Feds' FOIA papers reveal an eye for gossip

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Gossip

No sympathy

‘Laguna Beach’ star Jessica Smith believes that Lindsay Lohan deserves whatever punishment she gets.

The presence of a file or a memo doesn’t necessarily mean the subject was targeted for an investigation.

“Celebrity files can be tricky to understand,” said FBI historian John Fox. “They can be collections of information gathered from other files. ... Louis Armstrong is a good example of that. It would be incorrect to say the FBI investigated him.”

The FBI won’t divulge its exact number of files, but estimates are that it could total more than 6 million. The agency has long maintained that its era of surveillance for political purposes is over, reflecting changes that followed FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s death in 1972 — but there remain plenty of nuggets tucked away on FBI letterhead:
Actor Victor Mature once contacted the FBI about a stalker, but was “probably intoxicated” when agents met with him about the problem. “I know Mature,” wrote FBI Deputy Director Clyde Tolson. “He is a little nuts.”
Former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes once recruited the son of an agent in the Cleveland office to play for the Buckeyes, prompting a letter to FBI headquarters. Hoover and Hayes were pals.

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Comedian Jackie Gleason launched a 1956 attempt to track down his alcoholic father, who had disappeared when “The Great One” was a child. The FBI aided by checking its fingerprint files.

The high visibility memorandums are generated for a number of reasons: the notoriety of the requester, whether it’s a high-ranking government official (ex-President Gerald Ford) or a high-profile Hollywood type (Sinatra); if the request could reveal improper FBI activities; and if the request comes from a story-seeking journalist.

Some lurid ... some not
While it might seem the last group would make the most requests, journalists lagged far behind in their filings, according to FBI records. Both prisoners and private citizens outpaced the requests from the news media.

While the subjects are alive, the FBI only releases public source information: news clippings and other items already available. The full files, for both celebrities and common citizens, are not made public until after death due to privacy issues.

One of the files’ more entertaining aspects is the failure to distinguish between legitimate and slanderous sources. Gossip column clips sit side by side with anonymous letters like the one ripping Gleason and Hoover for hanging around with Sinatra, who — as his file showed — had once volunteered to work as an FBI undercover in 1950.

The memos abound with unsubstantiated stories of adultery, addiction and various other excesses. Not all the stories are as riveting — as the file for former U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie indicated.

The memo mentioned that he was turned down for a job with the FBI, and chronicled an assassination threat against the one-time presidential candidate. And it mentioned one other incident: a 1965 charge of “hunting migratory waterfowl over a baited field.”

The incident wound up costing Muskie $27.50 in forfeited bond money, the memo said.

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