Episode Transcript
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0:00
Hey there, it's Josh Levine. And And this week
0:02
I wanted to share an episode
0:04
from a podcast I think you'll
0:07
really like. you'll really a show about
0:09
history's greatest screw ups hosted by
0:11
actor, comedian, writer actor, bona fide history
0:13
nerd bona fide history nerd at Helms. Season
0:15
2, is a riveting heist
0:17
story. story. It It begins in 1971
0:19
when group when a group of
0:22
citizen activists decide to break into
0:24
an FBI office in media and
0:26
steal every classified document in
0:28
sight. They hope to prove that J.
0:30
Edgar Hoover and the FBI were
0:32
up to no good, good, surveilling, disrupting,
0:34
disrupting, and even plotting to assassinate
0:37
political opponents. I hope you heard my I hope you
0:39
heard my conversation with Ed about his at
0:41
Daily Show for one of our our burn bonus
0:43
episodes this season. this season. if you
0:45
want to hear more from him, more from is
0:47
a great choice. is a because the
0:49
story he tells the season is
0:51
incredibly timely today. incredibly timely today. Plus,
0:53
will be releasing in just a few
0:55
months. in want to catch up
0:57
before it's available. you want to catch keep
0:59
listening for episode one
1:01
of keep listening for episode one And
1:03
then listen to the entire season, wherever
1:06
you get podcasts. to the entire season
1:08
wherever you get podcasts. It's March
1:10
8th, 1971, and just about
1:12
every human being on planet
1:15
Earth is completely consumed by
1:17
one one event. Heavyweight boxers Joe Frazier Muhammad
1:19
Ali meet in New York's
1:21
Madison Square, the richest fight
1:23
of all time. fight
1:25
of least He's foreign countries will
1:28
show the fight on TV. Muhammad
1:30
Ali fight on Joe Frazier, better
1:32
known as the fight of the
1:34
as the fight of the century. I
1:37
want to tell you this is going to be a
1:39
spectacular evening. The tension and the excitement here is monumental.
1:41
A lucky 20,000 have scored tickets
1:43
to watch the fight at
1:46
Madison Square Garden. Anyone who's
1:48
anyone is there. anyone is include
1:50
a couple of Kennedys, foreign
1:52
dignitaries, astronauts who just returned
1:54
from the who just returned from the moon.
1:57
a who's is of who of 70s icons.
1:59
Ed Sullivan. Hugh Hefner, Ross,
2:01
Barbara Streisand, all here to
2:03
see this guy. here
2:05
to see this guy.
2:07
All right, Ali, in
2:10
the beautiful, beautiful, the
2:12
former heavyweight champ, is battling
2:14
to reclaim his title from
2:16
current heavyweight champ, is battling
2:18
to reclaim his
2:20
title There seems to
2:22
be a mingling of Frasier.
2:24
As the opening time stops
2:26
around the world. world. people
2:29
rush to their to and
2:31
radios, and streets completely empty out.
2:33
In barracks across Vietnam, out. In
2:35
.S. servicemen huddle around transistor
2:37
radios. Inside an arena in
2:39
Chicago, an actual riot
2:42
erupts when the projector
2:44
breaks down right before the
2:46
fight starts. erupts when the projector
2:48
breaks down right before the
2:50
fight starts. which
2:57
all means that some some miles south
3:00
of New York City in a small
3:02
Pennsylvania town called Media. town called The
3:04
streets are even sleepier than
3:06
usual. than usual. Downtown is deserted.
3:08
There are no policemen no
3:10
policemen on patrol, no locals out for
3:12
an evening stroll, and and no one
3:14
keeping a close eye on the
3:17
entrance of a four -story brick building
3:19
that sits at at one square. So
3:22
the doors to that building swing
3:24
open, swing and two men and two
3:26
women walk out, two nervously carrying
3:28
bulging suitcases and loading them into
3:30
a car out front. them into
3:33
a car out front, no one
3:35
takes notice. Those folks with
3:37
the suitcases? Well, they're not
3:39
leaving for a trip. for They're
3:41
part of a team of
3:43
burglars of decided this was the
3:45
perfect night to do something unthinkable.
3:47
do something unthinkable. Rob
3:49
the FBI! break
3:52
into their offices, steal every document
3:54
in sight, and zoom off into
3:56
the night with a trunk full
3:59
of secrets. I'm
4:05
Ed Helms and this is Snaff
4:07
a show a show about history's
4:09
greatest screw -ups. Last season
4:11
we told you all about about
4:13
Abel Archer 83, the nuclear near could have
4:15
ended the world as we
4:17
know it. as This season we
4:19
bring you you the story
4:21
of a of heist and
4:24
the colossal FBI FBI Snafoo it
4:26
exposed. It
4:33
was a Tuesday.
4:36
That morning I
4:39
arrived and as
4:41
usual
4:43
I It was a Tuesday. the
4:46
That morning room first go
4:48
to the mail room
4:50
first up up my mail.
4:53
This is journalist Betty Medsker.
4:55
That Tuesday was March 23rd 1971, two
4:57
weeks after the began like any other It
4:59
began like any other morning. her
5:01
Betty woke up in her apartment
5:03
in Washington, she D .C. She had
5:06
her usual breakfast, couple a couple of
5:08
pieces of toast, took took the
5:10
city bus to work, and arrived
5:12
at the Washington Post Post at at
5:14
o 'clock. I'd been off for
5:16
two days and so there was a
5:18
huge stack of mail. But but this
5:20
one stood out. only because
5:22
it was a large envelope,
5:25
but because the return address, which
5:27
was which was Publication Media, Pennsylvania.
5:30
Betty was a born Betty was
5:32
a born but she'd but she'd
5:34
never heard of Liberty publications. She She
5:36
took the envelope with her
5:38
to the her to the newsroom. You
5:40
might have a picture of
5:42
that Washington that newsroom. newsroom, typewriters
5:44
away like away like machine gun thick
5:46
haze of cigarette smoke, someone
5:48
screaming, copy! Woodward Woodward and Bernstein
5:50
running around shaking at each other
5:52
with their latest scoop. scoop. Well,
5:55
that that picture in the
5:57
the classic book and
5:59
movie Presidents Men. actually actually pretty
6:01
darn close. according to
6:03
to cigarette smoke. smoke. any there any
6:05
place you don't smoke? But
6:08
the spring of 1971, Woodward and
6:10
Bernstein were still Watergate was Watergate was
6:13
still just a hotel, and the
6:15
Washington Post hadn't yet become the
6:17
crusading institution that took down the
6:19
Nixon White House. House. Betty herself
6:21
was a young reporter who'd been
6:23
at the paper for just a
6:25
year. just a year. was was religion, she shared
6:27
an office about the size of
6:30
a walk -in closet closet a a
6:32
crew of fellow reporters. There
6:35
six of us in there, and we were.
6:37
with science, medicine, and and
6:40
education, and religion. An editor
6:42
made up a term. called It
6:44
was called Science, medicine,
6:46
Medicine. religion, religion, and
6:48
all that shit. I worked. that's where
6:50
I worked. the smurche in this
6:52
merch department. in worked in
6:55
the department. But morning,
6:57
Betty didn't have time for any time
6:59
for around. Like any good journalist
7:01
who's just been sent a mysterious
7:03
envelope, she was dying to know
7:05
what was inside. was dying to know what was
7:07
I got to my office,
7:09
I opened that envelope first. Dear
7:17
friend, in closed you will find
7:19
you will find copies of
7:21
certain files from the
7:23
media office of the FBI, which were removed
7:25
by our commission for public scrutiny.
7:27
We are making these copies. The
7:30
letter went on to say The
7:32
letter went on to say that Betty
7:34
had permission to make copies of the
7:36
files and publish their their contents. degree
7:38
of public association or
7:40
disassociation with our
7:42
commission is entirely a
7:44
matter of your choice.
7:46
is entirely a matter
7:49
of your choice.
7:51
Sincerely, the Citizens
7:53
Commission to investigate
7:55
the FBI. I'm
7:57
shocked. I think
8:00
people in the United States couldn't
8:02
imagine that anybody would have the
8:04
nerve to break into an FBI
8:06
office and would have thought that
8:09
such a place would have been
8:11
the most secure place. Inside
8:13
the envelope were 14 Xeroxed
8:15
FBI files. It didn't take
8:18
long for Betty to grasp
8:20
that these documents were explosive.
8:22
The first one was pretty
8:25
shocking. It was a document
8:27
urging agents to increase interviews
8:29
with dissenters and quote, for
8:32
plenty of reasons, chief of
8:34
which are enhance the paranoia
8:36
endemic in these circles and
8:39
further serve to get the
8:41
point across that there is
8:44
an FBI agent behind every
8:46
mailbox. An FBI agent behind
8:48
every mailbox. Sort
8:51
of like Uncle Fester, but
8:53
in wingtips. At first Betty
8:56
wondered if what she was
8:58
reading was a hoax? To
9:01
enhance paranoia? Seriously? She kept
9:03
reading. One of the things
9:06
was a file on Swarthmore
9:08
College, and it revealed that
9:11
every black student on the
9:13
Swarthmore campus was under FBI
9:16
surveillance. And this was being
9:18
done by people who had
9:21
been hired by the FBI
9:23
as informers and included switchboard
9:26
operators, letter carriers, the postmaster
9:28
of Swathmore, the local police
9:31
chief, and some college administrators.
9:34
And it didn't stop at
9:36
this one liberal arts college.
9:38
There was a pattern. Files
9:40
in the envelope showed the
9:42
FBI was surveilling citizens all
9:44
over Philadelphia. The subjects Betty
9:46
was reading about in these
9:48
files, they were anti-war protesters,
9:50
civil rights activists, labor unions,
9:52
and a noticeably high percentage
9:54
were black. The FBI was
9:56
operating something that was very
9:58
much like the. was
10:01
operating in East Germany.
10:03
What became clear was
10:06
every document was telling
10:08
a story about FBI
10:10
power that was unknown
10:13
to anyone outside the
10:15
FBI. That
10:23
brassy jingoistic tune comes from
10:25
a big-budget 1959 Hollywood production
10:28
called The FBI Story. Made
10:30
in cooperation with the Bureau
10:32
itself. The movie spins through
10:35
the greatest hits of agency
10:37
cases from the Osage Indian
10:39
Murders to the pursuit of
10:42
communists. And it wouldn't be
10:44
an all-American feel-good story without
10:47
everyone's favorite leading man, Jimmy
10:49
Stewart. Tell N.Y. 21 if
10:51
and when White he passes
10:54
the coin, arrest them. Stewart
10:56
played the quintessential FBI agent.
10:59
He was conservative, level-headed, trustworthy,
11:01
clean-shaven, well-coffed, and of course,
11:03
white. A government man. Or
11:06
in the parlance of the
11:08
day, a g-man. And g-men
11:10
were American heroes. FBI
11:13
mythmaking was pretty much its own
11:15
genre of entertainment in the mid-20th
11:18
century. It wasn't just movies. FBI
11:20
agents were valiant heroes in comic
11:23
books and radio shows. This is
11:25
your FBI. The official broadcast from
11:27
the files of the Federal Bureau's
11:30
investigation. And they were the stars
11:32
of a TV show that in
11:34
1971 was in its sixth season
11:37
and at the height of its
11:39
popularity. The FBI story
11:42
was everywhere, and that didn't
11:44
happen by accident. The story
11:46
of the Bureau, familiar to
11:48
most Americans, was crafted by
11:51
one man. The Ultimate G-Man.
11:53
America stands at the crossroads
11:55
of destiny. It is a
11:58
common destiny in which we
12:00
shall Jay Edgar Hoover, long-time
12:02
director of the FBI. He
12:05
was a small man, but
12:07
terrifyingly intimidating. So buttoned up
12:09
that he made Beaver Cleaver
12:11
look like a hell's angel.
12:14
Hoover was also a brilliant
12:16
PR man, transforming a relatively
12:18
obscure Bureau of the Justice
12:21
Department into a nationally revered
12:23
household name. That FBI TV
12:25
show, Hoover was intimately involved
12:28
in its production, often suggesting
12:30
storylines. As for that Jimmy
12:32
Stewart movie, Hoover edited and
12:34
approved the scripts himself. And
12:37
he tasked FBI agents with
12:39
investigating every person on set,
12:41
even the Gaffers. Careful with
12:44
a lighten, guys. It's starting
12:46
to look a little communist.
12:48
As far as Hoover's message
12:51
to the American people, it
12:53
was simple. They could always
12:55
count on the FBI. I
12:57
take humble pride in emphatically
13:00
stating here tonight that as
13:02
long as I am director
13:04
of the FBI, it will
13:07
continue to maintain its high
13:09
and impartial standards of investigation
13:11
despite the hostile opinions of
13:14
its detractors. The vast majority
13:16
of Americans revered Hoover. A
13:18
Gallup poll in 1971 found
13:20
that over 70% of Americans
13:23
thought he was doing a
13:25
good to excellent job. Only
13:27
7% had a negative view
13:30
of him. Hoover
13:33
had been exempted from compulsory retirement
13:35
in the 1960s, which essentially made
13:38
him FBI director for life. His
13:40
power across five decades was unquestioned.
13:42
When someone suggested to John F.
13:45
Kennedy that maybe it wasn't a
13:47
great idea for one person to
13:49
have all that power for that
13:52
long, Kennedy, then the president, replied
13:54
with resignation, you don't fire God.
13:56
Hey, God, sorry to bug you.
13:58
You are fired. the
14:01
FBI will continue to
14:03
be objective in its
14:05
investigations and will stay
14:08
within the bounds of
14:10
its authorized jurisdiction regardless
14:12
of pressure groups which
14:14
seek to use the
14:17
FBI to attain their
14:19
own selfish aims to
14:21
the detriment of our
14:23
people as a whole.
14:35
Back at the Washington Post offices
14:37
Betty Medsker was holding documents that
14:40
did not jibe with the FBI
14:42
America new. The contents of the
14:44
files were so shocking, so illegal,
14:46
Betty was skeptical that they were
14:49
actually real. She took the files
14:51
to an editor. I explained that
14:53
I just received these files that
14:55
were stolen from an FBI office
14:58
and she stops me and she
15:00
says, we just got a call
15:02
from Ken Classen. Ken Clausen was
15:04
a veteran reporter who was well
15:07
sourced inside the federal government. That
15:09
morning, one of Clausen's government sources
15:11
had reached out to him asking
15:13
if anyone at the post had
15:16
received stolen FBI documents. If the
15:18
FBI was asking about them, then
15:20
clearly the files Betty received were
15:23
authentic. I
15:25
started to confront within myself
15:27
the significance and the danger
15:30
involved. I realized I needed
15:32
to think about what I
15:34
was doing. I needed to
15:36
think about the personal implications
15:39
of it. Betty knew that
15:41
writing this story could make
15:43
her an enemy of the
15:45
FBI, something nobody wanted, as
15:47
it could have very real
15:50
consequences. I'm concerned about fingerprints
15:52
on the files that I've
15:54
received. So I thought it
15:56
was very important even when
15:58
thought of fingerprints
16:02
that I protect them as though they
16:04
were people that I had
16:06
faced and made a promise to.
16:08
to. And so despite knowing that it so despite
16:10
knowing that it could create
16:13
powerful enemies for this here to
16:15
under the radar Smurch reporter, Betty sat
16:17
down to write her story. I
16:19
just stayed on the office working
16:21
and writing and rewriting the
16:24
stories all afternoon. Like other story,
16:26
I would simply write it and
16:28
hand it in and it
16:30
would be published the next day.
16:32
would be But this wasn't like
16:35
any other story. other story. Betty finished
16:37
the piece and turned it in
16:39
at it .m. 6 p.m. then learned
16:41
that it might not be published
16:43
the next day day might not
16:46
ever be published. be published. that
16:48
was a great shock. shock. If
16:51
Betty's story never saw the
16:53
light of day, light of the public
16:55
might never know that the
16:57
FBI was watching them. Catherine
17:14
Graham was very frightened
17:16
by the situation. Graham
17:18
Graham was the publisher of
17:20
the Washington Post. Post. a journalism
17:22
legend who received the loftiest honor
17:25
you can imagine. loftiest Streep played
17:27
her in a movie. Do
17:29
you have the papers? in a movie. Do
17:31
you have Not yet. yet. The
17:34
movie The Post is all
17:36
about Catherine Graham and her and
17:38
editor, Ben Bradley, and their decision
17:40
to publish a batch of
17:42
leaked federal documents known as the
17:44
documents known as the But that was
17:47
all yet to come. was all On
17:49
this day, March day, March 1971, no
17:51
American American newspaper had ever published
17:53
government documents stolen by sources
17:55
from outside the government. Graham and the Post
17:57
Post's leadership were unlawful.
18:00
territory. It was not just
18:02
that it was unprecedented and
18:05
that the documents had been
18:07
stolen. We had them by
18:09
virtue of a crime being
18:11
committed. Betty would later learn
18:13
that earlier that day the
18:15
Attorney General of the United
18:17
States, John Mitchell, had repeatedly
18:20
phoned the post demanding that
18:22
they not publish her story.
18:24
It was the first time
18:26
that the publisher had been
18:28
asked by the administration to
18:30
suppress a story. They didn't
18:33
want the public to know.
18:35
The attorney general claimed that
18:37
the documents could damage national
18:39
security. That sounded plausible. Except
18:41
Betty and her editors, unlike
18:43
the attorney general, had actually
18:45
read the documents. Did they
18:48
threaten to embarrass the government?
18:50
Absolutely. But there was nothing
18:52
in those files that even
18:54
touched on national security. The
18:56
government had the power to
18:58
hurt the institution, and Catherine
19:00
Graham had responsibility for protecting
19:03
the institution. Hours passed. Finally,
19:05
Betty's phone rang. At 10
19:07
o'clock, I get a call
19:09
saying that the decision was
19:11
just made. The decision was
19:13
made to publish. stolen
19:18
documents describe FBI surveillance activities.
19:21
That was the headline plastered
19:23
on the front page of
19:25
the Washington Post on newsstands
19:28
and doorsteps all over America
19:30
on March 24th 1971. The
19:34
story painted a picture of
19:36
an FBI far different from
19:38
the g-men Americans new from
19:40
their TV sets and radios.
19:42
It described a vast surveillance
19:44
network, infiltrating college campuses, targeting
19:46
black students and activists, and
19:48
intentionally trying to create an
19:50
atmosphere of paranoia. The reaction
19:52
to the story was tectonic.
19:54
Soon members of Congress were
19:57
calling for an investigation into
19:59
the FBI. and for the
20:01
public, trips to the mailbox
20:03
were never quite the same.
20:05
Burglars at an FBI resident
20:07
office at Medea Records, stolen
20:09
from the media central radio
20:11
office, which have been made
20:13
public, include a letter. Betty
20:19
had seen just 14 files. The
20:21
letter from the Citizens Commission to
20:23
investigate the FBI implied that there
20:25
were still more files in their
20:27
possession. What Betty didn't know yet
20:29
was just how many, and how
20:31
much more damning those documents would
20:34
be. But for the time being,
20:36
Betty was just thrilled to see
20:38
her story published. I was very
20:40
excited, and early that morning I
20:42
opened my apartment door and picked
20:44
up my newspaper and was happy
20:46
to see it there. But
20:49
the story didn't end
20:51
there. Betty's article was
20:53
highly embarrassing for the
20:55
FBI, which, as she
20:57
was about to learn,
20:59
put her on J.
21:01
Edgar Hoover's radar. The
21:03
FBI entered my life
21:05
very soon after that.
21:07
I decided to call
21:09
a friend in Philadelphia
21:11
and share my excitement.
21:15
I lifted the receiver on
21:17
my kitchen phone and a
21:19
man spoke to me and
21:21
said, what are you doing?
21:23
And this is a great
21:25
shock to pick up your
21:27
phone and somebody talking to
21:29
you. And I said, who
21:31
are you? What are you
21:33
doing? And did not reveal
21:35
who they were, but kept
21:37
asking me, who was I
21:39
trying to call? And why
21:41
was I trying to call
21:43
someone? Here I was the
21:45
reporter who had just written
21:47
that the FBI agents are
21:49
supposed to make people paranoid
21:51
and feel as though there's
21:53
an FBI agent behind every
21:55
mailbox. So here apparently was
21:57
an effort to make me
21:59
paranoid and know that there
22:01
was an FBI. he was
22:03
never able to confirm that
22:05
he was an FBI agent.
22:08
But, I mean, who else
22:10
could it be? And this
22:12
wouldn't be the only time
22:14
she would have an unnerving
22:16
run-in that made her wonder,
22:18
was the FBI now after
22:20
her? Turns
22:29
out that first batch of stolen
22:31
FBI documents was just the beginning.
22:33
The files kept coming. Checking the
22:36
mail each morning became a moment
22:38
of high drama for Betty. So
22:40
one Saturday I was at my
22:42
desk and I had received more
22:44
files from the more FBI files
22:47
and I was sitting there reading,
22:49
starting to read them. And this
22:51
man I had never seen came
22:53
up and introduced himself and said,
22:56
um, I've been watching your mail
22:58
and I see that you're getting
23:00
these files from the FBI. And
23:02
then he said, I also see
23:04
that your mother is writing to
23:07
you from Johnstown that you're occasionally
23:09
getting mail from her. And that's
23:11
a sort of a strange thing
23:13
for somebody to be saying, but
23:15
it was even stranger than that
23:18
because, yes, my mother lives in
23:20
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but she had never
23:22
written to me at the Washington
23:24
Post. She didn't even know the
23:27
address of the Washington Post. This
23:30
was a downright freaky interaction. Oh, hi there.
23:32
Yeah, we've never met, but I'm keeping really
23:34
close tabs on your mail, just FYI. By
23:37
the way, how's your mom, whom I've also
23:39
never met? Is she still getting her hair
23:41
done at that same place on the third
23:43
Tuesday of every month? Fantastic! Betty
23:46
was getting an object lesson in
23:49
what it meant for the FBI
23:51
to sow paranoia. Why was the
23:53
Bureau going to such lengths to
23:55
rattle her? Was this petty retaliation?
23:57
Or were there more secrets yet
23:59
to be revealed? anonymous packages had
24:01
been mailed from Pennsylvania. Betty had
24:03
previously worked as a reporter in
24:05
Philadelphia, so she was well-sourced in
24:07
the area. She reached out to
24:09
a source she thought might know
24:11
where the files were being kept,
24:13
and even better, might be able
24:15
to get Betty access to any
24:18
remaining files. She
24:21
was very open to the idea
24:24
and she said, let me pursue
24:26
people that would seem like logical
24:28
connections and get back to you.
24:31
So I was very excited and
24:33
as I walked back into the
24:35
newsroom from that appointment, I walked
24:38
past Ken Classam's desk. You might
24:40
remember Ken Closin. He was the
24:42
Washington Post reporter who had confirmed
24:45
the authenticity of the stolen files
24:47
on the day Betty received them.
24:50
Closin actually even shared a byline
24:52
with Betty on that first story
24:54
because of his contribution. One thing
24:57
worth mentioning here, it just so
24:59
happens, Closson had written a glowing
25:01
story on Hoover for the post
25:04
just a few months earlier. I
25:06
just spontaneously just stopped. I said,
25:08
Ken, I just had the most
25:11
wonderful thing happen. I told him
25:13
what had happened and that there
25:16
was a possibility that I would
25:18
be able to go some place
25:20
and see all of the stolen
25:23
files. And his eyes just came
25:25
alert and then hardened and he
25:27
said, I'm going with you. In
25:30
that moment, I knew that I
25:32
had made a terrible mistake. Betty
25:34
thought back to that fluff piece
25:37
that Closen had written on Jay
25:39
Ed Gerhuver months earlier. Maybe it
25:42
was best not to let Closen
25:44
be Woodward to her Bernstein. And
25:46
I said, well, no, Ken, these
25:49
are confidential sources of mine, and
25:51
there's no way that they would
25:53
let me bring somebody else along.
25:56
And he said, no, he said,
25:58
I will have to go with
26:00
you. And at that point, somehow
26:03
graciously got out of the conversation.
26:05
About a half hour passed and
26:08
he, I looked up and there
26:10
was Ken and he said in
26:12
very stern language, I am going
26:15
with you when you go to
26:17
see those files. He was saying
26:19
it as though he had the
26:22
power to give me an order,
26:24
which wasn't true. So
26:27
Betty reached out to her
26:29
source and canceled their rendezvous.
26:32
I had to make that
26:34
assumption that he was so
26:36
close to the FBI that
26:38
if we went and actually
26:41
found where the documents were,
26:43
that the FBI might be
26:45
there too. Betty
26:48
never learned for sure why
26:50
Closin was so weirdly aggressive
26:52
that day, but a year
26:54
later he left the Washington
26:56
Post for a job at
26:59
the White House, as Richard
27:01
Nixon's communications officer. And guess
27:03
what he proudly displayed on
27:05
his new White House desk?
27:07
A large framed photograph that
27:09
was signed to Ken with
27:11
affection, Jay Edgar. As
27:16
it turns out, just as
27:18
Betty suspected, the files she
27:20
was receiving, well, they would
27:22
just be the tip of
27:25
the iceberg. The full picture
27:27
was going to upend everything
27:29
the American public thought they
27:31
knew about the FBI and
27:33
would knock a revered American
27:36
hero off his throne. President's
27:38
official spokesman claims creating fear
27:40
mistrustness has spread far out
27:42
of control of its penetration,
27:44
labor unions, college campuses, church
27:46
groups. The FBI had under
27:49
surveillance every political figure, every
27:51
student activist, and every leader
27:53
for peace and justice in
27:55
this country. who exactly was
27:57
responsible for exposing the FBI's
28:00
secrets? Who were these anonymous
28:02
citizens who sent Betty those
28:04
files? And how the hell
28:06
did they successfully break into
28:08
the nation's most powerful law
28:11
enforcement agency? All under the
28:13
cover of a huge boxing
28:15
match. Hang on a second.
28:17
That plot is actually sounding
28:19
kind of familiar. On a
28:21
fight night, like the one
28:24
two weeks from tonight that
28:26
we're going to rob it.
28:28
150 million without breaking a
28:30
sweat. Oceans 11, one of
28:32
my all-time favorite heist movies
28:35
from master of the heist
28:37
himself, filmmaker Stephen Soderbergh. Speaking
28:39
of Stephen? While you were
28:41
making oceans, did you know
28:43
about this actual real-life burglary
28:46
that took place on a
28:48
fight night? No, I didn't.
28:50
I have so many questions.
28:52
I do too, Stephen. I
28:54
do too. I'm
28:56
excited for you to learn more
28:59
about this story. Well, here's the
29:01
thing. I have never listened to
29:03
a podcast before. Obviously, I have
29:05
to hear this. All right, Stephen,
29:07
and listeners, get ready. This season
29:09
you'll hear how Jay Edger Hoover
29:11
embroiled the FBI in one of
29:14
the worst intelligence snafoos of all
29:16
time. The daring heist that exposed
29:18
it all, and the staggering fallout
29:20
that sent shockwaves through America. We
29:22
love to say that we learned
29:24
our burglary skills from nuns and
29:27
priests. We know they have our
29:29
pictures. We know they're looking for
29:31
us. One day he came up
29:33
to me and he said, would
29:35
you like to be part of
29:37
a small group where we're going
29:40
to go after the FBI? I
29:42
just felt like I was living
29:44
in the heart of the dragon
29:46
and it was just my job
29:48
to stop the fire. And this
29:50
seemed like a way to do
29:53
it. I was just really angry.
29:55
I was really. And I thought,
29:57
here's something that might just make
29:59
a great big difference. Holy shit,
30:01
we are really here. This is
30:03
dynamite stuff. There was no place
30:06
to hide if they released their
30:08
powers against you. Like, well, that
30:10
was either the FBI or the
30:12
heating system. And there's only one
30:14
way to find out which. Many
30:16
of the techniques were clearly illegal,
30:18
but justified in the interest of
30:21
national security. If it meant some
30:23
risks that were involved, well, that's
30:25
what citizens sometimes have to do.
30:36
Snafu is a production of I-Hart
30:39
Radio, Film Nation Entertainment, and Pacific
30:41
Electric Picture Company in association with
30:43
Guilded Audio. This season of Snafu
30:46
is based on the book The
30:48
Burglary, the discovery of Jay Edgar
30:50
Hoover's Secret FBI, written by Betty
30:53
Metzger. It's executive produced by me,
30:55
Ed Helms, Milan Papelka, Mike Valbo,
30:57
Whitney Donaldson, Andy Chug, Dylan Fagan,
31:00
and Betty Metzger. Our lead producers
31:02
are Sarah Joiner and Alyssa Martino.
31:04
Producer is Stephen Wood. This episode
31:07
was written by Albert Chen, Sarah
31:09
Joiner, and Stephen Wood, with additional
31:11
writing and story editing from Alyssa
31:14
Martino and Ed Helms. Tori Smith
31:16
is our associate producer, Neven Calapali
31:19
is our production assistant, facts checking
31:21
by Charles Richter, our creative executive
31:23
is Brett Harris, Sensitivity Consult from
31:26
Oloa Kemi, Allah Desui, editing, sound
31:28
design and original music by Ben
31:30
Chug, engineering and technical direction by
31:33
Nick Dooley, additional editing from Kelsey
31:35
Albright, Olivia Kani, and Jimma Castelli
31:37
Foley Foley Foley, theme music by
31:40
Dan Rosado. Special thanks to Allison
31:42
Cohen, Daniel Welch, and Ben Rizak.
31:44
Additional thanks to Director Joanna Hamilton
31:47
for letting us use some of
31:49
the original interviews from her incredible
31:51
documentary, 1971. Finally, our deepest gratitude
31:54
to the courageous Citizens Commission to
31:56
investigate the FBI. Bill Davidon, Ralph
31:58
Daniel, Judy Farr. Heath
32:01
Forsythe, Bonnie Bonnie
32:03
Sarah Schumer, and
32:06
Bob Williamson. Sarah
32:08
Schumer, and Bob Williamson.
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