HOW I FOUND MY WAY INTO J. EDGAR HOOVER'S FBI FILES AT AGE 16 by Chuck Gardner It was 1968, a year of political assassinations, race riots, and the debacle at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I was living on the far South side of Chicago, an area undergoing a sea change of racial demographics as white families bailed out for the suburbs out of fear caused by racial prejudice and the block-busting tactics of real estate firms looking to make a quick buck. It appeared to many that the social fabric of the nation was being torn at the seams. This was certainly the view of Ms. Nellis, my sophomore English teacher at Fenger High School, who attributed all of the problems, directly and indirectly, to the Communists. Her political views were slightly to the right of Attilla the Hun and she was no doubt still nostalgic for the McCarthy-era Communist witch hunts. That is undoubted why the final assignment for her class was to write a term paper on a Communist front organization. Of course myself and the rest of the kids in the class only had the vaguest of notions what a communist front organization was, much less the knowledge of how to research one. Ms. Nellis solved the first problem by assigning each student an organization -- she, like McCarthy, had a list. I was assigned the W.E.B DuBois Clubs of America. Like everyone else in the class I hit the school library, but could find little beyond a two paragraph mention in the encyclopedia. Giving the subject matter a bit of thought it occurred to me that the best source for information on Communist front organizations would be the FBI. It was a long shot, but there was nothing to lose, so I typed out a letter to the FBI, explaining my project and requesting whatever information it could provide. About two weeks later I returned home from school to find an 9 x 12 brown envelope with the FBI return address. When I opened it there was a letter typed on FBI stationary. My jaw dropped in amazement when I saw it was a letterhead from the Office of the Director signed by none other than J. Edgar Hoover himself! OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR (FBI Seal ) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535 February 26, 1968 Dear Mr. Gardner: In reply to your letter of February 19th, information contained in the files of the FBI must be maintained as confidential in accordance with the regulations of the Department of Justice. I can, however, advise you that wish regard to the W.E.B DuBois Clubs, a Washington, D.C., Capitol News Service Release datelined "Moscow 8/23/66" quoted Communist Party, USA, leader Gus Hall as having stated, "Quite naturally we have the closest ties with the DuBois Clubs since they occupy a Marxist position. Many of the members of the DuBois Clubs have joined out party." I am enclosing some literature which I hope will be of help to you. Sincerely yours, (signed) J. Edgar Hoover Enclosures (5) I seemed incredible that the Director of the FBI would respond to a request like mine. Even more incredible was the fact the letter bore no initials or notations which would indicated it was drafted by someone else or signed with an autopen. Years later after Hoover's death, when the quirks of his personality and the secret dossiers he kept were brought to light, I read that J. Edgar often replied to mail himself by cranking a sheet of bond into the typewriter next to his desk. Thus there is a very likely possibility the letter I received was typed by him personally! Given Hoover's penchant for compiling dossiers, he undoubtedly typed "Charles E. Gardner" on a file folder label and stuck it, with the incoming and outgoing correspondence in his filing cabinet. I forget if I mentioned in my letter to him that my middle name is Edgar too, but he no doubt found that out. Despite the fact that I still knew next to nothing about the W.E.B DuBois Clubs, I did my best to write the term paper. I attached a copy of Hoover's letter and the news clippings for good measure. When Ms. Nellis saw the letter from Hoover, one of her personal heroes, her estimation of my abilities soared, as did my grade for the class. I aced the term paper and the semester, and became her star pupil. I've still got that letter from J. Edgar Hoover. I've also still got the yellowed and dog-earred edition of "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White which Ms. Nellis insisted we buy and use as the bible for writing. I've reread both the letter and Strunk and White many times over the intervening years, wondering which of them taught me the more important lesson. Footnote: I received the follow via e-mail one day in 1999 from someone who had read the above story. Seems some of my assumptions about JEH typing his correspondence were incorrect: "Hi, I worked at the FBI from Jun 1967-Jul 1968 in the Files and Communications Division. During night shift, we occasionally would wander into the Director's offices while the GSA cleaning staff was there. We did this mainly to look at the memorialbilia from the gangster years, etc., and I might add the offices were quite impressive to us. Mr. Hoover had 2 offices: 1 very large office he used as a "greeting" office; and a private office directly behind the public office. The private office was all decorated in heavy red leather and there was a sailfish on the wall. There was no typewriter at or near the director's massive desks, or anywhere to be seen in his personal offices. There was a huge telephone console beside each desk that would put the director instantly in touch with any FBI field office nation wide. I would say that if any typing were done directly from the Director's suite, it would have been done by one his personal secretaries, Miss Helen Gandy, or Miss Holmes. Also, being in the Files & Communicatiions Division, I was very familiar with an office called "The Reading Room." In it, several older ladies worked diligently reading and answering mail that was sent to the bureau. There was, in fact, no auto-pen, but 2 or 3 of these ladies were authorized to imitate the signature of J. Edgar Hoover on all outgoing bureau correspondence. The Director merely initialed approval on a file memorandum. As old as these ladies looked back then, I'm sure they are long dead now. However, if you requested a copy of your FBI file through the Freedom of Information Act, you may actually receive a copy of the director's notations on your original letter. This is a big "if" but some people like to see those things." Comments?