When William Ruckelshaus got a call yesterday from a reporter asking about Deep Throat, he picked up the phone and said, "It's not me! It's not me!"

Ruckelshaus, of course, was kidding. Now a strategic partner in the venture-capital firm Madrona Venture Group in Seattle, Ruckelshaus held government positions in the early 1970s that put him in the midst of the Watergate saga. When Deep Throat's identity was revealed yesterday as W. Mark Felt, it was only natural that his phone began ringing.

In October 1973, when Ruckelshaus was deputy attorney general, he refused to acquiesce to President Nixon's orders to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was insisting upon receiving the secret tapes that Nixon had made in the Oval Office.

Ruckelshaus — like his boss, Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who also refused to fire Cox — resigned instead. Eventually, Cox was fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork, pulling the final trigger on the confrontation that became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre."

Ruckelshaus also served briefly as FBI director when Felt was second in command.

Over the years, Ruckelshaus has had mixed ideas about Deep Throat's identity.

"I can remember reading the book and watching the movie and wondering if it wasn't a composite because the person had so much information," he recalled.

On the other hand, he also identified three or four people — including Felt — who might be the mystery man. Back then, FBI agents were interviewing witnesses every day. "As the Number 2 man in the bureau, he would see all this stuff," Ruckelshaus said.

The two men's terms at the FBI only overlapped for a few weeks, Ruckelshaus said, so he didn't know Felt well. But he wasn't surprised that Felt kept his secret for so long.

"FBI agents are trained to have information they don't share with anybody," he said.

Ruckelshaus has another connection to the Deep Throat story. John O'Connor, the San Francisco lawyer who helped Felt come forward as Deep Throat, said Ruckelshaus was his mentor long ago, when O'Connor's father and Ruckelshaus were law partners.

Felt, too, has a connection with Seattle. In the early '50s, he was a supervisor in the city's FBI office.

Reporter Mike Carter and researcher Gene Balk contributed to this story.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com

Material from The Seattle Times archive is included in this report.