Hoover

* The May 19 editorial about J. Edgar Hoover shelving the investigation of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 is a gross falsehood. I was assigned as assistant special agent in charge in Birmingham from 1965 to 1969 and during that time I never saw any instructions from FBI headquarters to shelve that investigation, the investigation of the bombs that were placed on city councilmen’s doorsteps or any other Klan activities. To the contrary, we were under instructions to vigorously investigate these and other related matters.

The majority of agents assigned to Birmingham were under a great deal of pressure to obtain admissible evidence to prosecute the perpetrators. The lack of any prosecution was strictly within the authority of the U.S. attorney and the Justice Department, and apparently those entities did not find enough evidence to sustain a prosecution. To attribute this to Hoover is typical of the trend to rewrite history and demonize Hoover; The Times never misses a beat to jump on the bandwagon.

RALPH J. RAMPTON

Westlake Village