July 19, 2005
![](hoover_files/Hoover-JEdgar-1961.jpg)
J. Edgar Hoover in 1961
The Truth about J. Edgar
Hoover
by Mel
Ayton
Since the
death of J. Edgar Hoover in May 1972 stories about him have continued to
fascinate the American public. Initially characterized as a true
American hero who spent a lifetime battling crime, his legacy during the
past decade has undergone a startling transformation. Recent books,
television documentaries, and television movies have promoted the idea
that America's leading crime fighter was steeped in corruption, trampled
over the constitutional rights of American citizens, blackmailed members
of Congress, engaged in illegal electronic surveillance activities, was
himself blackmailed by the Mafia, and engaged in perverted sexual
activities.
But what is the truth about America's
greatest crime-fighter? Did Hoover associate with Mafia bosses and
perhaps assist them in avoiding prosecution? Did mobsters blackmail him?
Did he, in turn, blackmail U.S. politicians? Did he, in particular,
blackmail JFK? And was Hoover a closet homosexual and
cross-dresser?
Hoover's Rise
The FBI's origins lie in the crime-ridden
Roaring Twenties when the United States was rife with lawbreakers. It
was against the law to make or consume alcohol and yet millions of
Americans refused to recognize this fact. The distillation and
distribution of alcohol became big business involving millions of
dollars and corruption of public officials on a scale unheard of either
before or since.
Criminal gangs competed for the business
of supplying the public what it wanted. Violence was inevitable as
gangsters moved into territories owned by competing gangs. The violence
and corruption was significant in the growth of the American
Mafia.
The United States had no national police
force at this time, but Congress decided that a federal force was
necessary to deal with a law-breaking situation that was becoming too
big for state and city police forces. Congress chose a small department
within the Justice Department headed by an unknown professional
bureaucrat by the name of J. Edgar Hoover.
When Hoover took over the newly formed
Federal Bureau of Investigation its resources were limited and Congress
had not yet passed laws to strengthen the authority of its agents. Under
the leadership and persuasive skills of Hoover, the department expanded
to become a world-famous and internationally acclaimed institution.
Hoover's "G-men" became national heroes as they captured notorious
criminals such as John Dillinger, Ma Barker, Machine-Gun Kelly and
leading members of criminal gangs. The titles "Public Enemy No. 1" and
"The Ten Most-Wanted" list originated with the bureau. Hoover became a
national hero, in part because of his publicity skills and his ability
to persuade politicians and presidents to expand the authority of the
FBI. Hoover did everything in his lobbying and blackmailing powers to
see that Congress was generous with the bureau's budget. Hoover also
strictly monitored anything that extolled the virtues of the FBI, from
books, television and radio serials, to Hollywood movies.
Hoover was partly successful because he
changed crime fighting into a science. He instituted fingerprint files
and laboratories to analyze forensic evidence, stipulated that FBI
applicants had to have a college degree and insisted his agents had to
practice a high personal moral code. During the Second World War, the
bureau successfully fought efforts at sabotage and subversion by the
Germans and they could proudly point to the fact that not one instance
of sabotage on the U.S. mainland was successful. After the war the FBI
was also successful in detecting and arresting many Soviet spies. Hoover
was convinced there was an international left-wing conspiracy to take
over the world and, during the late 1940s and 1950s, most of his
energies were devoted to rooting out anything that smacked of communism
or socialism.
Recent research has suggested that the
idea of subversion by the Soviets was not all in the imagination of
right-wing politicians or the conservative FBI director. There is a
wealth of evidence to confirm that the Soviets were actually using every
means available to infiltrate the U.S. government and any other
institution in the United States that had political and cultural
influence. Hollywood was a particular target for communist cells.
However, many lives were destroyed because of the paranoiac hysteria
that often accompanied right-wing Congressional efforts to "clean up"
the movie industry.
Hoover and the Mafia
It has been alleged that, during this
period of anti-Communist fervor, Hoover had been blind to the existence
of a national crime syndicate even though a 1950s Congressional
investigating body led by Sen. Estes Kefauver had produced a mountain of
evidence proving this fact.
After the nationally televised Kefauver
hearings, Hoover still insisted that there was no such thing as the
Mafia and as a consequence there was a period of consolidation of the
criminal organisation and a period of growth for Mafia "families" in
every major city across the United States.
Some critics argue this was entirely in
keeping with Hoover's basic conservative philosophy that respected the
importance of states' rights.
Similarly, when there was a move in
Congress to make him the head of a nationalized police force, he
rejected the idea and testified against it. In an interview with U.S.
News & World Report (December 21, 1964), he argued, "I recently
made the statement that I am inclined toward being a states' righter in
matters involving law enforcement. That is, I fully respect the
sovereignty of state and local authorities. I consider the local police
officer to be our first line of defense against crime, and I am opposed
to a national police force...The need is for effective local action, and
this should begin with whole-hearted support of honest, efficient, local
law enforcement."
Anthony Summers, in his book Official
and Confidential, claimed Hoover deliberately refused to crack
down on organized crime because he was being blackmailed by the Mafia
for living a secret life as a homosexual. Summers believes that Hoover
was blackmailed after powerful Mafia boss Meyer Lansky, an associate of
Frank Costello, obtained photographs of the FBI boss in a compromising
position with his friend and top aide, Clyde Tolson. Summers's "proof"
about Hoover's homosexuality comes from a number of witnesses who told
him that they had seen such photographs. Former members of the Mafia or
Mafia associates told of how Lansky pressured the FBI director into
leaving the criminal organization alone.
That Hoover was a homosexual did not
originate with Anthony Summers, however. Beginning in the 1920s, a
number of Hoover's agents speculated about their boss's sexual
preferences. They noted how, from the 1920s up to the time of their
deaths in the 1970s, Hoover and his friend, Clyde Tolson, went
everywhere together.
Throughout his period in office Hoover
used the FBI to squelch rumors that he was homosexual. He was vigorous
in his approach because he believed the allegations impugned his good
name and integrity. FBI agents often intimidated his detractors. Hoover
ordered them to demand that the rumor mongers "put up or shut up." It is
clear that Hoover was confident no evidence existed of any
indiscretions.
Summers's strongest source for Hoover's
alleged homosexuality is Susan Rosenstiel, the fourth wife of Lewis
Solon Rosenstiel, a mobster and distilling mogul. She claims to have
witnessed Hoover in drag at two orgies at New York's Plaza Hotel in 1958
and 1959. Sen. Joseph McCarthy's former aide, Roy Cohn, a known
homosexual, was (allegedly) also present. Rosenstiel's story could not
be corroborated as all the participants present at the parties are now
deceased.
Hoover biographer Richard Hack has quoted
an interview given by Roy Cohn shortly before his death from AIDS. Cohn
said, "(Hoover) wouldn't do anything, certainly not in public, not in
private either. Hoover was always afraid that someone who he saw, where
he went, what he said, it would impact that all-important image of his.
He would never do anything that would compromise his position as head of
the FBI – ever. There was supposed to be some scandalous pictures of
Hoover and Tolson – there were no pictures. Believe me, I looked. There
were no pictures because there was no sexual relationship. Whatever they
did, they did separately, in different rooms, and even then, I'm sure
Hoover was fully dressed."
Anthony Summers's "evidence" of Hoover's
homosexuality lacks veracity according to two of Hoover's most acclaimed
and authoritative biographers. Richard Gid Powers and Athan Theoharis
both believe Summers's sources are not credible. Athan Theoharis said
that the popularization of Hoover's homosexuality was the result of
"shoddy journalism."
Powers also questioned the reliability of
many of Summers's witnesses quoted in the book. Powers said that Hoover
was such a hated figure that many people were prepared to believe the
worst about him and to "badmouth" him. Powers cites John Weitz, a former
wartime secret service officer, who, according to Summers, was at a
dinner party in the 1950s when the host showed him a picture and
identified Hoover having sex with another man. Weitz did not himself
recognize Hoover and he refused to identify the party host. Nor did
Summers ever see the photograph. Another "witness" to the existence of
the photograph was JFK conspiracy fantasist, Gordon Novel, who Summers
admitted was a "controversial" figure.
Athan Theoharis successfully
demonstrated, in his book J.
Edgar Hoover, Sex, and Crime, that Summers's claims were not
credible. Theoharis stated that no evidence exists that would prove
Hoover and Tolson were sexually involved. Theoharis also believes Tolson
was heterosexual, citing reports by a number of Tolson's associates.
Theoharis believes that the likelihood is that Hoover never knew sexual
desire at all. Richard Hack, on the other hand, presented evidence in
his 2004 book Puppetmaster
– The Secret Life Of J. Edgar Hoover to prove Hoover had a
sexual relationship with Hollywood actress Dorothy Lamour and a possible
intimate relationship with Lela Rogers, mother of actress Ginger Rogers.
When asked about rumors of a Hoover/Tolson homosexual relationship Hack
answered, "Oh, I know it wasn't. I know he wasn't." Hack's view is that
the mere fact that Tolson and Hoover allowed themselves to constantly be
seen in public, meant they could not have been more than close
colleagues. Hack said, "It became clear to me as I went deeper into the
man's psyche that if they were indeed lovers, they never would have been
seen together."
Of Rosenstiel's claim that Hoover was
homosexual, Theoharis wrote, "Susan Rosenstiel…was not a disinterested
party. Although the target of her allegations was J. Edgar Hoover, she
managed as well to defame her second husband with whom she had been
involved in a bitterly contested divorce that lasted 10 years in the
courts. Her hatred of Lewis Rosenstiel had led her in 1970 to offer
damaging testimony about his alleged connections with organized crime
leaders before a New York State legislative committee on crime."
Furthermore, she was a convicted perjurer and received a prison
sentence.
Theoharis's research is supported by FBI
Assistant Director Cartha DeLoach who said Rosenstiel blamed Hoover for
supplying her husband with damaging information used in her divorce
trial. Furthermore, according to Deloach, she had been peddling the
Hoover "drag" story to Hoover's critics for years without success --
until Anthony Summers came along.
DeLoach and Theoharis are also supported
by writer Peter Maas who discovered a fatal flaw in Summers's rendition
of events with regard to the cross-dressing story at the Plaza Hotel.
Maas said that in the period following the alleged incident at the Plaza
Hotel Hoover assigned FBI agents to investigate Lansky who supposedly
had the photos of Hoover in a compromising position. When the FBI office
in Miami complained that an investigation would be hampered by lack of
manpower Hoover wrote back, "Lansky has been designated for 'crash'
investigation. The importance of this case cannot be overemphasized. The
Bureau expects this investigation to be vigorous and detailed." Maas
also wrote that when he asked Lansky's closest associate about the
photo, the old man replied, "Are you nuts?"
Therefore, according to Maas, this memo
severely undermines Summers's thesis that Hoover could not act against
mobsters because they "had the goods" on him.
And Susan Rosenstiel's credibility is
also undermined by her interview to a BBC documentary team. When
questioned by Anthony Summers about her observations at the Plaza Hotel
she said the person in drag "LOOKED LIKE J. EDGAR HOOVER." (Emphasis
added) After a prompt by Summers she agreed that it was definitely
Hoover. It is clear that Rosenstiel's story is less than convincing
especially when her claims are considered; Hoover was allowing himself
to be observed by someone who could have destroyed his career and
compromised him for the rest of his life.
Hoover was adept at blackmail. He used
incriminating information his agency collected about prominent people to
maintain his hold on office. The question must be asked: Would a man
with so many enemies put himself in a position to be blackmailed by
parading himself around a hotel dressed as a woman? Furthermore,
Hoover's life revolved around the bureau – would he put his career at
risk by such actions?
Despite the clear implication in the book
that Rosenstiel's story was true, Summers eventually stated that he
merely reported what Rosenstiel said, along with what others claimed. He
said he held, "no firm view one way or the other" as to whether she told
the truth.
Oliver "Buck" Revell, a former associate
director of the FBI, has observed that if the Mafia had had anything on
Hoover, it would have been picked up in wiretaps mounted against
organized crime after Appalachin. There was never a hint of such a
claim, Revell said. Furthermore, Hoover was himself under secret
surveillance for his own protection and such behavior would have been
reported.
The flimsy "evidence" against Hoover's
sexuality was described by former FBI Intelligence Division Assistant
Director W. Raymond Wannall, as, "(emanating from) dead witnesses, a
perjurer, a Watergate burglar, and principally a British author, Anthony
Summers, whose allegations against a previous American public servant,
repeated in a London newspaper, resulted in an open-court retraction,
apology and payment of a substantial sum in damages."
(Author's note: Summers
alleged CIA official David Atlee Phillips had been involved in the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The British newspaper The
Observer published excerpts from the book, Phillips sued, and The
Observer admitted in open court that "there was never any evidence"
to support Summers's allegations. The paper apologized to Phillips and
paid £22,500 in damages.)
Wannall questioned why, if "there were
such a photograph with which to blackmail Hoover," was it not used "from
1961 to 1972 when 10 Cosa Nostra "family bosses" were arrested and
convicted, when organized crime convictions based on his investigations
totalled 131 in 1965, 281 in 1968, and escalated to 813 the last year of
his life?"
There are more compelling reasons to
explain Hoover's pre-1961 poor record on dealing with organized crime.
Until 1961, there was no federal law authorizing or enabling the FBI to
investigate organized criminal activities or groups such as the Mafia.
It was not until 1961 that Congress passed a law granting such
authority. It is also true that, after local authorities raided the 1957
meeting of Mafia chieftains from across the U.S. in Appalachia, N.Y.,
Hoover instituted a "Top Hoodlum" program. Several organized crime
figures were arrested long before Congress passed the 1961 law, under
individual laws already in effect. Notwithstanding these facts, it is
true Hoover's war on organized crime did not really take off until the
ascendancy of Robert Kennedy as head of the Justice
Department.
To those who knew both men, including
Cartha "Deke" Deloach, George Allen, and Charles Spencer, Hoover's
relationship with his friend was chaste. Allen said, "Tolson was sort of
Hoover's alter ego. He almost ran the FBI. He's not only a brain, but
the most unselfish man that ever lived. He let Hoover take all the bows
all the credits...They were very, very close because he needed Clyde so
much. He couldn't have done the things he did without Clyde." Spencer
said, "Oh, Christ I heard rumors about them a thousand times. All
around, every place, and I think it's just the result of people unable
to believe that two men could be as dedicated to their country as those
two were. It wasn't just speculation and it was worse than rumors. It
had to be developed by jealous and enviable people that were out to do
somebody in. Their demeanor was always flawless. Very businesslike. The
best way I can put it is that Clyde Tolson was the associate director of
the FBI. He lived 24 hours of every day, seven days a week for the full
year as associate director of the FBI. It was a director and associate
director relationship."
Cartha Deloach worked closely with Hoover
for over 20 years and became the third ranking FBI agent. Deloach
dismissed stories about Hoover's alleged homosexuality stating, "I think
it's significant to note that no one who knew Hoover and Tolson well in
the FBI has ever even hinted at such a charge. You can't work side by
side with two men for the better part of 20 years and fail to recognize
signs of such affections."
The real reason why Hoover did not
investigate the Mafia throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s is that he
had a genuine fear that his agents would be corrupted by the criminal
organization. The FBI was the only love of Hoover's life and he
protected and defended it as a father does with a son. On more than one
occasion he made reference to the fact that state and local law officers
had been corrupted by the mob.
There was also a self-serving reason.
Throughout his leadership of the FBI, Hoover had been unwilling to
tackle any major initiative unless he had been assured of success.
Fighting organized crime, to Hoover, did not provide that guaranteed
success. As Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote, "Former FBI agents laid
great stress on Hoover's infatuation with statistics. He liked to regale
Congress with box scores of crimes committed, subjects apprehended, and
crimes solved. Organized crime did not lend itself to statistical
display. It required a heavy investment of agents in long tedious
investigations that might or might not produce convictions at the end.
The statistical preoccupation steered Hoover toward the easy cases: bank
robbers, car thieves, kidnappers and other one-shot
offenses."
Most importantly, it was Hoover's
obsession with "Communist subversion" that drew his complete attention
and he was aided and abetted in this by successive post-war
administrations and Congresses. He believed communism to be the main
threat to the "American way of life." According to Richard Hack, "It
didn't matter if there were Mafia out there. They weren't going to bring
the government down, they were just making money illegally and there
were lots of cops to deal with that."
It was this desire to keep the fight
against communism at the top of the political agenda that led to his
clash with the first attorney general who saw the Mafia as public enemy
No. 1.
Hoover and the Kennedys
The Kennedys were the most compelling of
J. Edgar Hoover's targets. For over 30 years he dug into the lives of
the Kennedys for political leverage. Beginning with Joseph Kennedy Sr.,
Hoover knew that information about the family would eventually come in
useful. As ambassador to Great Britain during the Second World War,
Kennedy had an important position in President Roosevelt's
Administration and when the ambassador fell out with Roosevelt, the
President turned to Hoover to provide him with details of Kennedy's
promiscuous private life.
However, Kennedy maintained his
friendship with the FBI director and jumped at any opportunity to praise
Hoover publicly. FBI files also record that Joe Kennedy acted as an FBI
informant providing the FBI with names to investigate.
Hoover compiled a file on Joseph
Kennedy's second son, the future president, from the moment the young
naval intelligence officer engaged in a relationship with a married
woman, Inga Arvad, whom the bureau suspected of being a Nazi spy (a
number of FBI memos confirm that there was no truth to the allegations).
The FBI bugged one of the hotel rooms where JFK and Arvad met, but no
proof was found that either he or Arvad had been engaged in spying
activities. However, the fact that Ambassador Kennedy's son had been
conducting a scandalous relationship with a married woman was more than
enough information for Hoover to savor.
Over the years JFK's career moved from
the House of Representatives to the Senate then the presidency in 1960.
By that year Hoover had become the symbol of law and order in the United
States. Hoover's file on the young president grew, delineating numerous
liaisons with women. The file also recorded campaign contributions from
Mafia bosses.
Hoover ordered the accounting of files in
the spring and summer of 1960 when it seemed likely Kennedy would be the
Democratic nominee for president. On July 13, 1960, FBI official Milton
Jones prepared a nine-page memo for Assistant Director Cartha DeLoach,
"...The Bureau and the Director have enjoyed friendly relations with
Sen. Kennedy and his family for a number of years...Allegations of
immoral activities on Sen. Kennedy's part have been reported to the FBI
over the years…they include…data reflecting that Kennedy carried on an
illicit relationship with another man's wife (Inga Arvad) during World
War Two; that (probably January 1960) Kennedy was ‘compromised' with a
woman in Las Vegas; and that Kennedy and Frank Sinatra have in the
recent past been involved in parties in Palm Springs, Las Vegas and New
York City."
After Kennedy was elected president,
Hoover realized that a good way of keeping check on his amorous
activities was to cover Peter Lawford's activities. Throughout the
period of Kennedy's presidency, FBI agents had been ordered to keep
surveillance on Lawford's comings and goings and to make a written
record of any affairs the President had.
On taking office, President Kennedy knew
that the FBI Director had become a national institution, a man who held
a great deal of information about millions of citizens, including
himself. It would take a brave president to get rid of him. On more than
one occasion Kennedy responded to queries about why he did not get rid
of the aging bureaucrat by answering, "You don't fire God." One of the
first acts of his new administration was to reappoint Hoover.
Throughout the Kennedy presidency Robert
Kennedy, the new attorney general, was constantly reminded of Hoover's
secret files. Hoover made a point of sending RFK memos containing
scurrilous information about family members or colleagues as a way of
telling the Kennedy brothers that the director should be treated with
respect.
Hoover hated the Kennedys, believing them
to be moral degenerates. The situation did not improve when RFK became
Hoover's new boss. However, there was never any direct confrontation
between the new attorney general and the crusty FBI director. And as
Hoover was protective and respectful of the Office of the Presidency he
was at all times civil and obedient to President Kennedy. Although he
was irked at orders from RFK, he never challenged the attorney general.
Hoover's bureaucratic instincts told him that it would be futile to
challenge the President's brother and closest confidante.
In the past Hoover's relationships with
attorneys general had been founded upon their unwillingness to challenge
the FBI Director's semi-autonomous position within the Justice
Department. Attorneys general had allowed Hoover to govern the FBI
without interference and to report directly to the president. The
situation changed after the appointment of Robert Kennedy; Hoover was
forced to deal directly with the President only through the office of
the attorney general. RFK placed a direct telephone link on Hoover's
desk and made it plain that the director was his subordinate. When
Robert Kennedy took office at the age of 35, Hoover was 65 years old and
knew he did not have to retire until Jan. 1, 1965 when he would have
reached the age of 70. Hoover therefore did not want to directly
challenge RFK and risk a premature end to his career.
Nevertheless, the relationship was
adversarial. On one occasion Hoover said to an aide, "They call him
‘Bobby'!" It was evident to those close to the FBI Director that Hoover
would not enjoy working with a young activist like Kennedy. Hoover was
the quintessential bureaucrat who lived by rules. The young attorney
general frequently broke the rules by appearing at meetings in
shirtsleeves. He generally encouraged a relaxed and informal atmosphere
within the Justice Department. Hoover, on the other hand, frequently
remonstrated with subordinates who did not adhere to the appropriate
dress code. And, if an agent was found to have had extra-marital
relations, he was immediately transferred to a less prestigious
posting.
FBI Agent Courtney Evans, who was
appointed by the Kennedys to be the FBI liaison with the White House,
felt that Hoover and RFK were too much alike to be effective colleagues.
"When I looked at Bob operating in 1961," Evans said, "I figured that's
the way Hoover had operated in 1924...the same kind of temperament,
impatient with inefficiency, demanding as to detail, a system of logical
reasoning for a position, and pretty much of a hard
taskmaster."
There was probably an element of jealousy
in Hoover's relationship with RFK. Hoover believed that nationally
organized crime did not exist and felt there was no evidence that it
did. When Robert Kennedy became attorney general, those agents who had
been assigned to investigate organized crime were immensely overjoyed.
They knew Robert Kennedy was a committed crime fighter who would throw
all the resources of the Justice Department behind fighting the Mafia.
Because of his previous work as a counsel to Senate investigating
committees, Kennedy understood, as few officials did in the 1950s, the
true nature of the mob. It was not a loosely knit band of non-violent
criminals who served the public's harmless appetite for gambling but
instead a powerful and insidious organization in U.S. society. In fact
Kennedy knew that the Mafia, through its control of many labor unions,
greatly affected the welfare of every man woman and child in
America.
The scope and success of RFK's campaign
against organized crime was unprecedented. As Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
(Robert
Kennedy And His Times, 1978) wrote, "Subversion was out.
Organized crime was in. Hoover grudgingly went along."
There were a number of other reasons why
the relationship with the Kennedys got off to a bad start. Although
Hoover had been friendly with Joseph Kennedy he had little respect for
his sons whom he considered to be upstarts. Hoover knew about John
Kennedy's womanizing and took the view that he was unfit for public
office and that his character was weak. Hoover had been a lifelong
bachelor, mother-dominated, and raised with strict puritanical and
Calvinist strictures. JFK's liaisons, faithfully reported on by Hoover's
agents, obviously upset the FBI director's moral equilibrium.
Hoover's knowledge of John Kennedy's
affair with the Danish beauty, Inga Arvad, had been useful in his
relationship with Joseph Kennedy. However, it was not until the
presidential election of 1960 that Hoover began to take a deep personal
interest in the Senator's private life. He became disgusted with reports
emanating from Las Vegas, a favorite Kennedy stopover in the
presidential campaign. A report in 1960 to Hoover described orgiastic
goings-on during the filming of the Sinatra Rat Pack's movie Ocean's
11. The report stated, in part, "Show girls from all over town were
running in and out of the senator's suite."
Hoover also had a photo of Sen. John
Kennedy leaving the home of his wife's secretary, Pamela Turnure, in the
early hours of the morning. It was the secretary's landlords, the
Katers, who informed the director and the couple began a vigorous
campaign to reveal Sen. Kennedy's adulterous acts. However, the media
largely ignored their campaign. An extreme right-wing magazine called
the Thunderbolt published their story and this gave Hoover the
excuse to bring it to the attention of the Kennedys.
This is an excellent example of how
Hoover operated. Hoover could not use his subtle blackmailing techniques
by referring to his agents' reports. The Kennedys would have been
outraged that the FBI director had been snooping on them. However, if
scandalous material had been disseminated through other organs, Hoover
could righteously say that he was bringing the offending material to
their attention and "protecting" them.
Hoover knew he could act contemptuously
at times. He well understood the respect and admiration that leading
groups in the United States held for him. In fact his popularity
remained at an all-time high. Kennedy's close victory also meant the new
president could not act boldly in changing the status quo. As Robert
Kennedy said, "It was important as far as we were concerned that
(Hoover) remained happy and that he remain in his position because he
was a symbol and the President had won by such a narrow margin and it
was a hell of an investigative body and he got a lot of things done and
it was much better for what we wanted to do in the South, what we wanted
to do in organized crime, if we had him on our side."
Even though Hoover maintained a civil
attitude to the Kennedys during John Kennedy's presidency, he and the
Kennedys worked together in an atmosphere of hatred and
mistrust.
It was the knowledge of one of President
Kennedy's girlfriends that led Hoover to believe he could intimidate and
embarrass the President. FBI reports indicated that Judith Campbell
Exner had frequent contacts with President Kennedy from the end of 1960
to mid-1962. (They actually met earlier when Kennedy was running for
president and were introduced by Frank Sinatra.) The reports said that
Campbell was a close friend of gangster, Johnny Rosselli, and Chicago
mob boss, Sam Giancana, and she saw them often during this period.
Hoover became concerned that the Mafia would use this connection to gain
influence with the President. He also no doubt felt that this was a
golden opportunity to make Kennedy aware that he knew about the affairs
under the guise of keeping track of criminal figures. Hoover sent
identical copies of a memorandum, dated Feb. 27, 1962, to Robert Kennedy
and Kenneth O'Donnell, assistant to President Kennedy. The memo stated
that information developed in connection with an FBI investigation of
Johnny Rosselli revealed that Rosselli had been in contact with
Campbell. Hoover's memo also stated that a review of the telephone calls
from Campbell's residence revealed calls to the White House.
On March 22, 1962, Hoover had a private
luncheon with President Kennedy. There is no record of what transpired
but, according to White House logs, telephone contact between Campbell
and Kennedy occurred a few hours after the luncheon. Historians are in
agreement that it is likely Hoover used this meeting to apprise the
President of how reckless and dangerous it was to be connected to a
woman who was also friendly with members of the Mafia. Hoover was using
subtle blackmail.
In the two years and 10 months of
Kennedy's presidency, Hoover had only been invited to White House
functions a dozen times. Hoover was also unhappy that he could no longer
contact the President directly as he had done under previous presidents.
His relationship with both RFK and JFK was dangerously cunning to say
the least. Yet there is nothing in the record that Hoover tried to harm
President Kennedy by leaking information even though the FBI director
relished the opportunity to show Kennedy that he knew a lot of
secrets.
Athan Theoharis has described Hoover as
an "astute bureaucrat" who, "recognized that a direct attempt at
blackmail could compromise his tenure as director. So he volunteered
information only after it was already public...or had been obtained
incidentally to a wiretap installed during an authorized criminal
investigation (such as the information involving Kennedy's contacts with
Judith Campbell, obtained through a wiretap on organized crime leader
Johnny Rosselli). A sophisticated blackmailer, Hoover only hinted at the
FBI's ability to monitor personal misconduct."
In effect, there was a stand-off between
the President and the FBI director. Hoover's secret files contained
information that could have done irreparable damage to the Kennedy
administration: JFK's womanising, CIA/Mafia attempts to kill Castro, JFK
friend Frank Sinatra's links to mob bosses, and Sinatra's efforts to
enlist the Mafia to help in the 1960 presidential campaign. Kennedy on
the other hand could have fired Hoover at any time during his 1,000-day
presidency. Kennedy could also have embarrassed the director for not
recognizing the importance of organized crime and not responding,
initially, to equal-rights directives within the FBI. Effectively, it
was a "Mexican stand-off."
It would be Robert Kennedy's efforts to
protect his brother from a scandal that solidified Hoover's hold on his
job. During the summer of 1963 RFK asked Hoover to help in persuading
Congressional leaders to desist in linking their investigation of
corrupt practices by Senate Secretary Bobby Baker to members of the JFK
Administration. Baker was accused of influence peddling and during the
investigation of his affairs it was revealed he had been supplying
leading Congressmen with "party girls." One particular woman, West
German Ellen Rometsch, who was taken to the White House by Kennedy
friend Bill Thompson for an intimate meeting with JFK, was in a position
to bring down the Kennedy presidency. Robert Kennedy enlisted the
assistance of Hoover who spoke to Congressional leaders about the damage
the Baker revelations would do to both Democrats and Republicans. The
investigation continued but without reference to the Quorum Club which
was the center of Baker's enterprise.
Hoover was now assured he had enough
information to hold the upper hand in his dealings with the Kennedys and
this may account for RFK's acquiescence in Hoover's request to tap the
telephones of Martin Luther King Jr. It now became impossible for JFK to
get rid of Hoover. He would have to wait until his re-election in 1964
and Hoover's statutory retirement in January 1965 before he could rid
himself of a dangerous subordinate. However, JFK's assassination and the
elevation of Hoover's friend Lyndon Johnson to the presidency, put an
end to the threat hanging over Hoover's head.
Hoover's Legacy
Hoover ran the Bureau for nearly 48 years
prior to his death on May 2, 1972. When he became director in 1924, it
was called the Bureau of Investigation and was inefficient and
scandal-ridden. But, according to most Hoover biographers, the new
director quickly turned it into an efficient and uncorrupt policing
agency. Hoover abolished political appointments, recruited highly
educated agents, instituted centralized fingerprint and statistical
files, developed a crime laboratory and founded a highly acclaimed
training academy. As investigative reporter and Hoover nemesis Jack
Anderson wrote, "J. Edgar Hoover transformed the FBI from a
collection of hacks, misfits and courthouse hangers-on into one of the
world's most effective and formidable law enforcement
organizations. Under his reign, not a single FBI man ever tried to
fix a case, defraud the taxpayers or sell out his country."
Those who knew Hoover throughout his life
are divided in their judgments of the man. To some, Hoover was a
patriotic and dedicated public servant who believed in American
democracy and built the finest crime-fighting agency in the world. He
was neither arrogant nor a megalomaniac. Former agents of the bureau
speak of Hoover as a man who instilled in them the highest qualities of
service and pride in the agency's work.
Hoover defenders also explain why he
remained a bachelor. According to Richard Hack, "For J. Edgar Hoover to
be as powerful as he was, to maintain that image, he gave up his
personal life. It became his personal life. There was no other
life."
Hoover's admirers characterize him as a
friendly man of great humor who enjoyed being with people. Actor James
Stewart is typical of a group of acquaintances who described Hoover in
this way. Stewart characterized Hoover as a man who, "...liked to be
with people, and I thought always that he was very easy to be with and
it always surprised me...he was so easy to be with and so easy to talk
to…I had the feeling that I was with a very strong, determined man,
always."
Hoover's detractors, on the other hand,
have described the director as a man trapped in his past – a past that
glorified in a WASP America. Hoover's American ideal was not in keeping
with any progressive cause or a toleration of foreigners, radicalism,
and left-wing politics.
Detractors characterize Hoover as a man
who had a lot of prejudices, disliking Jews, African-Americans and
"pseudo-liberals"; as a man who saw enemies of the state everywhere and
it was his God-given right to protect the nation. To these critics
Hoover was, essentially, the major threat to American liberties. They
describe him as a man who spent too long in the job, becoming
increasingly senile, angry and personally corrupt, misappropriating
government time, money, services and equipment for his own ends and for
having accepted gratuities from Dallas millionaires Clint Murchison and
Sid Richardson.
Critics of Hoover point to the extensive
use of illegal investigative techniques including "black bag jobs,"
illegal break-ins) wiretaps, bugs and illegal mail-openings. Although
Hoover often ordered his agents to commit aggressive and sometimes
illegal acts against individuals and organizations engaged in legitimate
political activities, it was clear to many that some of Hoover's
practices must have been, if not condoned, at least allowed by every
president he served under. The presidents Hoover served under cannot
escape blame.
As a law enforcement agency, the bureau
had all the resources needed to eavesdrop and wire tap citizens
suspected of breaking federal laws. But those same resources were also
used to uncover evidence of immoral behavior by senators and congressmen
and were savored by the presidents he served. Although Eisenhower
disdained Hoover's methods he made no attempt to curb the awesome power
the bureaucrat had accumulated. Nor did Nixon. Roosevelt and Johnson
especially appreciated the information Hoover channeled their way,
gleefully reading scandal–filled reports of their political enemies'
private lives. During his years in the White House President Johnson
included in his private conversations references to the private lives of
congressmen that could only have come from surveillance.
Hoover did not see himself as personally
corrupt, even though he had passed on many of his personal expenses to
the bureau. When Hoover's expenses could not be stretched he accepted
"hospitality" from businessmen. However, if one of his agents abused his
expense accounts he would be severely disciplined. Hoover would also
vacation with Clyde Tolson at the expense of the bureau and then arrange
to have a brothel or illegal saloon raided so he could claim he was
"working." There is also evidence that Hoover was guilty of tax evasion.
Hoover had been head of the FBI for
decades and considered himself above reproach in giving himself some
leeway in accepting relatively small gratuities. There is no evidence,
however, that he enriched himself to the tune of millions of dollars
through his position as head of the FBI. The fact that he and Tolson
took annual "inspection" trips to the Miami area and Southern California
and had his agents do work on his home and car were the most serious of
his ethical lapses. The fact his estate was fairly modest was testimony
to the fact that he had not been bought off in any significant way. And,
in later years, he worried that he would not be financially secure in
his old age and accepted what was common and legal up to the 1970s
--honorariums accompanied by large checks.
Allegations of Hoover's greed can also be
tempered by his refusal to accept higher paying jobs that were always on
offer from large corporations. At one point in his career Hoover had
been offered a lifetime job by billionaire Howard Hughes but turned it
down. Hughes told Hoover that he could set his own salary. Instead,
Hoover wished to remain with his true love: the directorship of an
institution that he had personally built.
Hoover was not a Soviet-style secret
policeman. Nor was the FBI a kind of Gestapo. But Hoover and the bureau
did evade public scrutiny, invade the private lives of Americans, and
resisted democratic control. Under Hoover's COINTELPRO program the FBI
"neutralized" the American Communist Party by infiltrating agents and
destroying the reputations of many of its leaders. It infiltrated New
Left student groups and made every effort to disrupt the activities of
its members. As the civil-rights movement grew, the FBI pinpointed every
group and potential leader for intensive investigation. The FBI wrongly
accused the NAACP of harboring Communist-controlled agents within its
leadership. The Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Non-violent
Co-ordinating Committee, and the Black Panther Party were listed by the
FBI as "Black-Hate" type organizations and selected for covert
disruption of their political activities. One of the most vicious FBI
attacks was made against Martin Luther King Jr. with Hoover personally
conducting the efforts to destroy the civil rights leader's reputation.
Hoover's defenders, however, claim that
this period in American history, when riots and dissent appeared to
usher in anarchy and revolution, called for extra-legal measures to deal
with the problem. While not excusing Hoover's lack of proportion in
dealing with the problems, they remind critics that a great fear existed
in the country that society had been threatened with a breakdown in law
and order. They also remind critics that Hoover came under considerable
pressure in the 1960s by U.S. presidents who were anxious to deal with
anti-war riots and civil-rights disturbances, believing that every time
a riot or disturbance occurred it lost them votes. Hoover believed his
vendetta against political dissent, his reaching beyond the law to
prevent lawlessness and anarchy was within the mandate set down by
higher authorities.
J. Edgar Hoover was a complex and
contradictory individual. He set high standards for his agents yet was
himself less than circumspect when it came to using taxpayers' money for
his own ends and he was capricious in his dealings with
agents.
Hoover was a decisive man, strict and
authoritarian – precisely what the bureau needed in the 20s and 30s. But
as he grew older, he did not adapt to changing times. His autocratic
style became increasingly challenged by the new demands of a 1960s
liberal America. As historian Michael O'Brien opined, "(Hoover was) …an
aloof, smug, narrow-minded, martinet with an imperial ego…."
When his body lay in the Capitol,
politicians came forward to extol Hoover's patriotism, his defense of
the "American Way" and his single-minded obsession in making the FBI the
No. 1 crime-fighting agency in the world. But they were also secretly
relieved to see his passing. And, three years after his death, the U.S.
public was so outraged that such vast reservoirs of power could be
wielded by an unelected "civil servant" that Congress became determined
never to allow it to happen again, passing a statute that restricts the
FBI director's tenure to 10 years. Hero or villain, America will never
see another J. Edgar Hoover.
Mel Ayton is the author of The
JFK Assassination: Dispelling The Myths (Woodfield Publishing
2002) and Questions
Of Controversy: The Kennedy Brothers (University of Sunderland
Press 2001).
His latest book, A
Racial Crime – James Earl Ray And The Murder Of Dr Martin Luther King
Jr., was published in the United States by ArcheBooks in
February 2005.
In 2003 he acted as the historical adviser for the
BBC's television documentary "The Kennedy Dynasty" broadcast in November
of that year. He has written articles for Ireland's leading history
magazine History Ireland, David Horowitz's Frontpage
magazine and History News Network.