0:01

Hey there, it's your host ed helms. Here.

0:03

Real quick, before we dive into this episode,

0:06

I wanted to remind you that my brand

0:08

new book is coming out on April

0:10

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0:12

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out all the tour details and day it's

1:01

or just click the link in the show notes that'll work

1:03

too.

1:07

It's March eighth, nineteen seventy one

1:09

and just about every human being on planet Earth

1:12

is completely consumed by one

1:14

single event.

1:15

Heavy wait boxers Joe Praise You're and

1:17

Mihamad Ali meet in New York's Madison

1:19

Square. The richest fight of all times

1:21

had more work. At least twenty five foreign

1:24

countries will show the.

1:25

Fight on TV. Muhammad Ali versus

1:27

Joe Frasier, better known as

1:29

the Fight of the Century. I

1:34

want to tell you this is going to be a spectacular

1:36

evening. Attention of the excitement

1:38

here is monumental. A lucky

1:41

twenty thousand have scored tickets to watch the fight

1:43

at Madison Square Garden. Anyone

1:45

who's anyone is there. The VIPs include

1:47

a couple of Kennedy's foreign dignitaries

1:50

astronauts who just returned from the moon.

1:53

Ringside is a who's who of seventies

1:55

icons, Ed Sullivan, Hugh Hefner,

1:57

Diana Ross, Barbara streisand all

2:00

here to see this.

2:01

Guy inful,

2:04

beautiful, red and white robe.

2:07

Ali, the former heavyweight champ, is battling

2:10

to reclaim his title from current champ Fraser.

2:14

Joe Fraser.

2:15

Ladies and gentlemen, that

2:18

seems to be a mingling of booms with

2:20

you.

2:20

As the opening bell nears, the time stops.

2:23

Around the world, people rush

2:25

to their TVs and radios. City

2:28

streets completely empty. Out in

2:30

barracks across Vietnam, US servicemen

2:32

huddle around transistor radios. Inside

2:35

an arena in Chicago, an actual

2:38

riot erupts when the projector breaks down

2:40

right before the fight starts. I'm al

2:43

and the red trunk, Joe Fraser and

2:45

the Brain Trunk lay up there very light,

2:54

which all means that some one hundred miles south

2:56

of New York City, in a small Pennsylvania

2:58

town called Media, the

3:00

streets are even sleepier than usual.

3:04

Downtown is deserted. They're

3:07

no policemen on patrol, no locals

3:09

out for an evening stroll, and no one

3:11

keeping a close eye on the entrance of a

3:13

four story brick building that sits

3:15

at one veteran square. So

3:18

when the doors to that building swing open

3:21

and two men and two women walk out, nervously

3:24

carrying bulging suitcases and

3:26

loading them into a car out front, no

3:29

one takes notice.

3:32

Those four folks with the suitcases, Well,

3:35

they're not leaving for a trip. They're

3:37

part of a team of burglars who decided

3:40

this was the perfect night to do

3:42

something unthinkable, rob

3:45

the FBI, break

3:48

into their offices, steal every document

3:51

in sight, and zoom off into the

3:53

night with a trunk full

3:55

of secrets.

4:01

I'm Ed Helms and this is Snaffoo,

4:04

a show about history's greatest screw

4:06

ups. Last season we told you

4:08

all about Able Archer eighty three, the

4:11

nuclear near miss which could have ended

4:13

the world as we know it. This season,

4:16

we bring you Medburg, the

4:18

story of a daring heist and the

4:20

colossal FBI snaffo

4:22

it exposed.

4:40

It was a Tuesday that morning.

4:43

I arrive and as usual, I go to

4:45

the mail room first and pick

4:48

up my mail.

4:50

This is journalist Betty Medsker. That

4:52

Tuesday was March twenty third, nineteen seventy

4:55

one, two weeks after the Ali Fraser

4:57

fight. It began like any other morning.

5:00

Betty woke up in her apartment in Washington,

5:02

d c. She had her usual breakfast

5:04

a couple of pieces of toast, took the city

5:07

bus to work, and arrived at the Washington

5:09

Post offices at ten o'clock.

5:11

I'd been off for two days and so there

5:13

was a huge stack of mail.

5:16

But this one stood out, not only

5:18

because it was a large entlop, but

5:21

because of the return address,

5:23

which was Liberty Publications

5:25

Media, Pennsylvania.

5:28

Betty was a born Pennsylvanian, but she'd

5:30

never heard of Liberty Publications. She

5:33

took the envelope with her to the newsroom.

5:35

You might have a picture of that Washington Post

5:37

newsroom, typewriters clacking

5:40

away like machine gun fire, thick

5:42

haze of cigarette smoke, someone screaming

5:45

copy, Woodward and Bernstein

5:47

running around shaking notepads at each other

5:49

with their latest scoop. Well,

5:52

that picture, immortalized in the classic

5:54

book and movie All the President's

5:56

Men, is actually pretty darn

5:58

close, especially according

6:00

to Betty the cigarette smoke.

6:02

Is there any place you don't smoke?

6:05

But in the spring of nineteen seventy one, Woodward

6:07

and Bernstein were still Nobody's

6:10

Watergate was still just a hotel, and

6:12

the Washington Post hadn't yet become

6:14

the crusading institution that took down

6:17

the Nixon White House. Betty herself

6:19

was a young reporter who'd been at the paper for

6:21

just a year. Her beat was religion,

6:24

and she shared an office about the size of

6:26

a walk in closet with a motley

6:28

crew of fellow reporters.

6:31

There were six of us in there, and

6:34

we wrote science, medicine, and education

6:36

and religion. An editor

6:39

made up a term. It was called Smirsh

6:42

Science, medicine, education, religion

6:45

and all that shit. So that's where I

6:47

worked.

6:48

You worked in the Smirsh department.

6:50

I worked in the Smursh department.

6:53

But that morning Betty didn't have time for

6:55

any smershion around. Like

6:57

any good journalists who's just been sent a

6:59

mysterious envelope, she was dying

7:01

to know what was inside.

7:04

When I got to my office, I opened

7:07

that envelope. First, dear

7:14

friend, enclosed, you

7:16

will find copies of certain files

7:18

from the Media Pennsylvania Office of the

7:21

FBI which were removed

7:23

by our Commission for

7:25

Public Scrutiny. We are

7:27

making these copies of.

7:28

The letter went on to say that Betty had permission to

7:30

make copies of the files and to publish

7:33

their contents.

7:34

Your degree a public association

7:37

or disassociation with our

7:39

Commission is entirely a

7:41

matter of your choice.

7:45

Sincerely, the Citizens Commission

7:47

to Investigate the FBI. I'm

7:55

shocked. I think most people in

7:57

the United States couldn't imagine that anybody

7:59

would have the nerve to break into

8:01

an FBI office, and would

8:04

have thought that such a place would have been

8:06

the most secure place.

8:09

Inside the envelope were fourteen xerox

8:11

FBI files. It didn't take

8:14

long for Betty to grasp that these documents

8:17

were explosive.

8:18

The first one was pretty shocking. It

8:21

was a document urging agents to increase

8:23

interviews with dissenters

8:26

and quote for plenty of reasons,

8:29

chief of which are enhanced

8:32

the paranoia endemic in these

8:34

circles, and further served

8:36

to get the point across that there

8:38

is an FBI agent behind every

8:40

mailbox.

8:42

An FBI agent behind every

8:45

mailbox, sort

8:47

of like Uncle Fester, but in wingtips.

8:52

At first, Betty wondered if what she was reading

8:54

was a hoax to enhance paranoia.

8:57

Seriously, she kept reading.

9:00

One of the things was a file

9:02

on Swarthmore College, and

9:04

it revealed that every black

9:06

student on the Swaphthmore campus

9:10

was under FBI surveillance. And

9:12

this was being done by people

9:14

who had been hired by the FBI

9:17

as informers, and included switchbird

9:19

operators, letter carriers,

9:22

the postmaster of Swarthmore,

9:25

the local police chief, and some

9:28

college administrators.

9:30

And it didn't stop at this one Liberal Arts College.

9:33

There was a pattern. Files in the

9:35

envelope showed the FBI was surveilling citizens

9:38

all over Philadelphia. The

9:40

subjects Betty was reading about in these files

9:42

they were anti war protesters, civil

9:44

rights activists, labor unions,

9:47

and a noticeably high percentage were

9:49

black.

9:51

The FBI was operating something

9:54

that was very much like the

9:56

Stosse was operating

9:58

in East Germany. What

10:01

became clear was every document

10:04

was telling a story about

10:06

FBI power that was

10:09

unknown to anyone outside

10:11

the FBI.

10:19

That brassy, jingoistic tune comes

10:21

from a big budget nineteen fifty nine Hollywood

10:24

production called The FBI

10:26

Story, made in cooperation

10:29

with the Bureau itself. The

10:32

movie spins through the greatest hits of agency

10:34

cases, from the Osage Indian murderers

10:36

to the pursuit of communists. And it wouldn't

10:39

be an all American field good story without

10:41

everyone's favorite leading man, Jimmy

10:44

Stewart tell n.

10:45

Why twenty one if and when White

10:47

he passes the cor and arrest them.

10:50

Stewart played the quintessential FBI

10:53

agent. He was conservative, level

10:55

headed, trustworthy, clean shaven,

10:57

well quaffed, and of course white.

11:00

A government man or in the parlance

11:03

of the day, A g man

11:06

and g men were American heroes.

11:09

FBI myth making was pretty much its own

11:12

genre of entertainment in the mid twentieth century.

11:14

It wasn't just movies. FBI agents

11:17

were valiant heroes in comic books

11:19

and radio shows.

11:21

This is Your FBI, the official

11:23

broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau

11:25

of Investigation.

11:26

And they were the stars of a TV show that,

11:29

in nineteen seventy one was in its sixth

11:31

season and at the height of its popularity

11:34

the FBI. The

11:37

FBI story was everywhere, and that

11:39

didn't happen by accident. The story

11:42

of the bureau, familiar to most Americans,

11:44

was crafted by one man, the

11:47

ultimate g man.

11:50

America stands at the crossroads

11:52

of destiny. It is a common

11:54

destiny in which we shall all

11:57

finally stand all four.

12:01

That's Jay Edgar Hoover, longtime

12:04

director of the FBI. He was a small

12:06

man, but terrifyingly intimidating, so

12:09

buttoned up that he made Beaver Cleaver look

12:11

like a Hell's angel. Hoover was

12:13

also a brilliant pr man, transforming

12:15

a relatively obscure bureau of the Justice

12:17

Department into a nationally revered

12:20

household name that FBI

12:22

TV show. Hoover was intimately

12:24

involved in its production, often suggesting

12:27

storylines. As for that Jimmy

12:29

Stewart movie. Hoover edited

12:31

and approved the scripts himself, and

12:34

he tasked FBI agents with investigating

12:36

every person on set, even the gaffers.

12:39

Caffle with the lighting guys. It's starting to look

12:41

a little communist. As

12:44

far as Hoover's message to the American people,

12:46

it was simple. They could always

12:48

count on the FBI.

12:51

I take humble prize, insenitally

12:54

stating here tonight that as

12:56

long as I am Director of the FBI, he

12:59

will cont you to maintain

13:01

its high and impartial

13:04

standards of investigation.

13:06

Despite the hostile opinions

13:09

of its detractors.

13:13

The vast majority of Americans revered

13:16

Hoover. A Gallup poll in nineteen

13:18

seventy one found that over seventy percent of Americans

13:21

thought he was doing a good, too

13:23

excellent job. Only seven

13:25

percent had a negative view of him.

13:29

Hoover had been exempted from compulsory

13:31

retirement in the nineteen sixties, which

13:33

essentially made him FBI director for life.

13:36

His power across five decades was unquestioned

13:39

when someone suggested to John F. Kennedy

13:41

that maybe it wasn't a great idea for one

13:44

person to have all that power for that

13:46

long. Kennedy then the President

13:49

replied with resignation. You don't

13:51

fire God, Hey

13:53

God, sorry a bug. Yeah, you are fired,

13:56

damn it.

14:00

Furthermore, the FBI will

14:02

continue to be objective in

14:05

its investigations, and we'll

14:07

stay within the bounds of its authorized

14:10

jurisdiction, regardless

14:12

of pressure groups which seek

14:14

to use the FBI to

14:16

attain their own selfish

14:18

aims to the detriment of

14:20

our people as a whole.

14:32

Back at the Washington Post offices, Betty

14:34

Metzger was holding documents that did

14:36

not jibe with the FBI. America

14:38

knew the contents of the files

14:41

were so shocking, so illegal,

14:44

Betty was skeptical that they were actually

14:46

real. She took the files

14:48

to an editor.

14:50

I explained that I've just received these

14:53

files that are stolen from an FBI office,

14:55

and she stops me, and she says, we

14:58

just got a call from Ken klok.

15:01

Ken Clawson was a veteran reporter who was

15:03

well sourced inside the federal government.

15:05

That morning, one of Clawson's government sources

15:08

had reached out to him, asking if anyone at

15:10

the post had received stolen FBI documents.

15:13

If the FBI was asking about them,

15:16

then clearly the files Betty received

15:18

were authentic.

15:22

I start to confront within myself

15:25

the significance and the danger

15:28

involved. I realized

15:30

I needed to think about what I was doing.

15:33

I needed to think about the personal

15:35

implications of it.

15:38

Betty knew that writing this story could make

15:40

her an enemy of the FBI, something

15:43

nobody wanted, as it could have very

15:45

real consequences.

15:47

I'm concerned about fingerprints

15:50

on the files that I've received, so

15:53

I thought it was very important, even

15:56

when I just thought of fingerprints, that

15:59

I protect them as though

16:01

they were people that I had faced

16:03

and made a promise to.

16:08

And so, despite knowing that it could create

16:10

powerful enemies for this, heretofore

16:13

under the radar smirsh reporter, Betty

16:16

sat down to write her story.

16:18

I just stayed on the office, working and

16:21

writing and rewriting the stories

16:23

all afternoon. Like any other

16:25

story, I would simply write it and hand

16:27

it in and it would be published the next day.

16:30

But this wasn't like any

16:32

other story. Betty

16:35

finished the piece and turned it in at six pm.

16:38

I then learned that it might

16:40

not be published the next day, and might not ever

16:43

be published, And that

16:45

was a great shot.

16:48

If Betty's story never saw the light of day,

16:50

then the public might never know

16:53

that the FBI was watching

16:55

them.

17:10

Catherine Graham was very

17:13

frightened by the situation.

17:15

Catherine Graham was the publisher of the Washington

17:17

Post. Graham is a journalism legend

17:20

who received the loftiest honor you can imagine.

17:22

Meryl Streep played her in a movie.

17:25

Do You Have the Papers?

17:28

Not Yet? The

17:30

movie The Post is all about Catherine

17:33

Graham and her executive editor Ben Bradley,

17:35

and their decision to publish a batch of leaked

17:37

federal documents known as the Pentagon

17:39

Papers. But that was all yet

17:42

to come. On this day, March

17:44

twenty third, nineteen seventy one, no

17:46

American newspaper had ever published

17:49

government documents stolen by

17:51

sources from outside the government. Graham

17:54

and the Post leadership were in completely

17:56

uncharted territory.

17:58

It was not just that unprecedented

18:01

and that the documents had been stolen.

18:04

We had them by virtue of a crime

18:06

being committed.

18:08

Betty would later learn that earlier that day,

18:10

the Attorney General of the United States. John

18:12

Mitchell had repeatedly phoned

18:15

the Post demanding that they not publish

18:17

her story.

18:18

It was the first time that the publisher

18:21

had been asked by the administration to suppress

18:23

a story they didn't want the

18:26

public to know.

18:27

The Attorney General claimed that the documents

18:30

could damage national security. That

18:32

sounded plausible, except

18:34

Betty and her editors, unlike the Attorney

18:36

General, had actually read the documents.

18:39

Did they threaten to embarrass the government? Absolutely,

18:43

But there was nothing in those files that even

18:45

touched on national security.

18:47

The government had the power to

18:50

hurt the institution, and Catherine

18:53

Graham had responsibility

18:55

for protecting the institution.

18:58

Hours passed. Finally

19:00

Betty's phone rang.

19:03

At ten o'clock. I get a call saying

19:06

that the decision was just made.

19:09

The decision was made to publish.

19:14

Stolen documents describe FBI

19:17

surveillance activities. That

19:20

was the headline plastered on the front page

19:22

of the Washington Post, on newsstands

19:24

and doorsteps all over America on

19:26

March twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one.

19:30

The story painted a picture of an FBI far

19:32

different from the g men Americans knew

19:35

from their TV sets and radios. It

19:37

described a vast surveillance network

19:40

infiltrating college campuses, targeting

19:42

black students and activists, and

19:44

intentionally trying to create an atmosphere

19:47

of paranoia. The reaction

19:49

to the story was tectonic. Soon

19:52

members of Congress were calling for an investigation

19:55

into the FBI and for the public.

19:58

Trips to the mailbox were

20:00

never quite the same.

20:02

Burglars had an FBI resident office

20:05

at FBI records stolen from

20:07

the media Pennsilvan and FBI records

20:09

which have been made in public include a letter in

20:11

which.

20:15

Betty had seen just fourteen files. The

20:17

letter from the Citizens Commission to Investigate

20:20

the FBI implied that there were still

20:22

more files in their possession. What

20:24

Betty didn't know yet was just

20:26

how many and how much more

20:29

damning those documents would be. But

20:31

for the time being, Betty was just

20:34

thrilled to see her story published.

20:36

I was very excited, and early

20:38

that morning I went opened my apartment

20:41

door and picked up my newspaper and was happy

20:43

to see it there.

20:45

But the story didn't end there. Betty's

20:47

article was highly embarrassing for the FBI,

20:50

which, as she was about to learn,

20:53

put her on j Edgar Hoover's radar.

20:56

The FBI entered my life very

20:58

soon after that. I

21:05

decided to call a friend in Philadelphia

21:08

and share my excitement. I

21:12

lifted the receiver on my kitchen

21:14

phone and a man

21:16

spoke to me and said,

21:19

what are you doing? And this

21:22

is a great shock to pick up your phone

21:24

and somebody talking to you. And

21:26

I said, who are you? What are you doing? And

21:29

did not reveal who they were, but

21:32

kept asking me who was I trying to call?

21:35

And why was I trying to call someone?

21:37

Here?

21:38

I was the reporter who had just written

21:41

that the FBI agents

21:43

are supposed to make people paranoid and

21:45

feel as though there's an FBI agent behind

21:47

every mailbox. So

21:50

here apparently was an

21:52

effort to make me paranoid and

21:55

know that there was an FBI agent behind my

21:57

phone.

22:00

Betty was never able to confirm that he was an

22:02

FBI agent, but I

22:04

mean, who else could it be? And

22:09

this wouldn't be the only time she would have an unnerving

22:12

run in that made her wonder was

22:14

the FBI now after her?

22:25

Turns out that first batch of stolen FBI

22:28

documents was just the beginning. The

22:30

files kept coming. Checking

22:33

the mail each morning, became a moment of high drama

22:35

for Betty.

22:36

So one Saturday, I was at my desk

22:39

and I had received more files from the more

22:42

FBI files, and I was sitting there

22:44

reading starting to read them, and

22:46

this man I had never seen came

22:48

up and introduced himself and

22:51

said, I've been watching your mail

22:53

and I see that you're getting these

22:55

files from the FBI. And

22:58

then he said, I also see

23:00

that your mother is writing to you

23:03

from Johnstown, that you're occasionally

23:05

getting mail from her. And

23:08

that's a sort of a strange thing

23:11

for somebody to be saying. But it

23:13

was even stranger than that, because yes,

23:16

my mother lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania,

23:18

but she had never written to me at

23:20

the Washington Post. She didn't even

23:23

know the address of the Washington Post.

23:26

This was a downright freaky interaction.

23:29

Oh hi there, Yeah, we've never met, but I'm keeping

23:31

really close tabs on your mail. Just FYI,

23:34

By the way, how's your mom, whom I've also never

23:36

met? Is she still getting her hair done at that same place

23:38

on the third Tuesday of every month. Fantastic

23:43

Betty was getting an object lesson and

23:45

what it meant for the FBI to sew

23:47

paranoia. Why was the bureau

23:49

going to such lengths to rattle her? Was

23:52

this petty retaliation or

23:54

were there more secrets yet to be revealed?

23:58

The anonymous packages had been mailed from

24:00

Pennsylvania. Betty had previously

24:02

worked as a reporter in Philadelphia, so she

24:04

was well sourced in the area. She

24:06

reached out to a source she thought might know where

24:09

the files were being kept, and even

24:11

better, might be able to get Betty access

24:13

to any remaining files.

24:15

She was very open to

24:18

the idea, and she said, let

24:20

me pursue people that

24:22

would seem like logical connections

24:25

and get back to you. So

24:28

I was very excited, and

24:31

as I walked back into the

24:33

newsroom from that appointment,

24:36

I walked past Ken Clawson's desk.

24:39

You might remember Ken Clawson. He was the

24:41

Washington Post reporter who had confirmed

24:43

the authenticity of the stolen files on the

24:45

day Betty received them. Clawson

24:47

actually even shared a byline with Betty on that

24:49

first story because of his contribution. One

24:52

thing worth mentioning here. It just so happens

24:55

Clawson had written a glowing story

24:57

on Hoover for the Post just a few months

24:59

earlier.

25:01

I just spontaneously just stopped

25:03

and I said, Ken, I just had

25:05

the most wonderful thing happen. I

25:07

told him what had happened, and that there

25:09

was a possibility that I would be able

25:12

to go someplace and see all

25:14

of the stolen files. And

25:16

his eyes just came

25:18

alert and then hardened,

25:21

and he said, I'm going with

25:23

you. In that moment,

25:26

I knew I had made a terrible

25:28

mistake.

25:30

Betty thought back to that fluff piece that Clawson

25:33

had written on Jay Edgar Hoover months earlier.

25:36

Maybe it was best not to let Clawson

25:38

be Woodward to herb Bernstein.

25:40

And I said, well, no, Ken, these

25:42

are confidential sources of mine

25:45

and there's no way that they would let me bring somebody

25:47

else along. And

25:49

he said no, he said, I

25:51

will have to go with you. And

25:54

at that point I somehow graciously

25:56

got out of the conversation. About

25:58

a half hour passed and I

26:01

looked up and there was Ken, and

26:04

he said, in very stern

26:07

language, I am going with

26:09

you when you go to

26:11

see those files. He was

26:13

saying it as though he had

26:15

the power to give

26:17

me an order, which wasn't true.

26:21

So Betty reached out to her source and canceled

26:24

their rendezvous.

26:25

I had to make that assumption

26:28

that he was so close to

26:30

the FBI that if

26:33

we went and actually found

26:36

where the documents were, that

26:38

the FBI might be there too.

26:42

Betty never learned for sure. Y Clawson was

26:44

so weirdly aggressive that day. But

26:47

a year later he left the Washington Post

26:49

for a job at the White House as

26:52

Richard Nixon's communications officer.

26:55

And guess what he proudly displayed on his

26:57

new White House desk.

27:00

Framed photograph that was

27:02

signed to Ken with

27:04

affection Jay Edgar.

27:10

As it turns out, just as Betty suspected,

27:12

the files she was receiving, well,

27:15

they would just be the tip of the iceberg.

27:17

The full picture was going to upend everything

27:20

the American public thought they knew about

27:22

the FBI and would knock

27:24

a revered American hero off

27:27

his throne.

27:28

President's official spokesman claims creating

27:30

fear mistrustance has spread far out of control

27:33

its penetration in labor union's, college campuses,

27:36

churches, The FBI had under

27:38

surveillance every political

27:40

figure, every student activist, and

27:42

every leader for peace and justice

27:44

in this country.

27:54

So who exactly was

27:56

responsible for exposing the FBI's

27:58

secrets who were these anonymous

28:01

citizens who sent Betty those files?

28:04

And how the hell did they successfully

28:06

break into the nation's most powerful

28:09

law enforcement agency, all under

28:11

the cover of a huge boxing match.

28:15

Hang on a second, that plot is actually sounding

28:17

kind of familiar. On a fight night like

28:19

the one two weeks from the night to night that we're going to rob

28:21

it one hundred and fifty million without

28:23

breaking a sweat. Oceans eleven

28:26

one of my all time favorite heist movies from

28:29

Master of the Heist himself, filmmaker

28:31

Steven Soderberg. Speaking

28:33

of Steven, while

28:35

you were making Oceans, did you know about

28:38

this actual real life burglary that took place

28:40

on a fight night? No, I didn't.

28:44

I have so many questions.

28:46

I do too, Stephen, I do

28:49

too. I'm

28:51

excited for you to learn

28:53

more about this story.

28:55

Well, here's the thing.

28:56

I have never listened to a podcast

28:59

before. Obviously I have

29:01

to hear this, all right, Stephen,

29:03

and listeners get ready. This

29:06

season you'll hear how Jay Edgar Hoover embroiled

29:09

the FBI in one of the worst intelligence

29:11

snaffoos of all time, The

29:14

daring heist that exposed it all

29:17

and the staggering fallout that sent

29:19

shock waves through America.

29:21

We love to say that we learned our burglary

29:24

skills from nons and priests.

29:30

One day he came up to me and he said, would you like

29:32

to be part of a small group where

29:34

we're going to go after the FBI. I

29:37

just felt like I was living in the heart of the dragon

29:39

and it was just my job to stop the fire.

29:42

And this seemed like a way to do it.

29:44

I was just really angry,

29:47

that's really and I thought, here's

29:49

something that might just make

29:52

a great, big difference.

29:54

Holy shit, we are really here. This is

29:56

dynamite stuff.

29:58

There was no place to hide. They

30:00

released their powers against you.

30:02

Mike.

30:02

Well, that was either the FBI or the

30:04

heating system, and there's only

30:07

one.

30:07

Way to find out which Maney

30:10

of the tech names were clearly illegal but

30:12

justified in the interest of national

30:14

security.

30:15

If it meant some risks that were

30:17

involved, well that's what

30:20

citizens sometimes have to do.

30:31

Snafoo is a production of iHeartRadio,

30:33

Film, Nation Entertainment, and Pacific Electric

30:35

Picture Company in association with Gilded

30:38

Audio. This season of Snapoo

30:40

is based on the book The Burglary, The discovery

30:42

of j Edgar Hoover's secret FBI, written

30:45

by Betty Metzger. It's executive

30:47

produced by me Ed Helms, Milan

30:49

Papelka, Mike Valbo, Whitney Donaldson,

30:52

Andy Chug, Dylan Fagan, and Betty

30:54

Metzger. Our lead producers are

30:56

Sarah Joyner and Alyssa Martine.

30:58

Producer is Stephen Wood. This

31:01

episode was written by Albert Chen, Sarah

31:03

Joyner and Stephen Wood, with additional writing and

31:05

story editing from Melissa Martino and Ed

31:07

Helms. Tory Smith is our associate

31:09

producer. Nevin Callapoly is our production

31:12

assistant. Fact checking by

31:14

Charles Richter. Our creative executive

31:16

is Brett Harris. Sensitivity consult

31:18

from Oloakemi Ala de Sui, editing,

31:21

sound design and original music by Ben Chugg,

31:23

Engineering and technical direction by Nick Dooley.

31:26

Additional editing from Kelsey Albright, Olivia

31:29

Canny and Jimma Castelli Foley. Theme

31:32

music by Dan Rosatto. Special

31:34

thanks to Alison Cohen, Daniel Welsh

31:36

and Ben Riizak. Additional thanks

31:38

to director Joanna Hamilton for letting us use

31:40

some of the original interviews from her incredible

31:43

documentary nineteen seventy one. Finally,

31:47

our deepest gratitude to the Courageous

31:49

Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI,

31:52

Bill Davidon, Ralph Daniel, Judy

31:54

Fine, Gold, Heath Forsyth, Bonnie

31:56

Rains, John Rains, Sarah Schumer

31:59

and Bob Williamson was

32:03

talking m