| LIST 26 | 111 People Who Are the Subjects of FBI Files |
1. Bud Abbot
According to a snitch for the Los Angeles Police Department, funnyman Bud Abbot “is a collector of pornography and allegedly has 1,500 reels of obscene motion pictures which he shows in his home where he has a projector of his own.”
2. Gracie Allen
Comedian Gracie Allen and her friend Mary Livingston were said to have smuggled clothes and jewelry into the US without paying duty tax. Their husbands-George Burns and Jack Benny (respectively) ended up paying fines.
3. Desi Arnaz
The feds wanted to make sure that Arnaz wasn't a Cuban commie, and they kept tabs on some of his TV productions. In an ass-kissing letter in 1959, Arnaz says that he's considering buying a script called The FBI Story and asks FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, “would there be any objection on your part?” Arnaz curtsies: “One can never be sure as to the type of organization that would buy this property and develop it into a series without taking into account the requirements and interests of your department.”
4. Josephine Baker
The legendary banana-dancer was investigated on suspicion of being a commie.
5. James Baldwin
6. Lucille Ball
“Oh, Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do about registering to vote as a Communist!” “Wah, Ricky, I only did it because my granddad made me!” Despite this explanation, the FBI claimed that Ball also donated to the Communist Party.
7. Harry Belafonte
8 Lennie Bruce
9. James Cagney
10. Truman Capote
11. Billy Carter
12. Wilt Chamberlain
The file of Wilt “The Stilt” contains numerous allegations that he bet on and against his team, the Philadelphia 76ers, between 1966 and 1969, perhaps even shaving points. Indications are the FBI never launched a formal investigation, and no charges were ever brought.
13. Charlie Chaplin
The Little Tramp spoke glowingly of communism and the Soviet Union. This, plus the progressive themes of his films and his fondness for jailbait, led the FBI to intensely surveil the silent-movie actor. They also worked with US Attorney Charles Carr to nail Chaplin for transporting a 23-year-old woman to New York for “immoral” purposes, but he beat the rap.
14. Nat King Cole
15. Gary Cooper
16. Noel Coward
17. Bing Crosby
The FBI's main interest in the crooner was for his association with mobsters, which was basically deemed social and inconsequential.
18. E.E. Cummings
19. Sammy Davis, Jr.
Hoover wanted info on the Candy Man's alleged mob ties, his marriage to a white woman, and his involvement with civil rights. It's hard to say which Hoover thought was worst.
20. John Denver
The folksy singer's file contains tantalizing but mostly redacted references to La Cosa Nostra.
21. Marlene Dietrich
The Berlin-born movie idol was rumored to be secretly aiding the Nazis, so Hoover launched an investigation that included opening her mail and tapping her phone. The Agency dug up her lesbian affairs but nothing indicating a tie to the Third Reich.
22. Joe DiMaggio
23. Walt Disney
The now-defunct website APBNews writes:
There has been much speculation on just what Disney's FBI file means. A 1993 book by celebrity biographer Marc Eliot claimed Disney was an informant for the bureau, and, in return, agents helped search for his biological mother. The New York Times confirmed some of this, though other articles condemned Eliot's book and his conclusions. Did the FBI use Disney in any active investigations? Was he feeding the bureau secrets on Hollywood subversives? These files show Disney was very close to the FBI and on at least one occasion changed movie scripts to appease the bureau. “Mr. Disney has volunteered representatives of this office complete access to the facilities of Disneyland for use in connection with official matters and for recreational purposes,” states one memo. Several heavily redacted files show the FBI was monitoring prospective Disney employees with the studio's consent.
24. Jean Dixon
Among other things, the tabloid psychic's file reveals that from 1966 to 1968, she was a “mouthpiece for the FBI.” At her request, the agency fed her information (disinformation?) about the New Left, which she then worked into interviews and articles, claiming, for example, that the Soviet Union was behind student protests.
25. W.E.B. Du Bois
26. Jimmy Durante
27. Albert Einstein
According to the FBI: “Einstein was a member, sponsor, or affiliated with thirty-four communist fronts between 1937-1954. He also served as honorary chairman for three communist organizations.”
28. Hanns Eisler
29. Edward “Duke” Ellington
30. Medgar Evers
31. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
32. William Faulkner
33. Ella Fitzgerald
34. Ian Fleming
35. Errol Flynn
The swashbuckling actor got on the FBI's radar for supposed communist sympathies and for two sex-related court cases one claiming that Flynn boinked two 15-year-old girls and the other charging that he pimped a woman he brought into the country from Mexico. He was found not guilty on all counts.
36. Henry Ford
37. Eric Fromm
38. Clark Gable
39. Marcus Garvey
40. Allen Ginsberg
The Beat poet's file is over 900 pages, and that's just for starters. In Alien Ink: The FBI's War on Freedom of Expression, Natalie Robins writes: “Ginsberg not only has an FBI file, but a record at fifteen other agencies, including the CIA, Defense Department, the US Postal Service, the Treasury Department, and the Drug Enforcement Agency.”
41. Woody Guthrie
42. Ernest Hemingway
For a little while, Papa was an FBI operative, reporting on Spanish Fascists in Havana and looking for German submarines off the Cuban coast.
43. Jimi Hendrix
44. Abbie Hoffman
The radical's radical, Hoffman is the subject of an FBI file over 13,200 pages long.
45. Billie Holliday
46. Lena Horne
47. L. Ron Hubbard
48. Rock Hudson
49. Howard Hughes
50. Langston Hughes
51. Aldous Huxley
52. Helen Keller
There's no word on why Keller has a file, but it undoubtedly includes her effusive praise of the newly formed Soviet Union and its leader, Lenin.
53. Gene Kelly
54. Joseph P. Kennedy
55. Martin Luther King, Jr.
56. Alfred Kinsey
Kinsey's earth-shattering report Sexual Behavior of the Human Male upset the prudes at the FBI, as did the sexologist's acceptance of homosexuality. They kept tabs on Kinsey and his Institute for the Study of Human Sexuality, though nothing came of it.
57. Paul Krassner
Upon receiving his FBI file, Paul Krassner discovered that the Bureau was behind a poison-pen letter sent to Life magazine, calling the counterculture trickster “a raving, unconfined nut.” This phrase became the title of Krassner's autobiography.
58. Ray Kroc
59. Veronica Lake
60. Burt Lancaster
Manly man Burt Lancaster ignited the FBI's wrath by speaking out against the House Un-American Activities Committee and working with blacklisted movie figures. When he needed a passport to France to work on his film Trapeze, the State Department refused until he sent them an affidavit praising the HUAC and declaring he would rat out anyone with communist sympathies.
The file also says that Lancaster and other celebrities attended a gay party with 250 Marines. This rumor was taken so seriously that the Office of Naval Intelligence raided the mansion where the giant orgy supposedly took place.
61. Anton LaVey
62. John Lennon
63. Sinclair Lewis
64. Guy Lombardo
65. Jack London
66. Thomas Mann
67. Mickey Mantle
Among other things, the FBI's file on Mantle looks at his alleged ties to professional gamblers.
68. Bob Marley
69. Billy Martin
70. Dean Martin
As with the rest of the Rat Pack, the FBI watched Dino's interactions with mobsters, Teamsters, and hookers.
71. The Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers—Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo, and Chico are each the subject of an FBI file. A liberal, Groucho was investigated to see if he had commie affiliations, but despite his last name he was no follower of Karl. His comedy was monitored, however, because he occasionally was critical of the United States (which, according to his file, he once referred to as “the United Snakes”).
72. Carson McCullers
73. Marshall McLuhan
74. Steve McQueen
75. Arthur Miller
76. Thelonious Monk
77. Marilyn Monroe
In describing Monroe's file, APBNews implies the G-Men's hard-on for the archetypal blonde bombshell: “The FBI collected intelligence on all aspects of the star's life, from a telegram announcing her marriage and a report on her husband's rumored Communist Party ties to risqué quotes she gave about herself to magazines.”
78. Georgia O'Keeffe
79. George Orwell
80. Jesse Owens
81. Linus Pauling
82. Pablo Picasso
83. Mary Pickford
84. Ezra Pound
85. Elvis Presley
The King's file doesn't contain anything investigational toward him. Instead, it looks at attempts to extort him and collects letters of complaint from outraged bluenoses.
86. Vincent Price
87. Ayn Rand
88. Diego Rivera
89. Norman Rockwell
90. Gene Roddenberry
91. Eleanor Roosevelt
J. Edgar Hoover kept one of his notorious “secret and confidential” files on a socialist named Joseph Lash who joined the US Army. In the most explosive portion of the file, an agent reports that the Army Counterintelligence Corps, while surveilling Lash, recorded him having sex with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in a hotel room. This tape was then reportedly played for FDR, who ordered Lash transferred to combat and angrily confronted his wife. Although Ms. Roosevelt did have affairs, 97. it's generally believed that this wasn't one of them. Given the timing, it seems likely that the sex tape, if it exists, captured Lash and his fiancée getting it on.
92. Carl Sagan
93. Jonas Salk
94. Charles Schulz
95. Tupac Shakur
96. Frank Sinatra
The FBI kept an ten-inch thick file on Old Blue Eyes that examined his alleged communist leanings (doubtful), his supposed attempt at extortion (case dropped when the victim wouldn't cooperate), his reported draft-dodging (found to be baseless), and his friendships with Mafiosi (suspicious but never enough to prosecute). Interestingly, in 1950, the Chairman of the Board volunteered to become an FBI rat by infiltrating the Communist Party. Associate Director Clyde Tolson sniffed: “We want nothing to do with him.”
97. Benjamin Spock
98. John Steinbeck
Given Steinbeck's pro-labor views, it was inevitable that the FBI would compile a dossier on him, focusing on the supposed communist connections of the writer and his wives. The attention was so noticeable that Steinbeck wrote to the Attorney General: “Do you suppose you could ask Edgar's boys to stop stepping on my heels? It's getting tiresome.”
99. Jimmy Stewart
100. Ed Sullivan
101. Rip Torn
102. Spencer Tracy
103. Lana Turner
104. Andy Warhol
For about a decade starting in the late 1960s, the FBI investigated Pop artist Warhol for interstate transportation of obscene material (i.e., his own films). Although some of his movies were banned in some areas (such as New York), Drella was never prosecuted.
105. John Wayne
Obviously, there was no need to monitor the Duke for communist activities. He was such a fervent anti-Red that Stalin sent a KGB assassination squad to snuff him. The most interesting thing in Wayne's file is a memo relaying reports that the actor financially supported a plot to overthrow the government of Panama.
106. Orson Welles
107. Mae West
108. Tennessee Williams
109. Frank Lloyd Wright
110. Richard Nathaniel Wright
111. Malcolm X
Note: You can attempt to get these files for yourself. Some are posted at [foia.fbi.gov], but most will require a formal request. In your letter, mention the Freedom of Information Act, name the file(s) you're interested in, and cite the amount you're willing to pay. Send the letter to:
Record/Information Dissemination Section
Records Management Division
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Department of Justice
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington DC 20535-0001 
Classified Quote # 2
“We have a need for less classification. I read report after report after report all day, and they've got some type of classification cover on it. I'll say, ‘What's classified about that?’ It's 90 percent of what I read.” –Congressman Porter Goss (Republican-Florida), Chair of the House Intelligence Committee