| Download Photo 1 | Thomas E. | Bishop | MD - Baltimore; FBIHQ; Caracas, Venezuela; Montevideo, Uruguay; OH - Cincinnati; VA - Richmond; OH - Cleveland; CA - San Francisco; TX - San Antonio; CA - San Diego; PR - San Juan | 1941 - 1973 | Watergate, Hoover Tapes, COINTELPRO, MEDBERG | SIS, Special Intelligence Service, World War II, Counter-intelligence, William Sullivan, Anti-Trust, Bill Sullivan, Helen Gaudy, Woodward and Bernstein, Richard Nixon, G. Gordon Liddy, John Dean, Louis Marx, L. Patrick Gray | For the FBI Oral History Heritage Project sponsored by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, Inc., which holds the copyright to the material.
Special Agent Bishop served in the FBI from 1941 to 1973, and was an Associate Director at the time of his retirement. These interviews took place on January 13 & 27 and February 3, 2004. Interviewed by Clarence H. Campbell and Michael M. O’Brien.
Special Agent Bishop joined the FBI after completing two years of law school. He was assigned to the Baltimore Field Office in the Wilmington Resident Agency (RA). He remembers interviewing German nationals when World War II was declared after Pearl Harbor. He then was assigned to FBIHQ to the Correspondence Desk which dealt with letters to Mr. Hoover. He was bored and wanted to get into the war action and served in the Special Intelligence Service. He was assigned as an Assistant Legal Attaché in Caracas Venezuela. Through the offices of a Basque informant, the FBI representatives in the Embassy were able to enter the offices of the Spanish delegation and photograph the German code book which was used by their ally, Spain. This was valuable as a source of information on codes and also in tracking German agents traveling from South America to the United States. While in Venezuela, SA Bishop was on the National Champion Venezuelan Basketball Team. He ended the war years in Montevideo, Uruguay.
At the end of the war, SA Bishop transferred to the Cincinnati Field Office where he worked a successful anti-trust case. In rapid succession, he served as ASAC in the Richmond Field Office, the Cleveland Field Office and San Francisco Field Office. He was then SAC in the San Antonio Field Office, San Diego Field Office, San Juan PR Field Office, and Richmond Field Office. He discusses the yearly visit of Mr. Hoover and Mr. Tolson to San Diego, especially their trips to Del Mar race track. Bishop notes that he was in San Juan at the time of President Kennedy’s assassination.
SA Bishop returned to FBIHQ as Assistant Director of Crime Records which served as the public relations arm of the FBI. He details the scope of his unit and his job. Hoover’s so called “secret files” are described. He discusses the rivalry of Cartha DeLoach, Assistant to the Director, and William Sullivan, Assistant Director of Domestic Security. Bishop describes the bitter end of Mr. Sullivan’s career.
The death of J. Edgar Hoover and the changes that followed it are touched on and the succession of L. Patrick Gray. Watergate, the so-called “plumbers,” the Nixon White House and the Huston Plan are included.
SA Bishop had a unique opportunity to know the upper echelons of the Bureau over a long period and during many changes. | Download PDF 1 | | |