Risko's art is particularly amusing when viewed while listening to a Hoover speech on 'red-blooded Americans' like the one below (Hoover called homosexuals 'sexual deviants'), and imagining millions on the edge of their seats listening to Hoover orate about '100% Americanism'.
Listen 'here to Hoover's 'Red- Blooded' American
While Hoover was spreading false rumors of Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson's sexual preferences, and labeling Eleanor Roosevelt because she counted among a circle of friends, several lesbians, he was, according to Meyer Lansky's friend, cavorting in a red chiffon dress (Truman Capote referred humorously to J. Edgar and his partner Clyde Tolsen as 'Johnny and Clyde'). The 2 frequented Mafia-owned night clubs in New York, where Meyer Lansky, the gangster, Anthony Summers concluded, obtained a photograph in 1946 which led to the blackmailing of Hoover. Hoover consequently swore that there is no such thing as organized crime in America.
The Testimony of Susan Rosenstiel:
"He
was wearing a fluffy black dress, very fluffy, with flounces, and lace stockings
and high heels, and a black curly wig. He had makeup on, and false eyelashes. It
was a very short skirt, and he was sitting there in the living room of the suite
with his legs crossed. Roy introduced him to me as ‘Mary’ and he replied,
‘Good evening,’ brusque, like the first time I’d met him. It was obvious
he wasn’t a woman, you could see where he shaved. It was Hoover. You’ve
never seen anything like it. I couldn’t believe it, that I should see the head
of the FBI dressed as a woman.
“There
was a bar set up with drinks, and we had drinks. Not too much. I think it was
about then that Roy muttered to me that Hoover didn’t know that I knew who he
was, that I’d think he was someone else. I certainly didn’t address him the
way I had at other times, as Mr. Hoover. I was afraid of my life by then.
“The
next thing, a couple of boys come in, young blond boys. I’d say about eighteen
or nineteen. And then Roy makes the signal we should go into the bedroom. It was
a tremendous bedroom, with a bed like in Caesar’s time, with a damask spread,
blue, I think, like the suite. And they go into the bedroom, and Hoover takes
off his lace dress and pRnts, and under the dress he was wearing a little, short
garter
belt. He lies on the double bed,
and the two boys work on him with their hands. One of them wore rubber
gloves.”
After
a while, said Susan Rosenstiel, the group returned to the diving room. “Cohn
had brought up some food. Cold stuff, so as not to have room service. So we had
a little something to eat.
“Then
Rosenstiel got into the act with the boys. I thought, ‘You disgusting old
man...’ Hoover and Cohn were watching, enjoying it. Then Cohn runs to get
himself satisfied—full sex—with the two boys. Those poor boys. He couldn’t
get enough. But Hoover only had them, you know, playing with him. I didn’t see
him take part in any anal sex. Rosenstiel wanted me to get involved, but I
wouldn’t do it.”
A year later:
“He
had a red dress on,” Susan recalled, “and a black feather boa around his
neck. He was dressed like an old flapper, like you see on old tintypes.
“After
about half an hour some boys came, like before. This time they’re dressed in
leather. And Hoover had a Bible. He wanted one of the boys to read from the
Bible. And he read, I forget which passage, and the other boy played with him,
wearing the rubber gloves. And then Hoover grabbed the Bible, threw it down and
told the second boy to join in the sex.”
- from Anthony Summers' Secret and Confidential