Helen Gandy
Encyclopedia
Helen W. Gandy was an American
civil servant
. She was the secretary
to Federal Bureau of Investigation
director J. Edgar Hoover
for fifty-four years. Hoover called her "indispensable" and she exercised great behind-the-scenes influence on Hoover and the workings of the Bureau. Following Hoover's death in 1972, she spent weeks destroying his "Personal File," thought to be where the most incriminating material he used to manipulate and control the most powerful figures in Washington was kept.
Gandy, "a wraith-like, grim-faced spinster from New Jersey", was born in Rockville, one of three children (two daughters and a son) born to Franklin Dallas and Annie (née
Williams) Gandy. She grew up in Fairton
or Port Norris
(sources differ) and graduated from Bridgeton High School
in Bridgeton
. In 1918, aged twenty-one, she moved to Washington, D.C.
, where she later took classes at Strayer Business College and George Washington University Law School.
in 1918. Within weeks, she went to work as a typist for Hoover, effective March 25, 1918, having told Hoover in her interview she had "no immediate plans to marry." She, like Hoover, would never marry, both being completely devoted to the Bureau.
When Hoover went to the Bureau of Investigation (as it was then known) as its assistant director on August 22, 1921, he specifically requested Gandy return from vacation to help him in the new post. Hoover became director of the Bureau in 1924 and Gandy continued in his service. She was promoted to "office assistant" on August 23, 1937, and "executive assistant" on October 1, 1939. Though she would receive promotions in her civil service
grade subsequently, she would retain her title as executive assistant to her retirement on May 2, 1972, the day Hoover died. Hoover said of her "if there is anyone in this Bureau whose services are indispensable I consider Miss Gandy to be that person." Despite this, Curt Gentry wrote:
Hoover biographers Theoharis and Cox would say "her stern face recalled Cerberus
at the gate," a view echoed by Anthony Summers in his life of Hoover, who also pictured Gandy as Hoover's first line of defense against the outside world. When Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy
, Hoover's nominal boss, had a direct telephone line installed between their offices, Hoover refused to answer the phone. "Put that damn thing on Miss Gandy's desk where it belongs," Hoover would declare.
Curt Gentry would describe her influence:
William C. Sullivan
, an agent with the Bureau for three decades, reported in his memoir when he worked in the public relations section answering mail from the public, he gave a correspondent the wrong measurements for Hoover's personal popover
recipe, relying on memory rather than the files. Gandy, ever protective of her boss, caught the error and brought it to Hoover's attention. The director then placed an official letter of reprimand
in Sullivan's file for the lapse. W. Mark Felt
, deputy associate director of the Bureau, wrote in his memoir that Gandy "was bright and alert and quick-tempered—and completely dedicated to her boss."
died during the night of May 1–May 2, 1972. When his housekeeper, Annie Fields, discovered the body on the morning of the second, her second call (after telephoning acting director Clyde Tolson
) was to Gandy, who learned the news at 8:40 A.M. Within an hour, the "D List" ("d" standing for destruction) was being distributed and the destruction of files began. However, The New York Times
quoted an anonymous F.B.I. source in Spring 1975 that "Gandy had begun almost a year before Mr. Hoover's death and was instructed to purge the files that were then in his office."
Anthony Summers reported that G. Gordon Liddy
stated his sources in the F.B.I. said "by the time Gray
went in to get the files, Miss Gandy had already got rid of them." The day after Hoover died, L. Patrick Gray
, who had been named acting director by President Richard Nixon
upon Tolson's resignation from that position, went to Hoover's office. Gandy paused from her work to give Gray a tour. He found file cabinets open and packing boxes being filled with papers. She informed him the boxes contained personal papers of Hoover's. Gandy stated Gray flipped through a few files and approved her work, but Gray was to deny he looked at any papers. Gandy also told Gray it would be a week before she could clear Hoover's effects out so he could move into the suite.
Gray reported to Nixon that he had secured Hoover's office and its contents. However, he had sealed only Hoover's personal inner office, where no files were stored, not the entire suite of offices. Since 1957, Hoover's "Official/Confidential" files, containing material too sensitive to include in the Bureau's central files, had been kept in the outer office, where Gandy sat. Curt Gentry reported that Gray would not have known where to look in Gandy's office for the files, as her office was lined floor to ceiling with filing cabinets. And without her index to the files, he would not have been able to locate incriminating material, for files were deliberately mislabeled, e.g. President Nixon's file was labeled "Obscene Matters".
The next day, May 4, she turned over twelve boxes of the "Official/Confidential" containing 167 files and 17,750 pages to Mark Felt
. Many of them contained derogatory information. Gray told the press that afternoon that "there are no dossiers or secret files. There are just general files and I took steps to preserve their integrity." Gandy retained the "Personal File".
Gandy worked on going through Hoover's "Personal File" in the office until May 12. She then transferred at least thirty-two file drawers of material to the basement rec room of Hoover's Washington home at 4936 Thirtieth Place, Northwest, where she would continue her work from May 13 to July 17. Gandy later testified nothing official had been removed from the Bureau's offices, "not even his badge." There the destruction was overseen by John P. Mohr
, the number three man in the Bureau after Hoover and Tolson. They were aided by James Jesus Angleton
, the Central Intelligence Agency
's counterintelligence chief, whom Hoover's neighbors saw removing boxes from Hoover's home. Mohr would claim the boxes Angleton removed were cases of spoiled wine.
When the House
Committee on Government Oversight investigated the F.B.I.'s spying on and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and others in 1975, Gandy was called to testify. "I tore them up, put them in boxes, and they were taken away to be shredded," she told the congressmen about the papers. The Bureau's Washington field office had F.B.I. drivers transport the material to Hoover's home, then once Gandy had gone through the material, the drivers transported it back to the field office in the Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue where it was shredded and burned.
Gandy stated that Hoover had left standing instructions to destroy his personal papers upon his death and that this instruction was confirmed by Tolson and Gray. Gandy stated that she destroyed no official papers, that everything was personal papers of Hoover. The staff of the subcommittee did not believe her, but she told the committee "I have no reason to lie." Representative Andrew Maguire
(D
-New Jersey
), a freshman member of the 94th Congress
, said "I find your testimony very difficult to believe." Gandy held her ground: "That is your privilege."
"I can give you my word. I know what there was—letters to and from friends, personal friends, a lot of letters," she testified. Gandy also said the files she took to his home also included his financial papers, such as tax returns and investment statements, the deed to his home, and papers relating to his dogs' pedigrees.
Curt Gentry wrote
In J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and His Secrets, Curt Gentry describes the nature of the files: "... their contents included blackmail material on the patriarch of an American political dynasty, his sons, their wives, and other women; allegations of two homosexual arrests which Hoover leaked to help defeat a witty, urbane Democratic presidential candidate; the surveillance reports on one of America's best-known first ladies and her alleged lovers, both male and female, white and black; the child molestation documentation the director used to control and manipulate one of the Red-baiting proteges; a list of the Bureau's spies in the White House during the eight administrations when Hoover was FBI director; the forbidden fruit of hundreds of illegal wiretaps and bugs, containing, for example, evidence that an attorney general (and later Supreme Court justice) had received payoffs from the Chicago syndicate; as well as celebrity files, with all the unsavory gossip Hoover could amass on some of the biggest names in show business."
Of course, Gentry's account is merely speculation, as the actual contents of the files are unknown. In continued efforts by many who disliked Hoover and the FBI, such uncorroborated accounts abound.
to the Smithsonian American Art Museum
. Gandy lived in Washington, D.C.
, until 1986, when she moved to DeLand, Florida
, in Volusia County
where a niece lived.
An avid trout
fisherman, she died of a heart attack on July 7, 1988, either in DeLand (says her New York Times
obituary) or in nearby Orange City, Florida
(says her Post obituary).
would portray Gandy in Clint Eastwood
's biography film titled J. Edgar
. The film also stars Leonardo DiCaprio
as Hoover, and Armie Hammer
as Clyde Tolson
. The movie was released theatrically on November 11, 2011.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
civil servant
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
. She was the secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
to Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
director J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
for fifty-four years. Hoover called her "indispensable" and she exercised great behind-the-scenes influence on Hoover and the workings of the Bureau. Following Hoover's death in 1972, she spent weeks destroying his "Personal File," thought to be where the most incriminating material he used to manipulate and control the most powerful figures in Washington was kept.
Early life
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Williams) Gandy. She grew up in Fairton
Fairton, New Jersey
Fairton is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Fairfield Township, in Cumberland County, New Jersey. It is part of the Vineland-Milleville- Bridgeton Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area for statistical purposes...
or Port Norris
Port Norris, New Jersey
Port Norris is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Commercial Township, in Cumberland County, New Jersey. It is part of the Vineland-Millville- Bridgeton Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area for statistical purposes...
(sources differ) and graduated from Bridgeton High School
Bridgeton High School
Bridgeton High School is a comprehensive community public high school that serves students in grades 9-12 from the city of Bridgeton, in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Bridgeton Public Schools, an Abbott District...
in Bridgeton
Bridgeton, New Jersey
Bridgeton is a city in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States, in the south part of the state, on the Cohansey River, near Delaware Bay. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 25,349. It is the county seat of Cumberland County...
. In 1918, aged twenty-one, she moved to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where she later took classes at Strayer Business College and George Washington University Law School.
Career
Gandy briefly worked in a department store in Washington before she found a job as a file clerk at the Justice DepartmentUnited States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
in 1918. Within weeks, she went to work as a typist for Hoover, effective March 25, 1918, having told Hoover in her interview she had "no immediate plans to marry." She, like Hoover, would never marry, both being completely devoted to the Bureau.
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
grade subsequently, she would retain her title as executive assistant to her retirement on May 2, 1972, the day Hoover died. Hoover said of her "if there is anyone in this Bureau whose services are indispensable I consider Miss Gandy to be that person." Despite this, Curt Gentry wrote:
Theirs was a rigidly formal relationship. He'd always called her 'Miss Gandy' (when angry, barking it out as one word). In all those fifty-four years he had never once called her by her first name.
Hoover biographers Theoharis and Cox would say "her stern face recalled Cerberus
Cerberus
Cerberus , or Kerberos, in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed hound which guards the gates of the Underworld, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping...
at the gate," a view echoed by Anthony Summers in his life of Hoover, who also pictured Gandy as Hoover's first line of defense against the outside world. When Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
, Hoover's nominal boss, had a direct telephone line installed between their offices, Hoover refused to answer the phone. "Put that damn thing on Miss Gandy's desk where it belongs," Hoover would declare.
Curt Gentry would describe her influence:
Her genteel manner and pleasant voice contrasted sharply with this domineering presence. Yet behind the politeness was a resolute firmness not unlike his, and no small amount of influence. Many a career in the Bureau had been quietly manipulated by her.
Even those who disliked him, praised her, most often commenting on her remarkable ability to get along with all kinds of people. That she had held her position for fifty-four years was the best evidence of this, for it was a Bureau tradition that the closer you were to him, the more demanding he was.
William C. Sullivan
William C. Sullivan
William Cornelius Sullivan was former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation intelligence operations....
, an agent with the Bureau for three decades, reported in his memoir when he worked in the public relations section answering mail from the public, he gave a correspondent the wrong measurements for Hoover's personal popover
Popover
A popover is a light, hollow roll made from an egg batter similar to that of Yorkshire pudding, typically baked in muffin tins.Popovers may be served either as a sweet, topped with fruit and whipped cream for breakfast or with afternoon tea, or with meats at lunch and dinner.-Name:The name...
recipe, relying on memory rather than the files. Gandy, ever protective of her boss, caught the error and brought it to Hoover's attention. The director then placed an official letter of reprimand
Letter of reprimand
A letter of reprimand is a United States Department of Defense procedure involving a letter to an employee or soldier from his or her superior that details the wrongful actions of the person and the punishment that can be expected...
in Sullivan's file for the lapse. W. Mark Felt
W. Mark Felt
William Mark Felt, Sr. was an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , who retired in 1973 as the Bureau's Associate Director...
, deputy associate director of the Bureau, wrote in his memoir that Gandy "was bright and alert and quick-tempered—and completely dedicated to her boss."
The Files
J. Edgar HooverJ. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
died during the night of May 1–May 2, 1972. When his housekeeper, Annie Fields, discovered the body on the morning of the second, her second call (after telephoning acting director Clyde Tolson
Clyde Tolson
Clyde Anderson Tolson was Associate Director of the FBI, primarily responsible for personnel and discipline. He is best known as the protégé of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.-Early career:...
) was to Gandy, who learned the news at 8:40 A.M. Within an hour, the "D List" ("d" standing for destruction) was being distributed and the destruction of files began. However, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
quoted an anonymous F.B.I. source in Spring 1975 that "Gandy had begun almost a year before Mr. Hoover's death and was instructed to purge the files that were then in his office."
G. Gordon Liddy
George Gordon Liddy was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed from July–September 1971, during Richard Nixon's presidency. Separately, along with E. Howard Hunt, Liddy organized and directed the Watergate burglaries of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in...
stated his sources in the F.B.I. said "by the time Gray
L. Patrick Gray
Louis Patrick Gray III was acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from May 2, 1972 to April 27, 1973. During this time, the FBI was in charge of the initial investigation into the burglaries that sparked the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President...
went in to get the files, Miss Gandy had already got rid of them." The day after Hoover died, L. Patrick Gray
L. Patrick Gray
Louis Patrick Gray III was acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from May 2, 1972 to April 27, 1973. During this time, the FBI was in charge of the initial investigation into the burglaries that sparked the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President...
, who had been named acting director by President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
upon Tolson's resignation from that position, went to Hoover's office. Gandy paused from her work to give Gray a tour. He found file cabinets open and packing boxes being filled with papers. She informed him the boxes contained personal papers of Hoover's. Gandy stated Gray flipped through a few files and approved her work, but Gray was to deny he looked at any papers. Gandy also told Gray it would be a week before she could clear Hoover's effects out so he could move into the suite.
Gray reported to Nixon that he had secured Hoover's office and its contents. However, he had sealed only Hoover's personal inner office, where no files were stored, not the entire suite of offices. Since 1957, Hoover's "Official/Confidential" files, containing material too sensitive to include in the Bureau's central files, had been kept in the outer office, where Gandy sat. Curt Gentry reported that Gray would not have known where to look in Gandy's office for the files, as her office was lined floor to ceiling with filing cabinets. And without her index to the files, he would not have been able to locate incriminating material, for files were deliberately mislabeled, e.g. President Nixon's file was labeled "Obscene Matters".
The next day, May 4, she turned over twelve boxes of the "Official/Confidential" containing 167 files and 17,750 pages to Mark Felt
W. Mark Felt
William Mark Felt, Sr. was an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , who retired in 1973 as the Bureau's Associate Director...
. Many of them contained derogatory information. Gray told the press that afternoon that "there are no dossiers or secret files. There are just general files and I took steps to preserve their integrity." Gandy retained the "Personal File".
Gandy worked on going through Hoover's "Personal File" in the office until May 12. She then transferred at least thirty-two file drawers of material to the basement rec room of Hoover's Washington home at 4936 Thirtieth Place, Northwest, where she would continue her work from May 13 to July 17. Gandy later testified nothing official had been removed from the Bureau's offices, "not even his badge." There the destruction was overseen by John P. Mohr
John P. Mohr
John P. Mohr was an administrator with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.As Assistant to the Director for Administrative Affairs, he was one of the officials chiefly responsible for the proper implementation of procurement requirements and procedures.He retired on 30 June 1972 as the FBI's No...
, the number three man in the Bureau after Hoover and Tolson. They were aided by James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975...
, the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
's counterintelligence chief, whom Hoover's neighbors saw removing boxes from Hoover's home. Mohr would claim the boxes Angleton removed were cases of spoiled wine.
When the House
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Committee on Government Oversight investigated the F.B.I.'s spying on and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
and others in 1975, Gandy was called to testify. "I tore them up, put them in boxes, and they were taken away to be shredded," she told the congressmen about the papers. The Bureau's Washington field office had F.B.I. drivers transport the material to Hoover's home, then once Gandy had gone through the material, the drivers transported it back to the field office in the Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue where it was shredded and burned.
Gandy stated that Hoover had left standing instructions to destroy his personal papers upon his death and that this instruction was confirmed by Tolson and Gray. Gandy stated that she destroyed no official papers, that everything was personal papers of Hoover. The staff of the subcommittee did not believe her, but she told the committee "I have no reason to lie." Representative Andrew Maguire
Andrew Maguire
Gene Andrew Maguire is the Executive Director of The GAVI Fund's Immunize Every Child Campaign. He was a Democratic politician who represented New Jersey's 7th congressional district from 1975 to 1981.-Biography:...
(D
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
-New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
), a freshman member of the 94th Congress
94th United States Congress
The Ninety-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1975 to January 3, 1977, during the administration...
, said "I find your testimony very difficult to believe." Gandy held her ground: "That is your privilege."
"I can give you my word. I know what there was—letters to and from friends, personal friends, a lot of letters," she testified. Gandy also said the files she took to his home also included his financial papers, such as tax returns and investment statements, the deed to his home, and papers relating to his dogs' pedigrees.
Curt Gentry wrote
- Helen Gandy must have felt quite safe in testifying as she did for who could contradict her? Only one other person knew exactly what the files contained and he was dead.
In J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and His Secrets, Curt Gentry describes the nature of the files: "... their contents included blackmail material on the patriarch of an American political dynasty, his sons, their wives, and other women; allegations of two homosexual arrests which Hoover leaked to help defeat a witty, urbane Democratic presidential candidate; the surveillance reports on one of America's best-known first ladies and her alleged lovers, both male and female, white and black; the child molestation documentation the director used to control and manipulate one of the Red-baiting proteges; a list of the Bureau's spies in the White House during the eight administrations when Hoover was FBI director; the forbidden fruit of hundreds of illegal wiretaps and bugs, containing, for example, evidence that an attorney general (and later Supreme Court justice) had received payoffs from the Chicago syndicate; as well as celebrity files, with all the unsavory gossip Hoover could amass on some of the biggest names in show business."
Of course, Gentry's account is merely speculation, as the actual contents of the files are unknown. In continued efforts by many who disliked Hoover and the FBI, such uncorroborated accounts abound.
Later years and death
While she officially retired the day Hoover died, she spent the next few weeks destroying his papers and Hoover left her $5,000 in his will. In 1961, she and her sister, Lucy G. Rodman, donated a portrait of their mother by Thomas EakinsThomas Eakins
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator...
to the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...
. Gandy lived in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, until 1986, when she moved to DeLand, Florida
DeLand, Florida
DeLand is the county seat of Volusia County, Florida. In 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population to be 24,375. It is part of the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 436,575 in 2006...
, in Volusia County
Volusia County, Florida
Volusia County is a county located in the state of Florida. The U.S. Census Bureau 2010 official county's population was 494,593 . Its county seat is DeLand, and its most populous city is currently Deltona....
where a niece lived.
An avid trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
fisherman, she died of a heart attack on July 7, 1988, either in DeLand (says her New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
obituary) or in nearby Orange City, Florida
Orange City, Florida
Orange City is a city located in Volusia County, Florida. In the 2000 census the city had a total population of 6,604. In 2004 the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 7,172.-Geography:Orange City is located at ....
(says her Post obituary).
In popular culture
In January 2011, it was announced that Academy Award nominee Naomi WattsNaomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. Watts began her career in Australian television, where she appeared in series such as Hey Dad..! , Brides of Christ , and Home and Away . Her film debut was the 1986 drama For Love Alone...
would portray Gandy in Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
's biography film titled J. Edgar
J. Edgar
J. Edgar is a 2011 biographical drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, from a script by Dustin Lance Black. The film focuses on the career of FBI director J...
. The film also stars Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
as Hoover, and Armie Hammer
Armie Hammer
Armand Douglas "Armie" Hammer is an American actor. After appearing on television and playing the title role in 2008's Billy: The Early Years, he became known for his portrayal of the Winklevoss twins in the 2010 film The Social Network, and Clyde Tolson in J. Edgar...
as Clyde Tolson
Clyde Tolson
Clyde Anderson Tolson was Associate Director of the FBI, primarily responsible for personnel and discipline. He is best known as the protégé of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.-Early career:...
. The movie was released theatrically on November 11, 2011.
External links
- Attorney General Griffin BellGriffin BellGriffin Boyette Bell was an American lawyer and former Attorney General. He served as the nation's 72nd Attorney General during the Jimmy Carter administration...
's statement on the investigation into the destruction of the files: