J. Edgar Hoover clung to the FBI director’s chair like a barnacle on a battleship from May 10, 1924, until his final micromanaging breath on May 2, 1972, a nearly 48-year reign of wiretaps, blackmail, and stylishly ominous fedoras. He outlasted eight presidents, proving that he didn’t just serve under them he obviously had dirt on all of them: 1. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) Probably too quiet to be blackmailed. 2. Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) No relation, but still got bossed around. 3. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) Tried to rein him in. Failed. 4. Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) Called the FBI a Gestapo. Not wrong. 5. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) A general, yet still no match for J. Edgar’s dossiers. 6. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) Well let’s not get into that. 7. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969) The only guy who might have been as ruthless as Hoover. 8. Richard Nixon (1969-1974) Paranoid, but Hoover was two steps ahead. Hoover was the ultimate deep-state puppet mast...