These days it's a bit of a joke about J.

These days it's a bit of a joke about J. Edgar Hoover's private proclivities, but he also helmed a secret police that spied on US citizens and attacked anyone he considered anti-American (including Martin Luther King, Jr.). Even today, you might remember the FBI operation that took down a terrorist attack -- that was largely instigated and encouraged by the FBI.

Anyway, the reason we know the FBI under Hoover wasn't quite a bastion of justice is due to the Church Committee which investigated the nefarious activities of a number of US intelligence agencies. What sparked that was the theft of over 1000 classified FBI files from their offices in Media, PA. The perpetrators sent the files to a number of newspaper outlets and then vanished. The FBI never caught any of the members of the "Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI" who organized the break-in (as an aside, group names in the 70's were awesome). Only in recent years have they broken their silence. One member, Judi Feingold, stayed on the run for decades and has only recently come in from the cold. Her story is fascinating -- especially considering she was just 19 when she helped with the break-in.

Jason Morningstar -- perhaps fodder for more WHITEHORN material if you haven't seen all this already.


https://www.thenation.com/article/breaking-43-years-silence-last-fbi-burglar-tells-story-her-years-underground/