His daughter was a drug taking hippie who participated in the "sexual revolution" - you can translate that into what it really meant. His wife killed herself. He colleagues hated him.
Lets add up the numbers. He was number two...under J. Edgar...and stayed there a long long time...so when J. Edgar was finally gone...you would anticipate you'd get the offer...and people were so scared of the FBI and J. Edgar's control...that you were never on the list. All through those years...the junior guys at the FBI probably made routine jokes about J. Edgar and the whole management staff.
Your wife probably lived on the edge of this entire joke...never happy. Her daughter was into drugs and the new age. And then you toss in the information flow that this guy provided the Post...which the wife must have known something about this. Its not a pretty picture. A guy selling kitchen sinks In Ripley, Miss...has a happier life. That really speaks for the big picture.
You sound like you were one of those colleagues?