Welcome to the bizarre world
of J. Edgar Hoover, the director
of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation from 1924 until
his death in 1972. Rumors of
Hoover's homosexuality and
cross-dressing were rampant
but suppressed during his
lifetime.
One well-known story is how
Mob-friendly lawyer, Roy Cohn
possessed a photograph of
Hoover in drag, which he used
to blackmail the FBI director
into denying the existence of
the Mafia.
As well as himself being a deeply-
closeted homosexual, like Hoover,
the late Cohn was for years counsel
to Donald J. Trump and previously
to Senator Joe McCarthy.
One of Hoover's lesser-known
secrets is that he was part African-
American, although writer Gore Vidal,
who grew up in Washington DC
during the 1930s claims that it was
known in his family and around the
city that Hoover was a mulatto,
whose family "passed for white".
These were the kinds of secrets
Hoover kept (or tried to keep) about
himself and which he obtained about
others to wield power, as the founder
of the FBI, over which he presided for
nearly 50 years.
Millie McGhee, was a 10 year old
black girl, growing up in rural
Mississippi in the late 1950s when she
was told by her grandfather that
Hoover was his second cousin. She
was able to confirm this, after years
of research.
McGhee made this film after the
release of Clint Eastwood's film,
'J. Edgar' in 2011, because that film
failed to explore this side of Hoover's
story - which is significant, given his
obsession with destroying black
leaders and what was likely Hoover's
direct involvement in the assassination
of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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