Strange FBI Cases: Fact or Fiction?

FBI agents have some of the craziest work stories–not that they’re at liberty to disclose them. Here are five stories so unbelievable it’s hard to imagine they happened. But they did … mostly.

Three of the cases outlined below actually occurred; two others are fiction, torn from the pages of under-the-radar thrillers. Can you sort the fact from the fiction? Good luck, sleuth!

strange fbi cases — Photo Credit: Caffe Vita / Flickr (CC)

A large group of FBI agents spent a long day working on a case of hospital insurance fraud at a San Diego psychiatric hospital. Up to their ears in paperwork, the agents decided to order in food from the local pizza place. Only problem? Try convincing the pizza guy that you’re really, truly a bunch of FBI agents, who need pizza and soda delivered to the back entrance of a psychiatric hospital.

When Colonel Sanders–yes, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken–turned 80, he threw a huge birthday bash and invited the Director of the FBI. Instead of sending a typical RSVP, the Director did a background check on the Colonel, declined to attend, and promptly put the invitation into the fast-food magnate’s FBI file.

Florida has a reputation for crooks looking to make a quick dollar off of vulnerable retirees. So when a female FBI agent headed to the panhandle state, she expected to go undercover and expose one of the biggest and longest running Ponzi schemes in Palm Beach. What she didn’t expect was to fall in love with her target–and become the subject of the investigation.

A Klu Klux Klan member designed a weapon of mass destruction that he described as “Hiroshima on a light switch” and planned on targeting the President. To raise funds to build the weapon, he applied to a fellow KKK member who immediately informed the FBI. Although it seemed like a hairbrained scheme, the FBI sent two agents undercover in the KKK to investigate the bomb builder.

Remains were discovered in a state park, and an a forensic anthropologist determines the murder weapon was a 10,000-year-old spear thrown with super-human force. Local media immediately latched onto a Big Foot theory, but the FBI agent brought into the case decided to investigate the history of the park itself, which lead to a more logical solution.

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True

While it certainly sounds like a far-fetched anecdote pulled from one's Facebook feed, according to Snopes.com, this one is the real deal. After being hung up on by the pizza delivery guy, the group of 60 hungry FBI agents had to march down to the restaurant and pick up the food and drinks themselves. All in a day’s work.

True

To put it mildly, J. Edgar Hoover probably didn’t have many friends during his 48-year term as Director of the FBI. Colonel Sanders is only one of the tycoons he chose not to associate with, and you can see the birthday invitation Hoover declined on page five of Sanders’s FBI file.

False

They say don’t mix business with pleasure, and that holds especially true for FBI agents. But falling for the person you’re investigating is surprisingly common, and that’s exactly what happens to FBI agent Rita Sullivan in Sullivan's Sting, by Lawrence Sanders.

True

Glendon Scott Crawford was the KKK member who planned to assassinate President Obama with his radiation device. Luckily, the two undercover FBI agents shut down his scheme, and afterward, they admitted the weapon would have actually caused a great deal of destruction if detonated.

False

The most likely solution isn’t always the answer, which is why forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver teams up with FBI agent John Lau teams and park ranger Julie Tendler to solve this head-scratching case in The Dark Place, by Aaron Elkins.

Featured photo: Bei Zhai / Unsplash; Additional photos: Caffe Vita / Flickr (CC); Julia Rubinic / Flickr (CC); Michael W Murphy / Flickr (CC); Gareth Milner / Flickr (CC); Charles LeBlanc / Flickr (CC)