S2E1: The Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI

Hey there, it's your host ed helms. Here. Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I wanted to remind you that my brand new book is coming out on April twenty ninth. It's called Snaffo, The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest screw Ups, and you can pre order it right now at snafudashbook dot com. Trust me, if you like this show, you're gonna love this book. It's got all the wild disasters, spectacular face plants we just couldn't squeeze into this podcast. And here's the kicker. I am

Heavy wait boxers Joe Praise You're and Mihamad Ali meet in New York's Madison Square. The richest fight of all times had more work. At least twenty five foreign countries will show the.

Fight on TV. Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frasier, better known as the Fight of the Century. I want to tell you this is going to be a spectacular evening. Attention of the excitement here is monumental. A lucky twenty thousand have scored tickets to watch the fight at Madison Square Garden. Anyone who's anyone is there. The VIPs include a couple of Kennedy's foreign dignitaries astronauts who just returned from the moon.

Guy inful, beautiful, red and white robe.

Ali, the former heavyweight champ, is battling to reclaim his title from current champ Fraser. Joe Fraser.

Ladies and gentlemen, that seems to be a mingling of booms with you.

As the opening bell nears, the time stops. Around the world, people rush to their TVs and radios. City streets completely empty. Out in barracks across Vietnam, US servicemen huddle around transistor radios. Inside an arena in Chicago, an actual riot erupts when

It was a Tuesday that morning. I arrive and as usual, I go to the mail room first and pick up my mail.

This is journalist Betty Medsker. That Tuesday was March twenty third, nineteen seventy one, two weeks after the Ali Fraser fight. It began like any other morning. Betty woke up in her apartment in Washington, d c. She had her usual breakfast a couple of pieces of toast, took the city bus to work, and arrived at the Washington Post offices at ten o'clock.

I'd been off for two days and so there was a huge stack of mail. But this one stood out, not only because it was a large entlop, but because of the return address, which was Liberty Publications Media, Pennsylvania.

Betty was a born Pennsylvanian, but she'd never heard of Liberty Publications. She took the envelope with her to the newsroom. You might have a picture of that Washington Post newsroom, typewriters clacking away like machine gun fire, thick haze of cigarette smoke, someone screaming copy, Woodward and Bernstein running around

Is there any place you don't smoke?

But in the spring of nineteen seventy one, Woodward and Bernstein were still Nobody's Watergate was still just a hotel, and the Washington Post hadn't yet become the crusading institution that took down the Nixon White House. Betty herself was a young reporter who'd been at the paper for just a year. Her beat was religion, and she shared an office about the size of a walk in closet with a motley crew of fellow reporters.

There were six of us in there, and we wrote science, medicine, and education and religion. An editor made up a term. It was called Smirsh Science, medicine, education, religion and all that shit. So that's where I worked.

You worked in the Smirsh department.

I worked in the Smursh department.

But that morning Betty didn't have time for any smershion around. Like any good journalists who's just been sent a mysterious envelope, she was dying to know what was inside.

When I got to my office, I opened that envelope. First, dear friend, enclosed, you will find copies of certain files from the Media Pennsylvania Office of the FBI which were removed by our Commission for Public Scrutiny. We are making these copies of.

The letter went on to say that Betty had permission to make copies of the files and to publish their contents.

Your degree a public association or disassociation with our Commission is entirely a matter of your choice. Sincerely, the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI. I'm shocked. I think most people in the United States couldn't imagine that anybody would have the nerve to break into an FBI office, and would have thought that such a place would have been the most secure place.

Inside the envelope were fourteen xerox FBI files. It didn't take long for Betty to grasp that these documents were explosive.

The first one was pretty shocking. It was a document urging agents to increase interviews with dissenters and quote for plenty of reasons, chief of which are enhanced the paranoia endemic in these circles, and further served to get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox.

An FBI agent behind every mailbox, sort of like Uncle Fester, but in wingtips. At first, Betty wondered if what she was reading was a hoax to enhance paranoia. Seriously, she kept reading.

One of the things was a file on Swarthmore College, and it revealed that every black student on the Swaphthmore campus was under FBI surveillance. And this was being done by people who had been hired by the FBI as informers, and included switchbird operators, letter carriers, the postmaster of Swarthmore, the local police chief, and some college administrators.

And it didn't stop at this one Liberal Arts College. There was a pattern. Files in the envelope showed the FBI was surveilling citizens all over Philadelphia. The subjects Betty was reading about in these files they were anti war protesters, civil rights activists, labor unions, and a noticeably high percentage were black.

The FBI was operating something that was very much like the Stosse was operating in East Germany. What became clear was every document was telling a story about FBI power that was unknown to anyone outside the FBI.

That brassy, jingoistic tune comes from a big budget nineteen fifty nine Hollywood production called The FBI Story, made in cooperation with the Bureau itself. The movie spins through the greatest hits of agency cases, from the Osage Indian murderers to the pursuit of communists. And it wouldn't be an all American field good story without everyone's favorite leading man, Jimmy Stewart tell n.

Why twenty one if and when White he passes the cor and arrest them.

Stewart played the quintessential FBI agent. He was conservative, level headed, trustworthy, clean shaven, well quaffed, and of course white. A government man or in the parlance of the day, A g man and g men were American heroes. FBI myth making was pretty much its own genre of entertainment in the mid twentieth century. It wasn't just movies. FBI agents were valiant heroes in comic books and radio shows.

This is Your FBI, the official broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

And they were the stars of a TV show that, in nineteen seventy one was in its sixth season and at the height of its popularity the FBI. The FBI story was everywhere, and that didn't happen by accident. The story of the bureau, familiar to most Americans, was crafted by one man, the ultimate g man.

America stands at the crossroads of destiny. It is a common destiny in which we shall all finally stand all four.

That's Jay Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the FBI. He was a small man, but terrifyingly intimidating, so buttoned up that he made Beaver Cleaver look like a Hell's angel. Hoover was also a brilliant pr man, transforming a relatively obscure bureau of the Justice Department into a nationally revered household name that FBI TV show. Hoover was intimately involved in its production, often suggesting storylines. As for that Jimmy

I take humble prize, insenitally stating here tonight that as long as I am Director of the FBI, he will cont you to maintain its high and impartial standards of investigation. Despite the hostile opinions of its detractors.

The vast majority of Americans revered Hoover. A Gallup poll in nineteen seventy one found that over seventy percent of Americans thought he was doing a good, too excellent job. Only seven percent had a negative view of him. Hoover had been exempted from compulsory retirement in the nineteen sixties, which essentially made him FBI director for life. His power across five decades was unquestioned when someone suggested to John F. Kennedy that maybe it wasn't a great idea for one

Furthermore, the FBI will continue to be objective in its investigations, and we'll stay within the bounds of its authorized jurisdiction, regardless of pressure groups which seek to use the FBI to attain their own selfish aims to the detriment of our people as a whole.

Back at the Washington Post offices, Betty Metzger was holding documents that did not jibe with the FBI. America knew the contents of the files were so shocking, so illegal, Betty was skeptical that they were actually real. She took the files to an editor.

I explained that I've just received these files that are stolen from an FBI office, and she stops me, and she says, we just got a call from Ken klok.

Ken Clawson was a veteran reporter who was well sourced inside the federal government. That morning, one of Clawson's government sources had reached out to him, asking if anyone at the post had received stolen FBI documents. If the FBI was asking about them, then clearly the files Betty received were authentic.

I start to confront within myself the significance and the danger involved. I realized I needed to think about what I was doing. I needed to think about the personal implications of it.

Betty knew that writing this story could make her an enemy of the FBI, something nobody wanted, as it could have very real consequences.

I'm concerned about fingerprints on the files that I've received, so I thought it was very important, even when I just thought of fingerprints, that I protect them as though they were people that I had faced and made a promise to.

And so, despite knowing that it could create powerful enemies for this, heretofore under the radar smirsh reporter, Betty sat down to write her story.

I just stayed on the office, working and writing and rewriting the stories all afternoon. Like any other story, I would simply write it and hand it in and it would be published the next day.

But this wasn't like any other story. Betty finished the piece and turned it in at six pm.

I then learned that it might not be published the next day, and might not ever be published, And that was a great shot.

If Betty's story never saw the light of day, then the public might never know that the FBI was watching them.

Catherine Graham was very frightened by the situation.

Catherine Graham was the publisher of the Washington Post. Graham is a journalism legend who received the loftiest honor you can imagine. Meryl Streep played her in a movie.

Do You Have the Papers?

Not Yet? The movie The Post is all about Catherine Graham and her executive editor Ben Bradley, and their decision to publish a batch of leaked federal documents known as the Pentagon Papers. But that was all yet to come. On this day, March twenty third, nineteen seventy one, no American newspaper had ever published government documents stolen by sources from outside the government. Graham and the Post leadership were in completely uncharted territory.

It was not just that unprecedented and that the documents had been stolen. We had them by virtue of a crime being committed.

Betty would later learn that earlier that day, the Attorney General of the United States. John Mitchell had repeatedly phoned the Post demanding that they not publish her story.

It was the first time that the publisher had been asked by the administration to suppress a story they didn't want the public to know.

The Attorney General claimed that the documents could damage national security. That sounded plausible, except Betty and her editors, unlike the Attorney General, had actually read the documents. Did they threaten to embarrass the government? Absolutely, But there was nothing in those files that even touched on national security.

The government had the power to hurt the institution, and Catherine Graham had responsibility for protecting the institution.

Hours passed. Finally Betty's phone rang.

At ten o'clock. I get a call saying that the decision was just made. The decision was made to publish.

Stolen documents describe FBI surveillance activities. That was the headline plastered on the front page of the Washington Post, on newsstands and doorsteps all over America on March twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one. The story painted a picture of an FBI far different from the g men Americans knew from their TV sets and radios. It described a vast surveillance network infiltrating college campuses, targeting black students and activists, and

Burglars had an FBI resident office at FBI records stolen from the media Pennsilvan and FBI records which have been made in public include a letter in which.

Betty had seen just fourteen files. The letter from the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI implied that there were still more files in their possession. What Betty didn't know yet was just how many and how much more damning those documents would be. But for the time being, Betty was just thrilled to see her story published.

I was very excited, and early that morning I went opened my apartment door and picked up my newspaper and was happy to see it there.

But the story didn't end there. Betty's article was highly embarrassing for the FBI, which, as she was about to learn, put her on j Edgar Hoover's radar.

The FBI entered my life very soon after that. I decided to call a friend in Philadelphia and share my excitement. I lifted the receiver on my kitchen phone and a man spoke to me and said, what are you doing? And this is a great shock to pick up your phone and somebody talking to you. And I said, who are you? What are you doing? And did not reveal who they were, but kept asking me who was I trying to call? And why was I trying to call someone?

Here?

I was the reporter who had just written that the FBI agents are supposed to make people paranoid and feel as though there's an FBI agent behind every mailbox. So here apparently was an effort to make me paranoid and know that there was an FBI agent behind my phone.

Betty was never able to confirm that he was an FBI agent, but I mean, who else could it be? And this wouldn't be the only time she would have an unnerving run in that made her wonder was the FBI now after her? Turns out that first batch of stolen FBI documents was just the beginning. The files kept coming. Checking the mail each morning, became a moment of high drama for Betty.

So one Saturday, I was at my desk and I had received more files from the more FBI files, and I was sitting there reading starting to read them, and this man I had never seen came up and introduced himself and said, I've been watching your mail and I see that you're getting these files from the FBI. And then he said, I also see that your mother is writing to you from Johnstown, that you're occasionally getting mail from her. And that's a sort of a strange thing

This was a downright freaky interaction. Oh hi there, Yeah, we've never met, but I'm keeping really close tabs on your mail. Just FYI, By the way, how's your mom, whom I've also never met? Is she still getting her hair done at that same place on the third Tuesday of every month. Fantastic Betty was getting an object lesson and what it meant for the FBI to sew paranoia. Why was the bureau going to such lengths to rattle her? Was this petty retaliation or were there more secrets yet

She was very open to the idea, and she said, let me pursue people that would seem like logical connections and get back to you. So I was very excited, and as I walked back into the newsroom from that appointment, I walked past Ken Clawson's desk.

You might remember Ken Clawson. He was the Washington Post reporter who had confirmed the authenticity of the stolen files on the day Betty received them. Clawson actually even shared a byline with Betty on that first story because of his contribution. One thing worth mentioning here. It just so happens Clawson had written a glowing story on Hoover for the Post just a few months earlier.

I just spontaneously just stopped and I said, Ken, I just had the most wonderful thing happen. I told him what had happened, and that there was a possibility that I would be able to go someplace and see all of the stolen files. And his eyes just came alert and then hardened, and he said, I'm going with you. In that moment, I knew I had made a terrible mistake.

Betty thought back to that fluff piece that Clawson had written on Jay Edgar Hoover months earlier. Maybe it was best not to let Clawson be Woodward to herb Bernstein.

And I said, well, no, Ken, these are confidential sources of mine and there's no way that they would let me bring somebody else along. And he said no, he said, I will have to go with you. And at that point I somehow graciously got out of the conversation. About a half hour passed and I looked up and there was Ken, and he said, in very stern language, I am going with you when you go to see those files. He was saying it as though he had the power to give me an order, which wasn't true.

So Betty reached out to her source and canceled their rendezvous.

I had to make that assumption that he was so close to the FBI that if we went and actually found where the documents were, that the FBI might be there too.

Betty never learned for sure. Y Clawson was so weirdly aggressive that day. But a year later he left the Washington Post for a job at the White House as Richard Nixon's communications officer. And guess what he proudly displayed on his new White House desk.

Framed photograph that was signed to Ken with affection Jay Edgar.

As it turns out, just as Betty suspected, the files she was receiving, well, they would just be the tip of the iceberg. The full picture was going to upend everything the American public thought they knew about the FBI and would knock a revered American hero off his throne.

President's official spokesman claims creating fear mistrustance has spread far out of control its penetration in labor union's, college campuses, churches, The FBI had under surveillance every political figure, every student activist, and every leader for peace and justice in this country.

So who exactly was responsible for exposing the FBI's secrets who were these anonymous citizens who sent Betty those files? And how the hell did they successfully break into the nation's most powerful law enforcement agency, all under the cover of a huge boxing match. Hang on a second, that plot is actually sounding kind of familiar. On a fight night like the one two weeks from the night to night that we're going to rob it one hundred and

I have so many questions.

I do too, Stephen, I do too. I'm excited for you to learn more about this story.

Well, here's the thing.

I have never listened to a podcast before. Obviously I have to hear this, all right, Stephen, and listeners get ready. This season you'll hear how Jay Edgar Hoover embroiled the FBI in one of the worst intelligence snaffoos of all time, The daring heist that exposed it all and the staggering fallout that sent shock waves through America.

We love to say that we learned our burglary skills from nons and priests. One day he came up to me and he said, would you like to be part of a small group where we're going to go after the FBI. I just felt like I was living in the heart of the dragon and it was just my job to stop the fire.

And this seemed like a way to do it.

I was just really angry, that's really and I thought, here's something that might just make a great, big difference.

Holy shit, we are really here. This is dynamite stuff.

There was no place to hide. They released their powers against you.

Mike.

Well, that was either the FBI or the heating system, and there's only one.

Way to find out which Maney of the tech names were clearly illegal but justified in the interest of national security.

If it meant some risks that were involved, well that's what citizens sometimes have to do.

Snafoo is a production of iHeartRadio, Film, Nation Entertainment, and Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio. This season of Snapoo is based on the book The Burglary, The discovery of j Edgar Hoover's secret FBI, written by Betty Metzger. It's executive produced by me Ed Helms, Milan Papelka, Mike Valbo, Whitney Donaldson, Andy Chug, Dylan Fagan, and Betty Metzger. Our lead producers are Sarah Joyner and Alyssa Martine. Producer