For nearly fifty years, Hoover was the most powerful man in the USA. The creator of the FBI and its Director until his death in 1972, he played a key role in nearly every major tragedy and scandal in America during the twentieth Century. When he died, Hoover was lauded as an American hero. In his controversial bestseller, "Official and Confidential", Anthony Summers explodes the myths, exposing the dark secrets that remained hidden throughout Hoover's lifetime. In it is revealed that Hoover used his intimate knowledge of John F Kennedy's sex life to ensure that Lyndon Johnson became Vice President, later suppressing evidence about JFK's assassination. Summers also describes how Hoover was a closet homosexual and said to have enjoyed dressing up as a woman, which led to him being blackmailed by the Mafia. Hoover's death came on the eve of the exposure of the Watergate scandal, holding some of President Nixon's darkest secrets.