27-04-2016, 04:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 27-04-2016, 05:58 PM by David Andrews.)
On p317 Wright describes John O'Neill's mobster-like image:: "The founding director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, was sufficiently concerned about the young agent when he first entered the bureau that he drew O'Neill aside to ask about his connections.'" The source of this story is an old girlfriend of O'Neill's. However, Hoover died in 1972 when O'Neill was just twenty years old, and he didn't become an FBI agent until 1976. This example is typical of Wright's reliance on inside sources who may have fed him stories that weren't necessarily true.
Could reporting this ahistorical anecdote be a backhanded way of alerting readers to possible Mob ties for O'Neill, originating in his Atlantic City background? These ties would explain a lot about O'Neill's lifestyle, which was not possible on a Bureau salary.
Might O'Neill have invented the Hoover story to impress his girlfriend with the extent of his involvements, high and low? Involvements that may have existed, despite dramatizations in the telling.
In the near future (when I have more time) I can provide some speculative food for thought on AC and O'Neill, drawn from other accounts of his life. I'll post them on this thread.
In the meantime, can anyone with more knowledge weigh in here, or contact me privately? I don't post here much, but I'm longtime and frequent over at the London Forum. Any discussion of O'Neill would be welcome.
Could reporting this ahistorical anecdote be a backhanded way of alerting readers to possible Mob ties for O'Neill, originating in his Atlantic City background? These ties would explain a lot about O'Neill's lifestyle, which was not possible on a Bureau salary.
Might O'Neill have invented the Hoover story to impress his girlfriend with the extent of his involvements, high and low? Involvements that may have existed, despite dramatizations in the telling.
In the near future (when I have more time) I can provide some speculative food for thought on AC and O'Neill, drawn from other accounts of his life. I'll post them on this thread.
In the meantime, can anyone with more knowledge weigh in here, or contact me privately? I don't post here much, but I'm longtime and frequent over at the London Forum. Any discussion of O'Neill would be welcome.