Handwritten Letters to Celebrities

Has anyone written a letter to a celebrity?

If so, has anyone gotten anything back from them?

Today, I'm mailing my first letter off to none other than Mr. Clint Eastwood. 

Why?

Well, I'll tell you.

See, he's making this biopic about none other than J. Edgar Hoover.  No, not the president.  The guy who was responsible for the creation of what's known now as the FBI.

Technically speaking, of course, John Dillinger and Alvin Karpis contributed to the FBI's creation too.  Back in the day, there wasn't much federal regulation.  A lot of laws were left up to the states, and as such, many people were completely against a national police force coming and taking over criminal cases normally left to the responsibility of the state police.  Hoover vehemently opposed this sort of viewpoint and insisted that a national police force be instituted.  But he needed a reason for it.

And that's where my two favorite gangsters come in.

With Dillinger continuously slipping through the Bureau's fingers and Karpis hiding out from them, the Bureau of Investigation was made to look like fools.  Even more so when the general public supported the Robin Hood-esque figures.

For Hoover to win his little FBI, he needed to prove that they were needed.  And more than that, he needed to show that the Bureau could get results.

So he ordered that Dillinger be killed - which he was, execution-style July 22, 1934 - and claimed to personally arrest Karpis -although Karpis states in his autobiography that it was only after the gangster was safely detained that Hoover made his appearance and took credit.

In the end, the FBI survived and for as long as Hoover was the director, he kept a death mask of Dillinger on his desk.

Charming guy, right?

So, in order to tie this back up to my letter to Mr. Eastwood, I just wanted to let him know how important his portrayal of both Dillinger and Karpis are.  Because you can't tell a story about Hoover without talking about Dillinger and Karpis.  And I don't want them to be portrayed as "the bad guys" because they weren't.  Just like Hoover wasn't a "good guy."  I do trust in Mr. Eastwood's vision, though.

I don't expect any sort of response from him - though I did send a self-addressed stamped envelope just in case - but if I watch the film (out later this year) and find a problem with how my gangsters are presented...

Well, me and Mr. Eastwood are going to have some words...