Official and Confidential_ The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover - Anthony Summers [109]
In 1970, when Rooney was challenged again, Edgar sent him details of a police charge against his rival, arising from a long-ago fraternity party, enabling Rooney to claim the candidate was ‘a fugitive from justice.’ Rooney held on to his seat by a narrow margin.
Congressman John McCormack of Massachusetts, Speaker of the House in the sixties, also had a special relationship with Edgar. ‘I met Hoover around 1962,’ Winter-Berger recalled, ‘when McCormack would send me over to the FBI to pick up files for him. If McCormack wanted some information to use against someone – a girlfriend the guy shouldn’t have or some nefarious dealings – Hoover would help him. It might be someone in the House whose arm McCormack wanted to twist on a vote. Or someone in government he wanted to bring pressure on. McCormack couldn’t send an ordinary messenger to pick up that sort of thing, so he used me. I’d go over to Hoover’s office, and he personally would give me the file. He knew what I was coming for, and he’d have it waiting.’
Winter-Berger also recalled something that put him off. ‘When I was leaving, Hoover would pat me on the rear end, sort of the way they do athletes when they’ve had a good game, except that we were alone in his office and I certainly wasn’t an athlete. I was thirty-six then, and he was thirty years older than me. I thought it was out of order for the head of the FBI to do that, and I eventually became uncomfortable and started trying to get out of going over there.’
Edgar dined regularly with Congressman – subsequently Senator – George Bender of Ohio, later widely condemned for his corrupt links with the Teamsters Union. Edgar energetically promoted the congressional career of Senator Thomas Dodd, who regularly made warm speeches about the Bureau. Dodd, a former FBI agent, had once been described in a memo from Edgar’s office as ‘absolutely no good … a scoundrel.’ In the sixties, however, when Dodd was exposed for corruption, the Bureau helped him cover his tracks. ‘Nothing,’ recalled the Senator’s former aide James Boyd, ‘could have been more effective for intimidating potential witnesses into silence … FBI agents had been instructed not to take any information concerning Dodd.’
The way Edgar secured a man’s allegiance, and by contrast silenced potential enemies, was ruthless. FBI agents were forever on the alert to record human failings. ‘We had a general instruction,’ said former senior agent Curtis Lynum, ‘to record anything we might need in the future, in what we called a “Zero file.” I was skiing with my wife once when I was serving in Nevada, and we saw a man in a homosexual embrace with a teenage boy outside a chalet. We both recognized the guy, a big name in the business circles of Las Vegas. I wished I hadn’t seen it, but I had. I figured it might be important later on, so I reported it to my Special Agent in Charge. I probably put a recommendation “File for future reference.” But the SAC could look at that thing and say, “This is a prominent guy. I guess I’d better send that back to Washington for indexing.” It was a wellestablished procedure. I made those decisions myself when I became an SAC. I’d think, “Maybe I’d better send that to Mr Hoover.”’
Long before a new member of Congress boarded his plane for Washington, said William Sullivan, FBI files had been scoured for any references: a criminal record perhaps, an occasion the name had come up in any investigation, however incidentally, any mention of a sexual or ethical lapse. ‘The leadership of the Bureau knew exactly what he wanted,’ Sullivan said, ‘every bit of derogatory information on every congressman,