Prisoner of Fifth Avenue

Throughout the long week of Jeb Magruder's devastating testimony, John and Martha Mitchell secluded themselves in their Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Manhattan's Central Park.

Outside, reporters stood watches--some in five-hour shifts. They tanned themselves in the summer sun during the daytime, complained during the nights.

Across the street, television camera crews lounged on the stone steps of the Marymount School of New York, which afford the best camera angle on the green-canopied entrance to the Mitchells' apartment building.

The waiting was in vain. Neither the former Attorney General, who rarely shows emotion and seldom talks to the press at even the best of times, nor his once effervescent wife emerged. Their chief contact with the outside world was a former Hungarian freedom fighter who serves as their general aide-de camp and chauffeur. From time to time, he would run an errand or escort the Mitchells' daughter Marty to her private Catholic school.

Mitchell sometimes is able to sneak out for a short ride around Manhattan, friends say, but he rarely walks anywhere now for fear of being accosted by reporters. For the same reason, he rides to Washington in his dark blue Lincoln for consultation with his lawyers, William G. Hundley and Plato Cacheris, instead of taking an airplane or the Metroliner. Since they dare not venture out, he and Martha invite friends in for cocktails and dinner, which is prepared by a cook when Martha, herself a talented chef, prefers to stay out of the kitchen.

Reports a recent visitor: "There are always people floating in and out of there--friends from Rye, people they know in New York." Contrary to some reports, Mitchell stays sober, never drinking liquor until evening and then consuming perhaps a couple more than his customary two predinner Scotches.

Off and on during the day, he watches the Watergate committee hearings on television and prepares his defense in his small den. As he works, Mitchell has at times been so hyped up that Martha once asked his doctor to prescribe medication to slow him down. The doctor refused, saying Mitchell was fine.

Staying Silent. Mitchell already faces charges for perjury and conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Vesco case, but he has confided to friends that he is far more worried about the indictment federal prosecutors have told him that he can almost certainly expect in the Watergate investigation. Friends have urged him to issue a public statement to counter the mounting testimony against him, but he has followed his lawyers' advice to remain silent for fear of prejudicing the case they are building for his defense. They are analyzing every word of testimony, closely watching for weakness on the part of each witness and planning to shape an airtight position for Mitchell to take.

He appears most worried not about the testimony expected from John W.

Dean III this week, but about what John Ehrlichman and Charles Colson might say when they appear before the Ervin committee. Mitchell strongly disliked both when he was Attorney General, distrusted them when he became Nixon's campaign manager, and fears they may be out to get him now. Already Colson has claimed that on three different occasions early this year he told Nixon that Mitchell had apparently helped plan the Watergate burglary.

Last week Mitchell was scheduled to meet with the Ervin committee staff in Washington for private questioning.

But the session was postponed to enable Hundley to request formally that the committee excuse Mitchell on the ground that premature testimony might prejudice his expected trial. Since the request is likely to be denied, Mitchell anticipates testifying before the committee after it returns from its recess during the first week in July.

If he is depressed, Mitchell reportedly does not talk about it to friends, though they find him looking grayer and older. He has assured them that he has an adequate amount of money for his defense and his family's needs, though he is no millionaire. But not even his friends can say what happens when they are not around and John and Martha alone must confront his besmirched reputation and his shattered career.

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