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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 16, 1993                   TAG: 9304160451
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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A `HERO' EXPOSED FOR WHAT HE WAS

RECENTLY there was a documentary on television and an article in your paper on the life of J. Edgar Hoover. It was most disturbing.

For years I've guessed and read about Hoover's homosexuality, but its ramifications were enormous and downright sickening. I'm not referring of the act performed by one man on another. It is scary that a man so vulnerable can attain such a position in our society and, because of his vulnerability, be owned by the top criminals. Yet, he in turn - by spying, bugging and gathering private information - blackmailed about all of our federal officials, right down to a number of presidents. It stinks! It is also very sickening that those same officials were either so corrupt or had so many skeletons in their closets that they could be blackmailed!

I can't help remembering that as children we were taught to revere that man. Why, he was one of our heroes. It puts a chill up one's spine to think we can build a monster like that. DICK MALLEN ROANOKE

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