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J Edgar Hoover — Part 16
Page 94
94 / 111
Temes wath bes _subordinal +s fvig sf Stay Trim
Tic adairess un according
To ‘hair stabug.or length of
AL Cua MidNecs sin
Ta the vage mavonty, he is
Heaver” The ten as-
Jit directe.s the two as-
ala tits to tie alrector, and
ham cctor invar-
ar “bess.” a habit
tub spread to Lae 56 field af-
ees where the Special
whee hits in tura always call
thei’ Speers. Agent-in-
Cnat os “Bos: too.
“Mis close otc friends ail-
wars call me Edgar,” Hoov-
er said. “I've rever used the
‘Jain’ and ¥ don’t even like
‘J. Edgar Hoover’ as a sig-
nature, It sowids affected, I
aaancd tie sizhuture manv
Weats ago ber. ¢ of an inci-
“deni in a aepactcent store in
Wasaingion
' “Dwentup there lo buy a
gear the year Washington
won the menneo at (1933) and
£ pes VE fads,
the «cather was cold for the
Worid Serics. I told them ta
ci.arpe the coat but they said,
S
Met
_
Balj.
| ‘Mr. Hoover, vou already owe
us $900."
“ET told them | did not. T
always pay mv bills the first
Ga. of every month, It turn-
edoutto be anather man with
the identical uame. But he
usce the “ ‘Ichn,’ so I] decided
to drop it,”
‘ Na matter waat he js call-
ca, “here is no question who
ts “Boss.” At the FBI, it is a
fact of bfe that Hoover knows
eve “vy detail of the organiza-
tion and maxes all the major
dec's:ons,
Mois astatner for precise
re,orts, short sentences, ir-
Tepreachable conduct, phys-
ica; fitness, devotion to duty
ane adherence to the tried-
and-truc procedures he has
vtuctled at the bureau over
the years,
There are many myths ex-
tart about FBI men, one being
that they wear almost a “uni-
form” of narrow-brim hat,
whie shirt, dark suit and
well-shined sheeseThe fact is
that this is a “dress uniform"
onle
Vorking an assignment,
whether ibe the surveillance
om SDV SuSpeC.~ or searching
the swamps of “tississippi for
a missing kidnap victim, FBI
sapc.ts dress for utility or to
blend into tha-background. -
eee ee a dag
e.
There arc tal! agents and
short ascents, and it is a little-
known fact trat there are Ne-
pre agents But as long as
J, Edgar Hoover is around,
there are going to be very
few fat agents. He himseli
rarely pets down to the gym
for a weekly workout any
more, but everyone else does.
A man who enjoys good
food himself, Hoover has no
objection to trenchermen
among his agents—out they
are required to work it off.
Over-indulgence of another
sort can bring summary dis-
\missal. FBI agents wili have
a drink before dinner as does
the “Boss” himself, but ha-
hitual intemperance makes
far a short career in the FBI.
So do laziness, ineptitude,
untruthfulness or slovenly be- |
havior. The FBI is a quasi-
military organization in:
itary organization
which orders are given with
dispatch with the expectation
they will be carried out with
speed.
For many vears, Hoover
as made it a habit to have’
his light hunch in a down-
town Washington hotel din-
ing room. His order varies
little, and he is accustomed
to having the same Cuban
waiter, Hoover calls him “Fi-
del” to set the special jest-
ing pattern between a man
and his favorite waiter.
Back at the office, Hoov-
Ver returns to his busy sched.
ule of receiving visitors, read+
ing eports, issuing orders
and supervising his far-flung
organizaLion,
A winds, poorly written re-
port is invarlably bounced
back to the writer with a
pithy comment serawied
across the pages. A speech
draft is taken home to be
worked and reworked into
‘words recognizable anywhere
Jas Hoover's.
His aides kee
o
wm hi uale ie
oe Tei, ae
sulated against the legion
crackpots who claim t hav
important business to discuss
with him.
Every day, he gets scores
of calls. Setters, telegrams
and visits from addled folk
who may say they are vir-
tims of radar transmission
rectly into their filled teeth pr
that they have recently
, turned from trips to Mars and
‘wish to report direct. Occa-
sionally, packages arrive con-
ining old clothes or even”
arbage.
feat
m
]
a&
re
rey
(
The legitimate mail, «of
course, is routed much in the
manner it is in any well-run
organization. Every letter is
nswered, and Hoover may
well be the most indefatigable
Jetter-signer in Washington.
There are hot lines on his
desk and at hig home to the
White House. There is a
shortwave radio in his car.
Even on trips, he is never
away from his life's work.
Travel Cut Down
| voover sald he hasn't been
able to travel as much now as
he once did because the pres-
fure of the FBI's mission is
, Steadily increasing.
When he can get away, he
likes to go to Aqueduct or
one of the race tracks in the
New York area where he
comporis himself as a $2 bet- |
tor. He likes the joke about
the man who said he hoped
1 3f Hoover were a man Riv-
en to introspection, he might
like to roam in the past a bit, -
Tasked him about a few of his
adventures. Alvin Karpls, the
celebrated gangster and kid-_
naper, for instance.
{"Yes, " said Hoover. “He's
whill aller de Badtewel woolen
Sty Save a £oGSTa: prravil. H
recall that I was summoned to
The Hill the day word reachec?
me that we had him spotteg
in New Orleans, Karpis use
to call and write to me dur
ing the manhunt, asking if f
was man enough to come aft-
. er him myself, and I was
terribly anxious to get down .
to New Orleans to mect the:
chailenge.
| ta break even at the track be- :
use he needed the money.
A typical day at the FBI
ends for Hoover at about 7 -
P. M. Few employes leave be-
fore “The Boss" does, and it
is one of the miracles of |
Washington life, not dissim- |
ilar to the “jungle telegraph,” ;
‘
how his departure time races }
through the building,
On an evening when he has
jo engagements, Hoover
dines at home, more often
than not with a guest or two.
If he is alone, he may read or
watch television until after
the 11 o'clock news.
“! read four newsoanere a
papers &
faay,” Hoover said. “The boys
send me clippings from other
papers of stories about mat-
ters of interest to the FBI,
‘The books I like are old
friends to me, I love to read
the poems of Service and Kip-.
ling, [ watch television to re-!
lax, so I avoid the heavy, psy-
chological dramas. My favor-!
ite programs are the comedi-
ans, Red Skelton and Jack
Benny, or the westerns where
you don’t have to worry about {
the outcome.”
J. Edgar Hoover never
watches a detective program
on television. He dismisses
them as too far-fetched to be
worth the time. . “"""™.
“But there I was at Capitol
Hilt and Senator McKellar
(the late senator from Ten-
nessee) was harassing me
about something over which -
his wishes and mine had tan--
gled. He accused me of sit-
ting here in Washington and
taking credit for all the cap- |
tures we were making during
that period.
“I wanted more than any-
thing else in the world to get
out of that room and get
elewiss mae Oh
down to New Orleans: but I
(had to be courteous. And I
' couldn't tell him about Karpis.
So I just waited until he was
' finished with me.
“T hurried to New Orleans
and took up watch outside the
apartment where Karpis was
hiding. We were ready whe
he came out and as soon a
he gat in the driver's seat o
his car, 1 shoved my pisto
against his ear, *
“Well, I guess you've got
me,” he said. Later we found -
a couple of rifles in the car. I
remember that nobody had
handcuffs, so we had to use
an agerit's necktie io secure
j his hands. I still have that tie
' aS a souvenir.*
(Everybody has handcuffs:
with him now when the FRE
Bes out to make an arres 4
Hoover also recaliad 2 ca
B.50 recaied 2 ca at
which resulted in another F
iron-clad rule, It was the x
rest in New York of a notori-
ous criminal named Harry
Erunette.
“After we arrested him,”
Hoover recalled, “I asked
Brunette why his upper lip
i was swollen. He said, ‘Oneof
' your men hit me.’ [told him 1
uessed he deserved it.
“When we got him to jail
e checked his lip and found
had a $100 bill tucked ud
there. Now we search them
‘from tip to toe as soon as the
arrest is made.”
St ero poet eto
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