William C. Sullivan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sullivan in 1965 | |
| Born | William Cornelius Sullivan May 12, 1912 |
| Died | November 9, 1977 (aged 65) |
| Cause of death | Gunshot wound |
| Burial place | St. Michael Cemetery in Hudson, Massachusetts |
| Education | American University |
| Alma mater | George Washington University |
| Occupation | Head of FBI intelligence |
| Years active | 1941–1972 |
| Employer | Federal Bureau of Investigation |
| Known for | CPUSA and COINTELPRO investigations |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse | Marion Hawkes |
William Cornelius Sullivan (May 12, 1912 – November 9, 1977) was an assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who was in charge of the agency's domestic intelligence operations from 1961 to 1971. Sullivan was forced out of the FBI at the end of September 1971 due to disagreements with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The following year, Sullivan was appointed as the head of the Justice Department's new Office of National Narcotics Intelligence, which he led from June 1972 to July 1973. Sullivan died in a hunting accident in 1977. His memoir of his thirty-year career in the FBI, written with journalist Bill Brown, was published posthumously by commercial publisher W. W. Norton & Company in 1979.[1]
Sullivan led[2] the highly controversial COINTELPRO aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic American political organizations,[3][4] political opposition and civil rights movements, which were, among other things, assassinated, imprisoned, publicly humiliated or falsely charged with crimes.[5][6]
- ^ Sullivan, William C.; Brown, Bill (1979). The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI. WW Norton. p. 9 (intro), 14–15 (IRS, joins FBI), 15 (background), 16 (training) 21 (Milwaukee), 23–29 (El Paso), 29 (growing up). ISBN 9780393012361. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
- ^ Weiner 2012, p. 196: "Sullivan would become Hoover's field marshal in matters of national security, chief of FBI intelligence, and commandant of COINTELPRO. In that top secret and tightly compartmentalized world, an FBI inside of the FBI, Sullivan served as the executor of Hoover's most clandestine and recondite demands.".
- ^ Jalon, Allan M. (March 8, 2006). "A break-in to end all break-ins". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
- ^ The Dangers of Domestic Spying by Federal Law Enforcement (PDF) (Report). American Civil Liberties Union. 2002. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 5, 2018. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
- ^ "COINTELPRO Revisited – Spying & Disruption – In Black & White: The F.B.I. Papers". What Really Happened. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved June 23, 2008.
- ^ "A Huey P. Newton Story – Actions – COINTELPRO". PBS. Archived from the original on May 15, 2011. Retrieved June 23, 2008.