There’s a joke on the internet that if you perhaps Google various nefarious terms, the FBI probably has a file on you somewhere. This joke is born from a kernel of truth, insofar as the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a history of keeping files on people for all sorts of reasons, many of which don’t seem to rise to the level of criminal behavior that you’d think would require such things. Some of the people they have files on, and the reasons for having them, are almost unbelievable.
10. The FBI Investigated Borat
When Sacha Baron Cohen was making the first Borat movie, he made the news more than once for offending or allegedly duping people who went on to try to sue him. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. His behavior also got him on the FBI’s radar because satire, even when performed by a fairly famous actor doing a fairly famous character that had existed for years prior to the development of a film, is hard to identify.
During the filming of the Borat movie in 2006 the character drives around in an ice cream truck. Due to his swarthy appearance and odd behavior, this seemed to have rubbed a number of people the wrong way. Cohen told comedian Marc Maron on a podcast that the FBI started getting complaints of a terrorist in an ice cream truck.
At some point the FBI came to the hotel where the production crew was based and they made Cohen vanish to keep him safe, just in case.
9. The FBI Had Files on Elvis
Elvis Presley was and arguably still is the biggest name in rock n’ roll, despite the fact he’s been dead for years. They didn’t call him the King for nothing. But during his lifetime he had more than a few run-ins with controversy, including ones that escalated to the point of a federal investigation. So what could have triggered the FBI to want to look into the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll?
The extensive files the FBI kept on Elvis mention all manner of unsavory details including the fact he wore his hair down to his shoulders and had an exotic wardrobe. Later he’s declared a danger to the security of the United States chiefly because he “rouses the sexual passions of the teenaged youth.”
It wasn’t all bad stuff in Elvis’ files, however. The King really loved FBI Director Hoover and put a lot of effort into meeting him which included assuring the FBI that he was a non-drug user and was worried about the state of American youth. He blamed their problems on the Beatles, Jane Fonda and the Smothers Brothers.
8. George Carlin Had an FBI File
Comedian George Carlin, a man never afraid to speak his mind, also ran afoul of the Bureau thanks to the fact he made fun of J. Edgar Hoover in his act. Carlin had appeared on The Carol Burnett Show and Jackie Gleason and rubbed Hoover the wrong way. He had mocked the FBI and, specifically Hoover, which resulted in a 12-page file on the comedian.
Carlin himself made a Freedom of Information Act request before his death to obtain the files and discovered the memos that essentially accused him of poor taste clout chasing. The FBI had previously claimed they had no files on Carlin so when they turned up there was no immediate explanation.
7. Stanley Kubrick Got a Complaint From a Navy Admiral
Famed director of The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick raised the ire of the FBI thanks to another one of his films: Dr. Strangelove.
The file on Kubrick indicates he was friends with an individual whose name was redacted but who allegedly had Communist friends. That was only one potential issue, however, as the retired Navy Admiral Burke had made a special request to look into Kubrick because his film denigrated the US military and considered it, along with some other films and books, detrimental to the country.
Despite the complaint, the file goes on to state they have no negative info on Kubrick.
6. The FBI had a File on the Monkees
The Monkees were one of the most wholesome musical groups of the era but that didn’t stop the FBI from keeping tabs on them over allegations the band was inserting subliminal messages into their music and activities denouncing the war in Vietnam. There was a redacted version of the file made public in 2011 that quaintly refers to the band as “The Monkeys,” spelled like the animal, but it left a lot of info out.
In 2022, band member Micky Dolenz filed a lawsuit against the FBI to get any files pertaining to himself, his bandmates or their band. He says another investigation related to the band was redacted entirely and wants to know what it was about.
5. Bill Russell Had a Very Petty File
If you’re a fan of basketball history, then you know Bill Russell, whose legacy on the court and off the court are legendary. He was an 11-time champion and one of the greatest players in the history of the game. He went on to coach as well, and was also involved in the civil rights movement, which is his other great legacy. He spoke out against racism at a time when he was on the receiving end of some of the most virulent forms of it imaginable. He spoke against segregation; he protested the Vietnam war, and he was a vocal supporter of Colin Kaepernick in later years.
As you can imagine, much of what he did through the 60s and 70s was against the “establishment” and speaking against Vietnam in particular would have got the FBI on his trail. Their files on him, however, bring up more issues including ones that seem remarkably petty and bigoted.
After receiving death threats for an article he wrote, Russell contacted the FBI himself. Years later an FOIF request revealed that the FBI referred to him as an “arrogant negro” and made reference to the fact he wouldn’t sign autographs for white children. In truth, he rarely gave anyone autographs because he found them impersonal.
4. Trent Reznor’s “Murder” was Investigated
Trent Reznor is probably best known as the frontman of Nine Inch Nails, although he also works as a producer and a composer and has scored a number of films and TV shows as well. So he’s a bit of a musical renaissance man.
Nine Inch Nails rose to fame in the ’90s and were frequently featured alongside acts like Marilyn Manson and Tool. Basically, any bands that had a dark esthetic. So maybe it’s no surprise then that the FBI might start a file on such a person since they have a history of focusing on musicians they fear may be corrupting the youth, engaging in counter culture messages or encouraging drug use. But none of those have anything to do with why the Bureau opened a film on Reznor. They had a file on him to investigate his murder.
You can’t fault the FBI for having files on well-known murder victims. The problem with this one was that Trent Reznor is, to this day, very much alive. No one has murdered him, so investigating his murder was a bit of a misfire.
The story begins in Michigan, where a weather balloon crashed in a farmer’s field. But this was no ordinary balloon, it had a Super 8 camera attached to it. When the farmer called the police, they took the camera and watched the footage. It showed two men in leather standing over a mutilated, decaying corpse. Weird, right?
For two years the FBI examined the footage looking for clues about where it was filmed and who the men in it were. Not only that, why would some leather clad killers film their crime with a weather balloon camera? Unable to figure out anything on their own, they finally asked the public for help and, almost instantly, they got a tip from a college student. The dead man in the video was Trent Reznor. He was also not dead.
The video the FBI had was nearly identical to the video Reznor had made for the song “Down In It.” No one in the FBI watched MTV at the time, apparently. The weather balloon footage was from their first attempt at a low budget video, but they obviously lost the footage. With Reznor still very much alive, the case was closed.
3. The FBI had Files on the Grateful Dead
The FBI opened up a file on The Grateful Dead in 1970. The file, which is heavily redacted, says the Bureau was contacted by someone and they were clearly unfamiliar with the group which they describe with the words “it would appear that this is a rock group of some sort.”
There were suspicions that the Dead might be selling LSD at their concerts so the FBI opened a file. Much of whatever transpired after that has been concealed, there are actually whole pages that are blacked out in the official file, but since nothing came from it, it’s hard to say what they determined or why. Suffice it to say they seem to have given up on it and Jerry Garcia and the boys were fine.
2. The Song “Louie, Louie” by the Kingsmen
The song “Louie, Louie” by the Kingsmen was released in 1963 and made it all the way to number two on the Billboard charts. The song has been covered numerous times, and the Kingsmen version itself was a cover, but that 1963 version was the most famous and, as it happens, the most controversial.
The problem with the song stemmed from the fact no one knows what the hell it’s about. The lyrics are largely unintelligible and when people can’t discern a meaning right away, they have a bad habit of making up meaning. People wrote to the FBI about the song, concerned that it was hiding terrible, vulgar messages. The Governor of Indiana banned the song for being pornographic. A parent wrote the FBI and said the lyrics were so filthy they couldn’t even write them down in the letter.
The FBI spent months listening to the song in an effort to figure out if it was obscene. Their final conclusion reached in a 119 page document was that no, nothing in the song was obscene. People just couldn’t understand them.
1. They Have a File on Bigfoot
For all the people the FBI have files on, at least you can state with a degree of certainty that they’re mostly real. And then there’s Bigfoot. The FBI investigated Bigfoot and you can read their full file on the cryptid online, if you’re so inclined. It’s a full 22 pages which makes it quite a bit longer than many others.
The Bigfoot file dates back to 1976 and includes newspaper clipping, witness statements and other summaries of the creature. It was chiefly concerned with hair samples sent to the Bureau for analysis by the director of the Bigfoot Information Center who requested more information on what the hairs were, presumably towards the end of verifying they belonged to the big guy.
The request was two years after the infamous Patterson-Gimlin footage of Bigfoot walking in the woods that is still popular today, despite being debunked (though not everyone believes it).
It was later revealed that the FBI didn’t bother to analyze the hair samples at first because, well, that’s not the FBI’s job. You can’t just mail them stuff out of curiosity. But sometimes you can, if it’s a worthy scientific endeavor. So the assistant director of the FBI’s scientific and technical services division did, in fact, analyze the hairs. They belonged to a deer.