Margaret Truman

Amid talk that Caroline Kennedy might be named as a U.S. senator, newly disclosed documents offer a glimpse into the life of another First Daughter with New York ties: Margaret Truman Daniel.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and his top aides became irate in 1952 when Swedish officials publicly – and incorrectly – chastised FBI agents for aggressively protecting then-President Truman’s daughter during a visit to the Scandinavian nation, the documents show.

Swedish newspapers called the Secret Service agents accompanying Margaret Truman “gorillas” and “three tough guys with their left armpits bulging with artillery” who roughly treated journalists and ordinary citizens, according to a Time magazine account.

Even though the agents belonged to the Secret Service, Swedish government officials attributed the actions to the FBI – gaining Hoover’s notice.

Hoover Kept Tabs

Documents show that behind closed doors, top FBI officials closely monitored the accounts, and asked U.S. officials and the Associated Press to clarify FBI agents were not involved.

Hoover was pleased with the agency’s response. In a handwritten note, the long-time FBI director — sometimes criticized for being overly publicity conscious — commented, “Well handled. We should be alert to promptly nail such misstatements.”

The memos are part of a 15-page FBI dossier obtained under the Freedom of Information Act request, which calls on the agency to release certain documents to the public once the person has died. Margaret Truman Daniel, a singer and actress who later became a best-selling mystery writer, died January 29, 2008, at 83.

She gave up her performing career a few years after her father left the presidency, deciding not to run for reelection in 1952. In April 1956, she married Clifton Daniel, who became a top editor at the New York Times. She staked out a life as a society figure in New York, and later Washington, while becoming a best-selling writer.

She authored biographies of her parents, a look into first ladies, and White House pets. The former First Daughter is perhaps best remembered for a series of murder mysteries set in the nation’s Capitol.

Psychic Babble

Not all the documents in her FBI file were released. The agency withheld one page, citing concerns about medical-related privacy, and redacted portions of other documents.

Among other documents in the file is a 1951 letter postmarked from Germany, and written in German, in which a self-professed psychic offered Margaret Truman a warning.

“In the afternoon of May 26 I saw Miss Truman in a great danger; that a disaster was threatening her,” a translation of the letter read. The would-be psychic claimed his abilities let him know about “the attempt on Hitler’s life several weeks before it happened,” as well as the attempt on President Truman by Puerto Rican nationalists in 1950. The FBI withheld the letter writer’s name.

There was no assassination attempt on Margaret Truman.