J. Edgar Hoover was the most powerful closeted homo-sexual man in America. He created the FBI and was the head of the FBI for an astonishing 48 years. No one ever gets to keep their job for that long. 8 Presidents were afraid to fire him. In fact, Nixon extended the retirement age just for him. He worked with his lifetime companion and top Deputy Clyde Anderson Tolson who he left his entire estate to and who also bought the closest burial plot to Hoover’s to be together after death. What role would he have taken today with the new laws in some states that accept same sex marriages?

There will be a new movie coming out soon about J. Edgar Hoover starring Leonardo DiCapprio. We all know the actor Leonardo probably better than Hoover. After all, we are living about 40 years after Hoover’s death. I guess we can all use a bit of a history lesson about this tough mobster of the American government for many years.

He was a local to the Washington D.C. area. He grew up on Capitol Hill living two blocks away. He is buried in a Congressional Cemetery. Yes, your tax dollars pay for elected officials even after death. He got his job in 1924 and he became one of the most powerful men in American history. He collected secrets on people and knew how to use them to control people. His Mafia or personal army was the secret society of the Federal Bureau of Investigations , the FBI a secret society of ours that could compete with the likes of James Bond. You know those sexy spy movies. They call it professional law enforcement.

Presidents were afraid to fire Hoover. Congress did not want to do any oversight. So, the FBI was a law unto itself. Ron Chessler has written 3 books about the FBI. He says that ironically in the beginning, Hoover a young Justice Department lawyer was in charge of cleaning up a corrupt division. Boy, we could really use a version of him today to clean out the mess that is in Government today.

He went about his job immediately establishing an aura of professionalism. He made sure relatives of workers weren’t hired. Nothing like the open nepotism that runs rampart today in society. Today employment agencies encourage you to get a job simply because you know someone influential in that field, not on merit.

He established the fingerprint identity operation we still use today and created files on people not products. He also established the FBI Academy. I taught at the Police Academy for NYC for a few years. That Academy trained agents to be bold and go out for crime busting by sharp shooting from moving cars . The bureau’s reputation soon soared with high profile arrests of gangsters like John Dillinger.

With his proven ability to clean up gangsters, he gained influence in Washington and was able to get other agencies like the head of the Washington Field Office to collect information on Congressmen that would include personal information like affairs, or evidence of seeing important people picking up prostitutes. With any damaging information he could collect on someone he would then use it against them publicly if he felt like it.

Hoover went a step further and collected files on celebrities. People like Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon , Elvis Presley and even Albert Einstein. Why? Well, he wanted to give information to Presidents and to maintain his aura of being needed and important.

Arthur D. Delouse now 91 years old was one of Hoover’s top lieutenants. He attests that with wire tapping and hidden tape players and microphones, they were watching the whereabouts of President Kennedy who was sharing a girlfriend Judith Campbell Exeter with Chicago Mob Boss Sam Gianconna. He got the Attorney General to approve this surveillance.

The bugging of Martin Luther King Jr. was justified by Hoover because he thought 2 of King’s top advisors were Communists. In fact, King was criticizing Hoover for his involvement in the civil rights marches. Hoover through wire tapping revealed Kings extramarital affairs. Meanwhile, Hoover himself is a closeted homosexual that was sure to be unaccepted by society at that time.

Hoover was outraged with King’s affairs meanwhile he called himself a Minister. He was also jealous of King who was gaining popularity, who received the Nobel Peace Prize. The blackmail went further in that Hoover would write letters to other acclaiming award entities bashing King and revealing the secret damaging information he acquired.

The files of the FBI were full of information on the sex lives of prominent figures. He manages to keep his homosexual personal life out of the spotlight. Meanwhile, with Clyde his lover, Hoover worked closely with him in adjoining offices. They would have lunch and dinner together almost every day and go on vacations together and take pictures of each other. It was clear they had a friendship and a spousal relationship with each other.

If Hoover knew of rumors circulating about his life he would send his deputies out on those talking about his life and open the files. People would then be quiet. So, 8 Presidents let him be. LBJ let him serve beyond the 70 year age limit. Nixon was afraid to fire him too. Hoover died in 1972 at the age of 77.