It has always been an incestuous relationship between business and the day’s political leadership. And not just in India. Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover by Anthony Summers (1993, reissued 2012) lays bare the cosy relationship that existed between business (including the mafia) and public figures in the US. At the centre of it all, if Summers is to be believed, was Hoover, the all-American hero and all-powerful first director of FBI (1935-72). Hoover had files on all public figures. His agents recorded every transgression they made. That perhaps explains why he never retired, though he was well past pensionable age, and died in office at the age of 77.
And the mafia had a file on him! Hoover was a homosexual and also a cross-dresser. (His public rants against homosexuals were obviously a smokescreen.) His partner was none other than his deputy at FBI, Clyde Tolson. (Hoover had even willed his substantial fortune to Tolson.) Now, the mafia apparently had pictures that showed Hoover in compromising positions. So, says the book, Hoover turned a blind eye to the mafia. For long he denied there was a crime syndicate in the country, that controlled bootlegging, gambling, prostitution and the trade unions. Hoover was fond of horse races and got useful tips from the mafia; and the mafia bosses often fixed the races to ensure that Hoover didn’t lose money.
Summers goes on to allege that Hoover got guaranteed returns on his investments in oil companies owned by his friends. They also arranged regular retreats for Hoover and his partner, Tolson. In return, helped by Hoover’s considerable “influence” over the powers that be, the oil millionaires got substantial tax breaks. It was a very well-oiled system.
Summers also details the various run-ins Hoover had with the Kennedy brothers — President John Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. John had illicit relationships with numerous women. The media, it appears, knew about the president’s dalliances but chose to keep quiet about them. Tabloid journalism was yet to be born. But every fling was minutely documented by Hoover’s men. Still, the Kennedy brothers (as the attorney general, on paper, Robert was Hoover’s boss) went after the mafia. And when Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald (who was killed by Jack Ruby before he could spill the beans), Summers says that Hoover made sure the investigations went slow and didn’t reach the right conclusion. That leaves open the question of whether the mafia had a hand to play in Kennedy’s assassination. In spite of their dislike for Hoover, the Kennedy brothers turned to him when Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962, apparently from an overdose of barbiturate. Both the brothers had had a fling with the world’s most famous blonde. Hoover was only too pleased to help.
Hoover, the book alleges, even had a file on Martin Luther King. Being a southerner, Hoover disliked blacks. There were rumours that Hoover had African-American blood in him from his father’s side. His hair, Summers says, was too crisp for a Caucasian. The picture on the book’s cover makes him look a mulatto. Hoover alleged that King had several extramarital affairs and was a closet communist. A photograph in the book shows King leaving Hoover’s office, looking shaken beyond belief.
The book is the result of some painstaking research. Summers says he spent almost the entire advance of half-a-million dollars he got from the publisher on research. The result of the effort is there to see.
bhupesh.bhandari@bsmail.in