Editing J. Edgar Hoover (section)

===Sexuality===

Rumors began circulating in the 1940s that Hoover was [[homosexual]].<ref>
{{cite book
|last= Terry
|first= Jennifer
|title= An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society
|publisher= [[University of Chicago Press]]
|location= Chicago, Illinois
|year= 1999
|page= 350
|isbn= 978-0-226-79366-5}}
</ref> The historians John Stuart Cox and Athan G. Theoharis speculated that [[Clyde Tolson]], who became an assistant director to Hoover in his mid 40s and became his primary heir, had a sexual relationship with Hoover until the latter's death.<ref name="Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G. 1988 pg. 108">{{cite book|first1= John Stuart
|last1=Cox
|first2=Athan G.
|last2=Theoharis
|year= 1988
|title= The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition
|publisher=[[Temple University Press]]
|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
|page= [https://archive.org/details/bossjedgarhoover00theo/page/108 108]
|isbn= 978-0-87722-532-4
|url= https://archive.org/details/bossjedgarhoover00theo/page/108
}}
</ref> Hoover reportedly hunted down and threatened anyone who made insinuations about his [[sexual orientation|sexuality]].<ref name="R000320">
{{cite news
|first=Hank
|last=Hyena
|title= J. Edgar Hoover: Gay marriage role model?
|work= [[Salon (website)|Salon]]|url= http://www.salon.com/health/sex/urge/world/2000/01/05/hoover/
|date=January 5, 2000
|access-date= November 14, 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081202062520/http://www.salon.com/health/sex/urge/world/2000/01/05/hoover/
|archive-date= December 2, 2008
|df= dmy-all
}}
</ref> [[Truman Capote]], who enjoyed repeating [[Wiktionary:salacious#English|salacious]] rumors about Hoover, once remarked that he was more interested in making Hoover angry than determining whether the rumors were true.<ref name="Hack2007"/> On May 2, 1969, ''[[Screw (magazine)|Screw]]'' published the first reference in print to Hoover's sexuality, titled "Is J. Edgar Hoover a [[Faggot (slang)|Fag]]?"<ref>{{cite web|first= Marc|last= Davis|title= The Screw-y, Filthy World of Al Goldstein|website= thejewniverse.com|date= November 18, 2013|url= http://thejewniverse.com/2013/the-screw-y-filthy-world-of-al-goldstein|accessdate= November 20, 2014|archive-date= November 29, 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141129034348/http://thejewniverse.com/2013/the-screw-y-filthy-world-of-al-goldstein/|url-status= dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9wREAAAQBAJ |first=Mike |last=Edison|title=Dirty! Dirty! Dirty!: Of —Playboys, Pigs, and Penthouse Paupers—An American Tale of Sex and Wonder|publisher= Soft Skull Press|location=New York City|year= 2011|isbn=9781593764678 |accessdate=November 21, 2014}}</ref>

Some associates and scholars dismiss rumors about Hoover's sexuality, and rumors about his relationship with Tolson in particular, as unlikely,<ref>
{{cite book
|first1=Mark W.
|last1=Felt
|authorlink1=Mark W. Felt
|first2=John D.
|last2= O'Connor
|title= A G-man's Life: The FBI, Being 'Deep Throat,' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington
|publisher= Public Affairs
|location=New York City
|year= 2006
|page= [https://archive.org/details/gmanslifefbibein00mark/page/167 167]
|isbn= 978-1-58648-377-7
|url= https://archive.org/details/gmanslifefbibein00mark/page/167
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|last= Jeffreys-Jones
|first= Rhodri
|title= Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence
|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]
|location=New Haven, Connecticut
|year= 2003
|page= [https://archive.org/details/cloakdollar00rhod/page/93 93]
|isbn= 978-0-300-10159-1
|url= https://archive.org/details/cloakdollar00rhod/page/93
}}
</ref><ref name=fapp899jp>
{{cite book
|first1= John Stuart
|last1= Cox
|first2= Athan G.
|last2= Theoharis
|year= 1988
|title= The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition
|publisher= [[Temple University Press]]
|location = New Haven, Connecticut
|page= [https://archive.org/details/bossjedgarhoover00theo/page/108 108]
|isbn= 978-0-87722-532-4
|quote= The strange likelihood is that Hoover never knew sexual desire at all.
|url= https://archive.org/details/bossjedgarhoover00theo/page/108
}}
</ref> while others have described them as probable or even "confirmed".<ref>
{{cite book
|first1= William A.
|last1= Percy
|first2=Warren 
|last2=Johansson
|title= Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence
|url= https://archive.org/details/outing00warr
|url-access= registration
|publisher= Haworth Press
|location= Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
|year= 1994
|pages= 85+
|isbn= 978-1-56024-419-6}}</ref><ref name="Summers1993">
{{cite book|last= Summers
|first= Anthony
|author-link= Anthony Summers
|title= Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover
|publisher= Pocket Books
|location=New York City
|year= 1993
|isbn= 978-0-671-88087-3
|url= https://archive.org/details/officialconfide000summ
}}{{Rp |needed= yes |date=October 2013}}
</ref> Still other scholars have reported the rumors without expressing an opinion.<ref>
{{cite book
|editor-link= Athan Theoharis
|editor-last= Theoharis
|editor-first= Athan G.
|title= The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide
|url= https://archive.org/details/fbicomprehensive0000theo
|url-access= registration
|publisher= Oryx Press
|location= Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
|year= 1998
|pages= [https://archive.org/details/fbicomprehensive0000theo/page/291 291], 301, 397
|isbn= 978-0-89774-991-6}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|last= Doherty
|first= Thomas
|title= Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture
|publisher= [[Columbia University Press]]
|location= New York City
|year= 2003
|pages= [https://archive.org/details/coldwarcoolmediu00dohe/page/254 254, 255]
|isbn= 978-0-231-12952-7
|url= https://archive.org/details/coldwarcoolmediu00dohe/page/254
}}</ref> Cox and Theoharis concluded that "the strange likelihood is that Hoover [[Asexuality|never knew sexual desire at all]]."<ref name=fapp899jp/> [[Anthony Summers]], who wrote ''Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover'' (1993), stated that there was no ambiguity about the FBI director's sexual proclivities and described him as "[[bisexual]] with failed [[heterosexuality]]".<ref name=iuobq/>

====Hoover and Tolson====
[[File:Hoover & Tolson.jpg|thumb|Hoover and his assistant Clyde Tolson c. 1939]]
Hoover described Tolson as his [[alter ego]]: the men worked closely together during the day and, both single, frequently took meals, went to night clubs, and vacationed together.<ref name="Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G. 1988 pg. 108"/> This closeness between the two men is often cited as evidence that they were lovers. Some FBI employees who knew them, such as [[Mark Felt]], say the relationship was "brotherly"; however, former FBI executive assistant director Mike Mason suggested that some of Hoover's colleagues denied that he had a sexual relationship with Tolson in an effort to protect Hoover's image.<ref>{{cite news|last= Lengel|first= Allan
|url= http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/09/movie-depicting-j-edgar-hoover-gay-affair-rankles-some-in-fbi/
|work= [[AOL News]]|date= January 9, 2011|title= Movie depicting J Edgar Hoover gay affair rankles some in FBI|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130516120144/http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/09/movie-depicting-j-edgar-hoover-gay-affair-rankles-some-in-fbi/|archive-date= May 16, 2013|url-status=dead}}
</ref>

The novelist [[William Styron]] told Summers that he once saw Hoover and Tolson in a California beach house, where the director was painting his friend's toenails. [[Harry Hay]], founder of the [[Mattachine Society]], one of the first [[gay rights]] organizations, said Hoover and Tolson sat in boxes owned by and used exclusively by gay men at the [[Del Mar racetrack]] in California.<ref name="iuobq"/> Hoover [[Bequest|bequeathed]] his estate to Tolson, who moved into Hoover's house after Hoover died. Tolson accepted the [[American flag]] that draped Hoover's casket. Tolson is buried a few yards away from Hoover in the Congressional Cemetery.<ref name="boggs">{{cite book|last1= Boggs-Roberts|first1= Rebecca|last2= Schmidt
|first2= Sandra K.|title= Historic Congressional Cemetery|year= 2012|publisher= [[Arcadia Publishing]]
|location=Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
|isbn= 978-0-738-59224-4|page= 123}}</ref> Mob leader [[Meyer Lansky]] is credited with having "controlled" compromising pictures of a sexual nature featuring Hoover with Tolson. In his book, ''Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover'', biographer Anthony Summers cites multiple primary sources regarding Lansky's use of [[blackmail]] to gain influence with politicians, policemen and judges. One stage for Lansky's acquisition of blackmail materials was orgies held by late attorney and Hoover protégé, [[Roy Cohn]], and liquor magnate, [[Lewis Rosenstiel]], who had lasting ties with the Mafia from his bootleg operations during Prohibition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/02/06/New-book-pictures-J-Edgar-Hoover-as-drag-queen/1064728974800/|title = New book pictures J. Edgar Hoover as drag queen}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpUaYvBsW-MC&q=lewis+rosenstiel&pg=PT11|title = Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover|isbn = 9781453241189|last1 = Summers|first1 = Anthony|year= 2012| publisher=Open Road Media }}</ref>

====Other romantic allegations====
One of Hoover's biographers, [[Richard Hack]], does not believe the director was gay. Hack notes that Hoover was romantically linked to actress [[Dorothy Lamour]] in the late 1930s and early 1940s and that after Hoover's death, Lamour did not deny rumors that she had had an affair with him.<ref name="Hack2007"/> Hack further reported that during the 1940s and 1950s Hoover attended social events with [[Lela E. Rogers|Lela Rogers]], the divorced mother of dancer and actress [[Ginger Rogers]], so often that many of their mutual friends assumed the pair would eventually marry.<ref name="Hack2007"/>

====Pornography for blackmail====
Hoover kept a large collection of pornographic films, photographs, and written materials, with particular emphasis on nude photos of celebrities. He reportedly used these for his own titillation and held them for [[blackmail]] purposes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-1825-5.html|title=The FBI's Obscene File|website=kansaspress.ku.edu|access-date=November 15, 2018|archive-date=October 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024112854/https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-1825-5.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Cross-dressing story====
[[Lewis Rosenstiel]], founder of [[Schenley Industries]], was a close friend of Hoover's and the primary contributor to the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation. In his biography ''Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover'' (1993), journalist [[Anthony Summers]] quoted Rosenstiel's fourth wife, Susan, as claiming to have seen Hoover engaging in [[cross-dressing]] in the 1950s at all-male parties at the [[Plaza Hotel]] with Rosenstiel, attorney [[Roy Cohn]], and young male prostitutes.<ref name="Summers254">{{cite book|last= Summers
|first= Anthony
|author-link= Anthony Summers
|title= Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover
|publisher= Pocket Books
|location=New York City
|year= 1993
|isbn= 978-0-671-88087-3
|pages=254–255
|url=https://archive.org/details/officialconfiden0000summ/page/254}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|first= Christopher
|last= Lehmann-Haupt
|title= Books of The Times; Catalogue of Accusations Against J. Edgar Hoover
|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/15/books/books-of-the-times-catalogue-of-accusations-against-j-edgar-hoover.html
|newspaper= [[The New York Times]]
|date= February 15, 1993
|access-date= April 16, 2008}}
</ref> Another Hoover biographer, [[Burton Hersh]], later corroborated this story.<ref name="Carroll & Graf">{{cite book |last1=Hersh |first1=Burton |title=Bobby and J. Edgar: The Historic Face-Off Between the Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover that Transformed America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gA6xmt1I2fYC|date=2007 |publisher=Carroll & Graf|location=New York City|pages=88|isbn=9780786731855 }}</ref> Summers alleged the Mafia had blackmail material on Hoover, which made Hoover reluctant to pursue organized crime. According to Summers, organized crime figures [[Meyer Lansky]] and [[Frank Costello]] obtained photos of Hoover having sex with Tolson and used them to ensure that the FBI did not target their illegal activities.<ref name="oooavaglynd">
{{cite news
|title= J. Edgar Hoover Was Homosexual, Blackmailed by Mob, Book Says
|agency= [[Associated Press]]
|url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-06-mn-1078-story.html
|date= February 6, 1993
|newspaper= [[Los Angeles Times]]
|issn= 0458-3035
|access-date= June 6, 2016}}
</ref> Additionally, Summers claimed that Hoover was friends with Billy Byars Jr., an alleged [[child pornographer]] and producer of the film ''[[The Genesis Children]]''.<ref name="Summers244">
{{cite book
|last= Summers
|first= Anthony
|title= Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
|year= 2012
|publisher= Open Road Media
|isbn= 978-1-4532-4118-9
|page= 244}}
</ref>

Fashion expert [[Tim Gunn]] relayed a story on the radio news quiz show "[[Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!]]". Gunn's father was Hoover's speech writer, and as a child Tim Gunn and his sister were on a tour of the FBI offices when their father asked them if they would like to meet [[Vivian Vance]]. They had a pleasant meeting with a woman in Hoover's office. Reflecting on this later as adults the Gunn children realized that Hoover was not present in the office and deemed this highly unusual. Later when Gunn included this visit in his "Gunn's Golden Rules" book the Simon and Schuster legal team attempted to corroborate the story of Vivian Vance visiting the FBI offices. Her biographers could not confirm this and a search of the FBI visitor logs did not show Vance had visited. Gunn's conclusion was that Hoover was impersonating Vance the day of his visit.<ref>{{cite web
|url= https://www.npr.org/2014/06/07/319423432/not-my-job-project-runways-tim-gunn-gets-quizzed-on-terrible-fashion
|title= Not My Job: Project Runway's Tim Gunn Gets Quizzed On Terrible Fashion : NPR
|website= NPR
|access-date= June 6, 2024}}</ref>

Another Hoover biographer who heard the rumors of homosexuality and blackmail, said he was unable to corroborate them, though it has been acknowledged that Lansky and other organized crime figures had frequently been allowed to visit the [[Hotel del Charro|Del Charro Hotel]] in [[La Jolla, California]], which was owned by Hoover's friend, and staunch Lyndon B. Johnson supporter, [[Clint Murchison Sr.]]<ref name=oooavaglynd/><ref>{{cite book|first=Peter Dale|last=Scott|title=Deep Politics and the Death of JFK|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|location=Berkeley, California|date=1996|isbn=978-0520205192|page=207}}</ref> Hoover and Tolson also frequently visited the Del Charro Hotel.<ref name="CarthDe">
{{cite web
|url= http://spartacus-educational.com/USAhooverE.htm
|title= John Edgar Hoover
|website= Spartacus Educational
|access-date= June 6, 2016}}
</ref> Summers quoted a source named Charles Krebs as saying, "on three occasions that I knew about, maybe four, boys were driven down to La Jolla at Hoover's request."<ref name="Summers244"/>

Skeptics of the cross-dressing story point to Susan Rosenstiel's lack of credibility (she pleaded guilty to attempted perjury in a 1971 case and later served time in a New York City jail).<ref>
{{cite book
|last= Summers
|first= Anthony
|title= Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
|year= 2012
|publisher= Open Road Media
|isbn= 978-1-4532-4118-9
|page= 295}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|last= Holden
|first= Henry M.
|title= FBI 100 Years: An Unofficial History
|date= April 15, 2008
|publisher= Zenith Imprint
|isbn= 978-0-7603-3244-3
|page= [https://archive.org/details/fbi100yearsunoff0000hold/page/42 42]
|url= https://archive.org/details/fbi100yearsunoff0000hold/page/42
}}
</ref> Recklessly indiscreet behavior by Hoover would have been totally out of character, whatever his sexuality. Most biographers consider the story of Mafia blackmail unlikely in light of the FBI's investigations of the Mafia.<ref>
{{cite book
|last= Kessler
|first= Ronald
|title= The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI
|url= https://archive.org/details/bureau00rona
|url-access= registration
|publisher= St. Martin's Paperbacks
|year= 2002
|pages= 120+
|isbn= 978-0-312-98977-4}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web
|title= Did J. Edgar Hoover Really Wear Dresses?
|author= Ronald Kessler
|work= History News Network
|url= http://hnn.us/articles/814.html}}
</ref> Although never corroborated, the allegation of cross-dressing has been widely repeated. In the words of author Thomas Doherty, "For American popular culture, the image of the [[zaftig]] FBI director as a [[Christine Jorgensen]] wanna-be was too delicious not to savor."<ref>
{{cite book|last= Doherty
|first= Thomas
|title= Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture
|publisher= Columbia University Press
|year= 2003
|page= [https://archive.org/details/coldwarcoolmediu00dohe/page/255 255]
|isbn= 978-0-231-12952-7
|url= https://archive.org/details/coldwarcoolmediu00dohe/page/255
}}
</ref> Biographer Kenneth Ackerman says that Summers' accusations have been "widely debunked by historians".<ref>
{{cite news
|first= Kenneth D.
|last= Ackerman
|title= Five myths about J. Edgar Hoover
|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-j-edgar-hoover/2011/11/07/gIQASLlo5M_story.html
|newspaper= The Washington Post
|date= November 14, 2011}}
</ref> The journalist [[Liz Smith (journalist)|Liz Smith]] wrote that Cohn told her about Hoover's rumored transvestism "long before it became common gossip."<ref>{{cite book |first=Liz |last=Smith |title=Natural Blonde |publisher=[[Hachette (publisher)|Hachette Books]] |year=2000|page=[https://archive.org/details/naturalblondemem00smit_0/page/355 355]|isbn=978-0786863259 |url=https://archive.org/details/naturalblondemem00smit_0/page/355}}</ref>

====Lavender Scare====
{{Main|Lavender Scare}}

The attorney [[Roy Cohn]] served as general counsel on the [[Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] during Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]]'s tenure as chairman and assisted Hoover during the 1950s investigations of Communists and was generally known to be a [[closeted]] homosexual.<ref name="ppppnav">
{{cite web
|title= 9 Things to Know about 'The Lavender Scare'
|url= http://www.out.com/entertainment/popnography/2013/04/26/9-things-to%C2%A0know-about-lavender-scare
|publisher= Out Magazine / Out.com
|date= April 26, 2013
|access-date= July 11, 2013}}
</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1= Cohn, R.
|author2= Zion, S.
|title= The Autobiography of Roy Cohn
|publisher= Lyle Stuart
|date= 1988
|pages= viii, 67, 142
|isbn= 978-0818404719
|url= https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofr00cohn
}}
</ref> According to Richard Hack, Cohn's opinion was that Hoover was too frightened of his own sexuality to have anything approaching a normal sexual or romantic relationship.<ref name="Hack2007" /> Some of Cohn's former clients, including [[Bill Bonanno]], son of crime boss [[Joseph Bonanno]], also cite photographs of Hoover in drag allegedly possessed by Cohn.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bonanno |first1=Bill |title=Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story |date=1999 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |pages=166–167|quote=They were all pictures of Hoover in women's clothing. His face was daubed with lipstick and makeup and he wore a wig of ringlets. In several of the photos, he posed alone, smiling, even mugging for the camera. In a few other photos, he was sitting on the lap of an unidentified male, stroking his cheek in one, hugging him in another, holding a morsel of food before his mouth in yet another. 'Louie [meaning Lewis Rosentiel] took most of these,' Cohn said, 'at a party on a houseboat in the Keys, 1948–1949... Hoover knows about these, believe me; he's always been aware of what would happen if they ever got out.'}}</ref><ref name="Carroll & Graf" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Carlo |first1=Philip |title=Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss |date=2009 |publisher=William Morrow Paperbacks |pages=336}}</ref>

During the Lavender Scare, Cohn and McCarthy further enhanced anti-communist fervor by suggesting that Communists overseas had convinced several closeted homosexuals within the U.S. government to leak important government information in exchange for the assurance that their sexual identity would remain a secret.<ref name="ppppnav" /><ref>
{{cite book|author= Von Hoffman, N.
|title= Citizen Cohn
|publisher= Doubleday
|date= 1988
|pages= [https://archive.org/details/citizenco00vonh/page/142 142–151]
|isbn= 978-0385236904
|url= https://archive.org/details/citizenco00vonh/page/142
}}
</ref> A federal investigation that followed convinced President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to sign [[Executive Order 10450]] on April 29, 1953, that barred homosexuals from obtaining jobs at the federal level.<ref>
{{cite news
|author= Eisenhower, Dwight D.
|work= Executive Order 10450|title=Security requirements for Government employment
|url= https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/10450.html
|publisher= The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
|access-date= May 14, 2015}}
</ref>

In his 2004 study of the event, historian David K. Johnson attacked the speculations about Hoover's homosexuality as relying on "the kind of tactics Hoover and the security program he oversaw perfected: guilt by association, rumor, and unverified gossip". He views Rosenstiel as a liar who was paid for her story, whose "description of Hoover in drag engaging in sex with young blond boys in leather while desecrating the Bible is clearly a [[homophobic]] fantasy". He believes only those who have forgotten the virulence of the decades-long campaign against homosexuals in government can believe reports that Hoover appeared in compromising situations.<ref>
{{cite book
|author= Johnson, David K.
|title= The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
|publisher= University of Chicago Press
|date= 2004
|pages= 11–13}}
</ref>

====Supportive friends====
Some people associated with Hoover have supported the rumors about his homosexuality.<ref name="uoboqnv">
{{cite news
|title= J. Edgar Hoover: Gay or Just a Man who has Sex with Men?
|url= https://abcnews.go.com/Health/edgar-hoover-sex-men-homosexual/story?id=14948447
|publisher=ABC News
}}
</ref> According to Anthony Summers, Hoover often frequented New York City's [[Stork Club]]. Luisa Stuart, a model who was 18 or 19 at the time, told Summers that she had seen Hoover holding hands with Tolson as they all rode in a limo uptown to the [[Cotton Club]] in 1936.<ref name=iuobq/> Actress and singer [[Ethel Merman]] was a friend of Hoover's since 1938, and familiar with all parties during his alleged romance of [[Lela Rogers]]. In a 1978 interview and in response to [[Anita Bryant]]'s anti-gay campaign, she said: "Some of my best friends are homosexual: Everybody knew about J. Edgar Hoover, but he was the best chief the FBI ever had."<ref name="iuobq" />