Official and Confidential_ The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover - Anthony Summers [253]
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