Official and Confidential

by Anthony Summers

  T Clyde Tolson

  TSF Tolson Staff File

  TWF Tolson Will File, Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Plaintiff Hillory A. Tolson vs. John P. Mohr, Administration No: 868–75

  WAC Hearings, Senate Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, 93rd Congress, 1st Session, 1973–74 (Watergate and Related Activities)

  WES Washington Evening Star

  WH Washington Herald

  WHSF White House Special Files, Nixon Papers

  WHT White House Tape transcripts, Watergate Special Prosecution Force File segment, Record Group 460, National Archives

  WMP Wayne Morse Papers, University of Oregon

  WP The Washington Post

  WR Report volume of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964 (WC + number denotes a Warren Commission Volume of Hearings or Exhibits)

  WS Washington Star

  WT The Washington Times

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Aside from those credited at the front of the book, a vast number of people helped bring this project to fruition. Thanks cannot go to the FBI as an agency, which resented probing and obstructed the proper functioning of the Freedom of Information Act. Nevertheless, FBI historian Susan Falb, Leslie Clemens and Sally Sparks at the Research Unit of the Office of Public Affairs, the Reading Room staff and Larry Heim, editor of The Grapevine, the journal of the Society of Former Agents, were helpful. Dozens of agents and retired agents were interviewed, and the names of those who agreed to be quoted are cited in the Source Notes section. Former Assistant Directors Charles Bates, Cartha DeLoach, Courtney Evans and Mark Felt were all generous with their time. So too was the late Guy Hottel, sometime confidant of both Hoover and Clyde Tolson, who agreed to be interviewed for the first time at the age of eighty-six. Clark Schoaff, guardian of the Hoover memorabilia at the Temple of the Supreme Council, Thirty-third Degree, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, gave us repeated access to the collection. The sons of two of the men closest to Hoover, John Edgar Nichols and John Edgar Ruch, allowed access to their fathers’ papers and photographs.

  My researchers perused the papers of all the presidents Hoover served, and special thanks are due to Raymond Teichman, Supervisory Archivist of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, and William Johnson, Chief Archivist at the John F. Kennedy Library. Also to John Taylor, Archivist of the Military History Division at the National Archives, and Jean Smith at the Library of Congress.

  Some of the new evidence on the Pearl Harbor saga was found in the pigeon loft at the former residence of the Bishop of Grasse, now the home of Marco Popov, son of World War II agent Dusko Popov. Alston Purvis, son of Melvin, gave me access to his father’s voluminous correspondence with Hoover – the only known extensive example of the Director’s private letter-writing. The author James Rusbridger readily dug into his Pearl Harbor files. Gaye Humphreys, in Ireland, led me by the hand into the world of psychiatry, where I had never ventured before. The attorney and author Bill Pepper provided key contacts in the world of organized crime.

  The Assassination Archive and Research Center in Washington, which housed a massive collection of FBI material on President Kennedy’s murder, was again a vital resource – one so valuable that it deserved more solid support than a handful of private individuals can provide. With them, I regretted the death in 1991 of its founder, Bernard Fensterwald, whose experience as a congressional Chief Counsel helped me understand the way Hoover manipulated the Congress. I thank Mark Allen, Mary Ferrell and Paul Hoch, Professor Philip Melanson and Harold Weisberg – those most responsible of assassination scholars. Gary Miller, Dale Myers, Larry Happanen, Gus Russo, Dennis Lee Effle, Ed Tatro and Scott Van Wynsberghe kindly supplied contacts and information.

  Two distinguished authors who had previously written about Hoover, David Garrow and Richard Gid Powers, ransacked their files and their memories. John Flanagin and Sondra Feldstein, who both hold advanced degrees in American history, performed the often thankless task of plowing through the papers of former presidents and countless government officials. Margot Edman and Julie Ziegler in New York, Robert Fink and Margaret St John in Washington, Peter Frumkin in Boston and Mike Spears in Dallas all gave sterling service as researchers. In California, former IRS agent John Daley provided valuable contacts. K. B. Basseches in Washington and Terry Murphy in Ireland photographed ancient photographs with scrupulous care. At Putnam in New York, Dolores McMullan handled the logistics of transatlantic editing with courtesy and enthusiasm. In Virginia, Audrey Atkins, Kathy Titus, Barbara Warren and Shirley Yoder faithfully logged hundreds of hours of tape-recorded interviews. Debbie Roberts helped bring order to our chaotic Virginia office, as did John Lombard in Ireland. Denise Fitzgerald came to the rescue with secretarial help on the final lap. Pip Printing in Manassas and Mail Boxes Etc. in Georgetown copied many thousands of documents – and that is no idle credit in a book of this genre. James Ronayne drove thousands of uncomplaining miles on my behalf.

  I was indebted once again to my attorney James Lesar, a master of the Freedom of Information Act, and my financial adviser, Peter Metcalf. Nine talented journalists, Fred Cook in New Jersey, Hank Messick and Dan Christensen in Florida, Anthony Cook in Beverly Hills, William Dufty in Michigan, Jeff Goldberg and Jim Hougan in Washington, and Stephen Dorril and Tom Mangold in the UK, were foremost among the many colleagues who shared expertise without asking for reward. I salute the producers of Frontline, at WGBH in Boston, and director Bill Cran, of Invision in London, who defended their Hoover program and my role in it with integrity, and who have permitted me to quote from Frontline interviews in this paperback edition. And long-suffering friends Bob Dorff, Fanny Dubes, Tamara Glenny and Henry Ehrlich, Monica Gruler, Sheelagh Power and Rupert Murray, and Paddy and Joyce O’Keeffe of Knocklofty House in County Tipperary, supplied all manner of help – above all, laughter.

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  In the hardback edition, there was an extensive Bibliography, covering some 260 titles. To keep this paperback edition compact, only books on or by J. Edgar Hoover, and on the FBI, are listed. Readers who wish to obtain the full Bibliography should consult the hardback edition or write to the author, who will be glad to provide it. Please address requests to: Anthony Summers, c/o Open Road Integrated Media, 180 Varick Street, Suite 816, New York, New York, 10014.

  On J. Edgar Hoover

  Comfort, Mildred. J. Edgar Hoover, Modern Knight Errant. Minneapolis: T. S. Denison, 1959.

  Demaris, Ovid. The Director. New York: Harper’s Magazine Press, 1975.

  Fowler, Blonde. FBI Woman. Privately published, 1976.

  Gentry, Curt. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. London: Norton, 1991.

  Gibson, Dirk. Neither God Nor Devil: A Rhetorical Perspective on the Political Myths of J. Edgar Hoover. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1983.

  Lewis, Eugene. Public Entrepreneurship: Toward a Theory of Bureaucratic Political Power. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.

  Memorial Tributes to J. Edgar Hoover in the Congress of the United States and Various Articles and Editorials Relating to His Life and Work. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1974.

  Messick, Hank. John Edgar Hoover. New York: David McKay, 1972.

  Nash, Jay Robert. Citizen Hoover. Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1972. Powers, Richard Gid. Secrecy and Power. London: Hutchinson, 1987.

  Theoharis, Athan. From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover. Chicago: Ivan Dee, 1991.

  Theoharis, Athan, and John Stuart Cox. The Boss. London: Harrap, 1988.

  Toledano, Ralph de. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man in His Time. New York: Manor, 1974.

  By J. Edgar Hoover

  J. Edgar Hoover on Communism. New York: Random House, 1969.

  J. Edgar Hoover Speaks. Edited by James D. Bales. Washington, D.C.: Capitol Hill Press, 1971.

  Masters of Deceit. London: Dent, 1958.

  Persons in Hiding. Boston: Little, Brown, 1938.

&nbs
p; A Study of Communism. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962.

  On the FBI

  Blackstock, Nelson. COINTELPRO. New York: Pathfinder, 1988.

  Charns, Alexander. Cloak and Gavel. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

  Churchill, Ward, and Jim Vander Wall. The COINTELPRO Papers. Boston: South End Press, 1990.

  Clark, Ramsey. Crime in America. London: Cassell, 1971. Cochran, Louis. FBI Man. London: Hale, 1967.

  Collins, Frederick. The FBI in Peace and War. New York: Putnam, 1943.

  Conners, Bernard. Don’t Embarrass the Bureau. London: W. H. Allen, 1973.

  Cook, Fred. The FBI Nobody Knows. New York: Macmillan, 1964.

  Donner, Frank. The Age of Surveillance. New York: Vintage, 1981.

  Felt, Mark. The FBI Pyramid. New York: Putnam, 1979.

  Keller, William. The Liberals and J. Edgar Hoover. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

  Kelley, Clarence, and James Davis. Kelley: The Story of an FBI Director. Kansas City, MO: Andrews, McMeel & Parker, 1987.

  Lamphere, Robert, and Tom Shactman. The FBI-KGB War. New York: Random House, 1986.

  Look magazine editors. The Story of the FBI. New York: Dutton, 1947.

  Lovegrove, Richard, and Tom Orwig. The FBI. New York: Brompton, 1989.

  Lowenthal, Max. The Federal Bureau of Investigation. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, originally published by William Sloane, 1950.

  Lynum, Curtis. The FBI and I. Bryn Mawr, PA: Dorrance, 1987.

  Millspaugh, Arthur. Crime Control by the National Government. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1937.

  Mitgang, Herbert. Dangerous Dossiers. New York: Donald Fine, 1988.

  Munves, James. The FBI and the CIA. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.

  Nelson, Jack, and Ronald Ostrow. The FBI and the Berrigans. New York: Coward, McCann, 1972.

  Ollestad, Norman. Inside the FBI. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1967.

  O’Reilly, Kenneth. Racial Matters. New York: Macmillan Free Press, 1989.

  Payne, Cril. Deep Cover. New York: Newsweek Books, 1979.

  Purvis, Melvin. American Agent. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1936.

  Robins, Natalie. Alien Ink. New York: Morrow, 1992.

  Rosenfeld, Susan. The History of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. Washington, D.C.: FBI Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, 1987.

  Schott, Joseph. No Left Turns. New York: Praeger, 1975.

  Sullivan, William. The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover’s FBI. New York: Norton, 1979.

  Theoharis, Athan. Spying on Americans. Philadelphia: Temple, 1978.

  Tully, Andrew. Inside the FBI. New York: Dell, 1987.

  Turner, William. Hoover’s FBI: The Men and the Myth. Los Angeles: Sherbourne Press, 1970.

  Turrou, Leon. Where My Shadow Falls. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1949.

  Ungar, Sanford. FBI. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1975.

  Villano, Anthony, and Gerald Astor. Brick Agent. New York: New York Times Books, 1977.

  Watters, Pat, and Stephen Gillers, eds, Investigating the FBI. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973.

  Welch, Neil, and David Marston. Inside Hoover’s FBI. New York: Doubleday, 1984.

  Whitehead, Don. The FBI Story. London: Muller, 1957.

  Williams, David. Without Understanding: The FBI and Political Surveillance 1908–1941. Ann Arbor, MI: University Micro-films International, 1981.

  Wright, Richard. Whose FBI?. LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 1974.

  INDEX

  Aarons, Slim, 349

  Abernathy, Ralph, 422, 569; file, 426, 432; Hoover on, 434; on Hoover, 430–3, 434

  Abrams, Norma, 280, 563

  ACLU, 259, 552; file, 45, 189; Hoover and, 44–5, 120

  Adenauer, Konrad, 464

  Adonis, Joe, 122, 267

  Agnew, Spiro, 441, 511, 570

  Akerman, Nathaniel, 496, 547, 572

  Albert, Carl, 226

  Albertson, William, 546

  Aleman, Jose, 390, 391, 542, 567

  Alessio, John, 491

  Alexander, Jack, 117, 556

  Allen, George, 154, 200, 213, 278, 557, 560; on Hoover, 209, 283

  Allman, William, 449

  Alphand, Herve, 540

  Alsop, Joseph, 115, 331, 555, 556

  American Nazi Party, 60, 119, 211, 546

  Amory, Robert 536

  Amos, James, 61, 527

  Anastasia, Albert, 291

  Anderson, Jack, 429, 490, 493–4, 555, 560, 562, 565, 570, 571, 572, 573; CIA plot to kill, 493–4, 502–3; on Hoover, 269, 325, 436, 466, 467, 499, 503

  Anderson, George, 37

  Anderson, Robert, 213–14

  Angleton, James, xiv, 538, 550, 558; on Hoover, 182, 288–9

  Anslinger, Harry, 271, 536

  Arends, Leslie, 234

  Armbruster, Edward J., 47, 552

  Arnett, Peter, 410

  Arnold, Henry, 170

  Arthur, Art, 95

  Arvad, Inga, 313–15, 318, 323, 565

  Auerbach, Richard, 101, 214, 555, 559, 563

  Aynesworth, Hugh, 542

  Bacall, Lauren, 188

  Baker, Bobby, 312, 321, 369, 370, 371, 380, 544, 563, 565, 566, 567; file, 401; on Hoover, 275, 276, 316, 349

  Baldwin, Roger, 44–5, 552

  Ball, George, 400, 408, 568

  Banister, Guy, 385–9, 567, 568

  Barbara, Joe, 291

  Barker, Fred, 81

  Barker, Kate (‘Ma’), 81

  Barniker, Ann, 526, 545

  Barrow, James, 64

  Barry, Joan, 191

  Baruch, Bernard, 483

  Bates, Charles, 365–7, 408, 427, 458, 526, 545, 552, 554, 555, 568, 569, 570

  Battaglia, Gus, 318, 565

  Baughman, Frank, 41, 65, 498, 552

  Bauman, Robert, 528

  Bayliss, Joseph, 65–6, 553

  Beard, Dita, 490, 493

  Beck, Dave, 334

  Becker, Ed, 390–2, 542–3, 567

  Beecher, William, 472

  Bell, Gordon, 497

  Belmont, Alan, 270, 529, 542, 544, 563, 564, 566

  Bender, George, 159, 229

  Bennett, Harry, 122, 556

  Bennett, James, 171

  Bentley, Elizabeth, 193, 194, 533

  Beria, Lavrenti, 403

  Berkman, Alexander, 36

  Berle, Adolf, 104, 161; on Hoover, 127

  Berle, Beatrice, 104, 174–5, 555, 558

  Berlin, Richard, 368

  Bernhard, Berl, 425

  Biddle, Francis, 123, 127, 161, 162, 169, 556; on Hoover, 105, 126, 129, 131

  Bielaski, Bruce, 32, 527, 551; on Hoover, 25–6

  Biffle, Leslie, 159

  Billingsley, Sherman, 95, 272, 284

  Black, Fred, 380

  Black, Hugo, 239

  Black Panthers, Hoover and, 446, 455–60, 570, 571

  Blacks, Hoover and, 59, 61–4, 95, 101, 103–4, 106, 108, 166, 168, 333–4, 417–37, 439, 446, 455–60, 470, 499, 501, 527, 539, 553, 566, 569, 570, 571 see also individuals/organizations.

  Blakey, Robert, 543

  Bland, George, 392

  Blodgett, Julian, 392, 567

  Blue, George, 257

  Bobak, Joe, 304, 305

  Bogart, Humphrey, 188

  Boggs, Hale, 226, 241, 380, 541, 561, 567; on Hoover, 375, 471, 473, 474, 512

  Boggs, Thomas, 241, 380

  Bokun, Branko, 530

  Bompensiero, Frank, 285

  Bonanno, Joseph, 284, 318

  Boswell, William, 343

  Boyd, James, 230, 561

  Boyer, P. F., 171

  Braddock, Jim, 95, 284

  Bradlee, Ben, 348, 364, 428, 553, 565, 566, 567, 569; on Hoover, 61, 324, 325, 373–4

  Bradlee, Tony, 324

  Branch, Taylor, 373, 544, 569

  Brandeis, Louis, 25

  Brennan, Charles, 184–5, 399, 474–5, 527, 545, 558

  Bridges, Harry,
129–30

  Bridges, Stiles, 533

  Brinkley, David, 410

  Brooks, Lawrence, 35, 469

  Brossard, Chandler, 96–7, 553, 554

  Brown, Bernard, 252

  Brown, Bill, 526, 545, 568

  Brown, Madeleine, 395, 401–2, 539, 559, 568

  Brown, Steven, 401

  Brown, Thad, 357

  Brownell, Herbert, Jr., 534, 562

  Brudner, Charlie, 297–8

  Bruno, Angelo, 294

  Bryant, Anita, 94

  Buchalter, Louis, 281, 296

  Buchanan, Patrick, 469, 571

  Buchwald, Art, 115

  Buck, Pearl, 189

  Buckley, William F., Jr., 202–3

  Buffalino, William, 352

  Bugas, John, 122

  Bullitt, William, 104

  Burger, Ernst, 163

  Burger, Warren E., 7

  Burke, Frank, 34, 37, 39

  Burns, John, 155

  Burns, William, 40, 43, 61

  Burton, George, 169–70, 173

  Burton, Harold, 23, 239, 240, 551

  Byars, Billy, Sr., 213, 312, 394, 498

  Byars, Billy, Jr., 450–1, 559, 566, 570; on Hoover, 331, 394, 545

  Byrd, D. H., 543

  Cain, Effie, 101, 555, 559, 563

  Caldwell, Erskine, 189

  Callahan, Nicholas, 231, 263, 530

  Calomaris, Anthony, 360, 506, 507, 552, 556, 566, 573

  Camil, Scott, 454

  Campbell, Judith, 319, 320, 338, 343–7, 354, 358, 368, 369, 565, 566

  Campisi, Joseph, 393

  Canaris, Wilhelm, 141

  Capone, Al, 265–6, 273, 280

  Capote, Truman, 90, 190

  Caro, Robert, 539

  Carr, Waggoner, 382, 569

  Carroll, Joseph, 368

  Carter, Dr. Hill, 108, 555

  Carter, Jimmy, 163

  Carter, Thomas, 253–4

  Casey, Lee, 116

  Casey, William, 151

  Cassini, Igor, 325, 565, 566

  Castro, Fidel, 385, 387, 395, 427; CIA/Mafia plot to kill, 338, 343, 345–6, 386, 388, 389, 494, 538, 543, 547

  Caulfield, John, 486, 488

  Celler, Emanuel, 299, 560–1

  Cellura, Leo, 122

  Chambers, Whittaker, 193–5, 533

  Chang, Suzy, 367, 368

  Chapin, Dwight, 448

  Chaplin, Charlie, 190–2, 559