Our Man Flynn

Charles Higham’s claim that the case on Errol Flynn is closed (Outtakes, July 10) is in line with the absurdity of his other claims about the actor being a Nazi spy. There is no case on Flynn, and neither is there any material regarding Flynn’s involvement with espionage in the FBI files.

There is indeed a file on him in the main Washington bureau of the FBI, but it pertains only to moral accusations. J. Edgar Hoover tracked Flynn for years trying to nail him with the Mann Act but never could.

In his book “Errol Flynn: The Untold Story,” Higham lists almost 200 documents relating to the supposed espionage of Flynn and his friend, the Austrian Dr. Hermann Erben. All the documents are about Erben and only half a dozen even mention Flynn, who is mentioned only in regard to being a friend of Erben’s.

I knew Flynn in his last years and I researched his life for two books that I have written about him. He was a man of no political convictions and his toes tapped to no national anthem. As for Higham’s claims of Flynn as a homosexual, the only evidence I have ever come across was from Truman Capote. I asked Capote about this and he said that sometime in 1939 he and Flynn had gone to bed together following a party and that they were both drunk, and that he could barely remember it. On the other hand I discussed this with all three of Flynn’s wives, and other ladies, all of whom made comments that might best be summed up with the words, “Are you kidding?”

TONY THOMAS

Burbank