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The FBI Pyramid: From The Inside
The FBI Pyramid chronicles the FBI bureaucracy during the 1960s and 1970s. It gained interest in 2005, with the revelation that Felt was "Deep Throat", the Watergate scandal whistleblower who assisted Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in his and Carl Bernstein's investigation.
Co-written with J. Edgar Hoover biographer Ralph de Toledano. Mark Felt was the Associate Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the effective second in command to J. Edgar Hoover and subsequently L. Patrick Gray III.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
351 pages, Hardcover
First published December 17, 1979
91 people want to read
About the author
Mark Felt
7 books4 followersWilliam Mark Felt, Sr. was an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who retired as the Bureau's Associate Director in 1973. After denying his involvement with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for 30 years, Felt revealed himself to be the Watergate scandal's whistleblower, "Deep Throat," on May 31, 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 26, 2017
I found this book buried in a backroom of a secondhand store. I'd been looking for an original edition and had decided that I wouldn't find one and then I found it.
Almost everyone now knows that Mark Felt was Bob Woodward's source called "Deep Throat" during the Watergate investigation in the early seventies. Felt was a Deputy Director of the F.B.I. during the Watergate investigation and he was one of (many) people that was thought to be Deep Throat over the years.
A career F.B.I. agent (1942-1973) it's safe to say that Felt was a company man all the way. If this biography is to be believed he was marked for management by Hoover fairly early in his career. So this is not a biography of a tough, gang-busting "G Man". There are no accounts of criminal investigations, gunfights, suspenseful arrests and so on. This is an account of how the F.B.I. ran under Hoover - the administration of a large governmental bureau with just a little of Felt's personal and professional life discussed. It's basically a business history written by a bureaucrat. A little on the dry-side, but also interesting if one wants to know more about Hoover and the old F.B.I.
Hoover is now generally considered to be a villain by many. It will come as no surprise to learn that Felt feels differently though he does acknowledge that Hoover had his faults. He also spends some time "setting the record straight" with such things as allegations that the F.B.I. violated civil rights in the fifties and sixties, the wiretaps, Hoover being gay etc. I leave it up to the reader to decide how effective Felt is in that regards.
Finally Watergate is covered and Felt states emphatically that he is not Deep Throat. The book ends with Felt defending himself since he had been indicted for various criminal offenses under the U.S. Federal code at the time the book was published (1978/1979). He would be pardoned by Regan in 1983.
So that's it. It's actually an interesting read, but it won't give you any insight as to why Felt did what he did. I would like to say that I found some answers in between the lines, but I can't say that either. For whatever reason Felt elected to become a whistle-blower and ensure his place in history as one of the most famous informers ever.
Almost everyone now knows that Mark Felt was Bob Woodward's source called "Deep Throat" during the Watergate investigation in the early seventies. Felt was a Deputy Director of the F.B.I. during the Watergate investigation and he was one of (many) people that was thought to be Deep Throat over the years.
A career F.B.I. agent (1942-1973) it's safe to say that Felt was a company man all the way. If this biography is to be believed he was marked for management by Hoover fairly early in his career. So this is not a biography of a tough, gang-busting "G Man". There are no accounts of criminal investigations, gunfights, suspenseful arrests and so on. This is an account of how the F.B.I. ran under Hoover - the administration of a large governmental bureau with just a little of Felt's personal and professional life discussed. It's basically a business history written by a bureaucrat. A little on the dry-side, but also interesting if one wants to know more about Hoover and the old F.B.I.
Hoover is now generally considered to be a villain by many. It will come as no surprise to learn that Felt feels differently though he does acknowledge that Hoover had his faults. He also spends some time "setting the record straight" with such things as allegations that the F.B.I. violated civil rights in the fifties and sixties, the wiretaps, Hoover being gay etc. I leave it up to the reader to decide how effective Felt is in that regards.
Finally Watergate is covered and Felt states emphatically that he is not Deep Throat. The book ends with Felt defending himself since he had been indicted for various criminal offenses under the U.S. Federal code at the time the book was published (1978/1979). He would be pardoned by Regan in 1983.
So that's it. It's actually an interesting read, but it won't give you any insight as to why Felt did what he did. I would like to say that I found some answers in between the lines, but I can't say that either. For whatever reason Felt elected to become a whistle-blower and ensure his place in history as one of the most famous informers ever.
November 12, 2017
An interesting read in light of what's going on today with Comey, Mueller, and that other guy. The best line? "I never leaked information to Woodward and Bernstein or to anyone else!"
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews