J. Edgar Hoover

John Edgar Hoover was the influential and long-serving director of both the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and its successor, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), holding the position from 1924 until his death in 1972. Hoover was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935.

His tenure was marked by significant campaigns against what he termed "sexual deviance”. This was a part of his broader efforts to root out communism. He viewed both as threats to national stability. Hoover's FBI investigated and persecuted large numbers of government employees, public figures, and political activists, invoking fears of their subversion. Though he never married, Hoover had a close and enduring relationship with Clyde Tolson, his deputy at the FBI, leading to widespread rumors about his homosexuality. Hoover's methods and the power he wielded came under intense criticism. His approach to law enforcement left a lasting and complex legacy on American civil liberties, particularly with respect to privacy and personal freedoms.

Below is a description of his contribution to the opression of the MAPs, published in Boychat. Quoted in full with replacement of dead links.

Architects of Our Oppression: J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI

Passing the Victorian-Puritan Torch

The inveterate communist-hunter J. Edgar Hoover is well known to have kept tabs on political activists, gays, so-called "obscene" material of all kinds, and even sex researcher Alfred Kinsey -- not to mention the special files he kept on those in the media who spoke ill of the FBI, and on any dirt that could be used to get an advantage against politicians and other public figures. What is less well remembered is that from the 1930s to the 1960s, he personally led repeated publicity campaigns on the subject that came to be known as "stranger danger." Hoover also reportedly was an admirer of Anthony Comstock, studied his tactics, and even went to visit him in his twilight years.

In 1919, at age 24, Hoover was made the head of "a new division of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation, the General Intelligence Division. It would investigate the programs of radical groups and identify their members."

From the beginning and throughout his career, a large part of Hoover's daily work involved spying on and disrupting the efforts of political activists. Later that same year, 1919, Hoover took part in the infamous "Palmer Raids."

The Palmer Raids were attempts by the United States Department of Justice to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States. The raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.

[...]

Palmer, in his journal article The Case Against the Reds (1920), included in a list of those he opposed as "reds": the International Workers of the World, "the most radical socialists, the misguided anarchists, the agitators who oppose the limitations of unionism, the moral perverts and the hysterical neurasthenic women who abound in communism."

Following the lead of Palmer, Hoover would become well known for associating homosexuality, or "sexual deviance," with left-wing tendencies.

Hoover was systematic in his work. Within just two years at the General Intelligence Division, Hoover had compiled an index of over 400,000 names of political activists. His efforts did not go unrewarded.

In May 1924, he was named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation. In December the appointment was made permanent. Much has been made of Hoover's sweeping reorganization of the Bureau immediately upon taking office as director. One noteworthy change: In 1925, the Bureau began to systematically monitor "obscene or indecent" materials -- eventually amassing what was reputedly the world's largest porn collection. (humorous aside: In the FBI files on the Kinsey Institute it is revealed that during the same period when the FBI was investigating the Institute in relation to a shipment of porn from overseas that had been addressed to them, the Institute was writing letters to the FBI seeking access to their vast porn collection for research purposes. Hoover's answer was "no way.")

Defender of Threatened Childhood

In the 1930s, there was a nationwide wave of concern about "sexual deviants" which included sensational stories about sex crimes against children and women, as well as police crackdowns against gays, and increased policing of public sexual expression in the form of the Motion Picture Code as well as new laws regulating homosocial activity in bars (prohibiting holding hands or dancing with the same sex, for example). Hoover and the FBI cannot be credited with instigating this wave of sex-panic. However, Hoover "Played an important role in fueling the national hysteria and channeling it into support for stronger law enforcement." In joining the panic, Hoover fully employed his media savy and his well-honed skills in sensationalism. In a high profile article called "War on the Sex Criminal" (September 26, 1937), published in newspapers nationwide, Hoover announced: "The sex fiend, most loathsome of all the vast army of crime, has become a sinister threat to the safety of American childhood and womanhood."

Advocate of "Cure" through "Persistant Investigation"

Hoover took sex-panic a step beyond mere fear-mongering. In a speech in December of 1937, Hoover drew upon the work of the medical community, and particularly forensic medicine, to endorse a new approach to crime:

. . . many of these crimes are those of degeneracy, often committed by persons afflicted with diseases which only recently have been discussed in public. . . . To my mind, crime is as malignant as any cancer, and it is as distinct a subject of health as tuberculosis. . . . The surprising increase of sex crimes within the last few years revealed an urgent necessity for corrective action by every public-minded body. . . . There should be given to the cure of degeneracy the same thought, the same eager perseverance, the same persistent investigation, that has resulted in the lessening of many other dangerous diseases.

Background of Hoover's Thought

The medical concept of sexual degeneracy dates to the 18th century, when a Swiss physician named Tissot developed a theory that loss of semen would lead to a general breakdown of the human organism (having no semen, of course women were broken down, in a manner of speaking, by definition). The theory had been endorsed by leading physicians of the Victorian era in Europe and the US, including the top US surgeon and inventor of Corn Flakes, John Harvey Kellogg. These doctors believed that masturbation and all other activities leading to orgasm were devastating to both physical and mental health (and yes, they were very religious men, especially Kellogg). Like Hoover's role fomenting child-sex-panic, this profoundly influential medical theory of sexual degeneracy is almost unmentioned on the internet (although there are numerous mentions of Kellogg's anti-sexual obsessions -- which led, for example, to the invention of corn flakes as a food that, it was presumed, would not excite sexual passions). Two excellent books on the subject, both by John Money, are available:

In the late 19th century, this erroneous medical theory (used to convert all the sexual practices proscribed by St. Paul and the Puritans into a catalog of newly named diseases) had been transformed into a sort of criminological theory by the European creators of the new field of criminology, including Cessare Lombroso (these doctors and early criminologists are on my to-do list of "Architects"). Now in 1937, top G-Man and anti-Communist crusader J. Edgar Hoover was endorsing the pseudo-scientific concept of "degeneracy" -- already discredited in medicine -- as a basis to expand both government and private surveillance and intervention in the sexual life of the nation. And Hoover backed his words with actions.

Expanding Sexual Surveillance

According to historian Aaron J. Stockham: "Beginning in 1937 and continuing until 1977, the FBI investigated gays as potential security risks who could be blackmailed. Numerous men and women were removed from their government and non-government positions because of the information Hoover's bureau dug up. Only Communists were more systematically investigated by the FBI.

In 1951, Hoover took yet another step and created a "Sex Deviates program, which sought to identify gays and lesbians working in government. This function was expanded in 1953 after a presidential order by Dwight Eisenhower made federal employment of homosexuals illegal." The program targeted "alleged homosexuals from any position in the federal government, from the lowliest clerk to the more powerful position of White house aide."

It has been suggested that Hoover's extreme vigilance regarding the actions and publications of "homosexuals" was related to the frequent rumors that circulated about his own sexuality and his close relationship with assistant Clyde Tolson. An especially good article on this is here:

He and his agents went to extreme measures to monitor and actively suppress all such rumors, with agents in several cases visiting the alleged source of the rumor to threaten or intimidate them -- for example, in one case, two "senior FBI officials" visited the operator of a beauty parlor to interrogate her regarding reports that she had told one of her customers that Hoover was "queer." These rumors and innuendo began appearing in the print media as early as 1926 and were especially prevalent in the early days of his directorship -- before he developed the power and strategies he would later use to intimidate the speakers into silence. A number of the highest-profile online articles cite critics of these rumors and suggest that they are based on one or two non-credible sources. However, the outhistory link above cites a much broader range of sources, most of which are not addressed by these criticisms.

It is also worth noting that most of Hoover's sex-related policing was targeted at pornography (including mere nudity) and homosexuality, not specifically sex offenses involving minors. But it must be pointed out that before 1960, the line between "homosexual" and other forms of "sex deviant" or "sex pervert" was very blurry. Speakers were loath to be specific as it was so "dirty" to even mention any aspect of the subject. And sexual contacts between a man and a boy over 11 were often labeled with the same terminology applied to sexual contacts between two men over 30. Today, the broader terms deviant and pervert are frequently treated as if they were merely euphemisms for homosexuality. But the fact is they were catch-all terms applied in relation to a wide range of behaviors including homosexual contacts involving minors, as well as numerous variants of heterosexual conduct.

Shaping the Myth

I am sorry to say that Hoover's repeated media campaigns specifically on the subject of sex crimes against children, well documented in a book I read long ago and the title of which I cannot remember, is just barely mentioned on the internet. My recollection is that, based upon the numerous campaigns quoted at length in the book, Hoover can be considered personally responsible for cementing in the public mind the idea of the dangerous stranger lying in wait for an unsupervised child, having literally created the original "stranger danger" media campaign. I have been able to locate two further references to this role.

Amidst another wave of sex panic in 1947, fanned by sensationalist media reports of sex crimes against children, Hoover wrote another of his hyperbolic editorials. In the article, titled "How Safe is Your Daughter?" he declared "the most rapidly increasing type of crime is that perpetrated by degenerate sex offenders. . . . Should wild beasts break out of circus cages, the whole city would be mobilized instantly. But depraved human beings, more savage than beasts, are permitted to rove America almost at will."

Perhaps the most telling reference is from former FBI Special Agent Kenneth Lanning, specialist in crimes against children -- whom the old timers here will remember as a frequent source of quotes to the media about "child molesters" during the witch-hunts of the 1980s.

Especially during the 1950s and 1960s the primary focus in the limited literature and discussions of the sexual victimization of children was on “stranger danger” — the dirty old man in the wrinkled raincoat approaching an innocent child at play. . . . During this time the FBI distributed a poster epitomizing this attitude. It showed a man, with his hat pulled down, lurking behind a tree with a bag of candy in his hands. He was waiting for a sweet little girl walking home from school alone. At the top it read, “Boys and Girls, color the page, memorize the rules.” At the bottom it read, “For your protection, remember to turn down gifts from strangers, and refuse rides offered by strangers.” The poster clearly contrasts the evil of the offender with the goodness of the child victim. When confronted with such an offender the advice to the child is simple and clear — say no, yell, and tell.

Tracing Hoover's Legacy, Ideas and Support

Hoover was not a significant theorist responsible for developing new ideas and rationalizations behind the oppression of man/boy love. His ideas came from pre-existing sources, in interaction with the developing cultural discourse of his time. But Hoover occupied a unique position of moral authority as the nation's "top" law enforcement officer. As such, he had considerable influence over a large network of journalists, broadcasters, movie studios, and authors -- extending over half a century. The specific set of ideas that he chose to promote -- "sex fiend," "degenerate sex offenders," "depraved human beings, more savage than beasts," "sinister threat to the safety of American childhood and womanhood" -- these ideas would become seared into the consciousness of 20th century America's parents and children. His "stranger danger" campaigns -- campaigns that he would certainly have known were based upon false assumptions -- would haunt American culture for decades beyond his death, maybe for decades beyond all of ours.

He was influenced by the Puritan traditions of Comstock and the dominant WASP social groups, as well as the more modern pseudo-scientific medical theories -- whose roots also trace back to St. Augustine and St. Paul. His supporters, among both the nation's power elites and the general public, were influenced by these same traditions, and by and large, they readily accepted his vision of the dreaded sex fiend.

But Hoover's vision was not unopposed. A few years after Hoover died, in 1977, the files on homosexuals were destroyed. Two decades of organizing and activism by gays and liberals had radically changed the public discourse. Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy and their associates at the Kinsey Institute had raised important questions about the social benefits of the laws regulating sex and the mythical status of sex offenders -- of all kinds. During the 1970s, gay activists, following the enlightenment-inspired feminist argument that a person should have control over their own body, challenged age-of-consent laws -- which at the time were enforced primarily against gay men involved with teenaged boys.

Times had changed and gays were stepping out of their role as scapegoats and into a new role within the realm of "legitimate" political discourse. Organized activism forced the FBI to release their grip on homosexuals. But the FBI did not let go of their concept of the "sex fiend." They continued to stay deeply involved in fueling moral panics. Stoking the flames of witch-hunts has been their stock in trade since 1919. J. Edgar Hoover's "sex fiend" would live on in the form of the "child molester."

See also

• Architects of Oppression - 3 part series covering the time period from roughly the 2nd panic onwards.
• Moral_panic