Snafu Season 2: Episode 1: The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI

This week’s throwback release: SNAFU Season 2, Episode 1 – about a little known group of ragtag activists who, in 1971, decided to burglarize an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, revealing some incredibly shady wrongdoing at the highest levels J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. Yes, a HEIST OF THE FBI! What could be more exciting? Listen to the full season wherever you get your podcasts. This is Episode 1 of SNAFU Season 2: "The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI" See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Ed Helms?

  Pumpkin carving sounds fun, until you're elbow-deep in pumpkin guts. There's an easier pumpkin tradition: Reese's Pumpkins. No seeds, no giant kitchen knife, no pressure to create a masterpiece that's just gonna shrivel up on the front porch three days later. And if something goes wrong, just eat it. Every mistake is still pretty delicious. So this Halloween, skip the mess of pumpkin carving and stock up on Reese's Pumpkins.

• 0:33Speaker 02

  My name is Jessa. One of the things I love the most about working for United Healthcare is that everybody matters. Every moment matters. There's a person behind every problem. I care because it's what I was put on this earth to do.

• 0:49Speaker 03

  I'm Ben, and I work at United Healthcare. I am just one piece of a larger puzzle, but every piece matters. It's more than just work. We want to make the healthcare system better for everyone. I care because I want to make a difference. That's what committed to care means to me.

• 1:04Speaker 02

  Halloween's almost here, and I've got plans. My first stop is Total Wine & More for cold beer, ready-to-drink cocktails, and a bottle of wine to share. And I know I'm getting the lowest prices. Get the fun started at Total Wine & More. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly, be 21. Want to know you're on the best path to the right car? At CarMax, the price you see is the price you pay. No negotiating, no last-minute surprises. Every car is CarMax certified and backed by a 10-day money-back guarantee, so you can buy with confidence. Want to shop from home? Go for it. You can come in when you're ready, take it for a spin, and buy however works for you. No pressure, no haggling, just the right car, your way. Visit carmax.com for details. Want to drive? CarMax.

• 1:52Ed Helms?

  Good morning, or evening, or whatever time you're listening to this. I am here to share this week's throwback release. Snafu: Season 2, Episode 1, All About Medberg. I am insanely proud of this season of Snafu. It's about a little-known group of ragtag activists who, in 1971, decided to burglarize an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. In so doing, they wound up revealing some incredibly shady wrongdoing at the highest levels of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Yes, they broke into an FBI office. I mean, it is incredibly thrilling and exciting.

• 2:34Ed Helms?

  And what I loved about this season, I had a chance to talk to all of the living burglars involved in the burglary itself. These are amazing, heroic people, and yet incredibly humble. And it was truly an honor to meet several of them and help tell their magnificently brave tale. This is Episode 1 of Snafu: Season 2, The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI.

• 3:05Ed Helms?

  It's March 8, 1971, and just about every human being on planet Earth is completely consumed by one single event.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  Heavyweight boxers Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali meet in New York's Madison Square. The richest fight of all time. At least 25 foreign countries will show the fight on TV.

• 3:24Ed Helms?

  Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier, better known as "The Fight of the Century."

• 3:29Speaker 04

  Listen to the roar of this crowd. I want to tell you, this is going to be a spectacular evening. The tension and the excitement here is monumental.

• 3:38Ed Helms?

  A lucky 20,000 have scored tickets to watch the fight at Madison Square Garden. Anyone who's anyone is there. The VIPs include a couple of Kennedys, foreign dignitaries, astronauts who'd just returned from the moon. Ringside is a who's who of '70s icons: Ed Sullivan, Hugh Hefner, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, all here to see this guy.

• 3:59Speaker 04

  Muhammad Ali in the ring, in a beautiful, beautiful, red and white robe.

• 4:05Ed Helms?

  Ali, the former heavyweight champ, is battling to reclaim his title from current champ Frazier.

• 4:11Speaker 04

  Here comes Joe Frazier, ladies and gentlemen. There seems to be a mingling of boos along with the

• 4:18Ed Helms?

  As the opening bell nears, time stops around the world. People rush to their TVs and radios, city streets completely empty out. In barracks across Vietnam, US servicemen huddle around transistor radios. Inside an arena in Chicago, an actual riot erupts when the projector breaks down right before the fight starts.

• 4:40Speaker 04

  Muhammad Ali in the red trunks, Joe Frazier in the green trunks. They appear very light.

• 4:52Ed Helms?

  Which all means that some 100 miles south of New York City, in a small Pennsylvania town called Media, the streets are even sleepier than usual. Downtown is deserted. There are no policemen on patrol, no locals out for an evening stroll, and no one keeping a close eye on the entrance of a four-story brick building that sits at One Veteran's Square. So when the doors to that building swing open, and two men and two women walk out, nervously carrying bulging suitcases and loading them into a car out front, no one takes notice.

• 5:30Ed Helms?

  Those four folks with the suitcases? Well, they're not leaving for a trip. They're part of a team of burglars who decided this was the perfect night to do something unthinkable: rob the FBI.

• 5:46Ed Helms?

  Break into their offices, steal every document in sight, and zoom off into the night with a trunk full of secrets.

• 5:59Ed Helms?

  I'm Ed Helms, and this is Snafu, a show about history's greatest screw-ups. Last season, we told you all about Able Archer '83, the nuclear near-miss which could have ended the world as we know it. This season, we bring you Medberg, the story of a daring heist and the colossal FBI Snafu it exposed.

• 6:37Speaker 02

  It was a Tuesday. That morning, I arrive, and as usual, I go to the mailroom first and pick up my mail.

• 6:47Ed Helms?

  This is journalist Betty Medsger. That Tuesday was March 23, 1971, two weeks after the Ali-Frazier fight. It began like any other morning. Betty woke up in her apartment in Washington, DC. She had her usual breakfast, a couple of pieces of toast, took the city bus to work, and arrived at the Washington Post offices at 10 o'clock.

• 7:09Speaker 02

  I'd been off for two days, and so there was a huge stack of mail. But this one stood out, not only because it was a large envelope, but because of the return address, which was Liberty Publications Media, Pennsylvania.

• 7:26Ed Helms?

  Betty was a born Pennsylvanian, but she'd never heard of Liberty Publications. She took the envelope with her to the newsroom. You might have a picture of that Washington Post newsroom: typewriters clacking away like machine gun fire, thick haze of cigarette smoke, someone screaming, "Copy!" Woodward and Bernstein running around shaking notepads at each other with their latest scoop. Well, that picture, immortalized in the classic book and movie All the President's Men, is actually pretty darn close, especially, according to Betty, the cigarette smoke. Is there any place you don't smoke? But in the spring of 1971, Woodward and Bernstein were still nobodies.

• 8:08Ed Helms?

  Watergate was still just a hotel, and the Washington Post hadn't yet become the crusading institution that took down the Nixon White House. Betty herself was a young reporter who'd been at the paper for just a year. Her beat was religion, and she shared an office about the size of a walk-in closet with a motley crew of fellow reporters.

• 8:29Speaker 02

  There were six of us in there, and we were science, medicine, and education, and religion. An editor made up a term. It was called "smersch," science, medicine, education, religion, and all that shit. So that's where I worked.

• 8:46Ed Helms?

  You worked in the smersch department?

• 8:47Speaker 02

  I worked in the smersch department.

• 8:50Ed Helms?

  But that morning, Betty didn't have time for any smershen around. Like any good journalist who's just been sent a mysterious envelope, she was dying to know what was inside.

• 9:02Speaker 02

  When I got to my office, I opened that envelope first.

• 9:11Speaker 02

  Dear friend, enclosed you will find copies of certain files from the Media Pennsylvania office of the FBI, which were removed by our commission for public scrutiny. We are making these copies--

• 9:26Ed Helms?

  The letter went on to say that Betty had permission to make copies of the files and to publish their contents.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Your degree of public association or disassociation with our commission is entirely a matter of your choice. Sincerely, the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI. I'm shocked. I think most people in the United States couldn't imagine that anybody would have the nerve to break into an FBI office and would have thought that such a place would have been the most secure place.

• 10:07Ed Helms?

  Inside the envelope were 14 Xeroxed FBI files. It didn't take long for Betty to grasp that these documents were explosive.

• 10:15Speaker 02

  The first one was pretty shocking. It was a document urging agents to increase interviews with dissenters and, quote, "for plenty of reasons," chief of which are enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles and further serve to get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox.

• 10:40Ed Helms?

  An FBI agent behind every mailbox. Sort of like Uncle Fester, but in wingtips. At first, Betty wondered if what she was reading was a hoax. To enhance paranoia? Seriously? She kept reading.

• 10:57Speaker 02

  One of the things was a file on Swarthmore College, and it revealed that every black student on the Swarthmore campus was under FBI surveillance. And this was being done by people who had been hired by the FBI as informers, and included switchboard operators, letter carriers, the postmaster of Swarthmore, the local police chief, and some college administrators.

• 11:27Ed Helms?

  And it didn't stop at this one liberal arts college. There was a pattern. Files in the envelope showed the FBI was surveilling citizens all over Philadelphia. The subjects Betty was reading about in these files, they were anti-war protesters, civil rights activists, labor unions, and a noticeably high percentage were black.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  The FBI was operating something that was very much like the Stasi was operating in East Germany. What became clear was every document was telling a story about FBI power that was unknown to anyone outside the FBI.

• 12:17Ed Helms?

  That brassy, jingoistic tune comes from a big-budget 1959 Hollywood production called "The FBI Story," made in cooperation with the Bureau itself. The movie spins through the greatest hits of agency cases, from the Osage Indian murders to the pursuit of communists. And it wouldn't be an all-American feel-good story without everyone's favorite leading man, Jimmy Stewart.

• 12:42Speaker 04

  Tell NY 21 if and when Whitey passes the coin, arrest him.

• 12:48Ed Helms?

  Stewart played the quintessential FBI agent. He was conservative, level-headed, trustworthy, clean-shaven, well-coiffed, and of course, white. A government man, or in the parlance of the day, a G-man. And G-men were American heroes. FBI myth-making was pretty much its own genre of entertainment in the mid-20th century. It wasn't just movies. FBI agents were valiant heroes in comic books and radio shows.

• 13:18Speaker 03

  This is your FBI, the official broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

• 13:24Ed Helms?

  And they were the stars of a TV show that, in 1971, was in its sixth season and at the height of its popularity.

• 13:32Speaker 03

  The FBI.

• 13:35Ed Helms?

  "The FBI Story" was everywhere, and that didn't happen by accident. The story of the Bureau, familiar to most Americans, was crafted by one man, the ultimate G-man.

• 13:46Speaker 04

  America stands at the crossroads of destiny. It is a common destiny in which we shall all finally stand or fall together.

• 13:59Ed Helms?

  That's J. Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the FBI. He was a small man, but terrifyingly intimidating, so buttoned up that he made Beaver Cleaver look like a Hell's Angel. Hoover was also a brilliant PR man, transforming a relatively obscure Bureau of the Justice Department into a nationally revered household name. That FBI TV show? Hoover was intimately involved in its production, often suggesting storylines. As for that Jimmy Stewart movie, Hoover edited and approved the scripts himself. And he tasked FBI agents with investigating every person on set, even the gaffers. Careful with the light, and guys, it's starting to look a little communist.

• 14:42Ed Helms?

  As far as Hoover's message to the American people, it was simple. They could always count on the FBI.

• 14:48Speaker 04

  I take humble pride in infinitely stating here tonight that as long as I am director of the FBI, it will continue to maintain its high and impartial standards of investigation despite the hostile opinions of its detractors.

• 15:11Ed Helms?

  The vast majority of Americans revered Hoover. A Gallup poll in 1971 found that over 70% of Americans thought he was doing a "good-to-excellent" job. Only 7% had a negative view of him. Hoover had been exempted from compulsory retirement in the 1960s, which essentially made him FBI director for life. His power across five decades was unquestioned. When someone suggested to John F. Kennedy that maybe it wasn't a great idea for one person to have all that power for that long, Kennedy, then the president, replied with resignation, "You don't fire God." Hey, God, sorry to bug you. You are fired.

• 15:54Speaker 04

  Damn it. Furthermore, the FBI will continue to be objective in its investigations and will stay within the bounds of its authorized jurisdiction, regardless of pressure groups which seek to use the FBI to attain their own selfish aims to the detriment of our people as a whole.

• 16:30Ed Helms?

  Back at the Washington Post offices, Betty Medsger was holding documents that did not jibe with the FBI America knew. The contents of the files were so shocking, so illegal, Betty was skeptical that they were actually real. She took the files to an editor.

• 16:47Speaker 02

  I explained that I've just received these files that were stolen from an FBI office, and she stops me, and she says, "We just got a call from Ken Klaassen."

• 16:59Ed Helms?

  Ken Klaassen was a veteran reporter who was well-sourced inside the federal government. That morning, one of Klaassen's government sources had reached out to him, asking if anyone at the Post had received stolen FBI documents. If the FBI was asking about them, then clearly the files Betty received were authentic.

• 17:17Speaker 02

  I start to confront within myself the significance and the danger involved. I realized I needed to think about what I was doing. I needed to think about the personal implications of it.

• 17:36Ed Helms?

  Betty knew that writing this story could make her an enemy of the FBI, something nobody wanted, as it could have very real consequences.

• 17:44Speaker 02

  I'm concerned about fingerprints on the files that I've received. So I thought it was very important, even when I just thought of fingerprints, that I protect them as though they were people that I had faced and made a promise to.

• 18:06Ed Helms?

  And so, despite knowing that it could create powerful enemies for this heretofore under-the-radar smirch reporter, Betty sat down to write her story.

• 18:15Speaker 02

  I just stayed on the office, working and writing and rewriting the stories all afternoon. Like any other story, I would simply write it and hand it in, and it would be published the next day.

• 18:28Ed Helms?

  But this wasn't like any other story. Betty finished the piece and turned it in at 6:00 PM.

• 18:35Speaker 02

  I then learned that it might not be published the next day, it might not ever be published, and that was a great shock.

• 18:45Ed Helms?

  If Betty's story never saw the light of day, then the public might never know that the FBI was watching them.

• 18:59Speaker 05

  Pumpkin carving sounds fun, until you're elbow-deep in pumpkin guts. There's an easier pumpkin tradition: Reese's Pumpkins. No seeds, no giant kitchen knife, no pressure to create a masterpiece that's just gonna shrivel up on the front porch three days later. And if something goes wrong, just eat it. Every mistake is still pretty delicious. So this Halloween, skip the mess of pumpkin carving and stock up on Reese's Pumpkins.

• 19:28Speaker 02

  Being a receptionist is one of the hardest jobs out there. You have to be an expert for hundreds of people every day, and you have to do a million things at once. No wonder more small businesses are saving costs by outsourcing their front desk. But replacing them with an AI answering service? That's one giant step in the wrong direction. We're Ruby, and we believe in the lost art of the overachieving receptionist. We answer every call live. We schedule, take messages, call to confirm details, and so much more. Because only a human can connect with another human. And instead of turning our back on AI, we customized our own.

• 20:13Speaker 02

  Automating tasks, pulling up relevant information instantly, and so much more. So we can spend all of our time making connections. Experience Ruby for yourself right now. Call 866-GET-Ruby or visit ruby.com. I'm not great at costumes, but I know which bottles to bring. Every Halloween, I stop at Total Wine & More before the party. Cold beer for the crew, ready-to-drink cocktails for the night, and a bottle of tequila for whoever wins best costume. Halloween plans come together fast, and Total Wine & More makes it easy to bring something for everyone at the lowest prices. I'm ready for Halloween. Are you? Get the party started for less at Total Wine & More. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. B21.

• 20:58Speaker 02

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• 21:33Speaker 03

  They're everywhere! We think they're murder hornets. 911 Nashville returns. What's a homicide detective doing here? Three bodies on the ground. With emergencies of biblical proportions. I will send swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues in the Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville. Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 22:07Speaker 02

  Catherine Graham was very frightened by the situation.

• 22:12Ed Helms?

  Catherine Graham was the publisher of The Washington Post. Graham is a journalism legend who received the loftiest honor you can imagine. Meryl Streep played her in a movie.

• 22:21Speaker 02

  Do you have the papers? Not yet.

• 22:27Ed Helms?

  The movie The Post is all about Catherine Graham and her executive editor, Ben Bradley, and their decision to publish a batch of leaked federal documents known as the Pentagon Papers. But that was all yet to come. On this day, March 23, 1971, no American newspaper had ever published government documents stolen by sources from outside the government. Graham and The Post leadership were in completely uncharted territory.

• 22:54Speaker 02

  It was not just that it was unprecedented and that the documents had been stolen. We had them, by virtue of a crime being committed.

• 23:05Ed Helms?

  Betty would later learn that earlier that day, the Attorney General of the United States, John Mitchell, had repeatedly phoned The Post, demanding that they not publish her story.

• 23:15Speaker 02

  It was the first time that the publisher had been asked by the administration to suppress a story. They didn't want the public to know.

• 23:24Ed Helms?

  The Attorney General claimed that the documents could damage national security. That sounded plausible. Except Betty and her editors, unlike the Attorney General, had actually read the documents. Did they threaten to embarrass the government? Absolutely. But there was nothing in those files that even touched on national security.

• 23:44Speaker 02

  The government had the power to hurt the institution, and Catherine Graham had responsibility for protecting the institution.

• 23:54Ed Helms?

  Hours passed. Finally, Betty's phone rang.

• 23:58Speaker 02

  At 10 o'clock, I get a call saying that the decision was just made. The decision was made to publish.

• 24:11Ed Helms?

  Stolen documents describe FBI surveillance activities. That was the headline plastered on the front page of The Washington Post on newsstands and doorsteps all over America on March 24, 1971. The story painted a picture of an FBI far different from the G-Men Americans knew from their TV sets and radios. It described a vast surveillance network infiltrating college campuses, targeting Black students and activists, and intentionally trying to create an atmosphere of paranoia. The reaction to the story was tectonic. Soon, members of Congress were calling for an investigation into the FBI.

• 24:53Ed Helms?

  And for the public, trips to the mailboxes were never quite the same.

• 24:58Speaker 03

  Burglars at an FBI resident office at Medea. FBI records stolen from the media. Stolen FBI records which have been made public include a letter.

• 25:12Ed Helms?

  Betty had seen just 14 files. The letter from the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI implied that there were still more files in their possession. What Betty didn't know yet was just how many, and how much more damning those documents would be. But for the time being, Betty was just thrilled to see her story published.

• 25:32Speaker 02

  I was very excited. And early that morning, I went, opened my apartment door, and picked up my newspaper and was happy to see it there.

• 25:42Ed Helms?

  But the story didn't end there. Betty's article was highly embarrassing for the FBI, which, as she was about to learn, put her on J. Edgar Hoover's radar.

• 25:52Speaker 02

  The FBI entered my life very soon after that. I decided to call a friend in Philadelphia and share my excitement. I lifted the receiver on my kitchen phone, and a man spoke to me and said, "What are you doing?" And this is a great shock to pick up your phone and somebody talking to you. And I said, "Who are you? What are you doing?" And did not reveal who they were, but kept asking me, "Who was I trying to call? And why was I trying to call someone?"

• 26:34Speaker 02

  Here I was, the reporter who had just written that the FBI agents are supposed to make people paranoid and feel as though there's an FBI agent behind every mailbox. So here apparently was an effort to make me paranoid and know that there was an FBI agent behind my phone.

• 26:57Ed Helms?

  Betty was never able to confirm that he was an FBI agent, but, I mean, who else could it be? And this wouldn't be the only time she would have an unnerving run-in that made her wonder, was the FBI now after her?

• 27:17Speaker 05

  Pumpkin carving sounds fun, until you're elbow-deep in pumpkin guts. There's an easier pumpkin tradition: Reese's Pumpkins. No seeds, no giant kitchen knife, no pressure to create a masterpiece that's just gonna shrivel up on the front porch three days later. And if something goes wrong, just eat it. Every mistake is still pretty delicious. So this Halloween, skip the mess of pumpkin carving and stock up on Reese's Pumpkins.

• 27:46Speaker 02

  Being a receptionist is one of the hardest jobs out there. You have to be an expert for hundreds of people every day, and you have to do a million things at once. No wonder more small businesses are saving costs by outsourcing their front desk. But replacing them with an AI answering service? That's one giant step in the wrong direction. We're Ruby, and we believe in the lost art of the overachieving receptionist. We answer every call live. We schedule, take messages, call to confirm details, and so much more. Because only a human can connect with another human. And instead of turning our back on AI, we customized our own.

• 28:31Speaker 02

  Automating tasks, pulling up relevant information instantly, and so much more. So we can spend all of our time making connections. Experience Ruby for yourself right now. Call 866-GET-Ruby or visit ruby.com. I'm not great at costumes, but I know which bottles to bring. Every Halloween, I stop at Total Wine & More before the party. Cold beer for the crew, ready-to-drink cocktails for the night, and a bottle of tequila for whoever wins best costume. Halloween plans come together fast, and Total Wine & More makes it easy to bring something for everyone at the lowest prices. It's easy to bring something for everyone at the lowest prices. I'm ready for Halloween. Are you? Get the party started for less at Total Wine & More. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. B21.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A-plus by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star Trust Pilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval. 911, what's your emergency?

• 29:50Speaker 03

  We need help, but they're everywhere. We think they're murder wantons. 911 Nashville returns. What's a homicide detective doing here? Three bodies on the ground. With emergencies of biblical proportions. Allson swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville. Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 30:21Ed Helms?

  Turns out that first batch of stolen FBI documents was just the beginning. The files kept coming. Checking the mail each morning became a moment of high drama for Betty.

• 30:32Speaker 02

  So one Saturday, I was at my desk and I had received more files from the FBI files. And I was sitting there reading, starting to read them. And this man I had never seen came up and introduced himself and said, I've been watching your mail and I see that you're getting these files from the FBI. And then he said, I also see that your mother is writing to you from Johnstown, that you're occasionally getting mail from her. And that's a sort of a strange thing for somebody to be saying, but it was even stranger than that because, yes, my mother lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but she had never

• 31:15Speaker 02

  written to me at the Washington Post. She didn't even know the address of the Washington Post.

• 31:22Ed Helms?

  This was a downright freaky interaction. Oh, hi there. Yeah, we've never met, but I'm keeping really close tabs on your mail, just FYI. By the way, how's your mom, whom I've also never met? Is she still getting her hair done at that same place on the third Tuesday of every month? Fantastic.

• 31:39Ed Helms?

  Betty was getting an object lesson in what it meant for the FBI to sow paranoia. Why was the Bureau going to such lengths to rattle her? Was this petty retaliation? Or were there more secrets yet to be revealed? The anonymous packages had been mailed from Pennsylvania. Betty had previously worked as a reporter in Philadelphia, so she was well sourced in the area. She reached out to a source she thought might know where the files were being kept. And even better, might be able to get Betty access to any remaining files.

• 32:11Speaker 02

  She was very open to the idea and she said, let me pursue people that would seem like logical connections and get back to you. So I was very excited. And as I walked back into the newsroom from that appointment, I walked past Ken Claussen's desk.

• 32:34Ed Helms?

  You might remember Ken Claussen. He was the Washington Post reporter who had confirmed the authenticity of the stolen files on the day Betty received them. Claussen actually even shared a byline with Betty on that first story because of his contribution. One thing worth mentioning here, it just so happens Claussen had written a glowing story on Hoover for the Post just a few months earlier.

• 32:56Speaker 02

  I just spontaneously just stopped. I said, Ken, I just had the most wonderful thing happen. I told him what had happened and that there was a possibility that I would be able to go someplace and see all of the stolen files. And his eyes just came alert and then hardened and he said, I'm going with you. In that moment, I knew that I had made a terrible mistake.

• 33:26Ed Helms?

  Betty thought back to that fluff piece that Claussen had written on J. Edgar Hoover months earlier. Maybe it was best not to let Claussen be Woodward to her Bernstein.

• 33:36Speaker 02

  And I said, well, no, Ken, these are confidential sources of mine and there's no way that they would let me bring somebody else along. And he said, no, he said, I will have to go with you. And at that point, I somehow graciously got out of the conversation. About a half hour passed and he, I looked up and there was Ken. And he said, in very stern language, I am going with you when you go to see those files. He was saying it as though he had the, the power to give me an order, which wasn't true.

• 34:17Ed Helms?

  So Betty reached out to her source and canceled their rendezvous.

• 34:21Speaker 02

  I had to make that assumption, that he was so close to the FBI that if we went and actually found where the documents were, that the FBI might be there too.

• 34:38Ed Helms?

  Betty never learned for sure why Claussen was so weirdly aggressive that day, but a year later, he left the Washington Post for a job at the White House as Richard Nixon's communications officer. And guess what he proudly displayed on his new White House desk?

• 34:55Speaker 02

  A large framed photograph that was signed to Ken with affection, J. Edgar.

• 35:06Ed Helms?

  As it turns out, just as Betty suspected, the files she was receiving, well, they would just be the tip of the iceberg. The full picture was going to upend everything the American public thought they knew about the FBI and would knock a revered American hero off his throne. President's official spokesman claims creating fear, mistrust and suspicion. Has spread far out of control with its penetration of labor unions, college campuses, church schools. The FBI had under surveillance every political figure, every student activist and every leader for peace and justice in this country.

• 35:50Ed Helms?

  So who exactly was responsible for exposing the FBI's secrets? Who were these anonymous citizens who sent Betty those files? And how the hell did they successfully break into the nation's most powerful law enforcement agency, all under the cover of a huge boxing match? Now, hang on a second. That plot is actually sounding kind of familiar. On a fight night, like the one, two weeks from tonight, the night that we're going to rob it, 150 million without breaking a sweat. Ocean's Eleven, one of my all time favorite heist movies from master of the heist himself, filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. Speaking of Steven.

• 36:31Ed Helms?

  While you were making Ocean's, did you know about this actual real life burglary that took place on a fight night?

• 36:37Speaker 04

  No, I didn't. I have so many questions.

• 36:42Ed Helms?

  I do too, Steven. I do too. I'm excited for you to, to learn more about this story.

• 36:50Speaker 04

  Well, here's the thing. I have never listened to a podcast before. Obviously I have to hear this.

• 36:58Ed Helms?

  All right, Steven and listeners, get ready. This season, you'll hear how J. Edgar Hoover embroiled the FBI in one of the worst intelligence snafus of all time. The daring heist that exposed it all and the staggering fallout that sent shockwaves through America.

• 37:17Speaker 02

  We love to say that we learned our burglary skills from nuns and priests.

• 37:22Ed Helms?

  We know they have our pictures. We know they're looking for us. We know they're water.

• 37:26Speaker 02

  One day he came up to me and he said, would you like to be part of a small group where we're going to go after the FBI? I just felt like I was living in the heart of the dragon and it was just my job to stop the fire. And this seemed like a way to do it. I was just really angry. I was really, and I thought, here's something that might just make a great big difference. Holy shit, we are really here. This is dynamite stuff.

• 37:54Ed Helms?

  There was no place to hide if they released their powers against you. Like, well, that was either the FBI or the heating system. And there's only one way to find out which.

• 38:05Speaker 02

  Many of the techniques were clearly illegal, but justified in the interest of national security. If it meant some risks that were involved, well, that's what citizens sometimes have to do.

• 38:27Ed Helms?

  Snafu is a production of iHeartRadio, Film Nation Entertainment, and Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio. This season of Snafu is based on the book, The Burglary, The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI, written by Betty Medsker. It's executive produced by me, Ed Helms, Milan Papelka, Mike Falbo, Whitney Donaldson, Andy Chug, Dylan Fagan, and Betty Medsker. Our lead producers are Sarah Joyner and Alyssa Martino. Producer is Steven Wood. This episode was written by Albert Chen, Sarah Joyner, and Steven Wood, with additional writing and story editing from Alyssa Martino and Ed Helms. Tori Smith is our associate producer. Nevin Kalapali is our production assistant. Fact checking by Charles Richter.

• 39:11Ed Helms?

  Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Sensitivity consult from Oloakemi Aladusui. Editing, sound design, and original music by Ben Chug. Engineering and technical direction by Nick Dooley. Additional editing from Kelsey Albright, Olivia Canny, and Gemma Costelli-Foley. Theme music by Dan Rosato. Special thanks to Allison Cohen, Daniel Welsh, and Ben Ryzak. Additional thanks to director Joanna Hamilton for letting us use some of the original interviews from her incredible documentary, 1971. Finally, our deepest gratitude to the courageous Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI. Bill Davedon, Ralph Daniel, Judy Feingold, Heath Forsythe, Bonnie Rains, John Rains, Sarah Schumer, and Bob Williamson.

• 40:14Ed Helms?

  The scariest part of Halloween isn't the full moon or a chainsaw starting up in the distance. It's running out of Reese's cups. Because when you open the door to four princesses, six superheroes, and three Draculas all reaching for your Reese's cups, things can get scary fast. Especially when you were kind of counting on some leftovers. So this Halloween, buy extra. Because your neighbor Jeff dressed like a kangaroo? That's scary enough. Running out of Reese's cups doesn't need to be.

• 40:44Speaker 02

  I'm not great at costumes, but I know which bottles to bring. Every Halloween, I stop at Total Wine & More before the party. Cold beer for the crew, ready to drink cocktails for the night, and a bottle of tequila for whoever wins best costume. Halloween plans come together fast, and Total Wine & More makes it easy to bring something for everyone at the lowest prices. I'm ready for Halloween. Are you? Get the party started for less at Total Wine & More. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. B21.

• 41:14Speaker 05

  Honestly, honestly.

• 41:15Speaker 02

  Honestly, no one wants to think about HIV, but there are things that everyone can do to help prevent it. Things like PrEP. PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis, and it means routinely taking prescription medicine before you're exposed to HIV to help reduce your chances of getting it. PrEP can be about 99% effective when taken as prescribed. It doesn't protect against other STIs though, so be sure to use condoms and other healthy sex practices. Ask a healthcare provider about all your prevention options and visit findoutaboutprep.com to learn more. Sponsored by Gilead.

• 41:44Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.