F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Chronology, Part 2

Continued from: F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Chronology, Part 1

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

OPEN ENTRY: This entry is open to collaborative creation by anyone with evidence, citations, and analysis to share, so no particular, named creator is responsible for the accuracy and cogency of its content. Please use this entry's Comment section at the bottom of the page to suggest improvements about which you are unsure. Thanks.

Timeline: 1950-1979

1950s

According to Anthony Summers, John Weitz, a former official in the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), at a dinner party hosted by the former head of the CIA's counterintelligence division, James Angelton, had been shown a photo of Hoover and Tolson having sex. See also 1967, Gordon Novel.

1950s

During the 1950s the FBI engaged in widespread surveillance of the gay world. Not only did it collect from local vice squads the names of men arrested on homosexual morals charges; it also placed a watch on gay bars and infiltrated the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis.

1950

Clyde Hoey (D-NC) headed a 1950 investigation into the alleged problem, in the course of which CIA director Roscoe Hillenkoetter delivered fabricated testimony on the invidious role of the homosexual spy in history.

1950, February 3

Photo, Hoover and Tolson, etc. Original caption: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (right) was reported to have told Senators today that Dr. Fuchs has confessed to giving Russia vital information on assembly of the atomic bomb and some data on the supersecret hydrogen weapon. He is shown talking to reporters after a 3-hour session with a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. In the center is Clyde Tolson, Associate Director of the FBI. Corbis Images: Stock Photo ID: U928885ACME

1951, June

"Sex Deviates program"

Theoharis, Athan G. (1999): FBI efforts also extended to disseminating information about homosexuals. In June 1951, Hoover unilaterally authorized a code-named Sex Deviates program. . . .

Theoharis, Sex (1995): "In 1951 he [Hoover] had unilaterally instituted a Sex Deviates program to purge alleged homosexuals from any position in the federal government, from the lowliest clerk to the more powerful position of White house aide."

Potter "Queer" (2006): "In 1951, at the request of several federal agencies, Hoover devised the Sex Deviates program, which sought to identify gays and lesbians working in government. This function was expanded in 1953 after a presidential order by Dwight Eisenhower made federal employment of homosexuals illegal". Was the Sex Deviates program initiated by "several federal agencies" or by Hoover "unilaterally", as Theoharis says?

Beauty Parlor Operator: Hoover "Queer"

Theoharis also writes that in 1951, a Washington D.C. beauty parlor operator was interviewed twice by two senior FBI officials at her place of business because someone had reported to the FBI that she had told a customer that J. Edgar Hoover was "queer". Interviewed by the FBI officials, she denied having made such remarks about Hoover, and was "advised [as an FBI file reports] in no undertain terms that such statements . . . would not be coountenanced." Reporting back to Hoover on this interview, FBI Assistant Director F.C. Holloman contended that his woman "fully realizes the seriousness of her accusations, and it is not [now?] believed that she will ever be guilty of such statements."

1951, February

Gossip columnist Jack Anderson writes that J. Edgar Hoover had consulted a psychiatrist, Dr. Ruffin. This was Dr. Marshal DeG Ruffin. Hoover thought of suing Anderson.

1951, May

Joseph Bryan II: rumors of Hoover's homosexuality

This month and year Joseph Bryan II, then of the CIA's psychological warfare division, for some reason received CIA and FBI authorization to review the FBI's Obscene File.

On the eve of the 1952 presidential election, Bryan hosted a dinner party in his home at which he was reported to have remarked to his guests about Hoover's perverse interest in pornography. Bryan then reportedly stated that Hoover "had a crush on a friend of theirs and had made advances to him several times, when it was found out that no progress could be made [Hoover] had turned him in.'" Hoover heard of Bryan's alleged allegations and asked for a briefing on him, others at the party, the friend Bryan had mentioned, and the whole matter. The FBI investigated but could establish no hard facts of what had been said, and the investigation was closed.

In 1955, Hoover heard that Bryan had repeated allegations about Hoover's homosexuality to an individual who had reported it to the vice chairman of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, William Jenner. FBI Assistant Director Louis Nicholas asked Hoover's approval for he and FBI supervisor Cartha DeLoach to interview Bryan, and they did so. Bryan denied any malicious intent and wrongdoing, and wrote to Hoover to apologize. The FBI then briefed the lawyer for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee about Bryan, with the understanding that the lawyer would brief Senator Jenner. The FBI also informed the CIA about this 1955 incident.

1952

Adlai Stevenson: "one of 'the two best known homosexuals in the state' "

"In 1952, . . . a memo [in the FBI's files] noted that Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, the Democratic Presidential nominee, was one of "the two best known homosexuals in the state." It hardly mattered to Hoover that the informant was a college basketball player under indictment for fixing a game or that his evidence was based only on rumor. What did matter was that Stevenson had spoken out against loyalty oaths, criticized Joe McCarthy, and vetoed a bill that would outlaw the Communist Party in Illinois." [New paragraph.] The Crime Records Division of the F.B.I. leaked the homosexual charge to selected members of the press. Rumors flew wildly across the Presidential campaign.

1952

J. Edgar Hoover (Writer, Hollywood film, Walk East on Beacon!. Based on Hoover's article "The Crime of the Century"

1952, October 25

Senator Joe McCarthy Publicly Accused of Homosexuality

For some time opponents of McCarthy had been accumulating evidence concerning his homosexual activities. Several members of his staff, including Roy Cohn and David Schine (see), were also suspected of having a sexual relationship. Although well-known by political journalists, the first article about it did not appear until Hank Greenspun published an article in the Las Vegas Sun in 25th October, 1952. Greenspun wrote that: "It is common talk among homosexuals in Milwaukee who rendezvous in the White Horse Inn that Senator Joe McCarthy has often engaged in homosexual activities." McCarthy considered a libel suit against Greenspun but decided against it when he was told by his lawyers that if the case went ahead he would have to take the witness stand and answer questions about his sexuality. In an attempt to stop the rumours circulating, McCarthy married his secretary, Jeannie Kerr. Later the couple adopted a five-week old girl from the New York Foundling Home."

Another version:

"In 1952, using rumors collected by [columnist Drew] Pearson, Nevada publisher Hank Greenspun wrote that McCarthy was a homosexual. The major journalistic media refused to print the story, and no notable McCarthy biographer has accepted the rumor as probable. The allegation is specifically rejected in Rovere, Richard H. (1959). Senator Joe McCarthy. University of California Press. pp. 68. ISBN 0-520-20472-7. In 1953, McCarthy married Jean Kerr, a researcher in his office. He and his wife adopted a baby girl, whom they named Tierney Elizabeth McCarthy.

1952, December

Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr.: "probably a suicide"

Dudly Clendinen writes:

Just before Christmas in 1952, J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the F.B.I., let President Dwight D. Eisenhower know that the man Eisenhower had appointed as secretary to the president, his friend and chief of staff, my godfather, Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr., was a homosexual. <ADD: what happened next?>

Clendinin writes that, late in 1956, Confidential, "a smut and scandal tabloid probably fed by the F.B.I., published a lurid exposé" about Arthur Vandenberg, Jr. After this, President Eisenhower cut his contacts with Vandenberg, who also resigned from his university job. On January 18, 1968, Vandenberg died at the age of 60, probably a suicide.

1953

Executive Order 10450

The FBI's Sex Deviates program "was expanded in 1953 after a presidential order by Dwight Eisenhower made federal employment of homosexuals illegal." Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450, which mandated the firing of any federal employees guilty of “sexual perversion.”

1953-1970s

FBI: Files on Surveillance of Homosexual Groups. As catalogued by the National Museum of LGBT History at the LGBT Center, New York City.

Charles E. Bohlen

1953, February 27

President Dwight Eisenhower nominated Charles Bohlen as United States ambassador to the Soviet Union. Conservative Republicans opposed Bohlen.

On March 17, 1953, Hoover met with Secretary of State John Foster Dulless and CIA Director Allen Dulles and recommended against Bohlen's appointment. Hoover said there "was no direct evidence" of Bohlen's homosexuality, but "it was a fact that several of his closest friends and intimate associates were known homosexuals."

On March 18, 1993, Senator Joseph McCarthy phoned Hoover to ask what the FBI director knew about Bohlen. McCarthy asked asked Hoover if Bohlen was a homosexual. Hoover said he didn't know, but that Bohlen "is associating with individuals of that type."

The FBI's information about Bohlen came from interviews with three of Bohlen's State Department associates. One woman, for example, told the FBI that Bohlen's "manner of speech indicated effeminacy and she is of definite belief he has strong homosexual tendencies." She said that Bohlen "walks, acts and talks like a homosexual." She based her assessment on "considerable reading in abnormal psychology". She said that she "has met many homosexuals and claims she is able . . . to discern homosexual tendencies in individuals." A second FBI source, a State Department security officer, said that the State Department's index cards on "suspected homosexuals" included one saying "that Bohlen was associating with sexual perverts." A third source said "an admitted homosexual gave Bohlen as a reference in a Government application."

1953, November 17

Photo, Hoover and Tolson. Original caption: FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover is shown as he told a Senate Internal Security Subcommittee today that he was notified in February 1947, that Harry Dexter White was being retained in an important international post, so he could be kept under surveillance. He said that his source of information was Tom C. Clark, then Attorney General. Corbis Images: Stock Photo ID: U772154INP

Senator Lester Hunt's Suicide

1954

In 1954 Senator Lester Hunt, a conservative Democrat from Wyoming, committed suicide under mysterious cir­cumstances. It later was revealed that his son had been compromised when the Washington police raided a gathering of homosexuals, and that two Republican Senators had threatened to make this fact known to his constituents should he run for a second term. In a politically distorted form this incident inspired the novel and motion picture Advise and Consent in which the culprit is a left-leaning member of the Senate - conveniently reversing the fact that the blackmailers belonged to the Republican Party.<ANY FBI INVOLVEMENT? NEED RELIABLE CITATIONS FOR ALL OF THIS.>

1954, May 22

Photo, Hoover and Tolson: Original caption: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (right) and his assistant Clyde Tolson, at Pilmico Race Track, MD. for running of preakness. Corbis Images: Stock Photo ID: U1057939. Date Photographed: May 22, 1954.

1954, October 22

George Washington University and New York University

"The FBI did not restrict its interest in sexual behavior to government employees. On the explicit instructions of Hoover, it 'confidentially made available to George Washington University information concerning sex deviates or Communists employed as teachers there.' It did the same at New York University where it 'confidentially adivsed a contact at the University as to sex deviate practices of an instructor.'"

1955, March

Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover. "How Safe Is Your Youngster?" The American Magazine (March 1955), 19, 99-101.

1955, May 10

Louis Arlan Kerr

FBI File: “On May 10, 1955, Agents of the FBI arrested Louis Arlan Kerr at New Orleans, Louisiana, on a federal warrant charging a violation of the Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property Statut[e]. While being interviewed concerning the federal charge on which he was arrested, Kerr volunteered information that he was a homosexual. He furnished the names of 45 individuals with whom he claimed to have had homosexual relations since 1951. Kerr also stated that he had a long standing friendship with Dorothy Dandridge, Negro movie actress. However, he added that she was in no way a sex deviate.“

1955, October 15 - 1956, April 15

"queers", "lesbians", "homosexuals", and "the 'gay life'"

F.B.I.: “Notorious Types and Places of Amusement”, October 15, 1955-April 15, 1956

An F.B.I. report refers to "queers", "lesbians", "homosexuals", and "the 'gay life'".

1958

Florida Legislative Committee ("The Johns Committee")

The Johns Committee begun interrogating suspected homosexuals among students and faculty on Florida campuses before the Legislature gave specific authorization for the investigation of homosexuals. In 1958, committee chairman Johns illegally sent a covert investigator to the University of Florida after his son, Jerome Johns, told his father that "effeminate instructors had perverted the curriculum." See also: 1961, Florida.Research Request: FBI connection to this investigation? Files?

1958 and 1959

According to a strongly contested account in Anthony Summers' biography of Hoover published in 1993, Susan Rosenstiel said she attended two parties, in 1958 and 1959, in New York, at which J. Edgar Hoover was dressed as a woman and had sex with men. See 1993.

1960

Early in July, Dr. Martin Luther King received a message from a source close to Adam Clayton Powell: unless King fired Rustin and canceled a proposed demonstration at the Democratic National Convention, Powell would announce publicly that King and Rustin were involved in a sexual relationship. Through Powell’s outrageous charge was without substance, King felt it was still potentially damaging. A few days later, King informed Rustin that it would be advisable for him to sever all connections with the civil rights movement and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Rustin resigned. See also: 1963, August 13. (FBI connection?)

1961

Florida Legislative Committee ("The Johns Committee")

In 1961, the Legislature directed the Johns Committee to broaden its investigations to include homosexuals and the "extent of [their] infiltration into agencies supported by state funds," particularly at state colleges and universities such as the University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida. Having the power to subpoena witnesses, take sworn testimony, and employ secret informants, the committee spread terror among the closeted lesbian and gay population in state colleges, often using uniformed policemen to pull students and professors out of classes for interrogation.[5] All homosexual acts were crimes under Florida law at that time and remained so until the United States Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas ruling in 2003.[6] Admission of homosexuality constituted moral turpitude and was grounds for firing or expulsion from college. Research Request: FBI connection? FBI files? See also: 1958: Florida

1961, July 29

"U.S. SECURITY UNIT OUSTS 26 DEVIATES; Walter Tells of Dismissals Since Defection of Two. WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI). New York Times, July 29, 1961.

"The National Security Agency has dismissed twenty-six sexual deviates since two of its code clerks [Bernon F. Mitchell and William M. Martin] defected to the Soviet Union last summer, Representative Francis E. Walter said today." The Times adds: “Mr. Walter quoted Mr. [Maurice H.] Klein [agency personnel director] as having said in response to a question that all twenty-six of the persons dismissed by the agency were sexual deviates, but that not all were homosexuals.” Research Request: Any FBI files? Investigative files of the National Security Agency?

1963, August 13

Senator Strom Thurmond, advocate of Black segregation, publicly attacks Bayard Rustin, who had been dubbed “Mr. March-on-Washington” by the press. Thurmond discussed Rustin’s Communist ties and his conviction on “sex perversion” charges in Pasadena. (FBI involvement?] Black leaders rallied in defense of Rustin.

1963, August 28

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

1963, October 29

Earliest date of FBI surveillance of Bayard Rustin recorded in files published on FBI website as of Dec. 4, 2012.

FBI file part 2 of 7 says Rustin

"was arrested on October 25, 1946, in Harlem, New York City, for commission of a lewd act. (Source: New York city Police Records).

Rustin was arrested in Pasadena, California, on January 21, 1953, on a charge of sex perversion. He pleaded guilty to propositioning two males to engage in sodomy and admitted he had previously been arrested on the same charge in New York City. He was sentenced to 60 days. (Source: congressional Record. August 13, 1963). See: http://vault.fbi.gov/bayard-rustin Bayard Rustin part 2 of 7.

1964

Cook, Fred. The FBI Nobody Knows. 1964

1964, February 5

An FBI memo of February 5, 1964 reports an FBI interview on February 4 with Malcolm Little who advised he was known as Malcolm X: “He stated that the so-called Negro leaders are incompetent to lead the Negroes and stated that BAYARD RUSTIN, who was a leader of the one day school boycott in New York City on February 3, 1964, is nothing but a homosexual. He furnished no other information on either RUSTIN or any other person he considered a Negro leader.” Malcolm Little (Malcolm X) HQ File 12 of 27, page 99.

1964, October 7

The Walter Wilson Jenkins arrest

On October 7, a month before the 1964 presidential election on November 3, District of Columbia Police arrested Walter Wilson Jenkins in a YMCA restroom. He and another man were booked on a disorderly conduct charge. This incident has been described as "perhaps the most famous tearoom arrest in America." Jenkins paid a $50 fine. Rumors of the incident circulated for several days and Republican Party operatives helped to promote it to the press. Some newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Cincinnati Enquirer, refused to run the story. Journalists quickly learned that Jenkins had been arrested on a similar charge in 1959. This earlier arrest made it much harder to explain away the later one as the result of overwork or, as one journalist wrote, "combat fatigue." On October 14, a Washington Star editor called the White House for Jenkins' comment on a story it was preparing. Jenkins turned to White House lawyers Abe Fortas, the President's personal lawyer, and Clark Clifford, who unofficially was filling the role of White House Counsel. They immediately lobbied the editors of Washington's 3 newspapers not to run the story, which only confirmed its significance. Within hours Clifford detailed the evidence to the President and press secretary George Reedy, "openly weeping," confirmed the story to reporters. Probably forewarned, Johnson told Fortas that Jenkins needed to resign. Anticipating the charge that Jenkins might have been blackmailed, Johnson immediately ordered an FBI investigation. He knew that J. Edgar Hoover would have to clear the administration of any security problem because the FBI itself would otherwise be at fault for failing to investigate Jenkins properly years before. Hoover reported on October 22 that security had not been compromised. Johnson later said: "I couldn't have been more shocked about Walter Jenkins if I'd heard that Lady Bird had tried to kill the Pope." Johnson also fed conspiracy theories that Jenkins had been framed. He claimed that before his arrest Jenkins had attended a cocktail party where the waiters came from the Republican National Committee, though the party was hosted by Newsweek to celebrate the opening of its new offices. The Star printed the story and UPI transmitted its version on October 14, and Jenkins resigned the same day. As Anthony Summers points out in his book, Official and Confidential: "J. Edgar Hoover's public attitude on homosexuality was normally at least condemnatory, often cruel. On this occasion, however, he visited Jenkins in the hospital and sent him flowers."

1964, November 1-2

Just before Election Day on November 3, rumors circulated that the GOP would reveal that a member of the cabinet was a closeted homosexual. On a recorded telephone call with the Lyndon Baines Johnson , FBI director J. Edgar Hoover assured LBJ that the rumors were groundless.

President Johnson: No, I read that. What they said was that—they raised the question of the way he [an unidentified cabinet aide] combed his hair, or the way he did something else, but they had no act of his, or he had done nothing—

J. Edgar Hoover: No. It was just the suspicion that his mannerisms and so forth were such that they were suspicious.

President Johnson: Yeah. He [Jenkins] worked for me for four or five years, but he wasn’t even suspicious to me.

But I guess you’re going to have to teach me something about this stuff!

Hoover: Well, you know, I often wonder what the next crisis is going to be. [Pause.]

President Johnson: I’ll swear I can’t recognize them. I don’t know anything about it.

Hoover: It’s a thing that you just can’t tell. Sometimes, just like in the case of this poor fellow Jenkins . . .

President Johnson: Yes.

Hoover: [continuing] There was no indication in any way.

President Johnson: No.

Hoover: [continuing] And I knew him pretty well, and [FBI White House liaison Deke] DeLoach did also, and there was no suspicion, no indication. There are some people who walk kind of funny and so forth, that you might kind of think are little bit off, or maybe queer. But there was no indication of that in Jenkins’ case.

President Johnson: That’s right. [Break.]

Hoover: So far, I haven’t been able to get any more detail than was given to me yesterday, namely that this man [the alleged closeted homosexual] was a cabinet officer, and will be exposed today.

Now, I thought of all the cabinet officers that we have—and whom I don’t know personally—but there are none of them that raise any suspicion in my mind.

President Johnson: None in mine.

Jack Valenti

1964, November 17

A letter dated November 17, 1964, to Bill D. Moyers, the Special Assistant to the U.S. President, claimed that Jack Joseph Valenti had had an "association" with a photographer in California who was alleged to be homosexual. Moyers sent a copy of the letter to the FBI to see if it had any relevant information. and the FBI wrote back to Moyers on December 2, 1964. It reported that the allegations against Valenti were not substantiated by an FBI interview with someone who knew him (possibly, the photographer -- the name is deleted).

1965

Rock Hudson

Life magazine. On Rock Hudson's FBI file:

A 1965 memo "recommends Los Angeles to be authorized to interview movie actor Rock Hudson." Why, exactly? Much of the memo is blacked out, but one uncensored line offers a hint at the reason: "Los Angeles has advised that it is general common knowledge in motion picture industry that Hudson is suspected of having homosexual tendencies." Four years later [1969?], when it was reported that Hudson was to star as an FBI man in a planned (but apparently never made) movie called The Seven File, a memo again mentions the allegations that he was gay. "The Los Angeles Office has been instructed to remain alert concerning all developments."

1965, September 19

Blackmail organization

Inman, Richard, a homophile activist battling police extortion of homosexuals in South Florida writes to Mattachine-Washington co-founder Jack Nichols [who is using pseudonym Warren Adkins), stating that he knows via a friend inside the FBI that there was one "boss man of the syndicate's homo shakedown detail for the whole of the U.S." See 1965, August 5; 1966, August 17.

1965, August 5

"DETECTIVE AT HOTEL IS HELD IN EXTORTION". New York Times, August 5, 1965.

A 39-year-old house detective [Edward Murphy] at the New York Hilton was arrested early yesterday as the leader of a gang that had extorted a total of $100,000 from "rich playboys and executives." "The case broke, the police said, with the arrest on March 14 [1965] of John Aitken" for impersonating an officer. On July 25 [1965] William Burke was arrested for impersonating an officer.

Carter, Stonewall (June 2004) suggests that Murphy headed a national blackmail operation that had or knew of evidence against Hoover and Tolson.

The last article in the Times that mentions Edward Murphy is: Roth, Jack. "NINE SEIZED HERE; Hogan Says Gang Preyed on Homosexuals and Others". New York Times, February 18, 1966.

Nine members of a nationwide ring that included bogus policemen who preyed primarily on homosexuals to extort money on threats of arrest were taken into custody here yesterday . . . ."

Among the defendants in custody was "Edward Murphy, 41 years old, of 167 Christopher Street, a former hotel security guard . . . ."

1966, August 17

"Blackmailer [John Felebaum] Gets Five Years in Homosexual Case". New York Times, August 17, 1966.

"Assistant United States Attorney Andrew J. Maloney said one of the ring's victims had committed suicide after being interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He did not identify the victim."

1967

Gordon Novel claims that he sought a meeting with James Angleton, the former head of the CIA's counterintelligence division, who urged him to continue a lawsuit against New Orleans prosecutor Jim Garrison, a lawsuit that J. Edgar Hoover, disapproved. Novel says that Angeleton showed him a photo of Hoover and Tolson having sex taken by the Office of Stragegic Services in 1946. Angleton told Novel to go and see Hoover and tell him he had seen such a photo. Novel says he met Hoover at the Mayflower Hotel and told him he had seen the photo and Hoover stopped impeding his pursuit of Garrison.

1968

"homosexual activity 'at the highest levels of the White House staff'"

Shortly after Richard Nixon's election victory in 1968, he ordered an adviser, John Ehrlichman, to establish immediate White House contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Ehrlichman phoned J. Edgar Hoover, the bureau's legendary Director, who invited him to his office. Bored by Hoover's conversation, Ehrlichman wondered how anyone could take this man seriously. "A few weeks later, Hoover phoned the President. There were rumors, he said, about homosexual activity "at the highest levels of the White House staff." They came from a bureau informant, who had mentioned Ehrlichman. Of course, the F.B.I. would check out these rumors if the President so ordered. He did. The rumors proved false. But Hoover had sent his calling card. Mr. Ehrlichman would not take him lightly again."

1968

The Homosexual Handbook, published in 1968, has a last chapter titled "Uncle Fudge's List of Practical Homosexuals Past and Present . . . ." That includes the name of J. Edgar Hoover on page 267.

Carter, in Stonewall (June 2004), says that "After the book appeared, pressure from the FBI caused it to be withdrawn." The publisher soon reissued the book, but without Hoover's name.

1968, November 26

In a memo to Clyde Tolson, Cartha De Loach, and James H. Gale, J. Edgar Hoover reports his discussion with assistants to President-elect Nixon about the importance of the FBI preparing background checks on all White House appointees. Hoover states that while Dwight D. Eisenhower was President-elect

"I had asked for an appointment [with Eisenhower] because one person appointed but not checked [Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr., see 1952, December] was to be a White House aide and had a bad reputation as a homosexual and he was the son of a prominent Senator, and when I told the President-elect about it he was astounded. I told him that this showed the wisdom of getting these people checked so they can find any black shadow in the picture before they make a public announcement."

1969

In 1969, Hoover approved the creation of a ‘Pick the Fag’ poster with prizes (such as 500 rolls of red toilet paper—with Mao’s Tse-tung’s picture—or a free trip to Hanoi) going to the winner correctly identifying one of four antiwar leaders as homosexual.” “Fag Liberation Movement” was the name of one file created by the FBI in 1969.

1969, June 11

H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Dwight Chapin Accused

Theoharis, Sex reports: Jack Anderson, Drew Pearson's collaborator on a gossip column met on this date with FBI Assistant Director Cartha DeLoach, head of the FBI's Crime Records Division. Anderson advised DeLoach on the rumors that three high-level Nixon aides were homosexuals. The aides were Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Chapin. Another White House aide had provided the information. Anderson and Pearson were looking for more information from the FBI before the columnists publicized the rumor. DeLoach briefed Hoover on the meeting with Anderson. Hoover briefed Nixon, Attorney General John Mitchell and H.R. Haldeman of the allegations. He suggested that the FBI take sworn statements from the three accused. Hoover expressed his own "outrage and disgust" over Anderson's and Pearson's desire to spread such rumors, and the columnists practice whereby through the circulation of "innuendo they were able to establish [rumor] as fact." See 1969, June 24.

1969, June 24

"homosexual parties"

Potter. "Queer" (2006): "President Nixon’s aide H. R. Haldeman noted in his diary of June 24, 1969: “Hoover . . . reported to [Attorney General John] Mitchell that columnist Drew Pearson had a report that [John] Erlichman, [Dwight] Chapin, and I had attended homosexual parties at a local Washington hotel. Pearson was checking before running the story . . . [and so] at Mitchell’s suggestion, we agreed to be deposed by the FBI to clear this up.”

1960s, late

"It is possible that the first published allegation of Hoover’s homosexuality appeared in the late 1960s in Al Goldstein’s sex tabloid, Screw" See 1974.

1970

1970 “with the [Nixon] administration increasingly under siege by critics of the Vietnam War, President Nixon’s White House aide H.R. Haldeman asked Hoover for a list of Washington reporters who were homosexual, and the FBI was able to oblige within forty-eight hours.

1970, January 1

Photo: Life Magazine. Caption: "(L-R) FBI dir. J. Edgar Hoover and his asst. Clyde Tolson looking at menus in the Mayflower Hotel where they lunched together each workday for 40 years." [Looking pained; identical pepper grinders; identical suits.] Time Life Pictures/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Jan 01, 1970.

1970, June 4

Gore Vidal in The New York Review of Books: :Homosexuals seldom settle down to cozy mature domesticity for an excellent reason: society forbids it. Two government workers living together in Washington D.C., would very soon find themselves unemployed. They would be spied on, denounced secretly, and dismissed. Only a bachelor entirely above suspicion like J. Edgar Hoover can afford to live openly with another man. It is a nice joke if a Louisiana judge is caught in a motel with a call girl. It is a major tragedy if a government official with a family is caught in a men's room.Although Hoover and Tolson were sometimes perceived as living together, they each had their own homes.

1970, August 15

The FBI…tried to discredit Black Panther leader Huey Newton after he publicly supported gay liberation in a speech on August 15, 1970. It faked letters from supposed members questioning Newton’s masculinity.

1971, October 19

Jack Nelson

“I emphatically deny that I have at any time under any circumstances ever said or remotely suggested that Mr. Hoover was a homosexual,” [reporter Jack] Nelson wrote [to Hoover] on Oct. 19, 1971.

1972, January 1

Nash, Jay Robert. Citizen Hoover: A Critical Study of the Life and Times of J. Edgar Hoover and His FBI. Publisher? Jan 1, 1972

On Hoover's view of criminal women; his "mincing" step.

1972, May 4

Photo: Original caption:Clyde A. Tolson, Associate Director of the FBI, is helped to his car, after attending burial of his life-long friend, J. Edgar Hoover, in the Congressional Cemetery. Shortly thereafter, Tolson submitted his resignation, citing "ill health." Tolson is a native of Laredo, Montana. Corbis Images: Stock Photo ID: U1738097. Date Photographed: May 4, 1972

1973, April 10

Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. "The G-Man We Already Knew; Books of The Times Revealing Only the Familiar Sources Remain Undivulged" [review of J. EDGAR HOOVER. The Man in His Time by Ralph de Toledano. Arlington, 1973]. New York Times, page 41.

The author of this book says that Hoover was not a homosexual and not "a womanizer", "reducing the debate over Hoover's sexual preferences to something of a Mexican standoff." Toledano also "refuses entirely to divulge his sources, to document his claims, to footnote or to acknowledge."

1974

In an article asking "Is J. Edgar Hoover a Fag?" Al Goldstein, in Screw magazine, took on the FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in print. Goldstein soon had to face charges in Kansas. FULL RELIABLE CITATION?

1975

"revelations, in the 1975 Senate investigations led by Frank Church of Idaho, that the CIA and FBI had been engaged in long-term intelligence gathering operations against its own citizens and domestic political groups"

1975, May

[Obituary of Clyde Tolson.] "In Memorium". "Gay Scene: National Homophile Monthly. Volume 5, No. 12, May 1975.

1976, November 23

The Associated Press reports that a substantial number of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's "Official and Confidential" files dealt with allegations that certain politians, prominent figures, and govenrment employees were homosexual. The files also contained memorandums to Hoover informing him of people who had charged that he was homosexual.

1977, December

Cohen, Larry (writer, director) The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover. Stars: Broderick Crawford, James Wainwright and Michael Parks

"The files that escaped the shredder have become an incredible motion picture. From the Kennedys to Martin Luther King. From cab drivers to Congressmen. From housewives to hostesses. He had something on 58 million people. It was all in his files. Now you can see how he used it.

1977

"Sex Deviate" files destroyed

"In 1977, Bureau officials added more gaps to the paper trail by destroying the 300,000 pages in the "Sex Deviate Program."

1977, March

The March 1977 issue of the Gay Activist Alliance publication the Gay Activist is devoted to FBI spying on the group, includes some files received under the Freedom of Information Act.

Lead article "FBI ADMITS SPYING ON GAA" ("As the much-touted Bicentennial drew to a close, the Gay Activists Alliance received documents under the Freedom of Information Act proving that the FBI has spied on it");

Facsimile copies of five documents on the Gay Activist Alliance received under the Freedom of Information Act;

Excerpt from GAA's letter to the Attorney General appealing the FBI's partial release of documents pertaining to GAA, along with a 32-item list of documents demanded by GAA from the FBI (beginning with "The formation of GAA in December 1969");

Side bar on J. Edgar Hoover (with illustrative caricature: "The Associated Press reported Nov. 23, 1976, that a substantial number of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's 'official and confidential' files dealt with allegations that certain politicians, figures, and government employees were homosexual. The files also contained memorandums to Hoover informing him of people who at various times charged that he was homosexual." Includes: "A striking example of a pig fairy in a high place actively working as an enemy of his own kind, and in return being accepted and much appreciated by the heterosexist establishment..."

1978

Powers, Richard Gid, “One G-Man’s Family: Popular Entertainment Formulas and J. Edgar Hoover’s F.B.I.,” American Quarterly 30, no. 4 (1978): 471–92.

1978, May

Bell, Arthur. "Skull Murphy: The Gay Double Agent". Village Voice May 1978, pages 1, 17-19.

Bell, page 17.

Ed Murphy says in an interview with Bell that he (Murphy) started informing undercover for the FBI in 1965 about a national ring blackmailing homosexuals. Murphy says that J. Edgar Hoover "was one of my sisters. He was the biggest fuckin' extortionist in this country. He had presidents by the balls. He had a record on everybody and his brother." He adds: "Every thing I know [about mobsters] is on file at certain law enforcement agencies for certain people who are doing investigations."

Bell, page 19.

My double agent days started in '66 with the extortion ring. It was supposed to be a one-shot deal. We locked up 21 guys. They're all dead now, except three of them."

Carter says that Murphy says that the Mafia had photographs of Hoover involved in sex acts. Photographs are not mentioned in the Bell interview--JNK

Next: F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Chronology, Part 3

See also:

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: A History MAIN PAGE

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Bibliography

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Chronology, Part 1

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Persons and Groups Investigated