Watergate conspirator Jeb Stuart Magruder has died

Jeb Stuart Magruder, the man who claimed to have heard US President Richard Nixon order the Watergate break-in, has died. He was 79.

Jeff Hull, owner of Hull Funeral Service in Connecticut, says Magruder died on May 11 of complications from a stroke.

Magruder was Nixon's deputy campaign director and then served in the Republican president's administration.

He spent seven months in prison for lying about the involvement of Nixon's re-election committee in the 1972 break-in at Washington's Watergate complex.

The burglary eventually led to Nixon's resignation. Magruder later became a minister.