J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson: Investigating the Sexual Secrets of America's Most Famous Men and Women

by Darwin Porter

Darwin Porter's newest book examines the hidden sexual secrets of long-time companions, FBI Directors J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson, and their decades-long obsession with the darkest indiscretions of famous Americans. This is history s first exposure of J. Edgar s obsession with voyeuristic sex and its links to the priorities of his law enforcement agency. It s the most detailed and most shocking insight into J. Edgar Hoover ever published, an unprecedented overview of a life devoted to unveiling other people s darkest secrets while rigorously concealing his own. Award-winning celebrity biographer Darwin Porter answers the questions you ve always wanted to know. But if you d asked them during Hoover s heyday, he d probably have had you investigated and punished. The book, according to Blood Moon s president, Danforth Prince, goes much farther than the Clint Eastwood/Leonardo DiCaprio film, J. Edgar. Hoover enforced his status as a kingmaker through eight presidential administrations, shrewdly manipulating social unrest, wars, and political rivalries to make his dictatorship of the FBI indispensible. He developed a talent for blackmail that terrorized presidents, senators, journalists, congressmen, and public advocates who included both Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr. He secretly delivered or deliberately withheld information about issues related to national security as a means of reinforcing his personal power, and he manipulated public anxieties in ways that allowed Red-baiter Joseph McCarthy to destroy some of the most creative people in Hollywood. He collaborated with the darkest factions within American society, including the Mafia, and eventually evolved into one of the most widely loathed people in America, often assuming that no one would dare to publish an expose of how his shocking sexual values and priorities survived, and flourished, within the FBI. But eventually, as the book reveals, many of Hoover s victims inaugurated investigations of their own. Anecdotes were bruited throughout Washington, New York, and Los Angeles and mockingly discussed, in front of witnesses, by key figures in law enforcement, the military, the entertainment community, and the porn industry. And the more famous Hoover became, the more recognizable he was to the male hustlers and everyday, run-of-the-mill gay men he encountered at the private parties and orgies he attended with or without Clyde. This book reveals many of these dynamics in ways never before exposed. You can expect a lot from this book, and it richly delivers. It presents stories from both within the FBI and tales from its victims. Compiled from decades of meticulous research, dozens of first-hand interviews, and information recently released through the Freedom of Information Act, Darwin Porter distills J. Edgar s 50-year obsession with communists, sexual perverts, and dissenters of any ilk into a spellbinding read.

Genres: History, Law, Biography

576 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2011

About the author

Darwin Porter (1937-) is an American travel writer, producing numerous titles, mostly for the Frommer guidebook series, over a 50-year career span.

Reviews

[Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. Everyone is either a commie or a homosexual. This was a crazy read.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't deny that I didn't enjoy this book immensely, but I also didn't believe any of it.

[Katrina Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting book!

I really have no idea where the author found all his resources at, because there is a lot of interesting stuff. Mr. Porter digs up more dirt on J. Edgar Hoover, and his boyfriend, Clyde Tolson, than any other biography I've read about the two of them.

Some of the stuff I read was, without a doubt, way too kinky. I had no idea they were into this. But, according to their best friend at the time, Guy Hottell, all of it is true. The book also talks about Hoover and Tolson blackmailing every actor, politician, and famous person at the time. Hoover's strange fascination with his mother, and Shirley Temple. And, the real reason why Clyde gave up his life to follow Edgar around. According to the book, Clyde was pretty much straight, but Edgar steered him into homosexuality. Hmm...I don't believe that. If Clyde was in a relationship with Edgar (and according to this book he slept with other men), then Clyde had to be bisexual. One does not 'become gay.' You're definitely born that way. My apologies to Lady GaGa. That's the only thing I didn't like about this book.

The book is designed to look like a tabloid paper. I really didn't like that. I thought it to be silly at first, and didn't want to purchase the book. Now, I'm glad I did.

Edit-

I'm changing the rating of this book because I found two errors that seem like the author made the facts up, or the editor was lazy.

*Pg-163

The author states that in 1974, Edgar learned about Charles Lindbergh's two European mistresses. That's impossible because Edgar passed away in 1972. Unless the author meant to say, "Clyde learned about Charles Lindbergh's two European mistresses..." then this is a lie. I'm hoping it's a typo.

*Pg-212

The author states that in the years prior to WWII (I'm guessing 1936-1940?), J. Edgar and Clyde visited their good friend Dorothy Lamour in California. This is true. It then states that Dorothy and her husband went to San Diego for a business meeting, leaving their house to the two men. Clyde then goes to the store for supplies and when he returns, he finds Edgar dressed in drag (Dorothy's 'Jumgle Princess' costume). I don't know if that's true, but the next paragraph tells me something is not right. The author then states that Clyde (when the two men returned to Washington) told a good friend of theirs (who knew of Edgar and Clyde's relationship), that he, "Is only thirty-three and one-third homosexual..." That doesn't make since because Clyde was born in 1900, and according to the author this incident took place in 1936. I looked up Dorothy's career on IMDB and she wasn't even a star in 1933. Her movie, 'The Jungle Princess' was filmed in 1936. The author might have meant to have said that Clyde was thirty-six, not thirty-three. Something just didn't sound right about that passage. The author does claim to have spoken to Dorothy in the late '80s and swears that she told him that Edgar and Clyde were lovers. So, who knows.

[Dee brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long (very) long winded. He could have cut this book in half and said the same thing. The parts on the red scare were interesting enough. And little tidbits on celebrities were interesting too. Just too long.