The man who collected dirt: The perks: J Edgar Hoover led the FBI for 50 years and was given a state funeral by a grateful nation. But the man pledged to protect America from the evils of organised crime and political subversion was a secret homosexual, probably blackmailed by the Mob. In turn, he kept damaging files on those in Washington who might one day threaten his power

The following extracts are from a new biography of Hoover that has caused a furore in the United States.

FOUR YEARS after Edgar's death, during a Justice Department inquiry into the misuse of FBI funds, it would emerge that the Director had been corrupt. It had started with little things. A well-timed gift, his officials learned, could win the master's favour. It might be a birthday cake, sent from Miami to Washington on an agent's lap. 'He really liked pretty flowers,' said Cartha DeLoach. 'That was a good thing to give him. I personally or my group made sure that we gave him azaleas. That was his favourite.'

The higher the official, the more costly the giving. 'Hoover was always hitting us for gifts,' said William Sullivan, 'and we'd have to buy extremely expensive ones. They handled it very cleverly. It would always come out of Tolson's office to us . . . For example, I was told he wanted a garbage masher. We Bureau officials paid for it out of our own pockets.' It was wise to pay up. Edgar reportedly kept a record of those who rendered tribute and those who didn't. Hoover's own gifts to colleagues, on the other hand, were usually purchased at government expense.

Edgar lived virtually free, at taxpayers' expense. The FBI Exhibits Section, which made displays for official use, had been his personal building contractor. His house in Rock Creek Park, the Justice Department report revealed, was 'completely painted and major maintenance performed inside and out every year while he vacationed in California. The Exhibits Section designed, constructed and built a portico on the front of his house, and a lighted fishpond complete with pump. Shelves, telephone stands, and other furniture was built and furnished. A handcrafted oriental fruitbowl was made . . . Home appliances, air-conditioners, stereo equipment, tape recorders, television sets and electric wiring were serviced and repaired by Radio Engineering Section employees . . . Employees were on call night and day for complete repair and maintenance of the entire home and grounds.'

FBI men serviced Edgar's lawnmower and snowblower, maintained his yard, replaced sod twice a year, installed artificial turf, constructed a deck at the rear of the house, and laid a flagstone court and sidewalks. When Edgar complained of the smell of bacon at breakfast, the FBI installed a powerful fan. General Harold Tyler, who supervised the probe, concluded that Edgar 'lived like an Oriental potentate.' When Edgar declared he would eat ice-cream only out of a round package, it was flown in and kept in a freezer in the basement of the Justice Department.

'There were the craziest things,' recalled John Dowd, the prosecuting attorney who led the investigation. 'Hoover had a heated toilet seat, invented in the FBI laboratory. Then there was the raccoon turd. One day Hoover opened the door of his patio, and there was a turd. He had the laboratory come and remove it, to get it analysed. It was priority number one that morning. Then some guy in the lab said, 'Hey, it's gotta be a wild animal. I've got a friend at the Smithsonian.' So they took the turd to the Smithsonian, and the Smithsonian identified the turd. There were berry shells in it that raccoons eat. So they told Hoover it was raccoon shit. Hoover ordered a trap built to destroy that raccoon. They built a trap and installed it on the patio. And the following morning the neighbour's cat was spread all over the wall of the house.

'When you saw the whole picture,' said Dowd, 'it wasn't funny at all. This was the Director of the FBI helping himself, using his power to obtain whatever he wanted. He didn't have any out-of-pocket expenses like the rest of us.'

Investigators also stumbled on the 'safe' oil investments arranged by Edgar's millionaire friends, the hundreds of thousands of dollars of free accommodation in California and vacation transport, much of it paid out of FBI 'special funds'.

Suspicion focused on the FBI Recreation Fund, ostensibly created to promote athletic activities for ordinary agents, and its subsidiary, the Library Fund. Edgar's aides had destroyed its records soon after his death. Fund money had paid for Edgar's personal public relations, and Exhibits chief John Dunphy admitted having pilfered petty cash to pay for 'non-official projects or 'gifts' to the Director'. Few of the miscreants were punished. Former assistant directors John Mohr and Nicholas Callahan both escaped prosecution thanks to the statute of limitations. Had they been alive, Edgar and Clyde would have faced prosecution and dismissal. The scale of Edgar's abuse would have made him liable to up to 10 years in prison.

Dowd, the former head of the Department Strike Force formed to fight organised crime, remembered above all the atmosphere of fear he encountered at the FBI. 'There I was,' he said, 'interviewing employees who were just as scared as the people I'd had to deal with in pursuing Mafia chieftains. There were people in my office absolutely trembling, relating 20 or 30 years of this sordid conduct. They were still afraid, even though Hoover was dead.'