Deke DeLoach Dead

Deke DeLoach's obituary, written by Bruce Weber, appears in today's paper. I didn't know that DeLoach -- as the number three man at Hoover's FBI behind Hoover himself and Hoover's companion, Clyde Tolson -- was tight with LBJ (which shows that I am not as fine a student of the JFK assassination as I thought):

Mr. DeLoach had met and worked with Johnson in the 1950s, when Johnson was the Senate majority leader; he and Johnson helped push through legislation guaranteeing Hoover a salary for life. In 1963, shortly after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson called Hoover — Mr. DeLoach said it was the day after Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One — and requested that Mr. DeLoach be assigned to the White House.

“There was political distrust between the two of them, but they both needed each other,” Mr. DeLoach said in a 1991 oral history interview for the Johnson library at the University of Texas. “Mr. Hoover was anxious to retain his job and to stay on as director. He knew that the best way for the F.B.I. to operate fully and to get some cooperation of the White House was for him to be cooperative with President Johnson.”

“President Johnson, on the other hand,” Mr. DeLoach continued, “knew of Mr. Hoover’s image in the United States, particularly among the middle-of-the-road conservative elements, and knew it was vast. He knew of the potential strength of the F.B.I. — insofar as being of assistance to the government and the White House is concerned. As a result it was a marriage, not altogether of necessity, but it was a definite friendship caused by necessity.”

DeLoach was in charge of the bureau's public affairs during the Klan killings of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner in the summer of 1964. He was part of the FBI's campaign of spying and surveillance against the civil rights and anti-war movements. He was a college quarterback. I've got his memoir, Hoover's FBI: The Inside Story of Hoover's Trusted Lieutenant, on the shelf above my computer monitor here. Given that it's the fiftieth anniversary of the Kennedy assassination I should probably get around to reading it.

DeLoach was a slick operator. I'm sure he knew where all the bodies are buried; doubtful though that there is anything revelatory in his book.