Fifty years ago this week — on May 2, 1972 — J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, died at his home near Washington's Rock Creek Park, and was found the next morning by his housekeeper slumped on the floor next to his bed.
In the days that followed, he received fulsome praise. President Richard Nixon eulogized him as a "giant" and a "legend" who personified integrity, honor, principle and courage, who had fought all his life against the "trend of permissiveness" that Nixon said was eroding the country. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger called Hoover a "splendid man" who "would not sacrifice principle to public clamor."
But the full story wasn't being told. In fact, Nixon had hoped to push Hoover out of the job just a few months earlier but feared the director's retribution. At least four other presidents reportedly had hoped to remove him as well but were unable to or didn't dare.
