J. Edgar Hoover
FBI Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Opening of Civil Rights Office in Mississippi
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com As violence against black people continued after signing the Civil Rights Act in July 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson turned to the FBI for help. The New York Times reports that Johnson urged then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to open the first office dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Americans. The…
FBI Tried to Stop Martin Luther King Jr. from Delivering College Commencement in 1964
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Just days after Martin Luther King Jr. was invited to speak at Springfield College’s commencement in 1964, the FBI tried to get the school to cancel speech, the Atlantic reports in an account detailing new questionable tactics against the civil rights icon. At the time, King had been the subject of extraordinary…
Film ‘1971’ Depicts Improbable Break-In at FBI Office By ‘Eight Ordinary Citizens’
The film “1971,” which documents a group’s break-in of an FBI office in a Philadelphia suburb on March 8, 1971, has received both critical and audience praise at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. They stole every document to expose the FBI, under the autocratic leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, for widespread surveillance of…
On This Day in 1973: FBI Chief Patrick Gray Quits in Wake of Watergate Scandal
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Patrick Gray was the acting head of the FBI when he was pressured to resign on April 28, 1973, in the wake of the President Nixon Watergate scandal, the Guardian reports. Gray’s resignation came after news that he had burned incriminating documents tied to convicted Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt. Gray was in…
FBI Believed Hitler Fled to Argentina After WWII And Didn’t Commit Suicide in Berlin Bunker
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com While most of the world believed Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker in April 1945, the FBI’s director, J. Edgar Hoover, wasn’t buying it. So, according to the Daily Caller, Hoover called for a mission to track down Hitler in Argentina, according to recently declassified FBI documents. Agents…
FBI Under J. Edgar Hoover Hid Bad News about Agent with Help of Supportive Media
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover was never as it seemed, and supportive reporters had no qualms changing the narrative to make the bureau look good, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports. Take April 6, 1939, when an inexperienced FBI agent shot and killed a bank robber, Bennie Dickson, under questionable circumstances. The agency…
J. Edgar Hoover Delivered Order to Ignore Democrat After His Critical Comments
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com J. Edgar Hoover wasn’t known for messing around. When U.S. Rep. Jack Brooks criticized the FBI director during a background interview for a potential judicial nominee in 1958, Hoover laid down the law – his version of it. “He is to be ignored,” Hoover wrote of the Texas Democrat in a June…