Alexander, then working as a general assignment reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, encountered a lot of interesting people —not just because of his line of work — but also because he served as vice president of the San Francisco Press Club. And Harry Morgan, then regarded as the No. 3 man in line to succeed J. Edgar Hoover, seemed like a fantastic associate for a big-city journalist to have.
Alexander met Morgan through the press club, and despite their professional differences, the two became quick friends. They had a lot in common: Both the reporter and the FBI agent were from the same area of Pennsylvania and had flown military planes around the time of the Korean War.
 Dick Alexander stands in front of his collection of photos from the Press Club and his work in journalism at the SF Examiner n his home office in El Granada, CA. |
“I need to right a dreadful wrong,” Alexander said. “I started this as a young man, and this is something I hoped to make public after all these years.”
Alexander partially blames himself for Morgan’s downfall. As vice president of the press club in the early 1970s, Alexander presided over the regular club roasts, comedic social events for the members to lampoon public figures and each other.
The roasts were a lot of fun, Alexander said, involving everyone from venerable members of the San Francisco elite to the well-known madam of a city bordello. Alexander invited Morgan to participate in a roast, giving him prepared jokes to deliver, and assuring him that there was a tacit agreement among the newshounds not to report the event.
Alexander said the roast was a riot, and Morgan had a great time even though he remained sober and composed among the revelry.
Unfortunately, FBI overseers got a very different impression. An anonymous letter allegedly sent to Morgan’s superiors in the bureau alleged that Morgan was drunk and lewd in front of a public audience of hundreds. Armed with that intelligence, the FBI’s No. 2 man, Mark Felt — later revealed as the “Deep Throat” of Watergate fame — decided to investigate Morgan’s behavior at the event. Felt, who is now 95 and living in Santa Rosa, seized a tape-recording made for the press club’s archives. Within weeks, Morgan was demoted from his top post and relocated to Dallas.
“He was demoted and sent to Dallas as a regular agent,” Alexander said. “This would’ve never happened if I didn’t ask Harry to appear in the roast.”
Alexander says that his friend was devastated by his fall from power. Even though Morgan won several honors for his continuing work in Dallas with the FBI, he had sunk into depression and alcohol abuse. In September of 1976, Alexander was informed that Morgan had taken his own life by carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage.
Alexander says that he hopes to win back Morgan’s reputation in the bureau, an apology, and perhaps the back pay lost from a demotion that his friend did nothing to deserve.
“In my opinion, his suicide and his demotion were related,” Alexander said. “After he was done with the FBI his family said he became despondent.”
Since writing the play and articles about Morgan’s tragic story, Alexander says that he has been contacted by six retired FBI agents, some of whom agree with his version of the story, and others who say Morgan deserved what he got.
Alexander says that he wrote out Morgan’s story in 2000 originally as a screenplay with the plan to produce it as a made-for-TV movie. Those plans never came to fruition, and Alexander says instead he decided to see if a play format would work for his story, “Scribes and Pharisees: The Media Evil Days.”
“In my title, scribes are the reporters, and the Pharisees are the editors and lawyers,” Alexander said. “A lot of media people at that time were working against their own colleagues.”
Alexander’s play also revolves around the bitter power struggle within the press club surrounding female members. At the time, women in the club were excluded from voting in club elections or from using the facilities such as the barroom and swimming pool.
Alexander says he is just beginning to shop his play among nearby theaters. He said he hopes to produce it somewhere along the Coastside or San Francisco because it is a homegrown story. The play’s climax, in fact, takes place on Devil’s Slide.
“I asked people involved with Coastside Repertory if they would be interested,” Alexander said. “But they say they want only well-known plays that have been successes.”
Alexander says he plans to promote his play more in the coming months.
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