Early in his profession, John Lindsay was so effectively considered by the feds that he had uncommon entry to J. Edgar Hoover.
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In 1955, John Lindsay was a rising star on the US Division of Justice and in good graces with then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
However over the following decade and a half, the charismatic, Kennedy-esque New York Metropolis mayor’s bromance with the larger-than-life G-man soured proper up till Hoover’s 1972 demise, based on a overview of 96 pages of once-classified FBI recordsdata obtained by The Publish underneath the Freedom of Info Act.
“This can be welcome information to many!” cheered Hoover in a gleeful word scribbled on the backside of a 1970 press clip from the now-defunct Washington Night Star, reporting Lindsay wouldn't search re-election as NYC mayor in 1973.
The recordsdata not solely cowl the longtime liberal Republican’s time working for the DOJ within the mid Fifties, but additionally his time as Congressman from 1959 by 1965, his tumultuous tenure as mayor of a cash-strapped, crime-ridden New York from 1966 by 1973, and his failed 1972 presidential bid after switching to the Democratic Social gathering.
Hoover saved a watch out for “communist” and “un-American” actions surrounding the American civil rights champion and his political appointees, based on the recordsdata.
“Not too long ago Mayor’s John Lindsay of New York (as reported by Paul Harvey on nationwide radio) acknowledged ‘the actual heroes of [Vietnam War] are those that dodge the draft and protest’ and so forth.,” wrote one particular person to Hoover in Might 1970, the day after the notorious bloodbath of antiwar demonstrators at Kent State College.
“Sir, how within the title of freedom can a pacesetter of this stature communicate such despicably pro-Vietcong, pro-flag-burning, pot-smoking phrases and retain his place with scarcely something mentioned in refutation?”
Early in his profession, Lindsay, a lawyer who additionally served as a lieutenant within the US Navy throughout World Battle II, was so effectively considered by the feds that he had uncommon entry to Hoover.
In 1955, whereas working as an government assistant to the US Lawyer Common, he scored a non-public tour of the FBI’s headquarters in Washington DC that included a meet and greet with Hoover for Lindsay, his spouse Mary, and a few feminine buddies.
“I now have a celebration of 4 (depend em*) lovely ladies accompanying me on the tour at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow – a blonde, two brunettes, and a chestnut,” wrote Lindsay in a typed memo to Hoover dated Feb. 24, 1955, that underlined the phrase “4.”
“They're all members of the J. Edgar Hoover fan membership so I hope you’ll be free for one minute to say hi there (I’m prepared to share!).”
“I'll see them,” wrote Hoover on the identical memo, approving the go to by signing his title as “H.”
The launched recordsdata supply no examples of the feds investigating Lindsay for wrongdoing, however they do embrace a collection of different letters from folks whose names have been redacted accusing the pol of being unfit for workplace or unpatriotic for opposing the Vietnam Battle.
“Are we to allow what I contemplate some of the harmful males in our nation to take it over,” mentioned one particular person ripping Lindsay’s presidential marketing campaign in an Oct. 16, 1971 letter to then-US Sen. Bob Dole and cc’ed to Hoover.
The FBI director additionally acquired a 1969 letter from a Hoover loyalist ripping “fairly boy” Lindsay for “lust[ing]” the White Home “with the vim and vigor of a Kennedy.”
Hoover famous in official information that she was backing then-Conservative Democratic Comptroller Mario Procaccino for mayor and was on his “Particular Correspondents Listing”—a time period then used to consult with key Hoover allies.
The FBI felt Lindsay was too self-serving.
A March 1967 interoffice memo signed by FBI agent R.E. Wick accuses Lindsay of being “extremely unethical,” alleging he broke an embargo settlement with the feds over the discharge of nationwide crime statistics for political functions. In a speech earlier than the NYPD’s Holy Identify Society, the then-mayor introduced crime was up 11 p.c nationwide — but “the town was under that determine,” wrote Wick.
The recordsdata additionally word a collection of threats allegedly made on Lindsay’s life.
In August 1967, Hoover mentioned in a letter to the US Secret Service that a lady had been arrested by the NYPD and charged with possessing a firearm and plotting to “assassinate” Lindsay for a $20,000 bounty.
Hoover additionally famous the arrest was reported by native media and that the feds’ earlier investigations into the identical lady — whose title was redacted — discovered she might have been a member of the “Uniformed Communist Police” and a “Tito Communist” loyal to Josip Broz Tito, then-president of the previous Yugoslavia.
Sid Davidoff, a longtime lobbyist who was a part of Lindsay’s inside circle when he was mayor, informed The Publish he’s “not shocked” Hoover “saved a file” on his ex-boss, who handed away in 2000.
“He was the primary main Republican to return out towards the [Vietnam] Battle,” mentioned Davidoff, who as soon as famously earned a spot in 1972 on then-President Richard Nixon’s Prime 20 “Enemies Listing.”
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