Fawn Hall was a secretary

Secretary

A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...

 to Lt. Colonel Oliver North

Oliver North

Oliver Laurence North is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author....

 and a notable figure in the Iran-Contra affair

Iran-Contra Affair

The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...

, helping him shred confidential documents.

Hall was born and raised in Annandale

Annandale, Virginia

Annandale is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 41,008 at the 2010 census, down from 54,994 in 2000 due to the splitting off of the western part of it to form Wakefield and Woodburn CDP's.-Geography:...

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, and graduated from Poe Middle School in 1973 and Annandale High School

Annandale High School

Annandale High School is an International Baccalaureate high school in Annandale, Virginia, United States. It is part of the Fairfax County Public Schools system....

 in 1977.

Involvement in Iran-Contra

Hall was North's secretary from February 1983 until she was fired on November 25, 1986. Hall's mother, Wilma Hall, was secretary to Robert McFarlane

Robert McFarlane

Robert Carl "Bud" McFarlane was a National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan, serving from 1983 through 1985.After a career in the Marines, he became part of the Reagan administration, and was a leading architect of the Strategic Defense Initiative for defending the United States...

, Reagan's national security advisor

National Security Advisor

A National Security Advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. He or she is not usually a member of the Cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils....

, North's superior and a major player in Iran-Contra.

Fawn Hall dated Contras

Contras

The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...

 politician Arturo Cruz, Jr.

Arturo Cruz, Jr.

Arturo José Cruz Sequeira is the son of Nicaraguan politician Arturo Cruz. He became involved in the exile politics of the Contra rebels opposing the Sandinista government in the 1980s, and more recently served as the Ambassador of Nicaragua to the United States for two years from 2007 to 2009...

 In one mishap, she transposed the digits of a Swiss bank account number, resulting in a contribution from the Sultan of Brunei to the Contras being lost. On November 25, 1986, she smuggled confidential papers out of her employer's office hidden inside her leather boots, causing President Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 to form a task force, which eventually put both North and Hall on trial.

In exchange for her testimony, Hall was granted immunity. She confessed to shredding

Paper shredder

A paper shredder is a mechanical device used to cut paper into chad, typically either strips or fine particles. Government organizations, businesses, and private individuals use shredders to destroy private, confidential, or otherwise sensitive documents...

 a large number of documents. On March 22, 1989, she began two days of testimony at Oliver North's Iran-Contra trial in Washington. Among her other testimony was a claim that, "Sometimes you have to go above the law."

Life after Iran-Contra

In 1991 she married Danny Sugerman

Danny Sugerman

Daniel Stephen "Danny" Sugerman was the second manager of the Los Angeles-based rock band The Doors, and wrote several books about Jim Morrison and The Doors, including No One Here Gets Out Alive , and the autobiography Wonderland Avenue...

, former manager of The Doors

The Doors

The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...

. The two were married until Sugerman's death in 2005. Hall underwent drug rehabilitation

Drug rehabilitation

Drug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...

 for an addiction to crack cocaine

Crack cocaine

Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...

in the mid-1990s, it being reported at the time that Sugerman first exposed Hall to the drug.