it is widely known that Hoover greatly resented FDR’s ‘hands off Manhattan’ instructions and believed that keeping the FBI away from all the ‘pinko commie Jew Europeans’ was responsible for loss of the allies’ nuclear lead.

Could we please postulate the impact of a plot (by the OSS, Army CIC or even the NKVD) to release intimate photos of JEH and Clyde Tolson?

Seems to me that the butterflies could be considerable from 1943 right up to 1964.
 
In my experience, people born before the mid-20th Century were pretty naive about things, and if the photos just showed Hoover and Tolson sitting close or maybe even with their arms around each other's shoulders, a lot of people(especially those already predisposed to idolize macho lawmen) would buy the explanation that they were just good friends.

So, I think the photos would have to show things like Clyde and Hoover in bed together(even without sex), or kissing, stuff like that, for them to be serious career-enders. What sort of intimate photos of the two are known to have existed?
 
In my experience, people born before the mid-20th Century were pretty naive about things, and if the photos just showed Hoover and Tolson sitting close or maybe even with their arms around each other's shoulders, a lot of people(especially those already predisposed to idolize macho lawmen) would buy the explanation that they were just good friends.

So, I think the photos would have to show things like Clyde and Hoover in bed together(even without sex), or kissing, stuff like that, for them to be serious career-enders. What sort of intimate photos of the two are known to have existed?

The picture could have them having sex and Hoover is not going to be removed. He Knew Too Much about a lot of people that would be career-ending for them. Regarding the picture have him in a woman's clothes it's Halloween. Because no one wanted to cross him.
 

Archibald

Banned
Well there is the infamous photo of J Edgar in womens attire. That might not play well with the public.

First time I saw that picture was in The Simpsons files, the spoof X-files episode. It hanged on the wall of Fox Mulder office. I thought it was a typical Groening joke. Turned out it was not, at least not entirely.
 
Well there is the infamous photo of J Edgar in womens attire. That might not play well with the public.

Were those photos ever proven to exist? A google on them doesn't turn up anything that looks authentic.

My understanding has been that the basis for the Hoover In A Dress thing was that former mob moll who gave an interview in the 90s some time, claiming she had seen him in drag at some nightclub.
 
In my experience, people born before the mid-20th Century were pretty naive about things, and if the photos just showed Hoover and Tolson sitting close or maybe even with their arms around each other's shoulders, a lot of people(especially those already predisposed to idolize macho lawmen) would buy the explanation that they were just good friends.

So, I think the photos would have to show things like Clyde and Hoover in bed together(even without sex), or kissing, stuff like that, for them to be serious career-enders. What sort of intimate photos of the two are known to have existed?
Remember as late as the 19th century (perhaps later in country areas) platonic bed-sharing didn't necessarily connote homosexuality. So Clyde and Hoover in bed together would have some tongues wagging, but it wouldn't be an outing unless... you get the picture.

Hoover dressed as Edna, however, would be a career-ender.
 
Were those photos ever proven to exist? A google on them doesn't turn up anything that looks authentic.

My understanding has been that the basis for the Hoover In A Dress thing was that former mob moll who gave an interview in the 90s some time, claiming she had seen him in drag at some nightclub.

There is one photo which was taken of Ms Hoover. The Moll was one of the US upper cust and the "nightclub" was a very exclusive party in the Hamptons for a particularly broad minded set iirc.
 
Were those photos ever proven to exist? A google on them doesn't turn up anything that looks authentic.

My understanding has been that the basis for the Hoover In A Dress thing was that former mob moll who gave an interview in the 90s some time, claiming she had seen him in drag at some nightclub.
The rest of the plane on Howard Stern round 2000 that subject came up in allegedly "those who are easily nauseated or upset"Hoover was dressed up as a flap from the twenties.
 
There is one photo which was taken of Ms Hoover. The Moll was one of the US upper cust and the "nightclub" was a very exclusive party in the Hamptons for a particularly broad minded set iirc.

Unless the photo was ever made available to the general public, I'm going to assume its existence as unproven.

I think you're correct about the woman who saw Hoover in a dress as being high society, though she does seem to have been someone with mob connections. As well as a personal vendetta against Hoover.

link
 
In 1943 Hoover did not have the stash of information he did later on. Nobody would accept that Hoover and another man were in bed together due to a lack of hotel rooms.
 
Well there is the infamous photo of J Edgar in womens attire. That might not play well with the public.

The idea of Hoover as gay, though not proven, is plausible. The business about his being a cross-dresser--not so much:

"Most researchers, including many hostile to Hoover, say this story is ludicrous. In a 1993 Esquire article, journalist Peter Maas wrote that Susan Rosenstiel, the sole source of the cross-dressing allegations, had "been trying to peddle this story for years," apparently because she believed Hoover had put FBI agents on her tail to help her husband during their divorce. According to Ronald Kessler, author of The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI (2002), Ms. Rosenstiel did jail time for perjury in connection with a 1971 case.

"Even if we set aside the teller's credibility, it's difficult to take this tale seriously. Hoover was an old hand at blackmail — he used incriminating information his agency collected about prominent people to maintain his hold on office and otherwise get his way. Would a man with so many enemies put himself in a position to be blackmailed by waltzing around a hotel in drag?" http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2423/was-j-edgar-hoover-a-cross-dresser
 
Appreciate all the input re likely existence of photo etc but the question asked what would be the wider impact if he was convincingly outed - don't forget, homosexuality was not only a career ender but also a criminal offence. If an objective excuse is needed, then let's have the NKVD set up a honeytrap operation and then release 16mm film of the encounter which follows.
 
If those pictures existed, they would win a Pulitzer for whoever produced them. There are very few people in the media who would give up a Pulitzer to protect the reputation of J. Edgar Hoover.
 
The picture could have them having sex and Hoover is not going to be removed. He Knew Too Much about a lot of people that would be career-ending for them. Regarding the picture have him in a woman's clothes it's Halloween. Because no one wanted to cross him.
I recommend, flash the ace, don't play it.

Have a trusted staff member deliver a sealed envelope to J. Edgar and telling him that the Attorney General needs to see him at 11 am.

And then privately in his office, I mean the Attorney General's office, this guy tells J. Edgar that the New York Times (or Washington Post, Cleveland Plain Dealer, etc.) will go with these photos, if he's still a public figure. But if he takes a law school position, which he's sometimes talked about . . .
 
I recommend, flash the ace, don't play it.

Have a trusted staff member deliver a sealed envelope to J. Edgar and telling him that the Attorney General needs to see him at 11 am.

And then privately in his office, I mean the Attorney General's office, this guy tells J. Edgar that the New York Times (or Washington Post, Cleveland Plain Dealer, etc.) will go with these photos, if he's still a public figure. But if he takes a law school position, which he's sometimes talked about . . .


Meyer Lansky supposedly had proof. Of course, the last thing he wanted was a different FBI director. But if Hoover decides not to be too aggressive in pursuing organized crime...
 
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