4330 Northcrest Ave. , July 26, 19 51

Mr. Amon G. Carter port worth star Telegram Fort worth, Texas

Dear Mr • cart er :

I talked with Mr. Hugh Clegg as you requested me to do. My ta.l k with Mr. Clegg wasn't v ery sat1sfactory 1rasmuch as he was not at all intere sted 1n the true facts that lead to my transfer from Dallas to Louiev1lle. During the course of my talk with him he criticized me for my a c tions stating that from individuals 1.n th.e Dallas office he had talked to he was of the f1rm op1n1.on that 1 was a 11 sore head 11 , that .1. had been one of the chief reasons for dieseeion in t he Da l la s offi ce and t hat .L had l ead t he critlctsm of the Special Agent in Cha r ge. Mr. Clegg also pointed out to me that du r·ing t h e time ..1. had been in t he p. H • ..1.. he had talked to my for mer Special Agents i n Charge and they had all told him that 1 was peculiar, mo ody and somew hat of a sorehead. When Mr. Clegg told me this 1 pointed out to hi m t. hat none of my efftctency reports had ever reflected t h i s a nd that to my recol lection 1 had received nothi ng but excellent efftciency reports for the past eight years. I questioned Mr. Cl egg as to t he basis for the statements he made and he sta ted t hat no official record had ever been made of any of t h ese complaints i n r egard to me and that he was mer ely basing it on his memory . To t h is .1. replied, 11 You must have an excellent memory t o rememb er what men said about one Agent out of approxima tely four or five thousand. 11 tte further s tated t hat p ersonnel o f the Dallas office had told him t hat l had lead the criticism i n regards to Mr. ttawkins a nd also stated to me that Mr. ~ob Li s h, a Supervisor in t he Dallas o ! flee, had told htm that he had mor e trouble with my reports than any other Agent in the Dallas office. To t h is statement .1. advised Mr. Clegg that it seemed v ery odd to me inasmuch as Mr. Lish had never return ed a ny of' my repo rts t o me for correction nor had he ever written up e. ny of my r eports. 1 also pointed out to him that nei~her .Mr . ttawkins, t he Special Agent in Charge , nor Mr. bOswell, the Assistant Special Ag ent in Charge, had ever written u:9 a ny of my reports as hei ng in error.

During my i nterview with Mr . Clegg when certain phases of t he recent inspec t ion were brough t up and where he was i n error on his information 1 attempted to furnish h im the correct information, but it appeared that he was not interested at all inasmuch as he asked me no questions about these phases. ( 2)

I also Dointed. out to Mr . Glegg that in my part1.ng conversa tion with Mr·. Hawkins t he exact vrn rds that I had s aid were , " I do not i 11t e11d t o sign 11J.y eff ec iancy report b ecause I do not s ign a bu1 ch of lies written by a liar." I also told Mr. Hawkins not to try and blackball rne if any inquiries were rnade concernlng me because he tried to do t h is in t he case of Dan Smoot. For your information, !llr. carter, Dan Smoot was another Ap;ent involved. in tne i nspection as .1. was a nd.. was put on probation, transferred and resigned like I d.id. After he resigned he had haa several contacts with Mr. H. L. Hunt in Dallas in regards to golng to work for him and Mr. ttunt ha d sent on e of h ls employees to talk with Mr . Hawkl.ns and. Mr . a awkl. ns had said that Dan Smoot was contemptuous and hard to g et along with. It so happens that .1. had arranged for the~ initial interview with .M r. Smoot and Mr . i'tunt through Mr. Sidney Latham who is Mr. Hunt's attorney. After the man reported back to Mr. Hunt what Mr. Hawkins had said about Dan Smoot, Mr. Latham called me and questioned me concerning Dan smoot. 1 told Mr·. Latham exactly what had happened and why Smoot resie;ned and a lso why J. was resigning. Mr. Latham's reply was that he couldn't umerstand an organt~ation working lilce t ha.t and he certainly would pass on to Mr. Hunt enough 1nfonnat1on to satisfy him that Mr . Smoot v1as ln no way to blame. As 1 t turned out Mr. Smoot got a very fine job with Mr. Hunt and is proving h i111self very sat i s factory. When I pointed out to M:r·. Hawkins t lu t I knew what he ha d tried to do to Smoot he -dented this. I po int ed all this out to Mr. Clegg and ad.vised him that it c ould he very easily proven; that all he vrould have to do wo :.1.ld , e g o from the thirteenth floor of the Mercantile Bank building where the F. B. I. office is loc ated down to the s ev enth floor where Mr. Hunt's office is located. Mr. Clegg's reply was that it would bi;:; mu ch 1iet ter to ke ep t his in tne family and not talk to any outsiders.

During my talk w1 th .M r. Clegg I also told him tha. t I did not feel tlJat I should mve heen passed up on my raise from Grade 12 to Grade 13 because I didn't have a sufficient e,mount of uvoluntary overtime." For your informat i on, ;vrr . carter, at the time I r esigned from the F. B. I. and for some time before that we we1"e required to work on Saturdays and for this work we got overtime pay which amounted to a bout half of what a regular day 's pay was . We had no alterna. tive on this satur·day work as it wa s r e quir ed. When i advteed Mr. Clegg of this he verified the fact that i had been passed up on my raise becaus e of thls and sa i.d whether I liked it or not it was Bure~u policy. At the comp letion o f my t a lk with Mr. Cl egg he stated to me that when he got back to Washington and when he talked t o Mr . Hoover he would repor t to -"' r. Hoover wba t you had requested ( 3)

him to report but tha t h e woul d a.ls o have to tell Mr. Hoover that I was ,rery b itter and did not appear to be sorry nor did I ma.Ke a ny a pologi e s fo r LlY act1ons . I had t old Mr . Clegg tha t, I wa s v e:cy b i tter a gainst the ,F . B . I., felt that I had be en don e an i n j ustice and t hat my int egrity had b een . que stioned a nd th.9, t i'.:, ::;.J.d i.een °,r er y a p::'.)a rent t o me t h a t d u1"i n3 t he r ec e nt i nspec t i on :,1 r . Gai-•rtty, the Inspector, had made no ef f or- t s whatsoev er t o prov e any o f t he a l legat ions whic h he had tol d rne were 1i1ade against Mr. Hawkins. I had told Mr. Garri t,y, and al so tol d Mr. Clegg, .tba t the whole point in question of whether Mr. Ha.wktns had lied t o the Bu.rea u in his letter of explanation in regards to the L1shansky case could be v e ry eas 1ly proven by going to the trailer courts and talking to the principal witnesses. Mr. c1egg's reply to thls wa s the s ame a s in t h e c ase pl.'eviously mentioned in this letter - "It's much better to keep it in the family." I might point out to you, Mr. carter, that Mr. Clegg had the re~flt,ation in the ~ureau of being nothing but a two-fac ed irnlvidual who says and does one thing and reports to Mr. Hoover something else. Aa an example o f thi s - duri ng the War a good many Agents were resigning to enter t _he Armed services. Mr. Clegg had a speech whic h h e gave on s ev er a l oc casions to groups of Agents and on one of these occasions he came to Quantico, Virginia, where I wa s sta tloned and made the speech t o a ll of the perso nnel there . His wh ol e s p eech wa s vary crit1ca.l of various branches of the service and he pointed out t hat ma ny o f t he memb ers o f the Armed E'orces were not serving the ir Country in any va l uable capacity and that the p . B. I. wa,a doing far more for the Country than most of the per sonnel of the Armed Services • .H e criticized the America n Lesi on and i n h i s spe ech ma.de t he statement that he had attended the Ame r ican Legion Convention and was go ing to a t tend tha t year only because Mr. Hoover wanted a r epre s enta t iv·e of t he p. B• I. there but outside of that reason he had no interest nor respec t i n the Ame r i c a n Legion; pointing out that the America n Legi on cons i sted o f 1ual e mem'bers of the Armed Forces plus all o f t he Wa v es and Wacs and even "Wags". He explained Wags as be ing t he dogs that wer e be i ne us·ed by the Armed services. After this speech my boss at Quantico a t t hat t 1. me riiad e the s tatement to me that Mr. Clegg was a marvelous speaker and I replie d t o him that in my op i n ion he was a two­ faced son-of-a-bl tch. After Ivir. Clegg had made this soeeeh on several occasions one of the old er men c onn ec t ed wi t h t he F . B . I. i n Washington, who is a veteran of World War I and who at that time was quite active i n t he American Legion, heard of the speech and complained to Mr. Hoover a b out it. ( 4)

It is my und erstand1.ng that Mr. Hoover questioned :Mr. Clegg cone ernine; t he speech at which tlme Mr. Clegg toned the s peech down and d i ci not r epeat to I,:!r . Hoover t he t h i ng s he had a ctually said i n the sp eech. ·:r 1.1e cla.y a fter I hacl uy t a llc with Clege; i n DaL_as he u1ade a t a lk to s ::rn1e me mbers of the :Uallas o f fice and told t hem no t to "':le a, l an11ed a t hls :presence in Dal las ; tmt he was not h e r e t o c ause any tro u~11 e a t a l 1 ;::iut wa s he r e ..no r e in t he f o rm. o f a :::>oc t or' who c a.me t o Dal las from Wa shington to l ook aft.er his pati ent. He stated _t hat the l)3.tient tn thts c ,se was t l1e Dal b.s F . B . , I. office and that the patient had been very sick but that _ he . wa s hap py to report that the patient's tumors had been r emoved and the patient was quickl y on t he way to recover y . r of course did not hear this speech but the contents o f i..t _we r e passed o:n t o rue by one of the Agents who had heard the speech. I want to take this oppor tunity, Ml'. Certer, to sincerely thank you for the interest you have shown in r egards to my leaving t he F. B. I. and it is certainly gratifying for me to know that you , busy as you are, would take time oft to consider my · problems and the actl ve inter e st you have t al{en. I appreciate what you told me on my last visit with you, that you would send rne the letter y ou had gotten from Mr . Hoo ver when you returned my letter from Mr. Hoover whle:h I had g iven to y ou. I haven' t decided definitely what I will do yet but when I do I will H it you know. C Op y

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON 25 , D. C. May 15, 1951

Mr . R. David O1 Brien Federal Bureau of Investigation -Dallas, Texas

Dea r Sir :

It has come to the Bureau1 s attention that several months ago you l ear ned of two matters wh ich you felt had been i mproperly handl ed by your Speci al Agent in Charge . The first concerned the manner in which he had handled an i nquiry i nto certain compl a i nts agai nst a former Sp ecial Agent and the second involved an i ncorrect statement contained i n a l etter sent by your Sp ecial Agent in Charge to the Bureau in connection with the Efraim Lishansky case . You were fur ther aware of t he f act that there had. been some criticism of your Special Agent in Charge among agents of t he Dallas Office based upon the above mentioned i nc i dents , but you f a iled to notify either your Special Age nt in Charge or the Bureau of any of t hem until specifically questioned by an inspector . With re gar cl to t he Lishansky case it has also been det ermined that you were in possession of cer­ t ain information r elnting to t he erroneous statement in the l e tter of t he Specia.l Agent i n Charge but did not furnish that i nformat i on eit her to him or to the agent to whom the ca.se ;as ass i gned.

These derelictions on your part were most serious and the Bureau cannot condone them. Accordingly, you are being placed on probation , and it will be incumbent upon you to t ake the neces­ sary measures i n the future to avoid similar shortcomings . Unless you do this more drastic administrative action may foll ow .

Very truly yours ,

/s/ J. EDGAR HOOVER

John Edgar Hoover Director

C Op y