July 10, 2024 • 32 mins
In March 1971, Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger receives a mysterious envelope full of classified documents. Soon, what's inside will change the way America sees the FBI.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey there, it's your host ed helms. Here. Real quick,
before we dive into this episode, I wanted to remind
you that my brand new book is coming out on
April twenty ninth. It's called Snaffo, The Definitive Guide to
History's Greatest screw Ups, and you can pre order it
right now at snafudashbook dot com. Trust me, if you
(00:22):
like this show, you're gonna love this book. It's got
all the wild disasters, spectacular face plants we just couldn't
squeeze into this podcast. And here's the kicker. I am
also going on tour to celebrate that's right. I'm coming
to New York, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco,
and my hometown Los Angeles. So if you've ever wanted
(00:45):
to see me stumble through a live Q and A
or dramatically read about a kiddie cat getting turned into
a CIA operative, now's your chance again. Head to Snaffo
dashbook dot com to pre order the book and check
out all the tour details and day it's or just
click the link in the show notes that'll work too.
(01:07):
It's March eighth, nineteen seventy one and just about every
human being on planet Earth is completely consumed by one
single event.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Heavy wait boxers Joe Praise You're and Mihamad Ali meet
in New York's Madison Square. The richest fight of all
times had more work. At least twenty five foreign countries
will show the.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Fight on TV. Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frasier, better known
as the Fight of the Century. I want to tell
you this is going to be a spectacular evening. Attention
of the excitement here is monumental. A lucky twenty thousand
have scored tickets to watch the fight at Madison Square Garden.
Anyone who's anyone is there. The VIPs include a couple
(01:47):
of Kennedy's foreign dignitaries astronauts who just returned from the moon.
Ringside is a who's who of seventies icons, Ed Sullivan,
Hugh Hefner, Diana Ross, Barbara streisand all here to see this.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Guy inful, beautiful, red and white robe.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Ali, the former heavyweight champ, is battling to reclaim his
title from current champ Fraser. Joe Fraser.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Ladies and gentlemen, that seems to be a mingling of
booms with you.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
As the opening bell nears, the time stops. Around the world,
people rush to their TVs and radios. City streets completely empty.
Out in barracks across Vietnam, US servicemen huddle around transistor radios.
Inside an arena in Chicago, an actual riot erupts when
the projector breaks down right before the fight starts. I'm
(02:42):
al and the red trunk, Joe Fraser and the Brain
Trunk lay up there very light, which all means that
some one hundred miles south of New York City, in
a small Pennsylvania town called Media, the streets are even
sleepier than usual. Downtown is deserted. They're no policemen on patrol,
(03:08):
no locals out for an evening stroll, and no one
keeping a close eye on the entrance of a four
story brick building that sits at one veteran square. So
when the doors to that building swing open and two
men and two women walk out, nervously carrying bulging suitcases
and loading them into a car out front, no one
(03:30):
takes notice. Those four folks with the suitcases, Well, they're
not leaving for a trip. They're part of a team
of burglars who decided this was the perfect night to
do something unthinkable, rob the FBI, break into their offices,
steal every document in sight, and zoom off into the
(03:53):
night with a trunk full of secrets. I'm Ed Helms
and this is Snaffoo, a show about history's greatest screw ups.
Last season we told you all about Able Archer eighty three,
the nuclear near miss which could have ended the world
(04:13):
as we know it. This season, we bring you Medburg,
the story of a daring heist and the colossal FBI
snaffo it exposed.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It was a Tuesday that morning. I arrive and as usual,
I go to the mail room first and pick up
my mail.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
This is journalist Betty Medsker. That Tuesday was March twenty third,
nineteen seventy one, two weeks after the Ali Fraser fight.
It began like any other morning. Betty woke up in
her apartment in Washington, d c. She had her usual
breakfast a couple of pieces of toast, took the city
bus to work, and arrived at the Washington Post offices
(05:10):
at ten o'clock.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I'd been off for two days and so there was
a huge stack of mail. But this one stood out,
not only because it was a large entlop, but because
of the return address, which was Liberty Publications Media, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Betty was a born Pennsylvanian, but she'd never heard of
Liberty Publications. She took the envelope with her to the newsroom.
You might have a picture of that Washington Post newsroom,
typewriters clacking away like machine gun fire, thick haze of
cigarette smoke, someone screaming copy, Woodward and Bernstein running around
shaking notepads at each other with their latest scoop. Well,
(05:52):
that picture, immortalized in the classic book and movie All
the President's Men, is actually pretty darn close, especially according
to Betty the cigarette smoke.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Is there any place you don't smoke?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
But in the spring of nineteen seventy one, Woodward and
Bernstein were still Nobody's Watergate was still just a hotel,
and the Washington Post hadn't yet become the crusading institution
that took down the Nixon White House. Betty herself was
a young reporter who'd been at the paper for just
a year. Her beat was religion, and she shared an
(06:25):
office about the size of a walk in closet with
a motley crew of fellow reporters.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
There were six of us in there, and we wrote science, medicine,
and education and religion. An editor made up a term.
It was called Smirsh Science, medicine, education, religion and all
that shit. So that's where I worked.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You worked in the Smirsh department.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I worked in the Smursh department.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But that morning Betty didn't have time for any smershion around.
Like any good journalists who's just been sent a mysterious envelope,
she was dying to know what was inside.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
When I got to my office, I opened that envelope. First,
dear friend, enclosed, you will find copies of certain files
from the Media Pennsylvania Office of the FBI which were
removed by our Commission for Public Scrutiny. We are making
(07:28):
these copies of.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
The letter went on to say that Betty had permission
to make copies of the files and to publish their contents.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Your degree a public association or disassociation with our Commission
is entirely a matter of your choice. Sincerely, the Citizens
Commission to Investigate the FBI. I'm shocked. I think most
(07:56):
people in the United States couldn't imagine that anybody would
have the nerve to break into an FBI office, and
would have thought that such a place would have been
the most secure place.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Inside the envelope were fourteen xerox FBI files. It didn't
take long for Betty to grasp that these documents were explosive.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
The first one was pretty shocking. It was a document
urging agents to increase interviews with dissenters and quote for
plenty of reasons, chief of which are enhanced the paranoia
endemic in these circles, and further served to get the
point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
An FBI agent behind every mailbox, sort of like Uncle Fester,
but in wingtips. At first, Betty wondered if what she
was reading was a hoax to enhance paranoia. Seriously, she
kept reading.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
One of the things was a file on Swarthmore College,
and it revealed that every black student on the Swaphthmore
campus was under FBI surveillance. And this was being done
by people who had been hired by the FBI as informers,
and included switchbird operators, letter carriers, the postmaster of Swarthmore,
(09:25):
the local police chief, and some college administrators.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
And it didn't stop at this one Liberal Arts College.
There was a pattern. Files in the envelope showed the
FBI was surveilling citizens all over Philadelphia. The subjects Betty
was reading about in these files they were anti war protesters,
civil rights activists, labor unions, and a noticeably high percentage
were black.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
The FBI was operating something that was very much like
the Stosse was operating in East Germany. What became clear
was every document was telling a story about FBI power
that was unknown to anyone outside the FBI.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
That brassy, jingoistic tune comes from a big budget nineteen
fifty nine Hollywood production called The FBI Story, made in
cooperation with the Bureau itself. The movie spins through the
greatest hits of agency cases, from the Osage Indian murderers
to the pursuit of communists. And it wouldn't be an
all American field good story without everyone's favorite leading man,
(10:43):
Jimmy Stewart tell n.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Why twenty one if and when White he passes the
cor and arrest them.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Stewart played the quintessential FBI agent. He was conservative, level headed, trustworthy,
clean shaven, well quaffed, and of course white. A government
man or in the parlance of the day, A g
man and g men were American heroes. FBI myth making
(11:10):
was pretty much its own genre of entertainment in the
mid twentieth century. It wasn't just movies. FBI agents were
valiant heroes in comic books and radio shows.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
This is Your FBI, the official broadcast from the files
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
And they were the stars of a TV show that,
in nineteen seventy one was in its sixth season and
at the height of its popularity the FBI. The FBI
story was everywhere, and that didn't happen by accident. The
story of the bureau, familiar to most Americans, was crafted
by one man, the ultimate g man.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
America stands at the crossroads of destiny. It is a
common destiny in which we shall all finally stand all four.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That's Jay Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the FBI. He
was a small man, but terrifyingly intimidating, so buttoned up
that he made Beaver Cleaver look like a Hell's angel.
Hoover was also a brilliant pr man, transforming a relatively
obscure bureau of the Justice Department into a nationally revered
household name that FBI TV show. Hoover was intimately involved
(12:25):
in its production, often suggesting storylines. As for that Jimmy
Stewart movie. Hoover edited and approved the scripts himself, and
he tasked FBI agents with investigating every person on set,
even the gaffers. Caffle with the lighting guys. It's starting
to look a little communist. As far as Hoover's message
(12:45):
to the American people, it was simple. They could always
count on the FBI.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I take humble prize, insenitally stating here tonight that as
long as I am Director of the FBI, he will
cont you to maintain its high and impartial standards of investigation.
Despite the hostile opinions of its detractors.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
The vast majority of Americans revered Hoover. A Gallup poll
in nineteen seventy one found that over seventy percent of
Americans thought he was doing a good, too excellent job.
Only seven percent had a negative view of him. Hoover
had been exempted from compulsory retirement in the nineteen sixties,
which essentially made him FBI director for life. His power
(13:37):
across five decades was unquestioned when someone suggested to John F.
Kennedy that maybe it wasn't a great idea for one
person to have all that power for that long. Kennedy
then the President replied with resignation. You don't fire God,
Hey God, sorry a bug. Yeah, you are fired, damn it.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Furthermore, the FBI will continue to be objective in its investigations,
and we'll stay within the bounds of its authorized jurisdiction,
regardless of pressure groups which seek to use the FBI
to attain their own selfish aims to the detriment of
(14:20):
our people as a whole.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Back at the Washington Post offices, Betty Metzger was holding
documents that did not jibe with the FBI. America knew
the contents of the files were so shocking, so illegal,
Betty was skeptical that they were actually real. She took
the files to an editor.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I explained that I've just received these files that are
stolen from an FBI office, and she stops me, and
she says, we just got a call from Ken klok.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Ken Clawson was a veteran reporter who was well sourced
inside the federal government. That morning, one of Clawson's government
sources had reached out to him, asking if anyone at
the post had received stolen FBI documents. If the FBI
was asking about them, then clearly the files Betty received
were authentic.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I start to confront within myself the significance and the
danger involved. I realized I needed to think about what
I was doing. I needed to think about the personal
implications of it.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Betty knew that writing this story could make her an
enemy of the FBI, something nobody wanted, as it could
have very real consequences.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I'm concerned about fingerprints on the files that I've received,
so I thought it was very important, even when I
just thought of fingerprints, that I protect them as though
they were people that I had faced and made a
promise to.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
And so, despite knowing that it could create powerful enemies
for this, heretofore under the radar smirsh reporter, Betty sat
down to write her story.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I just stayed on the office, working and writing and
rewriting the stories all afternoon. Like any other story, I
would simply write it and hand it in and it
would be published the next day.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
But this wasn't like any other story. Betty finished the
piece and turned it in at six pm.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I then learned that it might not be published the
next day, and might not ever be published, And that
was a great shot.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
If Betty's story never saw the light of day, then
the public might never know that the FBI was watching them.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Catherine Graham was very frightened by the situation.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Catherine Graham was the publisher of the Washington Post. Graham
is a journalism legend who received the loftiest honor you
can imagine. Meryl Streep played her in a movie.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Do You Have the Papers?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Not Yet? The movie The Post is all about Catherine
Graham and her executive editor Ben Bradley, and their decision
to publish a batch of leaked federal documents known as
the Pentagon Papers. But that was all yet to come.
On this day, March twenty third, nineteen seventy one, no
American newspaper had ever published government documents stolen by sources
(17:51):
from outside the government. Graham and the Post leadership were
in completely uncharted territory.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
It was not just that unprecedented and that the documents
had been stolen. We had them by virtue of a
crime being committed.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Betty would later learn that earlier that day, the Attorney
General of the United States. John Mitchell had repeatedly phoned
the Post demanding that they not publish her story.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It was the first time that the publisher had been
asked by the administration to suppress a story they didn't
want the public to know.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The Attorney General claimed that the documents could damage national security.
That sounded plausible, except Betty and her editors, unlike the
Attorney General, had actually read the documents. Did they threaten
to embarrass the government? Absolutely, But there was nothing in
those files that even touched on national security.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
The government had the power to hurt the institution, and
Catherine Graham had responsibility for protecting the institution.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Hours passed. Finally Betty's phone rang.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
At ten o'clock. I get a call saying that the
decision was just made. The decision was made to publish.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Stolen documents describe FBI surveillance activities. That was the headline
plastered on the front page of the Washington Post, on
newsstands and doorsteps all over America on March twenty fourth,
nineteen seventy one. The story painted a picture of an
FBI far different from the g men Americans knew from
(19:35):
their TV sets and radios. It described a vast surveillance
network infiltrating college campuses, targeting black students and activists, and
intentionally trying to create an atmosphere of paranoia. The reaction
to the story was tectonic. Soon members of Congress were
calling for an investigation into the FBI and for the public.
(19:58):
Trips to the mailbox were never quite the same.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Burglars had an FBI resident office at FBI records stolen
from the media Pennsilvan and FBI records which have been
made in public include a letter in which.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Betty had seen just fourteen files. The letter from the
Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI implied that there were
still more files in their possession. What Betty didn't know
yet was just how many and how much more damning
those documents would be. But for the time being, Betty
was just thrilled to see her story published.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I was very excited, and early that morning I went
opened my apartment door and picked up my newspaper and
was happy to see it there.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
But the story didn't end there. Betty's article was highly
embarrassing for the FBI, which, as she was about to learn,
put her on j Edgar Hoover's radar.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
The FBI entered my life very soon after that. I
decided to call a friend in Philadelphia and share my excitement.
I lifted the receiver on my kitchen phone and a
(21:16):
man spoke to me and said, what are you doing?
And this is a great shock to pick up your
phone and somebody talking to you. And I said, who
are you? What are you doing? And did not reveal
who they were, but kept asking me who was I
trying to call? And why was I trying to call someone?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Here?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I was the reporter who had just written that the
FBI agents are supposed to make people paranoid and feel
as though there's an FBI agent behind every mailbox. So
here apparently was an effort to make me paranoid and
know that there was an FBI agent behind my phone.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Betty was never able to confirm that he was an
FBI agent, but I mean, who else could it be?
And this wouldn't be the only time she would have
an unnerving run in that made her wonder was the
FBI now after her? Turns out that first batch of
(22:27):
stolen FBI documents was just the beginning. The files kept coming.
Checking the mail each morning, became a moment of high
drama for Betty.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
So one Saturday, I was at my desk and I
had received more files from the more FBI files, and
I was sitting there reading starting to read them, and
this man I had never seen came up and introduced
himself and said, I've been watching your mail and I
see that you're getting these files from the FBI. And
(22:58):
then he said, I also see that your mother is
writing to you from Johnstown, that you're occasionally getting mail
from her. And that's a sort of a strange thing
for somebody to be saying. But it was even stranger
than that, because yes, my mother lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
(23:18):
but she had never written to me at the Washington Post.
She didn't even know the address of the Washington Post.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
This was a downright freaky interaction. Oh hi there, Yeah,
we've never met, but I'm keeping really close tabs on
your mail. Just FYI, By the way, how's your mom,
whom I've also never met? Is she still getting her
hair done at that same place on the third Tuesday
of every month. Fantastic Betty was getting an object lesson
and what it meant for the FBI to sew paranoia.
(23:48):
Why was the bureau going to such lengths to rattle her?
Was this petty retaliation or were there more secrets yet
to be revealed? The anonymous packages had been mailed from Pennsylvania.
Betty had previously worked as a reporter in Philadelphia, so
she was well sourced in the area. She reached out
to a source she thought might know where the files
(24:09):
were being kept, and even better, might be able to
get Betty access to any remaining files.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
She was very open to the idea, and she said,
let me pursue people that would seem like logical connections
and get back to you. So I was very excited,
and as I walked back into the newsroom from that appointment,
(24:36):
I walked past Ken Clawson's desk.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
You might remember Ken Clawson. He was the Washington Post
reporter who had confirmed the authenticity of the stolen files
on the day Betty received them. Clawson actually even shared
a byline with Betty on that first story because of
his contribution. One thing worth mentioning here. It just so
happens Clawson had written a glowing story on Hoover for
the Post just a few months earlier.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I just spontaneously just stopped and I said, Ken, I
just had the most wonderful thing happen. I told him
what had happened, and that there was a possibility that
I would be able to go someplace and see all
of the stolen files. And his eyes just came alert
and then hardened, and he said, I'm going with you.
(25:25):
In that moment, I knew I had made a terrible mistake.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Betty thought back to that fluff piece that Clawson had
written on Jay Edgar Hoover months earlier. Maybe it was
best not to let Clawson be Woodward to herb Bernstein.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
And I said, well, no, Ken, these are confidential sources
of mine and there's no way that they would let
me bring somebody else along. And he said no, he said,
I will have to go with you. And at that
point I somehow graciously got out of the conversation. About
a half hour passed and I looked up and there
(26:02):
was Ken, and he said, in very stern language, I
am going with you when you go to see those files.
He was saying it as though he had the power
to give me an order, which wasn't true.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
So Betty reached out to her source and canceled their rendezvous.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I had to make that assumption that he was so
close to the FBI that if we went and actually
found where the documents were, that the FBI might be
there too.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Betty never learned for sure. Y Clawson was so weirdly
aggressive that day. But a year later he left the
Washington Post for a job at the White House as
Richard Nixon's communications officer. And guess what he proudly displayed
on his new White House desk.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Framed photograph that was signed to Ken with affection Jay Edgar.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
As it turns out, just as Betty suspected, the files
she was receiving, well, they would just be the tip
of the iceberg. The full picture was going to upend
everything the American public thought they knew about the FBI
and would knock a revered American hero off his throne.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
President's official spokesman claims creating fear mistrustance has spread far
out of control its penetration in labor union's, college campuses, churches,
The FBI had under surveillance every political figure, every student activist,
and every leader for peace and justice in this country.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So who exactly was responsible for exposing the FBI's secrets
who were these anonymous citizens who sent Betty those files?
And how the hell did they successfully break into the
nation's most powerful law enforcement agency, all under the cover
of a huge boxing match. Hang on a second, that
(28:16):
plot is actually sounding kind of familiar. On a fight
night like the one two weeks from the night to
night that we're going to rob it one hundred and
fifty million without breaking a sweat. Oceans eleven one of
my all time favorite heist movies from Master of the
Heist himself, filmmaker Steven Soderberg. Speaking of Steven, while you
were making Oceans, did you know about this actual real
(28:39):
life burglary that took place on a fight night? No,
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
I have so many questions.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I do too, Stephen, I do too. I'm excited for
you to learn more about this story.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I have never listened to a podcast before. Obviously I
have to hear this, all right, Stephen, and listeners get ready.
This season you'll hear how Jay Edgar Hoover embroiled the
FBI in one of the worst intelligence snaffoos of all time,
The daring heist that exposed it all and the staggering
(29:18):
fallout that sent shock waves through America.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
We love to say that we learned our burglary skills
from nons and priests. One day he came up to
me and he said, would you like to be part
of a small group where we're going to go after
the FBI. I just felt like I was living in
the heart of the dragon and it was just my
job to stop the fire.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
And this seemed like a way to do it.
Speaker 6 (29:44):
I was just really angry, that's really and I thought,
here's something that might just make a great, big difference.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Holy shit, we are really here. This is dynamite stuff.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
There was no place to hide. They released their powers
against you.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Mike.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Well, that was either the FBI or the heating system,
and there's only one.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Way to find out which Maney of the tech names
were clearly illegal but justified in the interest of national security.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
If it meant some risks that were involved, well that's
what citizens sometimes have to do.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Snafoo is a production of iHeartRadio, Film, Nation Entertainment, and
Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio. This
season of Snapoo is based on the book The Burglary,
The discovery of j Edgar Hoover's secret FBI, written by
Betty Metzger. It's executive produced by me Ed Helms, Milan Papelka,
Mike Valbo, Whitney Donaldson, Andy Chug, Dylan Fagan, and Betty Metzger.
(30:55):
Our lead producers are Sarah Joyner and Alyssa Martine. Producer
is Stephen Wood. This episode was written by Albert Chen,
Sarah Joyner and Stephen Wood, with additional writing and story
editing from Melissa Martino and Ed Helms. Tory Smith is
our associate producer. Nevin Callapoly is our production assistant. Fact
checking by Charles Richter. Our creative executive is Brett Harris.
(31:17):
Sensitivity consult from Oloakemi Ala de Sui, editing, sound design
and original music by Ben Chugg, Engineering and technical direction
by Nick Dooley. Additional editing from Kelsey Albright, Olivia Canny
and Jimma Castelli Foley. Theme music by Dan Rosatto. Special
thanks to Alison Cohen, Daniel Welsh and Ben Riizak. Additional
(31:38):
thanks to director Joanna Hamilton for letting us use some
of the original interviews from her incredible documentary nineteen seventy one. Finally,
our deepest gratitude to the Courageous Citizens Commission to Investigate
the FBI, Bill Davidon, Ralph Daniel, Judy Fine, Gold, Heath Forsyth,
Bonnie Rains, John Rains, Sarah Schumer and Bob Williamson was
(32:03):
talking m
Hey there, it's your host ed helms. Here. Real quick,
before we dive into this episode, I wanted to remind
you that my brand new book is coming out on
April twenty ninth. It's called Snaffo, The Definitive Guide to
History's Greatest screw Ups, and you can pre order it
right now at snafudashbook dot com. Trust me, if you
(00:22):
like this show, you're gonna love this book. It's got
all the wild disasters, spectacular face plants we just couldn't
squeeze into this podcast. And here's the kicker. I am
also going on tour to celebrate that's right. I'm coming
to New York, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco,
and my hometown Los Angeles. So if you've ever wanted
(00:45):
to see me stumble through a live Q and A
or dramatically read about a kiddie cat getting turned into
a CIA operative, now's your chance again. Head to Snaffo
dashbook dot com to pre order the book and check
out all the tour details and day it's or just
click the link in the show notes that'll work too.
(01:07):
It's March eighth, nineteen seventy one and just about every
human being on planet Earth is completely consumed by one
single event.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Heavy wait boxers Joe Praise You're and Mihamad Ali meet
in New York's Madison Square. The richest fight of all
times had more work. At least twenty five foreign countries
will show the.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Fight on TV. Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frasier, better known
as the Fight of the Century. I want to tell
you this is going to be a spectacular evening. Attention
of the excitement here is monumental. A lucky twenty thousand
have scored tickets to watch the fight at Madison Square Garden.
Anyone who's anyone is there. The VIPs include a couple
(01:47):
of Kennedy's foreign dignitaries astronauts who just returned from the moon.
Ringside is a who's who of seventies icons, Ed Sullivan,
Hugh Hefner, Diana Ross, Barbara streisand all here to see this.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Guy inful, beautiful, red and white robe.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Ali, the former heavyweight champ, is battling to reclaim his
title from current champ Fraser. Joe Fraser.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Ladies and gentlemen, that seems to be a mingling of
booms with you.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
As the opening bell nears, the time stops. Around the world,
people rush to their TVs and radios. City streets completely empty.
Out in barracks across Vietnam, US servicemen huddle around transistor radios.
Inside an arena in Chicago, an actual riot erupts when
the projector breaks down right before the fight starts. I'm
(02:42):
al and the red trunk, Joe Fraser and the Brain
Trunk lay up there very light, which all means that
some one hundred miles south of New York City, in
a small Pennsylvania town called Media, the streets are even
sleepier than usual. Downtown is deserted. They're no policemen on patrol,
(03:08):
no locals out for an evening stroll, and no one
keeping a close eye on the entrance of a four
story brick building that sits at one veteran square. So
when the doors to that building swing open and two
men and two women walk out, nervously carrying bulging suitcases
and loading them into a car out front, no one
(03:30):
takes notice. Those four folks with the suitcases, Well, they're
not leaving for a trip. They're part of a team
of burglars who decided this was the perfect night to
do something unthinkable, rob the FBI, break into their offices,
steal every document in sight, and zoom off into the
(03:53):
night with a trunk full of secrets. I'm Ed Helms
and this is Snaffoo, a show about history's greatest screw ups.
Last season we told you all about Able Archer eighty three,
the nuclear near miss which could have ended the world
(04:13):
as we know it. This season, we bring you Medburg,
the story of a daring heist and the colossal FBI
snaffo it exposed.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It was a Tuesday that morning. I arrive and as usual,
I go to the mail room first and pick up
my mail.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
This is journalist Betty Medsker. That Tuesday was March twenty third,
nineteen seventy one, two weeks after the Ali Fraser fight.
It began like any other morning. Betty woke up in
her apartment in Washington, d c. She had her usual
breakfast a couple of pieces of toast, took the city
bus to work, and arrived at the Washington Post offices
(05:10):
at ten o'clock.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I'd been off for two days and so there was
a huge stack of mail. But this one stood out,
not only because it was a large entlop, but because
of the return address, which was Liberty Publications Media, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Betty was a born Pennsylvanian, but she'd never heard of
Liberty Publications. She took the envelope with her to the newsroom.
You might have a picture of that Washington Post newsroom,
typewriters clacking away like machine gun fire, thick haze of
cigarette smoke, someone screaming copy, Woodward and Bernstein running around
shaking notepads at each other with their latest scoop. Well,
(05:52):
that picture, immortalized in the classic book and movie All
the President's Men, is actually pretty darn close, especially according
to Betty the cigarette smoke.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Is there any place you don't smoke?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
But in the spring of nineteen seventy one, Woodward and
Bernstein were still Nobody's Watergate was still just a hotel,
and the Washington Post hadn't yet become the crusading institution
that took down the Nixon White House. Betty herself was
a young reporter who'd been at the paper for just
a year. Her beat was religion, and she shared an
(06:25):
office about the size of a walk in closet with
a motley crew of fellow reporters.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
There were six of us in there, and we wrote science, medicine,
and education and religion. An editor made up a term.
It was called Smirsh Science, medicine, education, religion and all
that shit. So that's where I worked.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You worked in the Smirsh department.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I worked in the Smursh department.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But that morning Betty didn't have time for any smershion around.
Like any good journalists who's just been sent a mysterious envelope,
she was dying to know what was inside.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
When I got to my office, I opened that envelope. First,
dear friend, enclosed, you will find copies of certain files
from the Media Pennsylvania Office of the FBI which were
removed by our Commission for Public Scrutiny. We are making
(07:28):
these copies of.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
The letter went on to say that Betty had permission
to make copies of the files and to publish their contents.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Your degree a public association or disassociation with our Commission
is entirely a matter of your choice. Sincerely, the Citizens
Commission to Investigate the FBI. I'm shocked. I think most
(07:56):
people in the United States couldn't imagine that anybody would
have the nerve to break into an FBI office, and
would have thought that such a place would have been
the most secure place.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Inside the envelope were fourteen xerox FBI files. It didn't
take long for Betty to grasp that these documents were explosive.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
The first one was pretty shocking. It was a document
urging agents to increase interviews with dissenters and quote for
plenty of reasons, chief of which are enhanced the paranoia
endemic in these circles, and further served to get the
point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
An FBI agent behind every mailbox, sort of like Uncle Fester,
but in wingtips. At first, Betty wondered if what she
was reading was a hoax to enhance paranoia. Seriously, she
kept reading.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
One of the things was a file on Swarthmore College,
and it revealed that every black student on the Swaphthmore
campus was under FBI surveillance. And this was being done
by people who had been hired by the FBI as informers,
and included switchbird operators, letter carriers, the postmaster of Swarthmore,
(09:25):
the local police chief, and some college administrators.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
And it didn't stop at this one Liberal Arts College.
There was a pattern. Files in the envelope showed the
FBI was surveilling citizens all over Philadelphia. The subjects Betty
was reading about in these files they were anti war protesters,
civil rights activists, labor unions, and a noticeably high percentage
were black.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
The FBI was operating something that was very much like
the Stosse was operating in East Germany. What became clear
was every document was telling a story about FBI power
that was unknown to anyone outside the FBI.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
That brassy, jingoistic tune comes from a big budget nineteen
fifty nine Hollywood production called The FBI Story, made in
cooperation with the Bureau itself. The movie spins through the
greatest hits of agency cases, from the Osage Indian murderers
to the pursuit of communists. And it wouldn't be an
all American field good story without everyone's favorite leading man,
(10:43):
Jimmy Stewart tell n.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Why twenty one if and when White he passes the
cor and arrest them.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Stewart played the quintessential FBI agent. He was conservative, level headed, trustworthy,
clean shaven, well quaffed, and of course white. A government
man or in the parlance of the day, A g
man and g men were American heroes. FBI myth making
(11:10):
was pretty much its own genre of entertainment in the
mid twentieth century. It wasn't just movies. FBI agents were
valiant heroes in comic books and radio shows.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
This is Your FBI, the official broadcast from the files
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
And they were the stars of a TV show that,
in nineteen seventy one was in its sixth season and
at the height of its popularity the FBI. The FBI
story was everywhere, and that didn't happen by accident. The
story of the bureau, familiar to most Americans, was crafted
by one man, the ultimate g man.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
America stands at the crossroads of destiny. It is a
common destiny in which we shall all finally stand all four.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That's Jay Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the FBI. He
was a small man, but terrifyingly intimidating, so buttoned up
that he made Beaver Cleaver look like a Hell's angel.
Hoover was also a brilliant pr man, transforming a relatively
obscure bureau of the Justice Department into a nationally revered
household name that FBI TV show. Hoover was intimately involved
(12:25):
in its production, often suggesting storylines. As for that Jimmy
Stewart movie. Hoover edited and approved the scripts himself, and
he tasked FBI agents with investigating every person on set,
even the gaffers. Caffle with the lighting guys. It's starting
to look a little communist. As far as Hoover's message
(12:45):
to the American people, it was simple. They could always
count on the FBI.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I take humble prize, insenitally stating here tonight that as
long as I am Director of the FBI, he will
cont you to maintain its high and impartial standards of investigation.
Despite the hostile opinions of its detractors.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
The vast majority of Americans revered Hoover. A Gallup poll
in nineteen seventy one found that over seventy percent of
Americans thought he was doing a good, too excellent job.
Only seven percent had a negative view of him. Hoover
had been exempted from compulsory retirement in the nineteen sixties,
which essentially made him FBI director for life. His power
(13:37):
across five decades was unquestioned when someone suggested to John F.
Kennedy that maybe it wasn't a great idea for one
person to have all that power for that long. Kennedy
then the President replied with resignation. You don't fire God,
Hey God, sorry a bug. Yeah, you are fired, damn it.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Furthermore, the FBI will continue to be objective in its investigations,
and we'll stay within the bounds of its authorized jurisdiction,
regardless of pressure groups which seek to use the FBI
to attain their own selfish aims to the detriment of
(14:20):
our people as a whole.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Back at the Washington Post offices, Betty Metzger was holding
documents that did not jibe with the FBI. America knew
the contents of the files were so shocking, so illegal,
Betty was skeptical that they were actually real. She took
the files to an editor.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I explained that I've just received these files that are
stolen from an FBI office, and she stops me, and
she says, we just got a call from Ken klok.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Ken Clawson was a veteran reporter who was well sourced
inside the federal government. That morning, one of Clawson's government
sources had reached out to him, asking if anyone at
the post had received stolen FBI documents. If the FBI
was asking about them, then clearly the files Betty received
were authentic.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I start to confront within myself the significance and the
danger involved. I realized I needed to think about what
I was doing. I needed to think about the personal
implications of it.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Betty knew that writing this story could make her an
enemy of the FBI, something nobody wanted, as it could
have very real consequences.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I'm concerned about fingerprints on the files that I've received,
so I thought it was very important, even when I
just thought of fingerprints, that I protect them as though
they were people that I had faced and made a
promise to.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
And so, despite knowing that it could create powerful enemies
for this, heretofore under the radar smirsh reporter, Betty sat
down to write her story.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I just stayed on the office, working and writing and
rewriting the stories all afternoon. Like any other story, I
would simply write it and hand it in and it
would be published the next day.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
But this wasn't like any other story. Betty finished the
piece and turned it in at six pm.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I then learned that it might not be published the
next day, and might not ever be published, And that
was a great shot.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
If Betty's story never saw the light of day, then
the public might never know that the FBI was watching them.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Catherine Graham was very frightened by the situation.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Catherine Graham was the publisher of the Washington Post. Graham
is a journalism legend who received the loftiest honor you
can imagine. Meryl Streep played her in a movie.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Do You Have the Papers?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Not Yet? The movie The Post is all about Catherine
Graham and her executive editor Ben Bradley, and their decision
to publish a batch of leaked federal documents known as
the Pentagon Papers. But that was all yet to come.
On this day, March twenty third, nineteen seventy one, no
American newspaper had ever published government documents stolen by sources
(17:51):
from outside the government. Graham and the Post leadership were
in completely uncharted territory.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
It was not just that unprecedented and that the documents
had been stolen. We had them by virtue of a
crime being committed.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Betty would later learn that earlier that day, the Attorney
General of the United States. John Mitchell had repeatedly phoned
the Post demanding that they not publish her story.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It was the first time that the publisher had been
asked by the administration to suppress a story they didn't
want the public to know.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The Attorney General claimed that the documents could damage national security.
That sounded plausible, except Betty and her editors, unlike the
Attorney General, had actually read the documents. Did they threaten
to embarrass the government? Absolutely, But there was nothing in
those files that even touched on national security.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
The government had the power to hurt the institution, and
Catherine Graham had responsibility for protecting the institution.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Hours passed. Finally Betty's phone rang.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
At ten o'clock. I get a call saying that the
decision was just made. The decision was made to publish.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Stolen documents describe FBI surveillance activities. That was the headline
plastered on the front page of the Washington Post, on
newsstands and doorsteps all over America on March twenty fourth,
nineteen seventy one. The story painted a picture of an
FBI far different from the g men Americans knew from
(19:35):
their TV sets and radios. It described a vast surveillance
network infiltrating college campuses, targeting black students and activists, and
intentionally trying to create an atmosphere of paranoia. The reaction
to the story was tectonic. Soon members of Congress were
calling for an investigation into the FBI and for the public.
(19:58):
Trips to the mailbox were never quite the same.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Burglars had an FBI resident office at FBI records stolen
from the media Pennsilvan and FBI records which have been
made in public include a letter in which.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Betty had seen just fourteen files. The letter from the
Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI implied that there were
still more files in their possession. What Betty didn't know
yet was just how many and how much more damning
those documents would be. But for the time being, Betty
was just thrilled to see her story published.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I was very excited, and early that morning I went
opened my apartment door and picked up my newspaper and
was happy to see it there.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
But the story didn't end there. Betty's article was highly
embarrassing for the FBI, which, as she was about to learn,
put her on j Edgar Hoover's radar.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
The FBI entered my life very soon after that. I
decided to call a friend in Philadelphia and share my excitement.
I lifted the receiver on my kitchen phone and a
(21:16):
man spoke to me and said, what are you doing?
And this is a great shock to pick up your
phone and somebody talking to you. And I said, who
are you? What are you doing? And did not reveal
who they were, but kept asking me who was I
trying to call? And why was I trying to call someone?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Here?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I was the reporter who had just written that the
FBI agents are supposed to make people paranoid and feel
as though there's an FBI agent behind every mailbox. So
here apparently was an effort to make me paranoid and
know that there was an FBI agent behind my phone.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Betty was never able to confirm that he was an
FBI agent, but I mean, who else could it be?
And this wouldn't be the only time she would have
an unnerving run in that made her wonder was the
FBI now after her? Turns out that first batch of
(22:27):
stolen FBI documents was just the beginning. The files kept coming.
Checking the mail each morning, became a moment of high
drama for Betty.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
So one Saturday, I was at my desk and I
had received more files from the more FBI files, and
I was sitting there reading starting to read them, and
this man I had never seen came up and introduced
himself and said, I've been watching your mail and I
see that you're getting these files from the FBI. And
(22:58):
then he said, I also see that your mother is
writing to you from Johnstown, that you're occasionally getting mail
from her. And that's a sort of a strange thing
for somebody to be saying. But it was even stranger
than that, because yes, my mother lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
(23:18):
but she had never written to me at the Washington Post.
She didn't even know the address of the Washington Post.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
This was a downright freaky interaction. Oh hi there, Yeah,
we've never met, but I'm keeping really close tabs on
your mail. Just FYI, By the way, how's your mom,
whom I've also never met? Is she still getting her
hair done at that same place on the third Tuesday
of every month. Fantastic Betty was getting an object lesson
and what it meant for the FBI to sew paranoia.
(23:48):
Why was the bureau going to such lengths to rattle her?
Was this petty retaliation or were there more secrets yet
to be revealed? The anonymous packages had been mailed from Pennsylvania.
Betty had previously worked as a reporter in Philadelphia, so
she was well sourced in the area. She reached out
to a source she thought might know where the files
(24:09):
were being kept, and even better, might be able to
get Betty access to any remaining files.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
She was very open to the idea, and she said,
let me pursue people that would seem like logical connections
and get back to you. So I was very excited,
and as I walked back into the newsroom from that appointment,
(24:36):
I walked past Ken Clawson's desk.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
You might remember Ken Clawson. He was the Washington Post
reporter who had confirmed the authenticity of the stolen files
on the day Betty received them. Clawson actually even shared
a byline with Betty on that first story because of
his contribution. One thing worth mentioning here. It just so
happens Clawson had written a glowing story on Hoover for
the Post just a few months earlier.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I just spontaneously just stopped and I said, Ken, I
just had the most wonderful thing happen. I told him
what had happened, and that there was a possibility that
I would be able to go someplace and see all
of the stolen files. And his eyes just came alert
and then hardened, and he said, I'm going with you.
(25:25):
In that moment, I knew I had made a terrible mistake.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Betty thought back to that fluff piece that Clawson had
written on Jay Edgar Hoover months earlier. Maybe it was
best not to let Clawson be Woodward to herb Bernstein.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
And I said, well, no, Ken, these are confidential sources
of mine and there's no way that they would let
me bring somebody else along. And he said no, he said,
I will have to go with you. And at that
point I somehow graciously got out of the conversation. About
a half hour passed and I looked up and there
(26:02):
was Ken, and he said, in very stern language, I
am going with you when you go to see those files.
He was saying it as though he had the power
to give me an order, which wasn't true.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
So Betty reached out to her source and canceled their rendezvous.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I had to make that assumption that he was so
close to the FBI that if we went and actually
found where the documents were, that the FBI might be
there too.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Betty never learned for sure. Y Clawson was so weirdly
aggressive that day. But a year later he left the
Washington Post for a job at the White House as
Richard Nixon's communications officer. And guess what he proudly displayed
on his new White House desk.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Framed photograph that was signed to Ken with affection Jay Edgar.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
As it turns out, just as Betty suspected, the files
she was receiving, well, they would just be the tip
of the iceberg. The full picture was going to upend
everything the American public thought they knew about the FBI
and would knock a revered American hero off his throne.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
President's official spokesman claims creating fear mistrustance has spread far
out of control its penetration in labor union's, college campuses, churches,
The FBI had under surveillance every political figure, every student activist,
and every leader for peace and justice in this country.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So who exactly was responsible for exposing the FBI's secrets
who were these anonymous citizens who sent Betty those files?
And how the hell did they successfully break into the
nation's most powerful law enforcement agency, all under the cover
of a huge boxing match. Hang on a second, that
(28:16):
plot is actually sounding kind of familiar. On a fight
night like the one two weeks from the night to
night that we're going to rob it one hundred and
fifty million without breaking a sweat. Oceans eleven one of
my all time favorite heist movies from Master of the
Heist himself, filmmaker Steven Soderberg. Speaking of Steven, while you
were making Oceans, did you know about this actual real
(28:39):
life burglary that took place on a fight night? No,
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
I have so many questions.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I do too, Stephen, I do too. I'm excited for
you to learn more about this story.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I have never listened to a podcast before. Obviously I
have to hear this, all right, Stephen, and listeners get ready.
This season you'll hear how Jay Edgar Hoover embroiled the
FBI in one of the worst intelligence snaffoos of all time,
The daring heist that exposed it all and the staggering
(29:18):
fallout that sent shock waves through America.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
We love to say that we learned our burglary skills
from nons and priests. One day he came up to
me and he said, would you like to be part
of a small group where we're going to go after
the FBI. I just felt like I was living in
the heart of the dragon and it was just my
job to stop the fire.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
And this seemed like a way to do it.
Speaker 6 (29:44):
I was just really angry, that's really and I thought,
here's something that might just make a great, big difference.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Holy shit, we are really here. This is dynamite stuff.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
There was no place to hide. They released their powers
against you.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Mike.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Well, that was either the FBI or the heating system,
and there's only one.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Way to find out which Maney of the tech names
were clearly illegal but justified in the interest of national security.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
If it meant some risks that were involved, well that's
what citizens sometimes have to do.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Snafoo is a production of iHeartRadio, Film, Nation Entertainment, and
Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio. This
season of Snapoo is based on the book The Burglary,
The discovery of j Edgar Hoover's secret FBI, written by
Betty Metzger. It's executive produced by me Ed Helms, Milan Papelka,
Mike Valbo, Whitney Donaldson, Andy Chug, Dylan Fagan, and Betty Metzger.
(30:55):
Our lead producers are Sarah Joyner and Alyssa Martine. Producer
is Stephen Wood. This episode was written by Albert Chen,
Sarah Joyner and Stephen Wood, with additional writing and story
editing from Melissa Martino and Ed Helms. Tory Smith is
our associate producer. Nevin Callapoly is our production assistant. Fact
checking by Charles Richter. Our creative executive is Brett Harris.
(31:17):
Sensitivity consult from Oloakemi Ala de Sui, editing, sound design
and original music by Ben Chugg, Engineering and technical direction
by Nick Dooley. Additional editing from Kelsey Albright, Olivia Canny
and Jimma Castelli Foley. Theme music by Dan Rosatto. Special
thanks to Alison Cohen, Daniel Welsh and Ben Riizak. Additional
(31:38):
thanks to director Joanna Hamilton for letting us use some
of the original interviews from her incredible documentary nineteen seventy one. Finally,
our deepest gratitude to the Courageous Citizens Commission to Investigate
the FBI, Bill Davidon, Ralph Daniel, Judy Fine, Gold, Heath Forsyth,
Bonnie Rains, John Rains, Sarah Schumer and Bob Williamson was
(32:03):
talking m
Host
Ed Helms
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