What became known about celebrities from the declassified archives of the secret services: From Albert Einstein to Steve Jobs

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For many decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been tracking its own citizens and citizens of other countries arriving in the United States. This is especially true of persons posing a threat to national security, according to the FBI. Not only politicians are tested for reliability, but also many famous personalities, including actors, singers, musicians and scientists. The FBI has declassified most of its dossiers on celebrities and made public access available for review.

Albert Einstein

The brilliant physicist came to the attention of the FBI after moving from Germany to the United States, the dossier on him was opened in 1932 and by the time of Einstein's death there were 1427 pages. The head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover was suspicious of the physicist's statements about social problems and his opposition to racism and nationalism. Hoover believed that Albert Einstein might well be a communist and was undoubtedly an extreme radical.

Henry Miller

The American writer and artist, according to FBI agents, was a person whose authority and influence were too inflated, just like his literary achievements. The secret services kept Henry Miller in sight because of his frank sympathy for the Nazis, which he himself confessed during a speech at Dartmouth College. The writer compared the Nazis with the Latin Americans and indicated that they both have the same goals. In addition, Miller clarified: the Nazis are no worse than the Americans.

John Lennon

The well-known performer openly annoyed the special services by the very fact of his presence in the United States. His incredible popularity and overly outspoken anti-war statements seemed too radical. But there was no reason to deprive Lennon of his American visa in the 1970s. In his dossier in 1972, a record appeared that he did not pose a real threat, too often John Lennon was under the influence of drugs.

Frank Sinatra

The American actor and singer drew the attention of the FBI early in his career, saying that he paid a doctor $ 40,000 to avoid being drafted into active service. But later it turned out that the actor had escaped the draft on completely legal grounds, since he had a perforated eardrum. Subsequently, the FBI did not leave the performer with its attention, and he gave many reasons for this - there were many mafia leaders among Sinatra's friends. His own dossier resembled a guide to US mafia groups. The singer himself knew that he was being watched, and even was familiar with his dossier, which he could read by requesting it in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law.

Elvis Presley

According to the FBI dossier, the American singer posed a threat to the national security of the United States due to the fact that, during his many performances, he was too outspoken on stage, forcing the youth in the hall to experience sexual desire. In 1956, this was exactly what one of the FBI informants wrote about, noting the excessive eroticism of the singer's performances and the too revealing outfits of the performer.

Marlene Dietrich

The German actress was checked very carefully by the FBI, constantly interviewing people close to her. No compromising evidence was found on Marlene Dietrich, and her most "terrible" crime in the eyes of the special services was the actress using all her charm for a single purpose: to help Jean Gabin, with whom she was then in love, to get a residence permit as soon as possible. Some informants, however, assured that Dietrich would never be able to forget about his German origin, but there was nothing seditious in this fact.

Marilyn Monroe

J. Edgar Hoover seriously suspected the world's most famous blonde in her sympathies for the communists and the actress's desire to influence the minds of her fellow citizens through culture. In this case, Marilyn Monroe was played against by her relationship with President Kennedy and his brother, as well as her relationship with Frederick Vanderbilt Field, a politician known for his socialist views. And even the marriage of the actress to playwright Arthur Miller served as indirect evidence that Monroe "fell into the communist orbit." But there was no real confirmation of the actress's commitment to communist ideas.

Bertolt Brecht

The German playwright and founder of the Berliner Ensemble theater allowed himself to attend Billy Wilder's Hollywood party in 1945, where he inadvertently spoke about Otto Katz, suspected of working for Soviet intelligence. According to the playwright, Katz had no weight or influence in political circles. FBI agents immediately concluded that Bertolt Brecht was too independent and talkative to be a Soviet agent. Although the check against the playwright was undoubtedly carried out.

Betty Page

In the 1950s, the American model was called the "queen of the stars." She became famous for her candid and sometimes provocative photo shoots. But this brunette with bright blue eyes was also an FBI informant, helping the secret services fight the rampant pornography in the country. J. Edgar Hoover used the model as an expert who knows where illegal studios are located, filming prohibited materials, and can also know those who order and buy them.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs came to the attention of the FBI in 1991, when he was being considered as an export advisor to President George W. Bush. The agents collected information about the founder of Apple, and as a result, records from several agents appeared in his dossier that Steve Jobs is capable of suppressing facts and distorting them for his own benefit. Jobs's adolescent experiments with LSD also spoke against Jobs's candidacy for the presidency. At the same time, Jobs himself called these experiments "positive life-changing experiences."

On April 3, 1996, an army of FBI agents surrounded a small mountain hut near Lincoln, Montana. A local forester named Jerry Barnes knocked on the door to summon its inhabitant to talk, former professor of mathematics Theodor Kaczynski. As soon as he took a step over the threshold, he was immediately arrested. What is the namesake of two Polish presidents serving a life sentence for?