J. EDGAR HOOVER WAS NO CROSS-DRESSER; NEW YORK TIMES RETRACTS STORY THAT HE WAS
G. Gordon Liddy Show
Aired: July 22, 1998
New York Post, July 27,1998
PAGE SIX
J. EDGAR DRAGGED THROUGH THE MUD
AN Off-Broadway show featuring a woman who portrays legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover as a cross-dresser perpetuates a hoax that refuses to die. (snip)
But the idea that America’s legendary lawman was a Broderick Crawford who wanted to be Cindy Crawford has been thoroughly discredited. It was first raised in a salacious 1993 biography, “The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover,” by Anthony Summers. Summers is a former BBC reporter who has built a career rehashing conspiracy theories involving Marilyn Monroe, President Kennedy, Hoover and other icons of the period.
Summers’ only source for the transvestite material was Susan Rosenstiel, ex-wife of industrialist Lewis Rosenstiel, who was one of Hoover’s small circle of friends. Susan Rosenstiel had served time for perjury and had been sued 38 times for various reasons by leading Manhattan stores, including Saks, Tiffany and Gucci. (snip)
Former FBI agents have pointed out that Hoover was himself under secret surveillance for his own protection and such behavior would have been reported. (snip)
Nevertheless, the Hoover Drag Queen Myth has become cant through repetition in certain intellectual circles where Hoover, and other law enforcement types, are reviled along with the military.
The myth sailed through the copy desk of the New York Times several weeks ago when it was rehashed in an art review by Michael Kimmelman. The newspaper retracted it five days later, but it will pop up again.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3955ab8a40fc.htm
Not that that makes him a bad person...
This myth is a Big Lie which, sadly, has come to be widely believed--as is the tale of Richard Nixon's claim to have a "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War, which he never made, or the "Christmas Bombing" of Hanoi, which did not take place on Christmas.