Helen W. Gandy (April 8, 1897 – July 7, 1988) was an American civil servant. Gandy, who at age twenty-one left her native New Jersey for Washington, D.C., was the secretary to Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover for fifty-four years. Hoover called her "indispensable" and she exercised great behind-the-scenes influence on Hoover and the workings of the Bureau. Following Hoover's death in 1972, she spent weeks destroying his "P...
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Helen W. Gandy (April 8, 1897 – July 7, 1988) was an American civil servant. Gandy, who at age twenty-one left her native New Jersey for Washington, D.C., was the secretary to Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover for fifty-four years. Hoover called her "indispensable" and she exercised great behind-the-scenes influence on Hoover and the workings of the Bureau. Following Hoover's death in 1972, she spent weeks destroying his "Personal File," thought to be where the most incriminating material he used to manipulate and control the most powerful figures in Washington was kept.
Gandy, "a wraith-like, grim-faced spinster from New Jersey", was born in Rockville, one of three children (two daughters and a son) of Franklin Dallas and Annie (Williams) Gandy. She grew up in Fairton or Port Norris (sources differ) and graduated from Bridgeton High School in Bridgeton. In 1918, aged twenty-one, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she later took classes at Strayer Business...
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