JOHN EDGAR HOOVER

by Hank Messick ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1972

Once immune from criticism, J. Edgar Hoover, FBI superstar for almost 50 years, has increasingly been attacked by liberals for his highhanded use of extralegal investigative techniques, his dictatorial and insensitive administrative procedures, his use of PR for self-aggrandizement, his execrable habit of copping credit rightly due other agencies such as the Treasury Department, his refusal until forced by Robert Kennedy to concede the existence of organized crime in this country, his pigheaded unwillingness to retire at a reasonable age, his putatively ""senile"" and increasingly ""irrational"" behavior, his vindictive and plainly tendentious use of agency-gathered information against public figures like Martin Luther King, his continuing preoccupation with the so-called Red menace from the Palmer Raids after World War I to the current Harrisburg Seven indictments, and his obdurate refusal to cooperate with Kennedy's and Ramsey Clark's efforts to combat big-time crime. Messick, a serious crime reporter who's slowly building an impressive history of organized criminal activity in the U.S. (The Silent Syndicate, 1967; Syndicate in the Sun, 1968; Lansky, 1971; three others), repeats and affirms all of these allegations against Hoover and adds some new ones -- the most sensational being that the FBI director has consciously abetted the growth of syndicate crime by ""diverting public attention with his crusades against punks and pinks."" Hoover, Messick charges, has received support and ""more tangible rewards"" from right-wing businessmen who are connected ""directly and indirectly with organized-crime figures."" There are other equally disturbing but less explicit insinuations -- that Hoover and the FBI might have had a hand in the deaths of the two men (Thomas J. Walsh in 1932 and John Kennedy in 1963) who seriously threatened his continuance as director; that Hoover perhaps-""framed"" Alger Hiss; etc. These mind-boggling but not unthinkable allegations which go far beyond anything Fred Cook suggested in his expose The FBI Nobody Knows (1964) will obviously require more authenticating documentation than Messick offers. Withal, it is difficult to dispute his final judgment that ""the Hoover legend"" is ""pious claptrap.

Pub Date: April 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McKay

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION