Mr. Schiff: Hi, welcome to "FBI 100, A Closer Look." I'm Neal Schiff of the Bureau's Office of Public Affairs along with FBI Historian Dr. John Fox. John, J. Edgar Hoover was FBI Director for 48 years until his death in 1972. Any idea how many files he and his staff kept over the years, in his office?
Dr. Fox: "Well Neal when Director Hoover died they found about 17,000 pages of what are called the Official and Confidential Files. These were a bunch of files on information that Hoover wanted at his fingertips. A lot of it was for Congressional testimony, some of it was for requests that presidents had made. Some of it was particularly sensitive material that he didn’t think should be in the main files. There were, of course, other files as well, called the Personal and Confidential Files. But no one knows how many exactly there were and what was in them. They were destroyed following his death by Helen Gandy,
Mr. Hoover’s long-time secretary. And from her testimony, it appears that it was basically personal correspondence of Hoover with lots of folks over the years. Congratulatory letters, some of his of his personal business stuff, things like that. Not secret files, per se, but things that he considered personal and not part of Bureau business.”
Mr. Schiff: Why did the Director keep these files?
Dr. Fox: "It was for a lot of reasons. You look at the files, there is Preparation for Testimony before Congress. There were some older files on President John F. Kennedy relating to his relationships with a woman back during World War II and whether or not she was a possible German agent. Hoover said these were the kinds of things that he didn’t want in the Central Records because anybody could have access to them. And so he thought it was best, that given the sensitive nature of it, the fact that it was something long past and certainly not of any value at the time that Mr. Kennedy was President, that it was best to keep that kind of information in very strict security.
Mr. Schiff: John, any secret facts that you could talk about from the files of J. Edgar Hoover?
Dr. Fox: "I think the biggest secret is that in many ways there’s a lot more myth that’s grown up around them than truth. And that if you actually tend to go through them and read them, you would see that the rumors that these were some big, fast font of blackmail material are just completely overblown.”
Mr. Schiff: Visit the National Archives and you can take a look at the files of J. Edgar Hoover. From the FBI’s Public Affairs office, along with Bureau Historian Dr. John Fox, I'm Neal Schiff with "FBI 100, A Closer Look."
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