Free J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets by Curt Gentry Page B

enough, shortly after Hoover’s death Bureau officials secretly flew in consultants from Disney World and asked them to design a new exhibit for the popular FBI tour. Word soon leaked that it would be a replica of Hoover’s office, causing one reporter to surmise that a lifelike mannequin, a bit shorter than Abraham Lincoln and somewhat rounder, would rise up from behind the desk and entertain visitors with a three-hour, nonstop recitation of the FBI’s most famous cases.
    The finished exhibit was much simpler—consisting of Hoover’s massive desk, his desk lamp, and his office rug, embroidered with the FBI seal—and, inits own way, much more awesome, for viewing it one realized that for nearly a quarter of the history of the United States one man, sitting behind this desk, used his enormous power, in ways both honorable and frightening, to guide that nation’s destiny in the directions in which he believed it should move.
    The director’s best epitaph came not from the president, Congress, or the press but from Hoover himself, exactly two months before his death.
    Making his final appearance before the House Subcommittee on Appropriations, on March 2, 1972, he was greeted by his old friend Representative John J. Rooney, a Democrat from Brooklyn, the committee chairman.
    An aide, who was privileged to attend both the open and the closed portions of the hearing, later recalled the occasion as not only historic but, in its own way, “sad,” for as the chairman and the director went through their familiar ritual, “they were like two old dinosaurs, neither yet realizing that they were extinct.”
    Mr. Rooney: “We are honored to have with us this morning the distinguished Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Honorable J. Edgar Hoover. I would like to say to him that he seems to thrive, as far as his appearance is concerned here today, on the barbs of these left-wing foul balls who have been trying to lay a glove on him. I don’t think anybody has succeeded up to now.”
    Mr. Hoover: “Mr. Chairman, I have a philosophy. You are honored by your friends and you are distinguished by your enemies. I have been very distinguished.” 15
    After filing his obit on the director, Hugh Sidey, Time ’s White House correspondent, decided to write a longer piece for his Life column. His deadline being a week away, he had more time for thought and memories:
    “I’ve lost count of the times I’ve ridden or walked the famous mile from Capitol to White House in inaugural parades or funeral corteges or moments of national triumph. Almost every time when we passed the FBI building I looked up and there was J. Edgar Hoover on his balcony, high and distant and quiet, watching with his misty kingdom behind him, going on from President to President and decade to decade…
    “Now, that is past. There will be a special emptiness down along the Avenue.” 16
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    * Felt neglects to mention that Kleindienst took the seat which he was to have occupied.
    * The writer’s purpose in sending a photocopy was probably to indicate that, were this copy destroyed before reaching Gray, others would follow.
    * On May 18, 1972—just five days after his response to Mohr’s memo—Gray received another letter informing him that if he sincerely believed there were no secret files, as was reported in the press, he had been misinformed.
    Only this letter was not anonymous; it was signed by a former special agent (with eighteen years service). Moreover, he named two current special agents who were willing to instruct him regarding these files.
    Although both men resided in the Washington, D.C., area, as did the author of the letter, Gray made no attempt to contact them, since, he said, “I believed I had sufficient assurance regarding the non-existence of secret files or political dossiers.” 12
    Both agents—one with twenty-six years of service, the other with thirty-one—chose to retire in 1973, during the Gray regime.

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