Name M. Swearingen Role Author | Education Ohio State University Books FBI Secrets | |
Mont Wesley Swearingen (born May 20, 1927; Steubenville, Ohio) is a former FBI Special Agent from 1951 to 1977, and the author of FBI Secrets, and To Kill a President, an examination of the John F. Kennedy assassination.
Biography
Swearingen served in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1946. After the war, he graduated from Ohio State University and joined the FBI. He began his career doing black bag jobs on Communists in Chicago. In Kentucky and New York City, he spent years doing serious criminal investigations, which had been his goal in joining the FBI. But Hoover fixated on the threat posed by such groups as the Black Panther Party. and the Weathermen. In Los Angeles, Swearingen burglarized the Tucson Five and their lawyers during the FBI's efforts to prosecute them, but no incriminating evidence was found and the Tucson Five were exonerated.
After 25 years with the FBI, Swearingen retired in 1977.
Swearingen has been interviewed in the documentary films All Power to the People! and The U.S. vs. John Lennon.