on Wednesday, August 17th at 10:30 a.m.

Burial at St Mary’s Cemetery with reception thereafter.