10. Many of Hoover’s feared secret files were little more than a bluff
Although the fact of the FBI keeping confidential files, often compiled through the use of extralegal means, is well established, the existence of an additional set of personal files compiled and controlled by the FBI director for his own use has never been confirmed. It has entered the public realm in the same category as the Roswell files, rabidly believed by some, laughed at by others. The FBI’s official files were bad enough, in terms of the damage their content could have done to personal reputations if revealed. Hoover knew what the FBI had, especially on those he considered his personal enemies. He often referred to them in backhanded fashion, letting an individual know that the FBI was aware of some deep, dark secret, and promising the hapless individual that the secret would be kept.
For decades, beginning before JFK was elected president in 1960, the existence of extensive files held on the Kennedys was rumored in Washington. Hoover also helped slip innuendo linking Joseph P. Kennedy to bootleggers, despite Senate confirmation hearings for Kennedy’s numerous public offices never finding any evidence of such a link (his political enemies, as well as FDR’s, would have made much of them if they had). Yet Hoover’s first meeting with Bobby Kennedy after the latter became Attorney General indicated Bobby had little to fear from Hoover, and even less personal respect for the man who called himself America’s premier law enforcement officer. Kennedy spent the entire interview throwing darts at a board on the wall of his new office, somewhat contemptuous of Hoover. His obvious disregard for what most of official Washington considered an intimidating presence indicated that Hoover’s feared files were of little concern to him, as well as his brother. Hoover was not pleased, but there was little he could do.