WEBVTT - 5. G-Men Are Coming to Town 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:02.400 Last time on Snapoo. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.240 We had picked the time to begin the actual action, 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.000 timing it to begin with the Ali Fraser fight. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.520 So I went to the door, mister confident, and there's 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.079 a second lock on the door that wasn't there like 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:18.160 two weeks before. 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:20.560 We got this far, and we're just not going to 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:24.440 give up. And that's when I remembered the second door. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:36.120 Who anonymous. 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.000 I was really jacked up. Can you believe it? We 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:42.360 pulled it off without a single hitch? 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:51.960 Now, were you the first to a rhyme the morning? 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:52.440 Yes? 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.200 Yes, about seven seven thirty in the morning. 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.960 Frank McLaughlin was an FBI agent based in Media, Pennsylvania, 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.240 in nineteen seventy one. On March ninth of that year, 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.560 he was the first one to arrive for work, where 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:13.160 his investigative acumen immediately told him is something wasn't right. 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:16.920 I could tell the lock had been tampered with. I 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.480 could tell by looking at it. So then I automatically 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.000 looked at the second door, and that was that. 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:22.479 You are. 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.320 What do you think I suspected that there was a Berkeley? 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:31.440 I mean, yeah, I've been in this business a lot 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:32.360 of years. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.720 Inside, he astutely noted a few more telltale clues. For example, 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.400 all of the documents in the entire office were missing. 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.440 The doors were open and the files were gone. And 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.520 I walked into my office a destroyers were rifled. It's 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:51.880 a place that was ramsacked. 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.960 From there, a series of bewildered g men passed the 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.840 message up the chain of command. Before Whover even arrived 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.680 at his office that morning, his underlings had already enlisted 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.720 one of his most trusted agents, Deputy Associate Director Mark Felt. 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:11.880 If that name sounds familiar, it's because a few years later, 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.200 Felt would leak evidence about Watergate to the Washington Post. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.280 For that he's better known to the world as Deep Throat. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.400 That was after a famous porn movie at the. 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:31.079 Time, Thanks Betty. Anyway, in nineteen seventy one, Felt was 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:33.880 a highly respected g man, the kind the other g 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.400 men turned to when the unthinkable happened. 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.160 Mark Felt was in New York and he was shaving 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.160 in his hotel room when he got a call telling 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:46.920 him that there was an emergency in the FBI. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.960 Felt canceled his meetings in New York. He caught the 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.120 next train down to Philadelphia. He hustled from Philly's thirtieth 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.000 Street station to the FBI office at one Veteran Square 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.040 in Media. He strode into the office, took charge, and 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.480 immediately got to work covering his own ass. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:09.160 So when Mark Felt arrived that morning, he immediately focused 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.440 on the safe in the office. 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.760 That safe was the only unburgled thing in the whole office. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.320 It contained the agent's firearms, but no files. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.560 He thought that this was ridiculous, this is where the 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:23.800 papers should have been kept. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.720 Yeah, funny thing about that the lead agent and media 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.040 had put in a request for a larger safe just 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.359 the year before. He specifically noted that not having one 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:37.560 left his office vulnerable to burglars. That request landed on 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:41.120 the desk of Deputy Associate Director Mark Felt. 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:45.440 The other thing that he asked Felt for was an 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.840 alarm system, an alarm system that would be connected to 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:54.680 the police. Felt had turned him down on both of 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.880 these things. When he asked why they couldn't have an 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.680 alarm system, he said that they were so close to 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.280 the local police station that that just wasn't necessary. 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.160 You're close to a police station. If you get burgled, 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:09.800 just scream, they'll hear you. 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.000 And instead of a very large safe, he provided them 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:18.040 with a very small safe. 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:20.960 We'll never know. I Felt realized in that moment that 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:25.120 this whole snapfoo was kind of his fault. But before 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.800 he got to work searching for the culprits, he found 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:32.200 something more important, someone to take the fall the lead 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:37.240 agent in Media, who was sadly reassigned to Atlanta. 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:41.000 Hoover, urged by Mark Felt, had gotten rid of the 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.039 person in the office who knew the most about the 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:48.520 area and probably could have been most helpful in conducting 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:53.120 the investigation. Instead of Deep Throat, they were considering a 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.240 nickname that morning. It would be deep Scapegoader. 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.000 Suffice to to say, this was not the FBI's finest hour. 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.880 A reporter later described Hoover as quote apoplectic when he 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.080 heard about the burglary. Within hours, the director had assigned 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.359 over two hundred agents to a new operation to track 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.080 down and arrest the culprits. The secret code name for 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.720 this operation medburgh medburg. 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.440 I mean it was just a combination of media, meed, 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:25.799 and burglary. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:31.880 What a cute portmanteau. For the first time in its history, 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:37.560 classified Bureau documents had fallen into outside hands, but for now, 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.760 at least those documents remained secret. Hoover's FBI was in 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.960 a race against the clock, and the orders were clear, 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:53.559 find these anonymous burglars before an embarrassment became a catastrophe. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.760 I'm Ed Helms and this is Snafu, a show about 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:03.000 history's greatest screw ups. This is Season two Medburg the 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.280 story of a daring heist and the colossal FBI snaffoo 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:17.600 it exposed. Today, the FBI hunts the burglars Todd. 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:24.680 Haof Hao. 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.479 In the dead of night, hours before Frank McLaughlin would 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.520 even discover the crime scene. The burglars sat in a 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.600 Quaker farmhouse in the Pennsylvania Woods with pages and pages 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.200 of loot. As the adrenaline wore off, it was time 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.400 to see what they had scored. They separated the documents 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:49.200 into piles and dug in. 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.120 I think we all trusted each other to know what 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.359 was important and what wasn't. Judy and I worked together. 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.080 They had a little shed off of the main cabin. 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.120 But I remember Judy and I spending a lot of 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:09.159 time in that shed and holding hands and but working too. 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:11.720 I thought it was very romantic to go through the 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:16.000 files and decide, you know, which ones you weren't gonna copy. 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:24.280 Yeah, some files were boring and some were strange, like 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.160 the memo that informed overweight agents they'd be subject to 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.400 weekly weigh ins until they lost the extra pounds, or 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.840 the one that instructed agents on the proper protocol for 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.880 observing j Edgar Hoover's birthday. Who would have guessed this 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.000 guy was more of a birthday diva than my five 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:44.800 year old niece. An hour passed, and the burglars were 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.320 undoubtedly feeling nervous that they had just risked everything to 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.880 steal a bunch of nothing. 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:52.480 And then. 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:57.200 I remember someone in the other room said, you've got 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.160 to come and see this. 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.120 The whole team stopped what they were doing and gathered 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:08.240 around one document. Hearts pounding, they took turns reading. It 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.520 was a memo from headquarters to all FBI agents. The 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.280 memo instructed agents to conduct interviews with anti war activists, 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.520 not for the purpose of investigating any illegal activity, but 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:20.640 rather in. 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.760 Order to enhance the paranoia. They were to give the 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:28.000 impression that there was an FBI agent behind every mailbox. 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.400 And it was like, at last something, That's what they wanted. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.280 They wanted people to think that there was a boogeyman 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:37.640 behind every mailbox. 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.479 We had some idea that this was pretty explosive. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.960 They kept reading, and soon the floodgates opened. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.720 It was just a constant stream of people saying, oh, man, 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.120 look at this, and then everybody would stop and look 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:57.360 up and they would read something, you know, and then 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.920 a couple of minutes later somebody would say, holy Macro, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:01.160 you're not going to believe this. 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:07.120 One file detailed the movements and grades of a congressman's daughter. 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.600 The records indicated that during the spring semester of nineteen 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.800 sixty nine, she attended the AutoMac. 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.199 Who was being surveilled because she, like her parents, opposed 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:17.400 the Vietnam War. 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.840 Where major is fringe and as many courses. 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.360 Another conversation was picked up by a phone tap on 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.840 the Black Panther Party's Philadelphia office. The tap didn't appear 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.720 to have picked up anything illegal, but agents had taken 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.360 scrupulous notes. As one panther phoned his mom to ask 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:33.360 for bus fare, he. 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.040 Asked his mother to send him seventeen dollars to get home. 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.640 They'd also intercepted a letter from a Boy Scout troop 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.160 leader asking the Soviet embassy about the possibility of taking 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.240 his troop to Russia for a camping trip next summer. 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.160 We would like very much to go to the Soviet 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:49.959 Union to travel through your country and meet our counterparts 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:51.480 in the USSR, if possible. 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:56.439 Another file alleged quote communist infiltration of a local women's. 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:59.040 Group, Martin Luther King Junior, who will address the fiftieth 0:09:59.040 --> 0:09:59.839 anniversary banquet? 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:03.800 Be the nature of that infiltration. Martin Luther King Junior 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.440 had been invited to speak at their upcoming banquet. 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.960 Copies of the names and biographical data are attached here too. 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:14.120 A local civil rights leader, Mohammad Kanyata, was also being surveiled. 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.320 There are two persons authorized to sign checks on this account, 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.280 and they are Mohammed Kanyata and Mary Kenyata. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.120 Again, there was zero evidence of criminal activity in his file, 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.200 but the FBI had obtained records of his phone calls 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:28.520 and bank transactions. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.520 The Peltan's account was forty four dollars and thirty two cents. 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:37.760 As they kept reading, the burglars realized banks, employers, landlords, 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:43.000 utility companies, local police, and individual busybodies had all happily 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.160 collaborated with the FBI to surveil their friends and associates, 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:52.720 no subpoenas, no warrants, and absolutely zero consideration for privacy. 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.080 Will continue to monitor bank account of National Black Economic 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.200 Development Conference in Southeast National Bank, followed by copies of 0:10:59.200 --> 0:10:59.880 bank statements. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:05.080 Kiseled chicks and While the targets ranged from women's lib 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.600 groups to boy Scout troops, the FBI was clearly preoccupied 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.880 with black activists. They weren't just tapping the phones of 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:18.080 the Black Panthers and leaders like Kenyata. Every single black 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:28.360 student at Swafmore College was under surveillance. When they finally 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.840 got through all the files, the burglars tallied up what 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.360 they'd found. Forty percent of the cases in the Media 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:39.319 office dealt with surveillance of legal political activity. By contrast, 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:44.040 investigations of murders, rapes, and interstate crimes constituted just twenty 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.720 percent of the files, and a measly one percent dealt 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:51.720 with organized crime. If the Media office was any indication, 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:57.000 spying on law abiding citizens was the FBI's number one priority, 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.960 The stolen files mostly FBI surveillance activity in the Philadelphia area. 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:07.040 Oh, it was all horrifying. It was horrifying, but. 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.200 It was clear that the mandates were being sent to 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:10.959 FBI offices nationwide. 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:12.880 I think we all felt disgusted. 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.960 One memo came directly from Hoover, directing all offices to 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.960 surveil black student unions on every single college campus in 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:21.560 the country. 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.440 I had no particular admiration for the FBI at that point, 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:29.480 but that was a new low not even I had imagined. 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.120 And Hoover said their activity posed a quote definite threat 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:40.160 to the nation's stability and security. They didn't realize it yet, 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.280 but the single most important document the burglars had stolen 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.680 was a simple routing slip at the top in big 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.319 block letters was a code word, which at the time 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:55.440 meant nothing to the burglars. Co intel pro A single 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.040 code word on a single page in a mountain of files, 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.959 a needle in a haystack, A needle so dangerous that 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:07.000 Hoover was prepared to do anything to catch these burglars 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:23.160 before that code word could see the light of day. 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:27.480 I must have been about what six point thirty in 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.360 the morning, and I stopped to a paypall on at 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:35.440 Chestnut Hill at a gas station. The whole place was empty. 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.559 I before they could finally return home to their children. 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.760 John and Bonnie Rains had one more task. They pulled 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:43.840 up to a gas station and Bonnie waited in the 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.000 car as John made a phone call. In his hand 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.640 was a statement announcing what the Citizens Commissioned to Investigate 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.800 the FBI had just done. 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.880 We'd written a common statement and this was to be 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:57.640 read to the writer's fellow. 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:00.959 Well, I was dead the phone. 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:06.080 That's Bill Winzel, the reuters fella, Yeah, the phone. 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.640 And the voice said, this is a Citizens Commission to 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:14.160 investigate the FBI. I thought, oh, this is going to 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:16.640 be interesting. Good Bill. 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.080 On the night of March eighth, nineteen seventy one, the 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.720 Citizens Commissioned to Investigate the FBI removed files from the 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.640 media Pennsylvania Office of the FBI. These files will now 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.320 be studied to determine the nature and extent of surveillance. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.600 John was on the phone with the reporter reading the statement, 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:36.920 and I was waiting in the car and a police 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.560 car pulls up into the gas station. He was curious, 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:42.480 I guess about what we were doing at that time 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:44.240 of the night on a public phone. 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.760 The police car crept by. The officer peered at John. 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.440 John spotted the car, but he kept reading. His hand 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.160 trembled holding a piece of paper that contained his confession 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:58.400 to a federal. 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:02.000 Crime, and we just absolutely freaked out. 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.760 The police car kept moving and slowly drove away. John 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:11.800 continued reading, we have taken this action because we believe 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.440 that democracy can survive only in an order of justice, 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:19.840 of an open society and public trust. And then the 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:23.840 police car returned, driving even more slowly this time. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.200 I was really afraid at that point, because John had 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.080 that piece of paper right there in front of him 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:30.840 in the phone booth. 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:34.640 She leaned over and banged on the window to get 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:39.800 John's attention, her expression clearly conveying a message every spouse understands, 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.200 hurry the up. But even with the cops checking him 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:48.280 out and Bonnie glaring at him, John dictated the entire letter. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:50.840 He had a cover story just in case if the 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.000 police bothered him, he'd just pretend he was on the 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.400 phone with his bookie. He catched the fight last night. 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:59.840 Officer John continued reading the statement. In doing this, we 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.240 know full well the legal jeopardy in which we place ourselves. 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.600 We feel most keenly our responsibilities to those who daily 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.400 depend on us, and whom we put in jeopardy by 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.600 our own jeopardy. But under the present circumstances, this seems 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.080 to us our best way of loving and serving them, 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.040 and in fact, all the people of this land, the 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:25.640 citizens commissioned to investigate the FBI. As John finished and 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.120 hung up the phone, the police car drove off and disappeared. 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:35.480 This time it did not come back. Mission accomplished, John 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:36.840 and Bonnie drove home. 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.240 We tore the statement up and threw it out the 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.680 window and went home to our kids. 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.360 As the scraps of paper fluttered to the ground, John 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:53.920 and Bonnie laughed with glee or perhaps sleep deprivation. Meanwhile, Bill, 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.440 the Reuter's fellow, was wide awake. He just had a 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.680 bombshell dropped right into his hands. 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.000 I knew I was going to have to call the 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:08.360 FBI to tell them I had gotten the call, and 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.639 I needed confirmation that all your files had been stole. 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.000 Bill expected the FBI to give him the run around, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:18.800 or a simple no comment. 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:24.000 You know, they could have said what not answering questions, 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:29.359 but they didn't. They confirmed it, and trustfully, at this 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:31.000 point they're looking pretty bad. 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.960 He laughs now. But Bill would soon realize this phone 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.880 call made him a suspect. In the coming weeks, he'd 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.879 be stalked by FBI agents. According to him, one actually 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:49.280 punched him in the stomach. Bill could only corroborate basic 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.320 details with the FBI. His story ran in The New 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.080 York Times the next day, around fifty words in total, 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.520 buried on page seven. The story acknowledged that a burglary 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:00.879 had taken place, but said nothing about the nature of 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:05.000 the records that were stolen. Hoover still had time to 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:17.720 catch the burglars before they spilled his secrets. After the 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.320 burglars sorted through the files, it was time to share 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.640 them with the world. They packaged up copies of the documents, 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:27.320 addressed them to two congressmen and three reporters, and dropped 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:32.720 them in the mailbox. The return label read Liberty Publications Media, Pennsylvania. 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.560 At that point, Bonnie says, it was out of their hands. 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.919 We had to depend on courageous journalists and editors to 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.000 do their job. Then that was just one more thing 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.440 to be anxious about. Would they So we just had 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.840 to hope, and we had to wait and see what 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.600 the reaction of the general public would be to the 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:54.800 truth about the FBI. 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.399 The burglars would later learn that the congressmen and who'd 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.760 received the files had immediately turned them right back over 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:08.320 to the FBI, but not Betty Metzker. She retrieved her 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:12.280 mail at the Washington Post, found a mysterious envelope, and 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:13.880 met the moment head on. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.119 FBI records stolen from the media Pennsylvania office showed that 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:21.400 one goal of a bureau was to spread that very 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.840 impression among left wing organizations that there was an agent 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:26.080 behind every mail box. 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.160 The FBI was falling out of public favor for pretty 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.640 much the first time ever, not only for its questionable ethics, 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.640 but also for its questionable effectiveness. A New York Times 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:42.440 editorial read quote, little confidence is inspired by the security 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:46.119 measures of a security agency whose files can be so 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:51.960 easily burglarized. Here's burglar. Ralph Daniel I was also real excited, 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.520 because we did have some concern that this funky little 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.600 outpost for the fbi't wasn't going to have much. 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.919 But we knew, we knew this was dynamite stuff. 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.400 After we mailed the documents, our job was done. 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:21.120 This was moving along unbelievably well. When the Citizens commissioned 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.720 to investigate the FBI met at the farmhouse for the 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.479 last time. They renewed the vow they had made at 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.719 the start they would never tell a living soul what 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:31.199 they had done. 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.040 We decided we're not getting together as a group ever again. 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:36.879 We really parted ways. 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.560 Apart from John and Bonnie, who continued to be married, 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:43.960 the rest of the crew knew their best chance of 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.040 staying safe was to stay apart. No more dinners, no 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.320 more phone calls, no returning to media every March for 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:52.520 a reunion barbecue. 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.600 We absolutely could not be in contact with each other 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:00.520 at all. I'm sure that bothered me to some extent, 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:03.080 but that's the way it had to be. It's just 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:03.840 the way it had to be. 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.840 And so the burglars left the Quaker Farmhouse in the 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:13.399 Woods one last time. The Citizens Commission to Investigate the 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:18.720 FBI was effectively dissolved, but the FBI's hunt for them, 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:25.760 code named Medburg, was just getting started, and soon the 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:35.160 g men would come a knocking. When the Washington Post 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.000 published the contents of those first media files, j Edgar 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:41.439 Hoover was livid. His only consolation was that the story 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:45.119 could have been way worse. The story revealed the FBI 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.320 wanted to make activists paranoid to think there was a 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:53.040 quote FBI agent behind every mailbox. But the article made 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:57.359 no mention of Hoover's biggest liability, the code word co 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:00.560 intel pro. For all he knew, it was just a 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:04.760 matter of time. Hoover needed to catch those burglars fast. 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:10.359 The document containing the infamous agent behind every mailbox line 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.000 was basically an instruction manual for how to interrogate anti 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:18.080 war activists. It also included the following quote, some will 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:21.840 be overcome by the overwhelming personalities of the contacting agent 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:27.080 and volunteer to tell all. So there you have it. 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.879 All the g men had to do was contact some activists, 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:34.600 overwhelm them with personality, and the suspects would spill their guts. 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:38.040 Let's see how that went. I'm going to read you 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:43.840 some of the actual reports agents sent to headquarters. Two 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:47.040 director from Indianapolis checked on the whereabouts of a man 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.400 from Bloomington who agents thought might quote do such a thing. 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:55.800 Two director from Newark possible suspect found by the Red Bank, 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.840 New Jersey office a long haired person sitting in a car. 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:06.439 Two director from Philadelphia visited local commune Farkal Farm. The 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:11.159 commune is primarily engaged in drug and sex activities. However, 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:17.240 they could definitely still know something. Okay, buddy, better stay 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.760 put there at Farkel Farm, see if you can get 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:26.480 some good inter court I mean. Intel agents had recovered 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:29.280 a partial palm print from the media office, found on 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.240 the side of the large filing cabinet. They sent it 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.960 to the lab and waited for results. Their strongest lead 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:38.960 was the Unknown walk In, a college girl who had 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:42.399 visited the office weeks before the burglary, ostensibly for a 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:46.040 newspaper article. They had to call her the unknown walk In, 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.399 of course, because none of the agents thought to ask 0:23:49.520 --> 0:23:54.040 for her name. That really pissed Hoover off. He made 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:57.600 it objective number one for the agents to find that woman. 0:23:58.280 --> 0:23:59.360 Find me that. 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:04.720 The agents who saw Bonnie in the office that day 0:24:04.800 --> 0:24:07.800 worked with a Philadelphia sketch artist to drop a picture 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:11.719 to distribute to agents nationwide. The quality of the sketch 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:15.000 was well, just imagine someone handed you a picture of 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:17.480 an oval and said, go find this egg. 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:21.760 I laughed. I just laughed and laughed. It was pretty funny. 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:24.120 It's almost like a cartoon. 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:28.960 Accompanying the sketch was a written description apparently Bonnie's coat 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.440 was quote soiled and in need of cleaning and pressing, 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:36.199 and her hair was quote apparently not well combed or 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:39.600 well kept. Were you offended by their description? 0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:48.320 Yeah, I was a little offended. We just knew that 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:51.560 Hoover was beside himself that this had happened. 0:24:51.880 --> 0:24:56.640 Well, I mean, that was no surprise. I mean, two 0:24:56.680 --> 0:24:59.960 seconds after Bill suggested the idea, I'm like, they really 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:02.280 gonna be pissed if we pull this off. 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:07.800 He dispatched two hundred agents to flood the Philadelphia area 0:25:08.040 --> 0:25:10.399 to find us. 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:15.639 Powelton Village is a neighborhood in West Philadelphia filled with 0:25:15.760 --> 0:25:19.080 red brick townhouses. In nineteen seventy one, it was a 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:22.719 hotbed of anti war activism. Hoover was certain that if 0:25:22.760 --> 0:25:25.440 the burglars were to be found, they'd be found here, 0:25:26.119 --> 0:25:29.280