Overview

The first book ever written about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover by a member of his personal staff--his former assistant, Paul Letersky--The Director offers unprecedented insight into an American legend.The 1960s and 1970s were arguably among America's most turbulent post-Civil War decades. While the Vietnam War continued seemingly without end, protests and riots ravaged most cities, the Kennedys and MLK were assassinated, and corruption found its way to the highest levels of politics, culminating in Watergate. In 1965, at the beginning of the chaos, twenty-two-year old Paul Letersky was assigned to assist the legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover who'd just turned seventy and had, by then, led the Bureau for an incredible forty-one years. Hoover was a rare and complex man who walked confidently among the most powerful. His personal privacy was more tightly guarded than the secret files he carefully collected--and that were so feared by politicians and celebrities. Through Letersky's close working relationship with Hoover, and the trust and confidence he gained from Hoover's most loyal senior assistant, Helen Gandy, Paul became one of the few able to enter the Director's secretive--and sometimes perilous--world. Since Hoover's death half a century ago, millions of words have been written about the man and hundreds of hours of TV dramas and A-list Hollywood films produced. But until now, there has been virtually no account from someone who, for a period of years, spent hours with the Director on a daily basis. Balanced, honest, and keenly observed, The Director offers a unique inside look at one of the most powerful law enforcement figures in American history.

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9781797127767

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"A fascinating and long overdue look, from the inner sanctum, at J. Edgar Hoover's decades-spanning dictatorial grip on the FBI. Paul Letersky takes you deep inside the psyche of the man who knew all the secrets and played them like a card shark. With a fistful of aces, Hoover imposed his will while protecting his own mysterious inner life. -- ""Tom Brokaw, NBC News correspondent and #1 New York Times bestselling author"" Fascinating and engaging...Letersky brings to life a bygone era of G-Men, galoots, and molls--and, delightfully, Hoover's motherly gatekeeper Miss Gandy, who plays Moneypenny to the author's Bond. -- ""Chris Whipple, New York Times bestselling author"" Letersky had unusual personal access to Hoover, and he documents many of his boss' worst instincts and rigid eccentricities, but also debunks some of the pointless and nasty rumors. -- ""Sanford J. Ungar, author of FBI: An Uncensored Look behind the Walls"""

A fascinating and long overdue look, from the inner sanctum, at J. Edgar Hoover's decades-spanning dictatorial grip on the FBI. Paul Letersky takes you deep inside the psyche of the man who knew all the secrets and played them like a card shark. With a fistful of aces, Hoover imposed his will while protecting his own mysterious inner life. -- Tom Brokaw, NBC News correspondent and #1 New York Times bestselling author Letersky had unusual personal access to Hoover, and he documents many of his boss' worst instincts and rigid eccentricities, but also debunks some of the pointless and nasty rumors. -- Sanford J. Ungar, author of FBI: An Uncensored Look behind the Walls Fascinating and engaging...Letersky brings to life a bygone era of G-Men, galoots, and molls--and, delightfully, Hoover's motherly gatekeeper Miss Gandy, who plays Moneypenny to the author's Bond. -- Chris Whipple, New York Times bestselling author

Author Information

Paul Letersky is a retired FBI agent whose early service included three years working directly for FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Letersky would go on to become a Special Agent, handling confidential informants and tracking down con men, and was involved in events that grabbed national headlines, including aircraft hijackings, bank robberies, extortions, presidential politics, and the search for the Unabomber. After leaving the FBI, Letersky became vice president of Pan American World Airways, and the first charter member of the Overseas Security Advisory Council. He is the author of The Director and has a law degree from the University of Baltimore and lives in Oregon. Pete Simonelli is a writer, audiobook narrator, and vocalist for the band Enablers. Gordon Dillow has been a reporter, columnist, and war correspondent for more than thirty years. He has written for a number of newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, and is the author or coauthor of numerous books. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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