| | Lane M. | Bonner | OK - Oklahoma City; MD - Baltimore; DC- FBIHQ | 1957 - 1988 | Watergate, Miami Shootout, Marion Barry case | Marion Barry, Robert Hanssen, Japan Food Corporation | 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 Lane M. Bonner served in the FBI from 1957 to 1988. This interview took place on July 9, 2008. Interviewed by Brian R. Hollstein.
SA Bonner entered the FBI as a clerk and worked as a full-time tour leader at FBIHQ. He was transferred to the Miami Field Office, where he worked as a technical surveillance clerk in the Organized Crime Program. He tells of testifying to the results of some of the wiretaps he worked.
He received his appointment as Special Agent, completed training, and was assigned to the Oklahoma City Field Office on the Accounting squad. He discusses airtels, teletypes, and letterhead memorandum, which were common communications at the time.
Next, he was transferred to the Baltimore Field Office, where he became a supervisor for several years. Additionally, while in Baltimore, he was assigned to a Congressional committee auditing police spending of federal grants. He was also appointed the Media representative for the office and dealt with the press, etc.
He was assigned to the Press Office at FBIHQ and talks of being the spokesman for the FBI from 1981 to 1988. He mentions speaking with the major TV shows, another time denying a story on DC Mayor Marion Barry. He tells the story of the response to the Miami shootout, where two Agents were killed and others were wounded. He fielded media requests in reference to the profiling done at Quantico. He worked on the structures of media response in Field Offices. He talks about leaks to the press, the general 62-0 files, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s press policy. The eighties were known as the years of the spy and SA Bonner mentions the press handling of that as well as influencing the media with press releases and regular press conferences. | Download PDF 1 | | |