G-Man, page 135
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover, 28.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
NT 23-152; NT-TR 719-12.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
NT 335-16, 334-11, 23-133; NT-TR, 717-19.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
NT 334-36, 23-133.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
NT 23-103.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 15
DeLoach, Hoover’s FBI, 414–7; Elsasser, “National Crimefighter,” ChiT, May 3, 1972, B159, JEHS.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 16
NT 717-8; Johnson to Tolson, May 2, 1972, F: “Hoover,” B73, Post-Presidential Papers, Name File, LBJ.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
AP, “J. Edgar Hoover Is Dead,” Detroit News, May 2, 1972, B159, JEHS; Nixon, “Statement by the President,” May 2, 1972, F: “GEN FG 17-5 Federal Bureau of Investigation,” B4, WHCF, RN; Breasted, “Nixon Calls Him ‘Truly Remarkable,” NYDN, May 3, 1972, B159, JEHS.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 18
NT 334-36, 23-118.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 19
Memorial Tributes to J. Edgar Hoover in the Congress of the United States (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1974), 29–30, 37, 3–13; Untitled, Washington Capital News Service, May 2, 1972, B159, JEHS; “Individuals Who Have Lain in State or in Honor,” U.S. House of Representantives, https://history.house.gov/Institution/Lie-In-State/Lie-In-State-Honor/.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 20
Farmer and Freeman, “J. Edgar Hoover 77,” Springfield News & Leader, April 23, 1972, reprinted in Memorial Tributes, 16; “J. Edgar Hoover,” Providence Journal, May 3, 1972, B229, JEHS.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 21
Delaney, “Mourning,” WS, May 3, 1972, B159, JEHS.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 22
Untitled, Augusta Chronicle, May 3, 1972, B229, JEHS; “J. Edgar Hoover, RIP,” NatR, May 26, 1972, 572–3.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 23
Memorial Tributes, 35; “J. Edgar Hoover,” ChiT, May 3, 1972, B229, JEHS; Canham, “Mr. Hoover’s place,” CSM, May 8, 1972, B159, JEHS.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 24
Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover, 42; untitled, Washington Capital News Service, May 3, 1972, B159, JEHS; Robertson, “Hoover Lies,” NYT, May 4, 1972; Seppy, “High officials,” AP, May 3, 1972; Levey, “Throngs View,” WP, May 4, 1972; Felt and O’Connor, G-Man’s Life, 146; Burger, “Eulogy,” May 3, 1972, reprinted in Memorial Tributes, xvii–xviii; Elsasser, “Hoover Eulogized,” ChiT, May 4, 1972, B159, JEHS; “J. Edgar Hoover,” WS, May 3, 1972, reprinted in Memorial Tributes, 223; Fialka, “Nation’s Capital,” WS, May 3, 1972, B159, JEHS; “6,000 file,” WDN, May 4, 1972; “The Lincoln Catafalque,” Architect of the Capitol, https://www.aoc.gov/what-we-do/programs-ceremonies/lying-in-state-honor/lincoln-catafalque.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 25
Valentine, “Mourners Pass,” WP, May 4, 1972; “Counter Protest,” NYT, May 4, 1972; “1,000 Quakers,” NYT, May 4, 1972; Lukas, Nightmare, 194–6.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 26
Greene, “Capitol Stuff,” NYDN, May 3, 1972, B159, JEHS; Antevil, “FBI Has New Most-Wanted,” NYDN, May 3, 1972, B159, JEHS; Stuart, “Who Will Take FBI Helm?” CSM, May 3, 1972, B159, JEHS.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 27
NT 335-16, 334-14, 334-36.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 28
NT 717-15; Ehrlichman to Nixon, “Meeting with Richard Kleindienst, Pat Gray,” May 3, 1972, FG 17-5: “Federal Bureau of Investigation [5 of 8, September 1971–May 1972],” B3, Subject Files, WHCF, RN.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 29
NT-TR 719-12.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 30
Felt and O’Connor, G-Man’s Life, 148, 154.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 31
HO&C; Files, 88–90, 36–49.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 32
“Will—John Edgar Hoover,” July 19, 1971, F1, B1, NLEM.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 33
NT-TR, 717-10, 717-19.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 34
NT 335-14, 335-24, 23-125; NT-LOG 719-3, 719-7, 719-8; “Nixon Eulogizes Hoover at Last Rites,” WS, May 4, 1972, B159, JEHS.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 35
“Services for the Honorable J. Edgar Hoover,” May 4, 1972, F1, B1, NLEM; Nixon, “Eulogy by the President for J. Edgar Hoover,” May 4, 1972, F1, B1, NLEM; Van Riper, “Nixon Calls Hoover,” NYDN, May 5, 1972, B159, JEHS; Levey, “Nixon Eulogizes Hoover,” WP, May 5, 1972, B159, JEHS; Spencer, “ ‘He Was a Great Patriot,’ ” WS, May 5, 1972, B159, JEHS.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 36
Epilogue
NT-TR 858-003; NT-TR 865-14.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 1
Hoover, “Memorandum for Mr. Tolson,” April 13, 1971, S9, FBI V [unnumbered] (Tolson).
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 2
Gray and Gray, In Nixon’s Web, 42–3, 183, 288; Gray, “At EEG House,” August 4, 1980, B: “LPG Handwritten Ipswich Narratives, 1980,” LPG. Also see Gray’s handwritten notes in the margins of Felt, FBI Pyramid, in LPG: 153, 111, acknowledgments.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 3
“In the Offing,” WDN, May 6, 1972, B159, JEHS; Nichols to Nixon, May 19, 1972, F6, B4, FG 17-5, RN.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 4
Felt to Gray, September 20, 1972, S5, FBI FOIA 67-276576-430 (Felt); Gray to Felt, December 1, 1972, S5, FBI FOIA 67-276567-432 (Felt); Weiner, Enemies, 309.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 5
Woodward, Secret Man, 59; Kutler, Abuse of Power, 170–1; Woodward and Bernstein, All the President’s Men. Felt’s memoir went through several editions. It was first published in 1979 as The FBI Pyramid: From the Inside, without the Deep Throat revelations. In 2007, he published a revised edition with John O’Connor under the title A G-Man’s Life: The FBI, Being Deep Throat, and the Struggle for Honor in Washington. Most recently, to coincide with the film Mark Felt (2017), it was released as Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. For the original Vanity Fair story, see O’Connor, “I’m the Guy They Call Deep Throat.” For a rigorous, objective take on Felt’s career, see Holland, Leak. Also see Gage, “Deep Throat, Watergate, and the Bureaucratic Politics of the FBI.” For the ongoing debate, see Holland, “Beyond Deep Throat,” Newsweek, October 9, 2014.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 6
Kutler, Wars of Watergate, 247; NT-TR 858-003.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
Gray, “At EEG House,” August 4, 1980, B: “LPG Handwritten Ipswich Narratives, 1980,” LPG; Gray and Gray, In Nixon’s Web, 213; Holland, Leak, 129–50.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
. Nichols to Gray, April 24, 1973, S7, FBI FOIA 67-30921-779 (Nichols); Kutler, Abuse of Power, 345.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
NT-TR 865-14.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
NT-TR 741-002.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
“FBI Watergate Investigation: OPE Analysis,” July 5, 1974, FBI V 139-4089 (Watergate); Kelley and Davis, Clarence Kelley.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
The burglars revealed themselves in Medsger, Burglary; Hamilton, 1971. For the SWP and Stern, see Medsger, Burglary, 366–9; 331–3.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
CCH6, 61. On the post-Watergate investigations, see Olmsted, Challenging the Secret Government.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
CC2, 21, 5, iii; CC5, 6; CC3, iii, 159, 180, 187-223.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 15
“F.B.I. Ordered,” NYT, February 1, 1977; Robinson, “FBI Tap Data,” WP, February 1, 1977; Horrock, “Gray and 2 Ex-F.B.I. Aides,” NYT, April 11, 1978; Kiernan, “Ex-FBI Officials,” WP, November 7, 1980.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 16
CCH6, 2, 77.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
Untitled notes: “Top Secret-Off the Record,” ca. 1962, FBI JFK 62-116395-340-347 (Church Committee); “Statement of Clarence M. Kelley,” November 18, 1974, FBI JFK 62-116395-1134-1145.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 18
CCH6, 71.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 19
CC2, 389-391; Reagan, “Statement on Granting Pardons to W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller,” April 15, 1981, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/statement-granting-pardons-w-mark-felt-and-edward-s-miller-0.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 20
“Kelley Apologizes,” LAT, May 9, 1976; “FBI Apologizes,” Newsday, May 9, 1976; “FBI Director Kelley apologizes,” ChiT, May 9, 1976; “Back to Basics,” Newsday, May 19, 1976.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 21
“History of FBI Headquarters,” FBI, https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-of-fbi-headquarters.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 22
Note on Sources
To research J. Edgar Hoover is to live with paradox. There is at once too much material and too little. No historian or biographer could possibly read every page produced by Hoover’s bureaucracy. But given his fondness for secrecy and obfuscation, it can still be difficult—sometimes impossible—to find out what one wants to know. In writing this biography, I have added to the research pile by acquiring and analyzing thousands of pages of never-before-used documents. I have also taken advantage of decades of painstaking and inspiring work by fellow historians, biographers, and FOIA researchers.
This Note on Sources highlights distinctive features of both the primary and secondary resources featured in this book. The Primary Sources section describes a range of archival and government documents, with emphasis on the many newly accessible sources consulted and acquired for this project. The Secondary Sources section provides a selective guide to those works by historians, scholars, and journalists that have been most useful—indeed, absolutely critical—in the writing of this book. It also offers a brief historiographical overview of the scholarly subfields that most directly influenced the book’s interpretation and analysis. For a full list of works consulted, as well as complete citations to the works referenced in this Note, readers will want to consult the Bibliography at the end of this book.
PRIMARY SOURCES
It has often been said that Hoover embodied Ralph Waldo Emerson’s view of an institution as “the lengthened shadow” of a single man. The primary sources available to document Hoover’s life come mostly from the institution he led for almost half a century. In the quarter-century since the last crop of Hoover’s biographies, hundreds of important new FBI files have become available, including the records of SOLO, Venona, and the Church Committee. While they cover a vast range of subjects, they also share certain features. Hoover was famously insistent that FBI files should never be revealed to the world. While his secrecy creates interpretive challenges, it also means that FBI files can be remarkably revealing. Hoover made a practice of writing his unfiltered thoughts in blue pen on the margins of files and newspaper articles. This running tally of his views is a great gift to biographers. At the same time, many FBI files still contain painful levels of redaction, with entire passages and even pages blacked out. All historical research requires judgment about what information we have and what we do not or cannot know. FBI files make this conundrum acutely apparent.
The greatest repository of records on Hoover is still the FBI itself. The Bureau makes available hundreds of FBI files on famous individuals and major subjects. Researchers may consult such files through the FBI’s online reading room, The Vault. Among the most important are the 125 sections of the SOLO file. G-Man is the first Hoover biography to make use of these fascinating documents. The Vault also provides access to internal files vital to understanding Hoover’s institution, including his office logs and appointment books. Over the course of my research, I supplemented the FBI’s publicly available material by filing dozens of FOIA requests on subjects ranging from FBI personnel (Harold Nathan, Guy Hottel, Dan Smoot) to important political allies (Barry Goldwater, James Eastland, Hoover’s stable of ex-agents in Congress) to right-wing organizations such as the John Birch Society and Christian Anti-Communism Crusade. FOIA was also crucial in instances where The Vault provides only partial or limited versions of investigative or personnel materials. FBI historian John Fox shared important material from Hoover’s early career as a junior Justice Department official and other key moments.
FBI documents no longer in the Bureau’s custody are housed in Record Group 65 at National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. Especially valuable for this biography was the reprocessed version of Hoover’s Official and Confidential file. In 2014 (thanks my diligent research assistant Jacob Wasserman), I located the first unredacted copy of the FBI’s “suicide” letter to Martin Luther King (described in chapter 50) in that collection. Readers can find more about that document in my 2014 essay for The New York Times Magazine.
Newly available from NARA as well are the thousands of documents released online under the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. Included in that release were voluminous records from the Church Committee, which have only begun to be examined by historians. Thanks to that release, this book contains many new details about Hoover’s COINTELPRO program, including instances in which he quietly disclosed at least some of its contours and contents both to Congress and to the White House. The Records Act release also contains new material about Hoover’s investigation of Martin Luther King, FBI surveillance policies, and other important areas of controversy.
NARA houses a wealth of early case files, including relatively untapped materials on German internment, vice and prostitution, and civil rights investigations. NARA is also home to the J. Edgar Hoover Scrapbook collection, in which Hoover compiled press clippings, cartoons, and editorials covering most of his life and career. I read well over one hundred boxes worth of press materials, which were a key source for understanding Hoover’s public image and impact as well as the contours of his social life. NARA also maintains Hoover’s official photograph collection, from which I have drawn many of the images reproduced in this book. Finally, NARA is home to several important collections housed in other records groups, including RG 60 (the Department of Justice).
One of the great benefits of writing in the twenty-first century is the wealth of FBI material available through sources and repositories not created by the FBI itself. G-Man is the first major Hoover biography published since the release of the Venona papers, available online through the National Security Agency (as well as in more limited form at the Vault). I accessed key records on the FBI’s early disputes with the CIA directly through the CREST system at NARA; those are now available online as well. Supplementing these official repositories are a wealth of FBI files compiled independently by researchers and historians and generously made available online for public use. The indefatigable Ernie Lazar has spent years filing targeted FOIA requests for important political and investigative files; those are now available to the public at the Internet Archive. The Mary Ferrell Foundation has compiled nearly all records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, along with records and reports of the Church Committee and other investigative bodies. The National Security Archive at George Washington University contains an ever-growing body of intelligence-related documents, as do the Government Attic, MuckRock, and Black Vault sites. At Marquette University, the FBI collections compiled by Athan Theoharis and Kenneth O’Reilly are among the nation’s most valuable one-stop shopping destinations for Bureau files (though their contents require a visit to the archives and are not available yet online). Still other FBI files are available through the commercial databases and microfilm collections listed in the notes and bibliography.
Where possible, I have tried to indicate the originating repository of the FBI files I have examined—not only to give credit where credit is due, but to allow other researchers to find the files with greatest ease. Thanks to evolving FBI redaction and release procedures, it is often possible to find slightly different versions of the same FBI file in multiple locations. A similar difficulty holds true for FBI file numbers. The same document may have multiple identifying numbers (field office file versus headquarters file designations, for instance). Within reason, I have tried to provide sufficient evidence in my citations to account for these discrepancies. Where possible, each citation includes at least one consistent file number as well as the general subject matter of the file in question, along with its originating repository. In many cases, citations have been grouped together when multiple successive paragraphs relied on the same series of books or documents. The bibliography contains full citations for source abbreviations used in the endnotes.
