Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
For 25 years, Brightview Senior Living Associates have been committed to creating a vibrant culture and delivering exceptional services, making Brightview a great place to work and live. If you're looking for a rewarding opportunity to serve your local community and grow, we want you to join our team. Brightview Senior Living is growing and actively seeking vibrant associates to join our community teams, including directors, healthcare, activities, hospitality, and dining. Apply today at careers.brightviewseniorliving.com. Equal employment opportunities.
Text BVJOBS to 97211 to apply.
The fall season. We don't have to let it happen yet because summer doesn't stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You can still get out and enjoy 60 miles of beaches, eat in the South's newest foodie haven with over 2,000 restaurants, and have endless fun at hundreds of attractions. Hold on to that sweet summer feeling a little longer at the beach. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Plan your trip at visitmyrtlebeach.com. That's visitmyrtlebeach.com.
Last time on Snafu. Pursuant to the executive order, the Director of Selective Service is going to establish tonight a random selection sequence for induction for 1970. For Bill, dissent was at the heart of democracy. How complicated would it be to go into the office? If the FBI was spying on people...
That's Keith Forsyth, succinctly stating his personal philosophy.
When Keith entered college in Ohio in the fall of 1969, he says he wasn't very political. But just a year later, when Bill Davidoff invited Keith to help him burglarize the FBI, Keith said yes. So what changed? Well, it all started with a book. Peace in Vietnam.
It was a small paperback published by a pacifist Quaker organization. A guy in Keith's dorm loaned it to him. It told the history of the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective. You know, we went in there and tried to help the French maintain colonial ownership over Vietnam and enslave the people there. And when the French got tired and got their ass kicked at the NBN Phu, we picked up where they left off. That book just blew me away.
Keith already knew the American government's justification for the war, that the Vietnamese people needed to be rescued from the ever-expanding chokehold of communism. But through extensive research, he was learning a very different side of the story.
Nothing he could find justified America's role in Vietnam. He even asked the State Department to make the case for the war, but their response was not convincing. I remember the phrase I was saying to myself, this can't be true, this is America. I remember we were in the newsroom of the student newspaper or something, mimeographing some leaflets for an anti-Cambodia invasion protest, and the news about Kent State came over the wire.
We're just down the road from Kent State. Keith and his peers were horrified by Kent State, and he was even more shocked by what happened just two weeks later at Jackson State in Mississippi, where local police unleashed a barrage of gunfire on a dorm full of unarmed black students, killing two young men. Keith heard the police's official story. Then he heard a tape of what actually happened. It was 10 or 20 rifles and pistols and shotguns all being fired at once.
Keith had already dropped out of school to protest the war full-time.
Keith headed for the epicenter of America's anti-war movement, Philadelphia. He got a job driving a cab, and he began spending his nights with the local anti-war movement, burglarizing draft boards. He became an expert in picking locks.
He actually got certified as a locksmith as part of his training to burglarize draft boards. So by late 1970, when Bill Davidoff decided to break into the FBI, he called me and asked me if I was interested in going to a party, which was, you know, code.
It was the same call John and Bonnie Raines had received. Bill was inviting Keith to join an action targeting the FBI. And Keith didn't need much convincing. When you're 20 years old, you do a lot of things that you might think twice about later. I was really, really, really, really angry and really, really, really frustrated. And I'm like, if we can up the ante, let's do it.
I'm Ed Helms, and this is Snafu, a show about history's greatest screw-ups. This is Season 2, Medburg, the story of a daring heist and the colossal FBI snafu it exposed. This week, how to break into the FBI. Let's check back in with our professional heist consultant, Steven Soderbergh.
In the sort of typical heist film, each person has a specific skill set and a specific role, and it's fun to watch them perform that. Keith Forsyth, who, by the way, looked a little like John Lennon in the early 70s, brought his aptitude for lockpicking. It's really not hard, and you can get through almost any door in 20 seconds if you, you know, are any good. Also attending the party was Sarah Schumer, a professor and colleague of Bill Davidoff's.
Sarah had been politically active since the early days of the civil rights movement, so she was no stranger to the inside of a jail cell. "You just assumed your phone was wiretapped. You know, if you were an activist, you assumed you were followed one way or another." Ralph Daniel was a young graduate student in psychology. He protested the war but initially avoided anything illegal.
He worried getting arrested would interfere with his studies. Nevertheless, he apparently drew the ire of a Philadelphia cop named Lieutenant Fensel. One day, Ralph was standing around not breaking the law while some friends illegally chained themselves to the entrance of a draft board office. And Fensel, I decided, he arrested me and he said, I've seen you at too many demonstrations. I'm busting you, even though you're not chained.
So it's arguably Lieutenant Fensel's fault that Ralph wound up accessing his more rebellious, less law-abiding side. If rules seemed foolish, I typically would not follow them. I was also 26. I still felt invincible the way a lot of young people do. And when Bill invited him to the party... I said, sign me on. I didn't hesitate at all.
Next up, Bob Williamson, a social worker steeped in the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King and Gandhi. Bob quickly realized that Philadelphia law enforcement was working against Philadelphians. Nobody felt good when they saw a police car drive by. They weren't providing any kind of a service to the community. It was like an occupying force.
So Bob dedicated his evenings to following cops with a camera, policing the police. Eventually, he fell in with the anti-war crowd and added draft board raids to his resume. He also had a fondness for corny jokes. That sort of became something I was known for, having an inappropriate sense of humor at the worst times.
Bill recruited Bob, and Bob recruited Judy Feingold. Judy was a professional pacifist. In fact, she worked for the same Quaker organization whose book about Vietnam had changed Keith's life. I was basically living my truth, as pure as you can live life. And I would go to work as a military counselor trying to get people out of the military that didn't want to be there anymore legally.
She was just 19, but she'd been actively protesting the war since age 12, literally growing up in the movement. I just felt like I was living in the heart of the dragon, and it was just my job to stop the fire. And this seemed like a way to do it. Bill approached two other people who we can't name. One turned him down. The other said yes, but we'll just have to call him burglar number nine. Remember that. It's going to be important later.
But for now, Bill had his team. Some were married with children, while some were practically still children themselves. Some had years of experience conducting illegal anti-war actions like draft board raids. Others were taking that step for the first time. Some of them were immediately identifiable as hippies. I'm looking at you, Keith and Bob. While others were clean-cut professionals. But despite these differences, they had a lot in common.
They hated the war. They cherished free speech. They knew they could trust Bill Davidoff. And they did not trust J. Edgar Hoover. Not a friend we have in the hoop. Freedom has no truer friend. Is your thinking left of center? He will get you in the end.
That's folk singer Tom Paxton singing an ode to Hoover in 1970. Obviously, he's joking about his admiration for Hoover, but the thing about that song is most of mainstream America probably agreed with it unironically at the time. Hoover spent decades cultivating his and the FBI's image, and it worked. He was your friend, but more than that, he was your protector. We are calling disaster. If we do not soon take some positive action...
against the growing moral deterioration in this land. It is a grievous trend. That's J. Edgar himself, striking a note he'd play his entire career. America is on the verge of catastrophe, and law and order conservatism is the only thing holding us back from the brink. He was a serious bureaucrat. He was heavily anti-communist, conservative. That's Dr. Daniel Chard, a professor of history at Western Washington University.
Hoover was born in 1895, the son of a government pencil pusher. "And came of age in Jim Crow, Washington, D.C. and of what was then just the dominant cultural values of white male authority." It's truly impossible to overstate how much this guy loved authority.
And of course he loved America, or at least his version of it. As a kid, Hoover rewrote the classic story of George Washington chopping down a cherry tree. You know, I cannot tell a lie.
But in little J. Edgar's version, Washington's cousin Ike was responsible for axing the tree. I mean, the point of that story isn't about chopping down a tree. It's about being honest when it matters. But Hoover wasn't concerned about honesty. He preferred his own story where the founder of our country was simply faultless in the first place. He didn't like the left. He held racist views. He was in a racist fraternity at George Washington University.
Dan's not just tossing that word around casually. Hoover's fraternity had some very close ties to the KKK at the time, as in a lot of guys were members of both. Like the Klan, they were still mourning the loss of the Civil War. Its members deeply revered Confederate General Robert E. Lee, whom the fraternity referred to as, quote, the last gentle knight. To pay for college, plus fraternity dues, a young J. Edgar took a job at the Library of Congress.
There, he began a lifelong love affair with organization and meticulous filing systems. A racist with a passion for file keeping wouldn't want to get stuck talking to that guy at a party.
There is nothing mysterious about the manner in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation works. The formula is a simple one. Oh, wow. Cool. Okay. Intensive training, carefully investigated, highly efficient personnel, plus rigid requirements in regard to conduct, intelligence, and integrity. Listen, I'm just going to go... I'm going to get a drink...
I'll be... Yeah. Um... Hey, uh... Sorry to cut you off. I just have to... I just have to go somewhere else... now.
Somehow, Hoover managed to graduate law school without ever taking a class in constitutional law. That's like graduating from medical school without ever taking a class on bones.
The Justice Department didn't seem to mind. They hired him anyway. Before long, he was rising through the ranks. He was involved in what were called the Palmer Raids or the first national red scare going after the radical labor movement after World War I. Hoover was only 24 years old, and here he was engineering the roundups and arrests of communists, socialists, anarchists, black political organizers, and anyone who was suspected of being any of the above.
They were detained without due process, and some were even tortured, all under Hoover's supervision. The Palmer raids, as they came to be known, should have earned him a reputation for excessive brutality and violating the Constitution. But apparently, Hoover's superiors liked what they saw. Just shy of his 30th birthday, the Justice Department named J. Edgar Hoover the new head of its Bureau of Investigation.
In the 1930s, Hoover's G-men put the gangster Machine Gun Kelly in prison for life and gunned down public enemy number one, John Dillinger. Fun fact, Hoover kept Dillinger's glasses and death mask in a display case outside his office. And if that wasn't creepy enough, he invited agents in training to come and make their own castings of the death mask.
Catching gangsters earned Hoover the appreciation of the public and presidents alike. He expanded the Bureau's reach, modernized its approach to investigations, and hired thousands of new agents. He was also particularly keen to pluck new hires out of the same KKK-adjacent fraternity of which he'd been a member.
Many of those men formed the foundation of Hoover's new intelligence-gathering juggernaut. It changes the name in the 30s to the FBI rather than just Bureau of Investigation, but really builds it up as a very powerful organization with a lot of autonomy from congressional oversight or executive oversight.
During the Red Scare of the 40s and 50s, Hoover did pretty much exactly what you'd expect him to do. Funneled information on suspected commies to Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. But even after the Red Scare died down... Mr. Hoover, some people are saying today that communism is no longer a danger to our country. What is your opinion about that? I think that communism is as serious a menace to the United States as it ever was, if not more so.
because today you have in charge of the Communist Party a hardcore, fanatical group of members who are dedicated to the overthrow of our government by force and violence. As the head of a federal agency, Hoover had to go to Congress once a year to review his department's budget. But unlike his peers, Hoover's hearings always happened in closed session. No public, no press. Every year he'd give a version of the same spiel.
You thought those reds were scary in 1970? Boy, let me tell you what they got planned for 71. And every year, Congress bought it, increasing the FBI's budget. Hoover had learned to game the system. No one in America's history held onto a high-ranking position like Hoover's for as long as he did. When he first got the job, Calvin freaking Coolidge was president. And Hoover stayed in his role through eight presidencies.
He watched 16 attorneys general come and go. They all had the authority to fire him, and some came pretty close, but none of them did. It's probably not a coincidence that Hoover was also collecting dirt on public officials for decades. Suffice to say, Hoover clung to his job like an angry barnacle. His office had two layers.
He had a full office and then an interior office within that. And he had what was called the official and confidential files that were so secret he kept them in there. It was known that he had intelligence files on different congressmen. He knew who John F. Kennedy was sleeping with and stuff like that. On one level, this was probably pretty childish, a chance to giggle at a senator's secret sexual proclivities. But really, showing off his collection of secrets served as a veiled threat to
Threats of blackmail notwithstanding, Hoover really should have been forced out in 1965 when he reached what was the government's mandatory retirement age of 70. But despite being famously well-endowed, Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about, Lyndon Johnson lacked the balls to enforce that rule.
So instead, he did this. The nation cannot afford to lose you, and therefore I have just now signed an executive order exempting you from compulsory retirement for an indefinite period of time. Hoover outlasted LBJ and was still in office when Nixon took over. By that point, his penchant for blackmail was something of an open secret. But overall, his propaganda had paid off.
He was a conservative crime-fighting hero, and even if they didn't revere the guy, most Americans just trusted him.
He certainly had some strange obsessions. Here's a direct quote from a memo Hoover wrote regarding new hires. I recently saw a photograph of a favorably recommended clerical applicant. This photograph reflected long sideburns and long hair in the back and too full on the sides. Please, when interviewing applicants, be alert for long hairs, beards, mustaches, pear-shaped heads, truck drivers, etc.
I don't even know what that means, but now I'm kind of worried. Um, honey, do I have a pear-shaped head? I think it's more of an acorn squash. Oh, thank God. Today, some of Hoover's idiosyncrasies just sound goofy. But to the men of Hoover's FBI, his word was gospel. Partially because Hoover's FBI tended to hire guys like Hoover, meaning they were all guys and they were all white.
In 1962, Attorney General Robert Kennedy publicly called Hoover out over this. In response, Hoover promoted his black chauffeur to the role of special agent. Of course, that special agent kept driving Hoover's car.
They're all white men, exclusively. There's a lot of World War II veterans in the FBI. They're pretty conservative. The FBI recruited heavily among Catholics. They saw Catholics as people who were kind of accultured into being part of an institution with a hierarchy that they would, like, listen to authority.
By 1970, the FBI could be fairly described as an army of mini-Hoovers, straight-laced, serious-minded white men who tucked in their shirts, avoided sideburns like the plague, loved God, hated communism, and had some sort of weird thing against truck drivers, apparently. The FBI's official motto was fidelity, bravery, and integrity. Get it?
Those are wonderful words with wonderful meaning. But as the years passed, Hoover increasingly conducted activities that did not mesh with those ideals. Back in those days, tapping someone's phone involved placing a physical tap on the actual phone lines. This meant if somebody was tapping your phone, you might hear a telltale noise. You got on the phone and you heard click, click, click, click. You know, you knew something was off.
So even if they couldn't prove it, Tom Paxton and others just kind of knew it was their pal J. Edgar on the line. Does your telephone sound funny? Is some stranger standing by, standing by? Do not bother your repairman.
Take it to the FBI.
For 25 years, Brightview Senior Living Associates have been committed to creating a vibrant culture and delivering exceptional services, making Brightview a great place to work and live. If you're looking for a rewarding opportunity to serve your local community and grow, we want you to join our team. Brightview Senior Living is growing and actively seeking vibrant associates to join our community teams, including directors, healthcare, activities, hospitality, and dining. Apply today at careers.brightviewseniorliving.com. Equal employment opportunities.
Text BVJOBS to 97211 to apply. Hey, everyone. It's Ted from Consumer Cellular, the guy in the orange sweater. And this is your wake-up call. If you're paying too much for wireless service, you don't have to keep having that nightmare. Consumer Cellular has the same fast, reliable coverage as the leading carriers for up to half the cost. So why keep spending more than you have to? Seriously, wake up.
Hey, everybody. This is Jody Sweetin from How Rude Tanneritos. And I have to tell you all about Hyundai's most electric EV lineup yet and how it will completely change the way you look at and feel about EVs, specifically Hyundai EVs. Now, let me tell you, as a Hyundai owner, I'm not a Hyundai owner.
love my Hyundai. Now, one of my favorite aspects is Hyundai's fun to drive lineup. I love these cars. I mean, these EVs are tech infused with standard safety features like highway driving assist and blind spot collision warning. Being a mom, these safety features are extremely important to me. And what's better than knowing my family is safe in our vehicle while also knowing I look stylish at the same time? Kind of
Kind of nothing. You also get America's best warranty with a 10-year, 100,000-mile limited electric battery warranty. Hyundai's EV lineup has everything you've been yearning for in your next or your first EV, boldly captivating your senses. Learn more about Hyundai EVs at HyundaiUSA.com. Call 562-314-4603 for complete details. America's best warranty claim based on total package of warranty programs. See dealer for limited warranty details. See your Hyundai dealer for further details and limitations.
Up in Philadelphia, Bonnie Raines, her husband John and seven others had said yes when a quiet physicist named Bill Davidon invited them to his quote unquote party. Despite the fact that most of them hadn't met before Bill's party, they quickly bonded over their shared goal to expose FBI surveillance.
From the outset, the nine would-be burglars agreed that they would never tell another living soul what they were about to do. And they also agreed on a name: the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI. We knew we had to identify ourselves in a particular kind of way. So it flipped the whole idea of a commission that investigates this and a commission that investigates that to our responsibility to investigate the FBI.
It might have been a tad grandiose or sarcastic, like referring to your cat as the acting director of vomiting on the sofa cushion, but the name also pointed to one of the core beliefs that all nine members shared: if the government wasn't going to hold itself accountable, that duty would have to fall to the citizens. Next step: pick the target. I know we discussed the possibility of doing the Philadelphia FBI office because I went down and cased it in the daytime.
If the sign-in books for the building still exist, my alias is in there. Probably Bill Travis, I'm guessing, was probably it. The Philadelphia FBI office was an impenetrable citadel, smack dab in the center of downtown Philly. A stone's throw from City Hall and just a few minutes from police headquarters, this office was not an ideal target. So Bill Davidon and his crew looked elsewhere.
Well, he said, I opened up the phone book and there's a FBI office in media, which is practically next door to Haverford, where he lived, a little office in media. And so maybe we could think about the feasibility of that. As far as unthinkable heists went, the FBI office in the bedroom community of Media, Pennsylvania seemed less unthinkable.
Here's Bob Williamson. It was called a resident agency. And there were only three or four agents working out of that office for the area. Resident agency was a fancy term for when the FBI simply rented out office space in a civilian building.
This particular resident agency was on the second floor of an unremarkable apartment building across from the Delaware County Courthouse. At first glance, there wasn't much to distinguish this little FBI outpost from the office of, say, a mid-sized regional paper company.
Anywho, the burglars had their target, One Veterans Square, Media, Pennsylvania. For the next few months, the crew of nine would gather at their secret hideout, John and Bonnie's house, and work on their plan. It was a big house, big old Victorian house. So we had one room on the third floor that became the planning room.
An almost perfect headquarters with a few small complications. We had to tell our children not to talk about the maps that were up on the wall in the room where we were meeting. Don't talk about the maps. Now, sweetie, I know you used to be able to go into that room on the third floor, but, well, mommy and daddy have, um, we've gotten really into maps lately. And, you know, just maps of nearby towns and stuff. Nothing you'd be interested in. Don't talk about the people who sometimes stay overnight.
Sometimes mommies and daddies like to share maps with friends. What? What's with all the questions? Just go to bed.
Most nights, the Citizens Commission would gather at the Raines house. The evenings began with dinner, more often than not, a giant pot of spaghetti prepared by Bonnie. John and I were kind of the grandparents of this group. Then it was off to the scene of their planned crime, the apartment building at One Veterans Square. Their mission was to study every single detail about the office and its surroundings. We cased the place for at least two, maybe three months.
So we would case in pairs, usually male and female pairs, because if there was any suspicion about us in the car, if the police pulled up next to the car where we were, we could pretend to be a couple.
Are there any beat cops? Is it all in cars? What's happening with the courthouse? You know, when are the traffic jams in media and where? The schedule of the agents in the FBI office, you know, did they ever come in late at night back into the office or not? And we learned that it was, they worked nine to five. They lock the door at five and go home. Lest we forget, it's still a government job.
Who else is going in and out? Where are the police? It was very time-consuming and very tedious in some cases, but important to see the patterns of activity. Picture our prospective burglars, paired off sitting in parked cars in the middle of winter, cataloging everything that happened in this sleepy town center, night after night after night.
Two things were inevitable. One, boredom. And two... Well, and Bob and I, you know, like all healthy, lusty people, decided this would be a great time to start an affair, you know, right in the fiery storm of revolution, you know? We did some kissing and necking while we were casing. We were just both a little horny, I guess. Ha ha ha ha ha!
Despite the, uh, distractions, Judy, Bob, and the others noticed one big problem. A security guard was on duty around the clock in the courthouse, monitoring the front entrance with a clear view of the FBI office. Both the courthouse itself was well-lighted, and this intersection where the building was was well-lighted. We could have easily been observed going in or out of the front door.
Doing anything to debilitate the guard was out of the question. This was, after all, a group dedicated to nonviolence. Attempting to distract him would carry its own risks. In the ideal burglary, nobody would notice anything out of the ordinary at all. They determined early on that the doors to one veteran's square were never locked. So the Citizens Commission decided to look as ordinary as possible and bank on playing it so cool that the guard would think nothing of them.
But the door to the office itself? That was a whole different story and would require a bit of finagling. I went to look at the locks fairly early in the process. And the main door was just a door like on the front door of your house, same lock. So I was like, not a problem. It's always puzzled me why criminals don't learn lock picking because it's really not hard and you can get through almost any door in 20 seconds if you, you know, are any good.
When I got my certificate, that would have made it legal for me to go to a lock shop and buy lock picks. But I was not that stupid. I went to the hardware store and bought some spring steel, and I already had a grinder and a file, and I made my own so that they wouldn't be traceable. The crew installed a practice door, a door to nowhere, up in the mysterious third-floor room that was off-limits to John and Bonnie's children.
You can't really learn it by reading a book. It's like playing a musical instrument. You know, you start very slow and you just do it over and over and over and over and over. Take a break, come back the next day, you do it over and over and over and over again. The next day, the next day, the next day. And, you know, pretty soon you're in in 20 to 30 seconds.
This went on for roughly two months. Even if you spend some of that time making out with your accomplice, that's a lot of long, monotonous evenings. But they found ways to keep their spirits up.
Keith always made us laugh. Bob Williamson was a story, he would tell these ridiculous shaggy dog stories and terrible jokes and puns. A couple of them were also musicians, so occasionally we'd take a break and somebody would bring out their guitar and we'd maybe sing a little bit together. Some Joni Mitchell tunes? Yeah, all those old tunes.
The group was falling into a comfortable rhythm. They would sleep on air mattresses sometimes in our house. They would tell bedtime stories to our kids. So, I mean, we really, we formed a sort of cohesion that was pretty special. When she looks back, Bonnie plays it pretty cool. But imagine yourself in her and John's shoes, meticulously planning something incredibly dangerous, unable to explain any of it to your kids, even though they're right there.
And knowing the whole time that going through with it could mean that you'll spend the rest of their childhoods behind bars. I remember being amazed, I guess is the best word, that, you know, John and Bonnie had small children. I'm like, this is a whole different level of commitment.
I mean, that woman was, you know, yeah, she was part of the action, but she was just mothering the hell out of us. And, you know, being a young revolutionary, I wasn't cooking. So her spaghetti was like a gift from heaven. Some of the time we were meeting together in our house, I felt a little bit like a den mother because I was...
cooking spaghetti and meatballs and basically in kind of a supportive role, a secondary role. I definitely felt that way and that was true in the movement generally anyway. It was very male-dominated and so I think I was a little resentful about that. But Bonnie's moment was about to come because as the weeks passed, the team realized that staring at the office from the outside could only tell them so much.
They had to get eyes on the inside.
For 25 years, Brightview Senior Living Associates have been committed to creating a vibrant culture and delivering exceptional services, making Brightview a great place to work and live. If you're looking for a rewarding opportunity to serve your local community and grow, we want you to join our team. Brightview Senior Living is growing and actively seeking vibrant associates to join our community teams, including directors, healthcare, activities, hospitality, and dining. Apply today at careers.brightviewseniorliving.com. Equal employment opportunities.
Text BVJOBS to 97211 to apply. Hey, this is Jodi Sweetin from the podcast How Rude, Tanneritos. As a nostalgic voice from your past, I'm here to remind you that amongst the stressful and chaotic existence we live in 2024, you deserve to get away.
It's time for a vacation, no matter when you're hearing this. And let me tell you how you'll get there. The 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe. Want to bring the family to the mountains with the Santa Fe's available H-Track all-wheel drive? Well, it's got standard third-row seating and available dual wireless charging pads for the kids who just want to stare at their phone and not talk to you. You know what I mean.
Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey.
The fall season. We don't have to let it happen yet because summer doesn't stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You can still get out and enjoy 60 miles of beaches, eat in the South's newest foodie haven with over 2,000 restaurants, and have endless fun at hundreds of attractions. Hold on to that sweet summer feeling a little longer at the beach. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Plan your trip at visitmyrtlebeach.com. That's visitmyrtlebeach.com.
The team had been casing the media office for months, but they were still missing crucial details like how many ways into the office were there? Was there an alarm system? And if so, could it be disabled? How many signed photos of J. Edgar Hoover dotted the office walls? Any J. Edgar Hoover bobbleheads in there? To get answers, someone had to go inside. My role emerged at that point. And
I could pose as a college student to ask for a meeting with the head of the office. So Bonnie Raines called the FBI and scheduled a meeting. When I asked for the interview, I said that I was a student doing research on opportunities for women in the FBI. I was gratified that I finally had a speaking part. Not just a walk-in part, but a speaking part. You're not a background actor anymore. You're in the movie. Right.
I had long hippie hair. So we knew that we had to figure out how to make me look not anything like I looked in my regular life. It was February, so I tucked my long hair up inside of a big winter hat. And I found this kind of nerdy winter coat. I looked a little bit like a college student who bought her clothes at thrift stores. This was the Citizens Commission's only chance to get a complete picture of the office they were planning to burgle.
I love that word, burgle. Every detail was important, but it was also the riskiest thing they'd ever done. Sitting outside an FBI office night after night was definitely kind of sketchy, but going right into the belly of the beast in disguise? Well, that's a whole different ballgame. John drove me in our station wagon with our little boy Nathan, who was two at the time. They dropped me off and then they pulled around the corner
to wait for me because I had to say that I had come on the bus. She walked into the cramped entryway of one Veterans Square and up the carpeted steps to the second floor. She entered the office and a receptionist told her to wait. As she waited, she did her best to memorize every detail of her surroundings. There were no cameras. There were no alarms over the doors. I couldn't see any security measures whatsoever. Okay, note to self, security...
Go on. The building manager's office was right below the FBI office. So I was glad to see there was carpeting on the floor. Carpeting muffles, footsteps. Lots of file cabinets. I wore glasses. I don't know who lent them to me, but I didn't wear glasses at the time, but I had glasses on.
And I couldn't see very well with those glasses on. But that helped disguise my identity pretty well. Never trust someone in glasses. Wait a second, I wear glasses. Right, where were we? Eventually, the G-man in charge ushered this meek little student reporter into his office. He was even a little flirty with me, I remember that. And seemed to be flattered that I was really interested in
in the FBI and interested in that interview. I was very chatty and a little bit flirty and very grateful for the information that he gave me. It was all just very friendly. He never asked my name.
For Christ's sake, the average dentist's office has a sign-in sheet. But I guess he was flustered. These guys spend most of their time filling out paperwork in triplicate to please Hoover. It's not every day a girl comes into the office and wants to know about your big, important job. At some point in the chit-chat, he asked me where I was from, and I came up with, I said, Hartford. I don't know why I said Hartford, but I wasn't going to say Philadelphia. Hartford.
Luckily for Bonnie, nobody really wants to chat about Hartford. I asked if I could have a sample application form for employment, and he went to the file cabinet to get it, and I could see that the file cabinets were not locked. Come on. There had to be something in the FBI handbook about locking file cabinets. As Bonnie wondered how these agents could be so dumb, John waited outside by the car with an increasingly restless toddler.
Nathan, I'm sure, was saying, where's mommy? Where's mommy? Why is it taking so long? I think an actress mode kicked in. That's the only way I can describe it. I just got into the role. I wasn't nervous at all. I had an important job to do, and I really wanted to accomplish it. And they didn't do anything to make me feel nervous either.
And then there was a third room beyond his office. And when I was getting ready to leave, I pretended to be confused about the way out. And so that gave me a chance to go into the third office thinking that that was the way that I would leave. And that gave me the chance to see another door from the hallway in that third office and that the door was blocked by this huge fence.
metal file cabinet. - Let's recap. The office consisted of two rooms, no alarm system, no cameras. The floor was carpeted and quiet to walk on. There were two ways in and out, the main door and a second one, which was clearly not in use as it was blocked by a heavy filing cabinet. Later on, she'd be very glad she clocked that second door. But for now, she dashed around the corner and got into the car where John and Nathan were waiting.
I was just so elated that I was able to determine the things that we needed to have determined about it. I was just, I felt very satisfied that this was now probably going to enable us to move forward in the way that we wanted to. I felt that that was our green light. It was a green light for us. And the only thing we had to do after that was to establish the date for the burglary.
None of the members of the Citizens Commission to investigate the FBI remember precisely how they settled on the moment to strike. But that might be because it was kind of a no-brainer. Somebody, it wasn't me, somebody suggested, what about the night of the Ali-Fraser fight? And it was like a brilliant suggestion. We knew that's all they were going to pay attention to.
And we timed it. We knew a time the fight would start. So we timed the entry for that. Bingo. March 8th. Months of casing, endless hours of lockpicking practice, dozens of makeout sessions, I'm guessing, and one acting masterclass from Bonnie Raines.
It was all leading up to this one night. The team had thought of everything, avoided all loose ends, and played their cards close to the vest. Everything was perfect. And then one of the members of the group dropped out. We just didn't see it coming.
Because it seemed to us that Bill had recruited the nine of us very, very carefully. And he had a history with the movement. Less than a week before March 8th, the ninth burglar bailed. Well, that was very, very, very disturbing. And he really couldn't give us a reason. Maybe his ideology shifted, or maybe he just decided he didn't want to risk going to prison.
Frankly, there are plenty of legitimate reasons not to burglarize the FBI. But he didn't give one. Was he a plant? Had he flipped? The possibilities were terrifying, and so was the prospect of carrying on without him.
The crew had been obsessively careful about keeping their action under wraps. They'd lied to family, made excuses to friends, and had cover stories ready to go if anyone noticed them casing. But now, someone who knew their plan, in intimate detail, was at large. If I'd been Bonnie Raines at that moment, I would have just told everyone, Okay, thanks, it's been fun, but it's over. Get out of my house, take your maps, your homemade lockpicks with you.
But she didn't back out, and neither did any of the others. As paranoid as they were, or in my opinion, should have been, Bonnie says they just accepted it as another inevitable risk of their plan. We couldn't control him, really, once he left the group. But we had to hope that there was a loyalty to us, that he was not going to say anything to anyone about his involvement in the action. We were very worried about that.
Next on Snafu, it's go time. Ali versus Frazier. David versus Goliath. The greatest law enforcement agency in the world versus nine, scratch that, eight amateur burglars with everything to lose. I'm like, well, that was either the FBI or the heating system. And there's only one way to find out which. I remember thinking, I'm not breathing, but I've got to be breathing because I'm functioning.
Security measures taken that people are coming in the ring. And this was not supposed to happen. There was no plan B. I mean, there was just no plan B. Snafu is a production of iHeartRadio, Film Nation Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio.
This season of Snafu is based on the book The Burglary, the discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's secret FBI, written by Betty Metzger. It's executive produced by me, Ed Helms, Milan Popelka, Mike Valbo, Whitney Donaldson, Andy Chug, Dylan Fagan, and Betty Metzger. Our lead producers are Sarah Joyner and Alyssa Martino. Producer is Stephen Wood.
This episode was written by Albert Chen, Sarah Joyner, and Stephen Wood, with additional writing and story editing from Alyssa Martino and Ed Helms. Tori Smith is our associate producer. Nevin Kalapalli is our production assistant. Fact Checking by Charles Richter. Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Sensitivity Consult from Ola Wakemi Aladasui. Editing, sound design, and original music by Ben Chugg. Engineering and technical direction by Nick Dooley.
Additional editing from Kelsey Albright, Olivia Canney, and Gemma Costelli-Foley. Theme music by Dan Rosato. Special thanks to Alison Cohen, Daniel Welsh, and Ben Ryzak. Additional thanks to director Joanna Hamilton for letting us use some of the original interviews from her incredible documentary, 1971.
Finally, our deepest gratitude to the courageous Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI, Bill Davidon, Ralph Daniel, Judy Feingold, Keith Forsyth, Bonnie Raines, John Raines, Sarah Schumer, and Bob Williamson.
For 25 years, Brightview Senior Living Associates have been committed to creating a vibrant culture and delivering exceptional services, making Brightview a great place to work and live. If you're looking for a rewarding opportunity to serve your local community and grow, we want you to join our team. Brightview Senior Living is growing and actively seeking vibrant associates to join our community teams, including directors, healthcare, activities, hospitality, and dining. Apply today at careers.brightviewseniorliving.com. Equal employment opportunities.
Text BVJOBS to 97211 to apply. This episode is brought to you by FX is the Old Man. The hit show returns starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow. The former CIA agent sets off on his most important mission to date, to recover his daughter after she's kidnapped. The stakes get higher and more secrets are uncovered. FX is the Old Man premieres September 12th on FX. Stream on Hulu.