Official and Confidential_ The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover - Anthony Summers [254]
Hoover’s obsession with all that concerned himself, coupled with the inexorable efficiency of his bureaucratic machine, created another historical treasure. Every single clipping that mentioned his name, from national newspapers to the most obscure local journal, was clipped, perused personally by Hoover, then filed away. Crammed into thirty-three cardboard boxes, they found their way to the National Archives.
These paper sources, along with tens of thousands of FBI documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act – and more than 800 interviews conducted for this book – are the pieces of the jigsaw that lead to this portrait of Hoover.
To interpret Abbreviations used below, see pages 575–7.
Foreword
FBI and other comments on the J. Edgar movie are cited from the Independent on Sunday (UK), Oct. 9, 2011. The Clinton speech is drawn from NYT, Mar. 29, 1993, and an interview with the secretary of the Gridiron Club, and Styron’s speech from The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction, by Barnaby Conrad, Cincinnati, Ohio, Writers Digest books, 1990, p. 26, and interviews with William Styron, 1993. The reference to the extortion racket draws on the New York Post, Feb. 11, 1993, and interviews with Murray Weiss, John Pyne, Sherman Kaminsky, George Hammock, and James McDonnell. John Weitz revealed Angleton’s identity to writer Peter Maas, in Esquire, May 1993. Fresh Rosenstiel sources include FBI files 139–2163 and 94–41753, and Mary Perot Nichols in Philadelphia Inquirer, Mar. 28, 1993. Kessler references draw on The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, by Ronald Kessler, St. Martin’s Press, 2002, p. 107. Elizabeth Brown was informative on stories about Hoover in the homosexual community. Ralph Salerno and Laurence Keenan were interviewed for the Frontline program. Lord Jenkins’ anecdote is in A Life at the Centre, Random House, NY, 1993, p. 189.
Chapter 1
Interviews included undertakers William Reburn and John van Hoesen, Watergate figures Frank Sturgis and Felipe DeDiego; Nixon aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, Justice Department officials Robert Mardian, Mitchell Rogovin and Harold Tyler; psychiatrists Dr Harold Lief and Dr John Money. Events at the Nixon White House were documented on WHT, 587–003, 601–033, Haldeman’s note, 9:15 A.M., May 2, 1972, WHSF, NP. Nixon’s reaction to H’s death draws on J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets, by Curt Gentry, 4Y, Norton, 1991, p. 28, and a 1992 int. of Gentry (supplied to the author by Ingrid Young) re. passage in unpub. Watergate tape transcript.
Chapter 2
Interviews included Hoover relatives Dorothy Davy, Fred Robinette, Virginia Hoover, Anna Hoover Kienast, and Marjorie Stromme, childhood acquaintances Monica Dwyer and Francis Gray, and aide and intimate friend Guy Hottel. Medical information was supplied by Dr Lawrence McDonald. Documents on Hoover’s childhood include his parents’ letters, school reports and his own notes at HC, his 1949/50 correspondence with Harold Burton, Burton Papers, LC, publications of Central High School Alumni Association, and his father’s death certificate, D.C. no. 2645955.
Chapter 3
Interviews included former FBI Assistant Director Cartha DeLoach, and – on church attendance – former agent Leo McClairen. Schoolmates’ recollections came from Dave Stephens’ letter to H., May 25, 1955, in HSF, and C. W. Collier’s letter in Time, Jun. 1, 1936. Hoover’s degree was described in an interview with the George Washington University Registrar. Details of H.’s early career drew on William Dufty’s research for the NYP, 1958 (which included an interview with Bruce Bielaski), the John Lord O’Brian Papers at the University of Buffalo Law School, H.’s World War I memos in DJ files, RG60, NA, the Felix Frankfurter Papers, LC, and Hoover and Clyde Tolson’s staff files. Hoover’s wartime status drew on the exemption list in CR, vol. 56, p. 8138, and