Over the years, the FBI has collected information about many people — most of whom are people suspected of serious crimes. But it's not just criminals with FBI files. Since it was formed in 1908, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected information about actors, musicians, and other people in the public arena, and much of that information is now available to the public at the FBI's Records Vault. The Vault, which launched in 2011, is an FBI reading room of more than 6,700 documents that contain details of investigations on everyone from Marilyn Monroe and Tupac to Steve Jobs. Most of these people would be considered "non-threatening," but were being monitored for very interesting reasons. What’s up, Walt Disney?
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Helen Keller —the first deaf and blind person to receive a Bachelor’s degree and the woman immortalized on the Alabama quarter — has an FBI file? Yes, Keller was a socialist who opposed president Wilson, and the fact that she was a birth control supporter and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union made her a bit of a rebel for the times and caught the attention of the FBI, although nothing came of their investigation.
Given Whitney Houston's very public, very turbulent history with drugs, money, and relationships, her FBI file reads like a peaceful bedtime story — kind of. The FBI report details an investigation into threatening letters, including a batch of 79 love letters written by a "superfan" to Houston and an alleged $250,000 extortion attempt by a friend of Houston’s. They were apparently threatening to reveal personal details about the singer’s relationship with Bobby Brown. The singer told agents she considered the woman "a friend" and "did discuss personal things" with her, and that Houston's father sent the person a confidentiality agreement along with a sum of money. The case was closed soon after.
What did the Apple CEO, who died in 2011, really have on that iPhone? Actually, the FBI wasn't interested in his technology, but rather the fact that he was considered for an appointment on president George H.W. Bush’s Export Council, which required a background check. According to the file, “several individuals questions Jobs’ honesty, stating that [he] will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals.” The report details Jobs experimentation with LSD in his teens, calling his use “a positive life changing experience.”
Model and TV star Anna Nicole Smith was the subject of a federal investigation that sounds like it could be fodder for a cheesy Lifetime movie. The FBI investigated whether Smith was involved in a plot to kill her late husband’s son in 2000 and 2001. After the death of her husband, the billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Smith, both Smith and her husband's son, E. Pierce Marshall, were fighting for control of the estate the elder Marshall left behind. In the end, prosecutors didn't collect enough evidence to charge Smith, who died in 2007.
The West Coast rapper, who died in 1996, boasts an FBI file less concerned with the things that he did and focuses more on the things that were done to him. The 122-page file makes it clear Shakur and Eric "Eazy E" Wright were threatened and extorted by a group considered a domestic terrorist organization by federal authorities. FBI agents described an extortion scheme that saw them receiving death threats from an anonymous telephone caller, at which point the Jewish Defense League — described as "a violent right-wing terrorist group" — would offer protection for money.
John Lennon certainly made no secret about his leftist and anti-war beliefs. Throughout the 1970s, the Nixon administration and the FBI tried to have Lennon’s U.S. visa revoked so he could be deported. It's believed Nixon was scared Lennon’s popularity among young voters could ruin his chances at re-election. “The '72 election was going to be the first in which 18-year olds had the right to vote,” said historian Jon Wiener. “Before that you had to be 21. Everybody knew that young people were the strongest anti-war constituency, so the question was, for Lennon, how could he use his power as a celebrity to get young people into the political process?” Of course Nixon won re-election and served until the Watergate investigation forced his resignation in August 1974, effectively ending the fight against Lennon. In October 1975, the New York State Supreme Court overturned the deportation order. “The courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds,” Judge Irving Kaufman declared. “Lennon’s four-year battle to remain in our country is testimony to his faith in this American dream.”
You know Marilyn Monroe as an actress and sex symbol, but previously redacted FBI files reveal a much different side: was she a suspected communist? No, actually, but the FBI suspected her husband, playwright and author Arthur Miller, of having communist leanings. As a result, they kept a close eye on his involvement with Marxist and communist groups. Bonus fact: Monroe’s file also includes some theories about her 1962 death. In an excerpt from Norman Mailer’s biography of Monroe, the author implicates the FBI and CIA, which they probably weren't too happy about.
This silent film icon apparently made enough noise to warrant a 2,000-page FBI file opened by J. Edgar Hoover in 1922. The ever-paranoid Hoover thought that Chaplin, who was a British citizen, was a communist sympathizer and a potential threat to national security. They were convinced enough he was a threat, in fact, to enlist their British equivalent, MI5, to spy on him. After a trip to London in 1952, the U.S. Attorney General prevented Chaplin’s re-entry into the U.S., which was the last straw. Chaplin and his wife permanently moved to Switzerland, where he died 25 years later.
An insight into a turbulent life and an unparalleled talent, Michael Jackson’s files were released after his death, and detail the investigations around his child molestation trials in 1993 and 2004. Despite the FBI monitoring Jackson for more than a decade, the files didn't contain any major revelations about his private life and a case was never brought up against him federally.
Who doesn't love Lucy? That would be the Federal Bureau of Investigation, due in part to the fact that records show that when Ball registered to vote in 1936, she listed her party affiliation as “Communist,” a surefire way to land you on the list. Ball claims she did it to make her socialist grandfather happy and that she was never an active member of the party. Regardless, the FBI director continued to collect evidence about Ball, even though the FBI claims that it never officially investigated her — despite a 156-page file.
As lead singer of the Grateful Dead, Garcia partied like a rock star, raising the hair on the back of a few FBI agents' necks. The Bureau continued the tradition of going after long-haired hippies suspected of drug use and the corruption of innocent youth, investigating hypothetical connections to LSD suppliers. Alas, they never came up with any substantial proof, despite the fact that fans consumed copious amounts of drugs at Grateful Dead shows, so the investigation never went any further.
The creator of the Happiest Place On Earth had a very odd, very complex relationship with the FBI — as detailed in his 570-page file. The father of Mickey Mouse wasn't suspected of anything sinister, but was instead a secret informant, reporting to the Bureau the names of people in Hollywood he believed to associated with communism. In return for Disney's information, J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Bureau at the time, allowed Disney to film in F.B.I. headquarters in Washington D.C. Hoover even reportedly had a hand in making some changes to various scripts.
