G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

by Beverly Gage

simplest solution to the crime, to wrap up the whole matter right then and there. Even as his agent snuck into the Dallas police station to participate in Oswald’s interrogation, Hoover was assuring confidants in Washington that “very probably we had in custody the man who had killed the President in Dallas” though “this had not definitively been established.” When assistant attorney general Norbert Schlei called just after five o’clock, seeking to gather background information for a public announcement, Hoover calmly ticked off the available facts. “I stated [Oswald] was born an American but tried unsuccessfully to lose his American citizenship; came back to this country in 1962.” He also passed along at least one mistake, suggesting that Oswald had visited Cuba “several” times in recent years. Hoover made no attempt to hide the FBI’s past interactions with Oswald. Nor did he show much concern that Oswald might not have acted alone. Instead, he seemed to take the facts at face value. Most likely, he informed Schlei, the president had been killed by a man who was at once “a nut” and “an extreme radical of the left.” Hoover’s confidence would later fuel speculation: Why was he so certain about Oswald? What could account for his calm in the midst of so much emotion and chaos?