Your Friendly Tax Collector

Internal Revenue Commissioner Sheldon Cohen recently seemed downright sheepish when he publicly admitted that some of his Service's agents used wiretaps and even more sophisticated instruments of snoopery to get evidence against tax dodgers, both real and imagined. "Neither I nor my closest assistants knew until quite recently of departures from the Service's prescribed policies," he told Missouri Democrat Edward V. Long, chairman of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating federal encroachments on citizens' privacy. Cohen promised to right any injustices, then said of his agents: "While we must temper their zeal with controlled judgment, we cannot categorically deprive them of tools and training with legitimate, exemplary uses."

Watching the Sunbather. Last week, as the Long subcommittee continued its hearings, it became clear that since 1961, when Attorney General Robert Kennedy launched his great federal anti-crime drive, some IRS men had operated with untempered zeal--and had certainly not lacked tools for poking into peoples' private affairs.

Take, for example, former Boston Agent John W. Harris, who served for 16 years with the IRS before he became one of some 100 agents indicted for bribery over the past two years. Harris told the subcommittee that in 1963 his unit suspected a Milton, Mass., tavern owner named Bernard McGarry of tax evasion, and that for six weeks IRS men watched McGarry's house with "sniperscopes"--a World War II vintage infra-red telescope that allows an observer to see 175 yds. in the dark, and "snooperscopes," a smaller version with a range of 30 yds. Harris said that IRS men were certain McGarry had a vault in the basement. They finally decided to open it, with or without permission. If they found a large amount of cash in the vault, that might help prove that McGarry was making more money than he claimed. Harris recalled the afternoon they got their chance: "The sun was still out. Mrs. McGarry was sunning herself. We observed her through binoculars." Eventually, Mrs. McGarry left the premises, and the IRS men went into the house. They found no money. Eventually, the Government brought charges against McGarry, but once the IRS shenanigans were revealed, the case was dropped.

Coast Guard Masque. Long's hearings revealed many other IRS cloak-and-daggerisms. In Pittsburgh, agents had even electronically bugged the official IRS seal in the Chamber of Commerce building, and put behind the plaque a two-way mirror and a camera. In Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Montgomery and Kansas City, IRS conference rooms were equipped with two-way mirrors or hidden microphones so that agents could watch or hear taxpayers and their lawyers while they conversed. In Boston, an IRS agent disguised himself as a Coast Guard petty officer (although it is a federal offense to impersonate a military man) so he could more easily bug an IRS conference room at a Coast Guard base.

As for wiretapping, Pittsburgh IRS officials had an old Bell Telephone Co. truck in 1961, outfitted their agents to look like phone company employees. Cresson O. Davis, a Pittsburgh IRS intelligence expert, admitted to Long's subcommittee that they had used the truck to install wiretaps. Davis said a network was hooked up to the den of his home for four months so he could tune in on three different tapped lines. Pennsylvania law prohibits wiretaps of any kind, but Davis told Long's subcommittee that he had not been aware of that until recently. Anyway, said Davis, "they conducted schools in Washington where our agents were taught to wiretap, to plant microphones, and so forth, so it was my understanding that it was proper practice."

Sure enough, the IRS admitted that it did have a school--the Technical Investigative Aids School--where selected agents could brush up on the latest in electronic devices. One graduate, Boston IRS Agent James J. O'Neill ('61), testified that he had learned to rig telephone wiretaps, to bug automobiles, to operate a wide variety of electronic devices. Included were the Miniphone, a 6-in.-long transmitter that can be concealed within an agent's clothing, and the "Penn register," an 18-in.-long device that is installed on a telephone pole near a suspect's home, then is hooked up to a mobile unit at a later time to coincide with the suspect's phone calls, so that it can record both the phone numbers dialed and the conversations.

O'Neill allowed as how he was also familiar with "burglar tools," and told the subcommittee that in Boston he had once picked a house lock so he could sneak in to install a wiretap. Long gasped, "You mean they also taught you lock picking in Washington?" O'Neill said "Yes."

Of the 26 federal agencies involved in the all-out anti-crime drive begun by Attorney General Kennedy, the IRS has produced the "best" record, accounting for 60% of all convictions to date. Considering its methods, small wonder.

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