Official and Confidential (73 page)

6
.   Congress' Assassinations Committee reported that Aleman's FBI ‘contact' at that time, ‘denied ever being told such information by Aleman.' It is not clear whether this refers to Scranton, who refused comment as late as 1992. (HSCA Report p. 175, and int. 1992.)

7
.   Congress' Assassinations Committee quoted Becker as saying he did not report the Marcello threat to the FBI in 1962. In 1992 he insisted that he did report it, and noted that the committee's questioning of him was merely superficial. Its investigators spoke with him on the phone, but never in
person. And he never testified. (HSCA IX, 83, int. Becker, 1992.)

8
.   Professor Robert Blakey, former Chief Counsel of Congress' Assassinations Committee, recalled in 1992 that the mob's violent talk on the wiretaps was circulated within the Justice Department. Independent research, however, showed no sign that it went to the Secret Service. Failure to circulate reports is sometimes justified on the grounds that it might risk exposure of an agency's sources and methods. There can be no recourse to that excuse in the case of threats against the President's life. (Intl. Robert Blakey, Mark Allen, 1992.)

9
.   One of Murchison's friends, D. H. ‘Dryhole' Byrd, owned the Texas School Book Depository. He and Paul Raigorodsky, who testified to the Warren Commission about Oswald's activity in Dallas, had – like Hoover – been guests at Murchison's California hotel. (
Dallas Conspiracy
, by Peter Dale Scott, unpub. ms., p. vi, 21,
Clint
, by Ernestine van Buren, Austin, TX, Eakin Press, 1986, p. 96,
Wall Street Journal
, Apr. 20, 1970, [Raigorodsky] ints. Allan Witwer, 1990,
Crossfire
, by Jim Marrs, NY, Carroll & Graf, 1989, p. 282.)

10
. Discussed in the chapter that follows.

11
. See Chapter 8. Gordon Novel, quoted in Chapter 23 as saying he was shown compromising photographs of Hoover by a senior CIA official, also claimed to have had a conversation on the subject years later with Marcello. According to Novel – who, as reported, is a highly controversial figure – Marcello said he too had been shown such a picture – in the course of contacts with those involved in the joint CIAMafia plots to kill Fidel Castro in the early sixties. Marcello said other top Mafia bosses had long since had access to the smear material, and had used it to keep Hoover's FBI at bay. (Int. Gordon Novel, 1992.)

Chapter 30

1
.   There were subplots to the Jenkins affair. President Johnson was principally concerned that it would lead to the discovery of his affair with the wife of one of his aides, who regularly joined him at social occasions with a homosexual
companion as ‘beard.' In 1964, several Washington officials received copies of what purported to be a compromising letter from Edgar to Jenkins. Edgar responded by having Senator Bourke Hickenlooper denounce the letter as part of a ‘Communist smear campaign.' Agents who investigated the letter dubbed their probe REPULSE – for ‘Russian Efforts to Publish Unsavory Love Secrets of Edgar.' (Evans to Belmont, Oct. 17, DeLoach to Mohr, Oct. 30, 1964, FBI 94–4–3830, int. Robert Baker, 1990, [Hickenlooper] H/Hickenlooper corr., Jan. 1966, Hickenlooper Papers, HHL, CR, Jan. 17, 1966, p. 367,
NYT
, Jan. 15, 1966, [dubbed] Trenton, NJ,
Times
, Mar. 13, 1980.)

Chapter 31

1
.   While he reacted viscerally against those who promoted racial equality, Hoover did not seek to promote the interests of white supremacists. On the contrary, the Bureau clamped down effectively on the Ku Klux Klan early in his career and – most notably – in the mid-sixties. (P, pp. 140ff, 373ff, 407ff, Athan Theoharis,
Secret Files
, p. 129, int. Neil Welch, 1988.)

2
.   See Chapter 28. In fact, Robert Kennedy granted wiretap permission only subject to review within thirty days. There was no review until 1965, because the assassination of President Kennedy, on November 22, 1963, put Robert virtually out of action for months. Hoover quietly ignored the condition Kennedy had set, and the King wiretapping went on and on. (Athan Theoharis,
Secret Files
, p. 99.)

3
.   FBI records show that Dr King once discussed Rustin's homosexuality with a colleague, in a warning way. The original FBI surveillance material remained sealed at the National Archives until 2027, and only then will historians learn what it reveals about King's sex life. (
Parting the Waters
, by Taylor Branch, NY, Simon & Schuster, 1988, p. 861.)

4
.   Joseph Woods, the former agent named by Royko, said in 1968 that the reporter might be ‘mixed up.' As a serving agent, Woods had been one of those who supplied Hoover with sex information on politicians. (Int. Woods, 1988, and see Chapter 19.)

5
.   
Although Sullivan's attempt to minimize his role was selfserving, former Assistant Directors Courtney Evans and Charles Bates totally rejected the notion that he might have sent the tape without Hoover's approval. Sullivan's longtime secretary, Ann Barniker, said the entire anti-King operation was ‘Mr Hoover's thing.' (Ints. Evans, Bates, Lish Whitsun, Nate Ferris, Ray Wannall, John McGrail, Larry Cohen, Bill Brown, Nicholas Horrock, 1988, Ann Barniker, 1990, S, p. 142, SRIA, p. 160,
GF
, p. 161, and David Garrow notes of Charles Brennan int.)

6
.   While Ray's claims received little credence, students of the case have cited leads indicating that Ray had contacts with an FBI informant before the assassination and that the FBI received advance intelligence that King would be killed in Memphis, yet failed to alert him. (Ints. Harold Weisberg, James Lesar, 1988, Philip Melanson, 1991.)

Chapter 32

1
.   The Democratic Convention in Chicago turned out to be a week of mayhem in which hundreds of anti-Vietnam demonstrators were injured in battles with the police. Edgar praised the police and said the media had distorted the facts. Later, a presidential commission concluded the police behavior had been gratuitous and malicious, ‘a police riot.' A Senate probe showed Edgar had urged agents to look not for the facts but for information that would weigh in favor of the police. (IC 6, p. 254,
NYT
, Sept. 19, Dec. 2, 1968.)

2
.   Rose Mary Woods' brother Joseph was a retired FBI agent. He was one of those who fed Hoover derogatory information on politicians and later – according to one reporter – tried to spread smear material on Martin Luther King. (See index references.)

3
.   There was a Hearthside restaurant, and there was such a reservoir. In 1988, Billy Byars, Jr., remembered the two adolescents named by Krebs and agreed that one of them had visited the Del Charro. While he said he knew nothing of the alleged sex activity, three of Krebs' associates recalled hearing elements of the story at the time.

Chapter 33

1
.   Hoover had declared himself ‘extremely pleased' with the sending of a phony letter smearing a New York Communist Party worker, William Albertson, as an FBI informant. His widow was paid $170,000 as late as 1989, as compensation for the fact that the operation wrecked Albertson's career. Hoover personally supervised the thirty-year persecution of Frank Wilkinson, a Los Angeles housing official who had first come to the FBI's attention for leading protests against plans for segregated housing in 1942. For no offense other than a stubborn commitment to civil rights and the abolition of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Wilkinson was surveilled, his phone tapped and his office burgled. Propaganda against him was mailed from nonexistent organizations, and his meetings were disrupted – on one occasion by American Nazis acting at the instigation of FBI agents. The FBI once learned precise details of a plot to kill Wilkinson and failed to warn him. Hoover's notes and initials are all over the Wilkinson file, which runs to 132,000 pages. (
NYT
, Oct. 26, 1989,
People
, Nov. 20, 1989, [Wilkinson] files of
LAT
, esp. Oct. 18, 1987, int. Frank Wilkinson, 1989, parts of FBI 100–112434,
It Did Happen Here
, by Bud and Ruth Schulz, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1989, p. 263, and Athan Theoharis,
Secret Files
, p. 129.)

2
.   There was evidence that the FBI triggered events that led to other Panther deaths. In New Haven, Connecticut, Alex Rackley was executed by his own comrades following the leak of false information that he was a government informant. (
In These Times
, May 9, 1990.)

Chapter 34

1
.   See Chapter 9.

2
.   See Chapter 21.

3
.   See Chapter 20.

4
.   Mitchell said nothing about a resignation offer in eight hours of conversation with Len Colodny, co-author of
Silent Coup
, before his death in 1988. (Int. Len Colodny, 1991.)

Chapter 36

1
.   The Soviet KGB, for its part, chalked up numerous confirmed kills with the use of poisoning techniques. (
KGB
, by John Barron, NY, Bantam, 1974, pp. 423ff).

2
.   The FBI claimed in 1991 it had nothing on this subject in its files. Then, confronted with a memo from Prosecution Force files, it produced a document reflecting Akerman's inquiry arid establishing that his source was independent of the
Crimson
article. Its author, former Agent Forrest Putman, said he could not remember writing the report. (John Wright [FBI] to James Lesar, Feb. 17, 1989, Kevin O'Brien [FBI] to Lesar, Nov. 20, 1991, Forrest Putman to CENSORED, Nov. 26, 1973, FBI 62–115870, int. Putman, 1991.)

3
.   According to the
Crimson
article, DeDiego suggested that two Cubans, Humberto Lopez and Jaime Ferrer, might supply information on the break-ins. Lopez, who was a Hunt-Liddy operative, said in 1988 that he knew nothing about them. Jaime Ferrer was not traced. In the early sixties, during the CIA's secret war against Castro, DeDiego was a member of Operation 40, a group whose members were trained to capture Castro government documents and – in some cases – to commit assassinations. (Int. Humberto Lopez, 1988 and see DeDiego sourcing for this chapter.)

4.   Clyde Tolson's brother, Hillary, was said to have claimed privately that Hoover in fact died at Clyde's apartment and that his body was returned to his home by agents in an FBI vehicle – to avoid the obvious embarrassment. While the story is not implausible, it is so indirectly sourced that it can here be treated only as rumor. (Ints. Robert Simmons, 1988, 1991.)

5
.   Dr Luke told the press Hoover had been ‘suffering from a heart ailment for some time.' It is odd that Dr Choisser, Hoover's longtime GP, denies that there was any such history. (Death Cert. No. 72–03405, HSF 8,
NYT, WP
, May 3, 1972, but see, too, unattributed ref. to a much earlier heart ailment in
J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets
, by Curt Gentry, NY, Norton, 1991, p. 461.)

6
.   See Chapter 20.

Epilogue

1.   Realizing that Edgar's lying-in-state would coincide with antiwar rallies near the Capitol, Nixon's adviser Charles Colson issued orders to disrupt the demonstrations. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt brought in a team of Cubans, including some who were to take part in the Watergate breakins, and they provoked fights in the crowd. Afterward, those involved claimed their purpose had been to protect Edgar's catafalque, which in fact was already perfectly well secured by the police and the military. (
Nightmare
, by Anthony Lukas, London, Penguin, 1988, p. 194,
Undercover
, by Howard Hunt, NY, Putnam, 1974, p. 211,
Will
, by Gordon Liddy, NY, St Martin's Press, 1980, p. 220,
Secret Agent
, by Jim Hougan, NY, Morrow, 1978, pp. 133ff,
WP
, May 26, 1974,
Miami Herald
, Apr. 22, 1973,
NYT
, Mar. 9, 1973, ints. Gordon Liddy, Rolando Martinez, Felipe DeDiego, Frank Sturgis, Humberto Lopez, William Kunstler, 1988.)

2
.   The grave was well tended in 1992, following a change in management of the cemetery. The Society of Former Agents then contributed to the upkeep, and Washington Masons also helped. (Int. John Hanley, 1992.)

3
.   The content of this book was discussed with two eminent professors of psychiatry and psychology, a child psychologist and an Army psychologist who has worked with dysfunctional families. They are Dr Harold Lief, Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and past President of the American Academy of Psychoanalysts, Dr John Money, Professor of Medical Psychology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr Norris Haynes, Research Director at Yale University's Child Study Center, and Gaye Humphreys, a family therapist then working with the Army in Ireland.

SOURCE NOTES

Everything reported in this book was documented by the author, and all sources – of both human and print origin – appeared in the 1993 hardback edition. While the main text remains unabridged in this edition, the Source Notes are summarized – in the interest of brevity and to ensure that the book is affordable to a wider public. Readers who wish to obtain the full Source Notes should consult the hardback edition or write to the author, who will be glad to provide them. Please address requests to: Anthony Summers, c/o Open Road Integrated Media, 180 Varick Street, Suite 816, New York, New York, 10014.

J. Edgar Hoover left no diaries or intimate letters – with the single exception of his bizarre correspondence with Melvin Purvis, quoted in this book. His personal files, which probably contained private letters as well as highly sensitive office documents, were mostly destroyed on his orders following his death. A mass of personal material, photographs, childhood journals – even Hoover's christening robe and baby bootees – survived as an exhibit at the Masons' Supreme Council headquarters in Washington D.C. For real information, however, the researcher must forage among the millions of documents that passed across the Director's desk during his tenure. The notes he scrawled on them in his rounded script, known as Blue Gems because they are written in blue ink, reveal a good deal about the man.