Swearingen, M. Wesley. FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose. Boston: South End
Press, 1995. 192 pages.
M. Wesley Swearingen spent 25 years in the FBI. From 1952-1962 he
was assigned to Chicago, and from 1970-1977 he was in Los Angeles; other
postings included Kentucky and New York. Most of his career was spent on
political cases -- black bag jobs against suspected communists in Chicago,
and dirty tricks against the Black Panther Party in Los Angeles, along with
tracking members of the Weather Underground. Swearingen is the first agent
to offer an explosive inside look at the FBI's COINTELPRO program. He even
has evidence that Elmer (Geronimo) Pratt, who is still in prison trying to
get a new trial, was framed for murder by the FBI and LAPD. When Swearingen
was writing his memoirs after retiring, the FBI got wind of it and raided
his boat to search for documents. Publisher William Morrow had a contract
with Swearingen, but then they mysteriously lost interest.
This book destroys the myth of FBI integrity. While the FBI told
Congress that only 238 black bag jobs had been conducted nationwide between
1942 and 1966, Swearingen once documented at least 500 bag jobs in Chicago
alone between 1952 and 1957. Stomping on the rights of citizens is one
thing. But Swearingen also describes an amazing level of petty corruption
and incompetence within the FBI. Much of this was due to the legacy of
J. Edgar Hoover, who preferred sycophancy over honesty from his aides.
ISBN 0-89608-501-5
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