Infamous Scandals

by Anne Williams

  Throughout his presidency Kennedy and his brother Robert, were constantly reminded about the secret files held by Hoover. They often received memos containing a piece of damning information about a member of the family, reminding the Kennedys that the director of the FBI needed to be treated with respect.

  A NEW ATTORNEY GENERAL

  Although there was no love lost between the Kennedys and Hoover, there was never any direct confrontation. Hoover had always been allowed to govern the FBI without any interference, but the situation changed drastically after Robert Kennedy was appointed as Hoover’s new boss. For the first time Hoover was forced to deal directly with the President, but this time through the office of the attorney general. Robert Kennedy made it obvious that Hoover was his subordinate and even went as far as placing a direct phone line between his and Hoover’s office. Hoover knew he was close to the age of retirement and therefore did not directly wish to challenge Robert Kennedy and risk a premature end to his very illustrious career.

  Even though Hoover did not relish the appointment of Robert Kennedy, his agents were overjoyed. Here was a man who believed in fighting organised crime, and for the first time they could challenge the power of the Mafia but with the backing of the Justice Department. They had never been happy about Hoover’s reluctance to accept the severity of the Mafia situation. It appeared that Kennedy understood the true nature of the gangsters and realised how it affected the United States as a whole, and begrudgingly Hoover had to go along with it.

  If news of an indiscretion got into the hands of the press, Hoover used this to his own advantage by going to the Kennedys and bringing the offending article to their attention. This was done to save face and pretend that he was trying to protect them, when all the time he was stockpiling every adulterous act they committed. When Hoover learned that President Kennedy had had several illicit liaisons with a woman called Judith Campbell Exner he used this information to try and intimidate the president. Hoover had heard rumours that Exner was a close friend of two high-profile Mafia bosses, Johnny Rosselli and Sam Giancana, and he became concerned that the Mafia would use this connection to gain influence over the president. Hoover also felt this was the perfect opportunity to make Kennedy aware that he knew all about his affairs. He arranged a meeting with the president and although there is no evidence of what was actually said, it is thought that he would have advised Kennedy about how dangerous the liaison was with a woman who also befriended the Mafia. Hoover certainly knew how to use subtle blackmail.

  The icing on the cake was when Hoover discovered that both brothers had had an affair with the famous Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. He used this information to his advantage, not only allowing him to continue his role as head of the FBI but also without any further interruption from either of the Kennedys.

  Hoover stayed in his job for another ten years after both Robert and John Kennedy had been assassinated. With his friend Lyndon Johnson being appointed to the presidency, Hoover no longer had a threat hanging over his head and he was free to run the FBI the way he wanted. There is no doubt that under his rule the FBI became one of the world’s most effective and formidable law enforcement organisations.

  the legacy

  Hoover died peacefully in his sleep on 1 May 1972. It sent a shockwave throughout the government of the United States as hundreds of officials, including President Nixon, desperately tried to find Hoover’s secret files that could seriously damage all their reputations and possibly careers. What they didn’t know was that Hoover had ordered the destruction of many of his secret dossiers, but the ones that were remaining caused a sensational scandal as some of the secrets of America’s most powerful men and women were revealed.

  The people who knew Hoover throughout his life are divided in their judgements about him. Some have described him as a patriotic and dedicated servant to his country, while others say he used his power and influence to his own advantage. As head of the FBI Hoover saw himself above reproach and seemed prepared to do almost anything to remain with his first true love – as head of the FBI.

  The Fall of President Nixon

  To most people the name ‘Watergate’ is associated with the fall of President Nixon, but do you really know the details behind the scandal that rocked the very foundations of the Whitehouse? It all started in June 1972 in Washington, D.C. with a burglary at an office complex at the Watergate Hotel. Five people broke into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate with the intention of bugging their telephones. The men were a group of anti-Castro Cuban refugees called ‘The Plumbers’, which was made up mainly of former FBI and CIA agents. The break-in resulted in one of the largest scandals to hit the United States government.

  reasons behind the break-in

  In the early 1970s the United States was still feeling the effects of their role in the Vietnam war. This war was the longest military conflict in US history, and one which claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans. It was a military struggle fought in Vietnam from 1959 until 1975, involving the North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front against the United States and the South Vietnamese. At the end of the war many people had changed their views concerning the validity of the war, and one of these people was a man called Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg was a former defence department analyst and his feelings were so strong about the conflict that he decided to turn over a secret report written by the Pentagon to the New York Times. Needless to say the paper was delighted to have such classified information and immediately started to publish what it called the ‘Pengaton Papers’. President Nixon and many other government officials were furious that such information had been leaked to the press and took legal action. However, when this failed Nixon decided he needed to turn somewhere else for help.

  ‘the plumbers’

  The ‘Plumbers’ were a specialised, clandestine group formed by the Whitehouse with the express job of ‘fixing leaks’. Nixon summoned the ‘Plumbers’ and gave them the name of their next target – Daniel Ellsberg. The reasoning behind this action was that if it wasn’t possible to stop the paper publishing the documents, then the next best thing would be to discredit the man who had provided the information. The group’s first job was to break into the office of Ellsburg’s psychiatrist to see if they could dig up any dirt. The ‘Plumbers’ were persistent in their goal and Nixon soon rewarded them with another undertaking.

  On 17 June 1972 the group broke into the DNC headquarters to find out what they were up to and to bug their offices. However, this time a security officer saw the men break into the offices and alerted the police; the men were apprehended before they could complete their mission.

  Under interrogation, insights about the background of the burglars started to come to light, much to the embarrassment of Nixon and his government. It turned out that one of the men used to be a Republican Party security aide, while another was found to have a cheque worth $25,000 intended for Nixon’s re-election campaign. In fact, it soon became evident that all three of the ‘Plumbers’ were on the payroll of the Committee to Re-elect the President.

  Despite this evidence, Nixon went on to win the presidential election in one of the largest landslide victories in history. However, following his re-election, the repercussions from the burglary at Watergate started to spread like a tidal wave. As the connection between the ‘Plumbers’ and the Whitehouse became public knowledge, several members of Nixon’s staff were forced to resign, including Whitehouse Chief Counsel, John Dean. Rumours were rife and many people were convinced that Nixon himself was involved in the scandal. In May 1973 the Senate opened a hearing about the break-in and, under pressure, Nixon appointed Archibald Cox as special prosecutor.

  the investigation

  As the investigation got under way, damning evidence against Nixon came to the fore. John Dean was the first former Whitehouse staff member to admit that he had had discussions with Nixon on the best way to cover up the Watergate affair. As if that wasn’t bad enou
gh, the hearings also revealed that Nixon had a highly developed taping system put in place within the Oval offices, which had taped all of his conversations. When the Senate committee heard about the tapes they immediately demanded that Nixon handed them over. Nixon visibly squirmed, using every excuse he could think of why he shouldn’t let the hearing have the tapes.

  The United States held its breath while the Senate and Nixon came head to head. Nixon, still trying to avoid handing over the tapes, said that one of them had an 18-minute gap on it and that it would be better if he sent in a [heavily edited] transcript of the conversations, as opposed to the actual tapes. However, the Senate continued to put pressure on Nixon to release the tapes and, when he continued to refuse, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him. Realising that he was being pushed into a corner, Nixon decided to take evasive action.

  On 20 October 1973 Nixon was forced into committing what afterwards became known as the ‘Saturday Night Massacre’. The ‘massacre’ was a pivotal event in the Watergate scandal and one that eventually led to the resignation of Nixon. Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor, had been persistently trying to gain access to the Watergate tapes, but with no success. On Saturday 20 October, Cox told Nixon that he could not longer comply with the deal he had worked out with the Senate to turn over only summaries of the tapes. He told Nixon that he would continue to make every effort to get access to the tapes, but in response Nixon requested that Attorney General Elliott Richardson fired Cox from the investigation. However, Richardson refused and Nixon demanded the attorney general’s resignation. The next person Nixon called on was Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, asking him to fire Cox. Ruckelshaus also refused to buckle under pressure and Nixon fired him as well.

  Eventually Nixon found a man who was prepared to do his bidding – Solicitor General Robert Bork – who stepped in as acting attorney general after Richardson and Ruckelshaus had been fired. Bork complied with Nixon’s order and fired Cox, but the resulting backlash forced Nixon to have a new special prosecutor appointed – Leon Jaworski. However, this also backfired as Jaworski himself starting putting pressure on Nixon to hand over the tapes. Nixon’s answer to this was to abolish the Office of the Special Prosecutor. News of all the firings broke at 8.25 p.m., the same evening that the Whitehouse released a statement.

  As soon as news of the ‘massacre’ broke it led many people to conclude that Nixon had to be covering up damning information that only the tapes could reveal. The Senate continued to push for the tapes to be handed over and when the matter was eventually passed over to the Supreme Court in July 1974, Nixon quickly resigned as president to avoid impeachment. The repercussions from the Watergate scandal have been enormous. It was an exceptionally complex affair and one that is full of intrigue and underhand backroom deals. It was a major scandal that exposed some dirty politics taking place in the Whitehouse under Nixon’s reign.

  Eugene Talmadge

  A disturbing revelation came to light after files were released regarding the lynching of two black couples in Georgia, even though the event took place more than 60 years ago. It is believed that a former three-term governor, Eugene Talmadge, may have sanctioned the murders in an effort to sway rural white voters during a particularly tough election campaign. The murders took place on 25 July 1946 on Moore’s Ford Bridge in Wallon County, Georgia. The four victims were George and Mae Murray Dorsey and Roger and Dorothy Malcom, all workers on a sharecropper plantation.

  The murders were promptly investigated by the FBI, but little progress was made and the case was never solved. In 2001 Roy Barnes, the then-governor, reopened the case and released 3725 pages from the old police files to the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. Although Barnes felt there was enough information to finally have a trial, the main problem he faced was the fact that virtually every witness who could testify against the surviving suspects were now dead.

  a controversial governor

  Eugene Talmadge was a United States Democratic Party politician who served as governor of the US state of Georgia from 1933 to 1937 and again from 1941 to 1943. Although he was re-elected to another term in 1946, he died shortly before taking office. Talmadge was beginning to lose the popular vote, however, due to his virulent rascism and outspoken opposition to President Franklin Roosevelt. Talmadge was vehemently opposed to black civil rights and in 1941 tried to fire two university system administrators, because they had been outspoken about integrated public schools. When the Board of Regents refused to comply with his wishes, Talmadge reacted by sacking them all and replacing them with people who were more in tune with his ‘line of thinking’.

  Talmadge was also accused of having connections with the Ku Klux Klan, allegedly using them during elections to try and stop African-Americans from voting in Georgia. Talmadge was elected as Governor of Georgia following a campaign of terror by the Ku Klux Klan, and on the eve of the election fiery crosses burned outside the courthouses of Georgia. Notices signed ‘KKK’ were pinned to the churches frequented by African-Americans, with a warning, ‘The first nigger who votes in Georgia will be a dead one.’

  Other warnings were issued either by mail or by dropping propaganda literature from aeroplanes over predominantly African-American areas. On the day of the actual election, literally thousands of African-Americans woke to find miniature coffins on their front doorsteps. Many people took the warnings seriously and Talmadge was elected governor of Georgia.

  Bit by bit, Talmadge succeeded in taking control of various state departments by any means possible, often using extremely forceful tactics. To secure his position, he fired the original staff and replaced them with his own supporters. Talmadge did not approve of President Roosevelt and his regime and by 1934 the split between the two men was a deep chasm. Despite Roosevelt promoting the candidacy of Claude Pittman for the governor’s position, Talmadge had a landslide win, getting twice as many votes as Pittmann. Following his victory Talmadge took to the road openly criticising Roosevelt and promoting his own candidacy for president. However, his bid for presidency failed and he settled for fighting against Roosevelt’s New Deal in Georgia. In 1936 Talmadge was out of politics for a while, but in 1938 he was re-elected and once again he was allowed to assume dictorial powers in Georgia.

  FBI suspicions

  Talmadge came under the watchful eye of the FBI in 1946 when he made a visit to the north Georgia town of Monroe a couple of days before the election. It was also the day after a particularly nasty racial attack had taken place, in which a black sharecropper had stabbed and severely wounded a white farmer. The sharecropper was one of the four people who was later lynched on Moore’s Ford Bridge.

  J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI at that time, received a report regarding Talmadge. It stated that the governor had met with the brother of the stabbed farmer, George Hester. Allegedly he had offered the man, and any of his friends, immunity if they wished to ‘take care of the negroes’.

  The investigation into Talmadge started in the months before his death in December 1946, and yet it appears he was never even interviewed on the subject. The death of the two couples took place after a particularly stormy period in the run-up to the elections, making it appear to be politically motivated.

  There were also rumours going around that an army veteran by the name of George Dorsey had been secretly dating a white woman – this was something that was strictly taboo in the South at that time, an area that was renowned for its segregation. The white population in Monroe were enraged with Roger Malcom, who had been put in prison after stabbing the white farmer, Barney Hester. For some reason a local white farmer by the name of Loy Harrison paid $600 in bail so that Malcom could be freed and then offered him and his wife a lift home, together with another black couple, George and Mae Murray Dorsey. When they reached Moore’s Ford Bridge, Harrison claimed that the car was suddenly surrounded by a mob of around 30 people. They pulled the two couples out of the car, dragged them along a dusty trail
and then tied them to some trees. Then they fired three volleys, leaving the four bodies slumped in the dirt. Dorothy Malcom was seven months pregnant at the time.

  President Truman was outraged and immediately sent FBI agents to Monroe to investigate the murders. However, on arrival the agents found that the local community – black and white alike – had clammed up and were not prepared to talk. Even Harrison told the agents that he was unable to identify any of the men that had attacked his car. The black families, who often shared their land with white sharecroppers, were petrified when approached by the FBI for fear of recrimination. One man even fled into the cotton fields and had to be chased. When the agents caught him he said he had been threatened into silence.

  The FBI eventually pinned it down to a possible 55 suspects, including George Hester, but no one was ever arrested because they just didn’t have enough proof or witnesses. The FBI gave up on the case and it remained in cold storage until 1991, when a man called Clinton Adams came forward as a witness. He claimed to have seen the lynching when he was just a young boy of ten. He said he had been hiding behind some bushes close to Moore’s Ford Bridge and had seen the whole incident. Although the FBI decided to re-open the file, they felt it would probably lead to a dead end because most of the suspects would probably already be dead. Although the case file is not officially closed, it will probably never be proved whether Eugene Talmadge was behind the lynching, although from his track record it looks highly probable.