True. He loved the ponies.
And the interesting thing, IMO, was that he got tips on fixed races from FBI agents. He had to have known that the tips came from criminal sources, but he just ignored that part. He was a small-time bettor, anyway.
Hoover was a lifelong bachelor who shared his home with Clyde Tolson, his second-in-command. He's had several competent biographers, all of whom tried to check out rumors that he was gay. They weren't able to prove it--which doesn't mean he wasn't gay, just that they found no evidence to prove it. The dressed-in-drag photo is probably a fiction.
All true, Turnbull but still I can't resist this imaginary dialogue:
Vito - Tom what did you find out in Hollywood?
Hagen -Well for one thing he is sleeping with a 13 year old actress. His butler was pretty quick to re-fill my wine glass, and his prized posession is a horse he is putting out to stud.
Vito - That's an infamnia about the girl. What else.
Hagen - He claims to have close ties to J. Edgar Hoover and he went out of his way to tell me he heard about the story about Luca and that bandleader, and that he wasn't afraid of you.
Vito - J Edgar Hoover is a Washington Finocchio who dresses like a woman.
Tom - Not only that but they say he only allows his driver to make right hand turns.
Vito - What else do you know about Hoover?
Tom - Our people in Baltimore say he loves horse racing. They give him tips on fixed races, and he has the man he lives with go and place $2 bets. He never goes to the window himself.
Vito - You say Hoover likes horses?
Tom - That's what I undertand.
Vito - Maybe we can send this Hollywood big shot and Mr. Hoover a message at the same time.
