'__ ___ _ ___ __ ___ _ _ _ __ /'_|'o'\'V'/'\|'|'__|'|'|'/'_| \_'\''_/\'/|'\\'|'_||'V'V'\_'\ |__/_|''//'|_|\_|___|\_n_/|__/ http://mprofaca.cro.net/mainmenu.html -------------------------------------- Saturday, 8 January, 2000 -------------------------------------- Dossiers reveal Hoover's obsession http://dallasnews.com/national/15766_FBIFILES09.html with celebrities' personal and political lives 01/09/2000 By David Jackson / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON - On the night of Jan. 19, 1953, a record number of Americans tuned in to a television milestone: the birth of little Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy. The blessed event helped Lucille Ball maintain her reign atop television ratings throughout 1953. Behind the scenes, however, the red-headed comedian faced a drama shielded from public view. Near the end of the year, the FBI's top agent in Los Angeles submitted a report about a secret that could have wrecked Miss Ball's career. She had told a congressional investigator that she registered to vote as a Communist back in 1936, but only at the behest of a beloved grandfather. Noting that Miss Ball never joined the Communist Party, the FBI concluded that she was not a national security risk: "A review of the subject's file reflects no activity that would warrant her inclusion on the Security Index." The world's most famous television performer was one of countless Americans profiled in J. Edgar Hoover's secret FBI files, some of which detailed the political and sexual histories of the rich and famous. Mr. Hoover spent nearly five decades trying to hide the existence of his files from the public. But two years after his death in 1972, a change to the Freedom of Information Act forced some of the his darkest secrets into the light. These days, files on people ranging from Elvis Presley to Leon Trotsky are only a few computer clicks away. The FBI has posted nearly 100 once-confidential files on its Internet Web site, www.fbi.gov. These ongoing additions to the FBI's Electronic Reading Room have only fueled debate over the nature of Mr. Hoover's FBI. To critics, the files are proof positive that the bulldog-faced G-man ran nothing less than a spy operation on fellow Americans. "They provide really good insight into how the FBI operated, one that contradicts the bureau's image as a law enforcement agency," said Athan Theoharis, editor of the book From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover. Others point out that for every juicy tidbit in the FBI files, there are pages of mundane newspaper stories, routine arrest reports and letters from cranks. Author David J. Garrow, who chronicled the FBI's investigation of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., called the intensity of that effort something of an exception. "The bureau was a cross between a vacuum cleaner and a clipping service, especially in the '50s, '60s, and '70s," Mr. Garrow said. "If you were a public person, you got a file. But the meaning and import of that file in most cases was mostly next to zero." Many files are benign. Some describe investigations of threats against such celebrities as Henry Ford, Mickey Mantle and Sammy Davis Jr. Agents also tracked major events, saving newspaper clips and tips. The FBI also maintained routine investigative files, just like any other law enforcement agency. In addition, the bureau is responsible for background checks of high-level government appointees. Most of the criticism surrounds the information kept off the books - the personal and confidential files that the FBI began keeping as early as World War I. Mr. Hoover, who took over the bureau in 1924 and ran it until his death in 1972, often zeroed in on two chief bugaboos: communism and civil rights. The rise of communism after the Russian Revolution of 1917 gave the FBI its major reason - critics say excuse - to conduct sensitive investigations. Fears were wide-ranging. Concern about Communist infiltration of the movie industry in the 1940s was reflected in reports from Hollywood Special Agent T-10, as actor and future president Ronald Reagan was known. The FBI also suspected Communist influence over the civil rights movement. Officials used this claim to justify electronic surveillance of the movement's most prominent leader, Dr. King. But microphones hidden in Dr. King's hotel rooms also picked up episodes of sexual activity. The FBI sent a tape of that surveillance to Dr. King's office in 1964, as he prepared to journey to Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. An attached note, later determined to be the work of FBI agents, read like an invitation to suicide. "You are done," it said. "There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation." Little of this dirt-digging surfaced before Dr. King's assassination in 1968, but not for lack of trying by the FBI. Former reporter Carl Stern said that shortly after he reported for work at NBC's Washington Bureau in 1967, FBI officials took him to lunch and mentioned the "surprising things" they heard on tapes of Dr. King. The FBI used the news media more successfully in the case of actress Jean Seberg. Mr. Hoover became interested in Ms. Seberg, not because she starred in the 1959 French film Breathless, but because she had helped raise money for the Black Panthers. In 1970, the bureau's Los Angeles office proposed telling gossip columnists the unproven allegation that Ms. Seberg was carrying the baby of a Black Panther. The objective: "To cheapen her image with the general public." Ms. Seberg had a miscarriage shortly after the item ran. She committed suicide in 1979. At the time of Ms. Seberg's death, then-FBI Director William H. Webster said: "The days when the FBI used derogatory information to combat advocates of unpopular causes have long since passed. We are out of that business forever." Beyond these incidents, however, there is little or no evidence that Mr. Hoover actively used the files for blackmail, said Hoover biographer Richard Gid Powers. "It's hard to figure out how you can prove it," Mr. Powers said. "He surely didn't leave any smoking guns." Others said Mr. Hoover used the files judiciously, knowing that abuse would trigger his downfall. "Hoover was a brilliant bureaucrat," said Mr. Theoharis, who teaches history at Marquette University in Milwaukee. "He realized that knowledge is power. At the same time, he wanted to minimize what he's doing." Mr. Theoharis called Mr. Hoover "a very sophisticated blackmailer," rather than ''a direct blackmailer." The FBI furthered the image that Mr. Hoover knew secrets by letting people know the bureau had heard "rumors" about them. In 1962, Attorney General Robert Kennedy heard reports suggesting that he was having an affair with a woman in El Paso. Mr. Kennedy denied it. FBI secrets became subject to public scrutiny after a 1974 amendment to the Freedom of Information Act. It required the release of closed FBI investigative files, inspiring a variety of biographers and reporters to make requests. The most popular type of request, however, has nothing to do with celebrity. "We get about 13,000 requests a year, and about 55 percent come from people asking about themselves," said Linda Kloss, a public information officer with the bureau's Freedom of Information-Privacy Acts section. Files are first released on paper, but only after FBI employees comb every line. The law forbids release of information that may undermine national security, investigative techniques or the privacy of third-party individuals. Officials use red magic markers to blot out prohibited material. That allows their supervisors to read over the redactions, which come out black when run through a copying machine. Over the past quarter-century, the most noteworthy releases have come after celebrity deaths. The FBI will not release or confirm the existence of files on living people without their consent. An FBI index lists nearly 200 released files on individuals or incidents. They include the 1950-51 spy investigation of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi and the 1978 mass suicides at Jonestown. In 1997, the bureau began putting some of the most-requested files on the Internet. In addition to sparing researchers the expense of traveling to Washington, FBI officials cited new laws that encourage the Internet posting of public records. There are now 95 files in the FBI's Electronic Reading Room. They include information on such gangsters as Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger and Kate "Ma" Barker. Computer users can read files on artists as varied as Josephine Baker, Errol Flynn, Marilyn Monroe and Pablo Picasso. The site includes files on civil rights figures Malcolm X, C�sar Ch�vez and Thurgood Marshall. Other files cover general subjects including unidentified flying objects and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. At times, the FBI has gone to court to protect its secrets. Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California at Irvine, waged a 14-year legal battle for ex-Beatle John Lennon's files. After obtaining them in 1997, Mr. Wiener found no major revelations, only anecdotal details, such as information about a parrot that would squawk "Right on!" during heated political discussions among Mr. Lennon and his friends. Mr. Wiener said the real story of the FBI files was the FBI's paranoia. "Lennon was a rock star," Mr. Wiener said. "He wasn't a political revolutionary." Neither was Lucille Ball. In her 1953 interview with a House investigator - a supposedly secret session forwarded to the FBI - Miss Ball said, "I have never been too civic-minded and certainly never political-minded in my life." The only exception was her grandfather's request of 17 years before. "I am aware of only one thing I did that was wrong, and that at the time wasn't wrong," Miss Ball said. "But apparently now it is." ----------------------------- FBI files on famous people ----------------------------- Excerpts from some FBI files on well-known Americans that are among those most requested by the public. Some are available on the Internet in the Freedom of Information Reading Room at the bureau's home page: www.fbi.gov. Others can be reviewed at FBI headquarters in Washington. LUCILLE BALL, from a Dec. 16, 1953, report on the comedian's testimony to a congressional investigator: "BALL stated that in 1936 she registered to vote as a Communist or intended to vote the Communist Party ticket because her grandfather, FRED HUNT, now deceased, wanted her to register as such. She stated that FRED HUNT had been a Socialist all his life and she had registered as a Communist to make him happy and to do him a favor." JOHN F. KENNEDY, from a Feb. 6, 1942, report on accused Nazi sympathizer Inga Arvad: "I thought you would be interested to know that through the surveillance now in use on [Ms. Arvad], it has been determined that Jack Kennedy, the son of former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, is the individual to whom she is supposed to be engaged and who has apparently been the ensign observed leaving her apartment in the morning on several occasions after having been there with her all night." RONALD REAGAN, from a 1947 report on suspected communist influence on Hollywood: "T-10 [Mr. Reagan] stated it is his firm conviction that Congress should declare, first of all, by statute, that the Communist Party is not a legal party, but is a foreign-inspired conspiracy. Secondly, Congress should define what organizations are Communist-controlled so that membership therein could be construed as an indication of disloyalty." JEAN SEBERG, from an April 27, 1970, proposal from the Los Angeles office to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: "Bureau permission is requested to publicize the pregnancy of JEAN SEBERG, well-known movie actress, by (name deleted) Black Panther Party (BPP) (name deleted) by advising Hollywood 'Gossip-Columnists' in the Los Angeles area of the situation. It is felt that the possible publication of SEBERG's plight could cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the general public." ROBERT F. KENNEDY, from an Aug. 20, 1962, memo from FBI Assistant Director Courtney Evans to FBI Assistant Director Alan Belmont: "The Attorney General was contacted and advised of the information we had received alleging he was having an affair with a girl in El Paso. He said he had never been to El Paso, Texas, and there was no basis in fact whatsoever for the allegation. He said he appreciated our informing him of it; that being in public life the gossip mongers just had to talk. He said he was aware there had been several allegations concerning his possibly being involved with Marilyn Monroe. He said he had at least met Marilyn Monroe since she was a good friend of his sister, Pat Lawford, but these allegations just had a way of growing beyond any semblance of the truth." MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., from an Oct. 4, 1963, memo from FBI Supervisor J.F. Bland to FBI Assistant Director William Sullivan: "Surveys have been made on the residence of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta, Ga., and the headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference [SCLC] in New York City. These surveys indicate it is feasible to install technical surveillances on these places with full security." Mr. Hoover's handwritten notation: "I hope you don't change your minds on this." JOHN LENNON, from a Feb. 25, 1972, report on the ex-Beatle's opposition to the Vietnam War: "On Feb. 22, 1972, (war protester) Jerry Rubin appeared on the Mike Douglas Television Show which was aired on Channel 11, Columbia Broadcasting System, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. John Lennon, formerly with the Beatles musical group, and his wife (Yoko Ono) were co-hosts on this show. This program was tape recorded and pertinent statements made by Rubin are included in this memorandum. Mike Douglas introduced Jerry Rubin stating his feelings were quite negative concerning Rubin but that John Lennon wanted him on the show. John Lennon stated that Rubin was not at all like his image as he and his wife were not like their image. He stated he found something in Rubin was artistic." FRANK SINATRA, from a summary report on the singer's activities: "According to the weekly intelligence summary submitted by the New York Division on May 16, 1946, Sinatra was one of the speakers at the Veterans American Rally, a Communist infiltrated group which held a meeting at Madison Square Garden on that date. Other speakers included Sen. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.) and Ralph Ingersoll who was editor of the newspaper PM." SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research ------------------------------------------- *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to SPYNEWS eGroup members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes only. 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