The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI Betty Medsger. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI Betty Medsger. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.In The Burglary, journalist Betty Medsger introduces readers to two fascinating stories. The first involves eight anti Vietnam War dissidents, calling themselves The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI, on March 8, 1971, burglarized the FBI offices in the small town of Media, Pennsylvania, just southwest of Philadelphia. The burglars, whose identity remained unknown for over forty years, turned the stolen documents over to journalists such as Medsger, who in the early 1970s worked for the Washington Post. The subsequent printing of these purloined secret FBI files disclosed the illegal surveillance of African Americans, antiwar activists, and just about anyone who questioned the status quo in the United States as defined by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The second theme of the book documents how the exposure of such programs as COINTELPRO, an acronym for the Bureau's Counter Intelligence Program, eventually led to Congressional investigations and restraints placed upon the investigative powers of the FBI. In terms of popular culture, Medsger chronicles how the carefully constructed image of the Bureau as an omnipresent force battling against communist subversion seeking to destroy the American way of life, fostered by Hoover in his public statements, ghost written books, and approval of film and television scripts depicting the FBI, was ripped asunder by the revelations of the Media burglary.In telling the story of the burglary, Medsger was able to elicit the cooperation of the activists who broke into the FBI Media office in 1971. Five of the participants cooperated openly with the journalist in publicly talking about their activities for the first time, while two others preferred to employ pseudonyms, and one could not be located. Medsger was also able to draw upon the FBI investigation of the crime through the Freedom of Information Act as well as interviews with former agents. The activists carefully cased the office. One of their number took a locks mithing course, while another, pretending to be a student studying Bureau hiring procedures, visited the office and spoke with agents. The touted heavyweight championship fight between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, who attempted to regain his crown following the Supreme Court's overturning of his conviction for violating the Selective Service Act, provided a distraction as many residents were following the fight while the burglars carried out their mission.In addition to the particulars of the burglary, Medsger seeks to document what happened to the participants afterwards and why they took a risk that could have landed them in prison for decades. William Davidon, a physics professor at Haverford College, was the instigator of the action against the FBI, and, following the burglary, he continued to take an active role in antiwar protests which often placed him on the FBI radar screen, although they never made a direct connection between the break in and Davidon. John and Bonnie Raines, the parents of three small children, seemed to express the greatest anxiety about being apprehended, and they adopted a lower profile position in the antiwar movement. The participants agreed to never talk about the burglary, and Medsger argues that this was particularly difficult for the youngest of the group who did not have families with whom they could find solace amid the security of daily routine. Keith Forsyth and Bob Williamson, the youngest of the burglars, were arrested for participating in a raid on the Camden, New Jersey draft board, and the defendants became known as the Camden 28.