It all began back in 1995. A few retired FBI agents with computers began communicating with each other about the FBI and things of interest to FBI agents. A Majordomo listserv was set up which allowed agents to send email to a list of subscribers. It began slowly and grew from 50 to 100, to 500, and then to 1000 subscribers, all of whom had served in the FBI for over one year. We now have almost 3640 subscribers in our online database. With 225 regular subscribers and over 3400 subscribers to the Xgboys Digest, we average around 20 posts per day. The digest format allows for one long email per day and is growing in popularity.

What is discussed on the xgboys net? There is a mixture of many topics, all related to the FBI and to retirement matters. Some of the more popular threads:

• Our Directors, Hoover, Kelley, Webster, Sessions, Freeh and our new director Robert Mueller
• FBI benefits, SAMBA and rising health care premiums, and FBI spies, Miller, Pitts and Hanssen
• Timely death notices and funeral arrangements for all former agents and their widows and memorials and eulogies for those agents who have died in the line of duty
• Chicago in the 50's and great New York eating places
• Conservatives vs. liberals
• Information concerning the FBIAA and their activities on behalf of our agents, the Society of FBI Alumni, and changes to the FBI Internet Home Page

Recent books about the FBI are often discussed, including:

• Hoover's FBI: The Inside Story by Hoover's Trusted Lieutenant, by Deke Deloach
• The Osage Indian Murders, by Larry Hogan
• The Real J. Edgar Hoover for the Record, by Ray Wannal
• The FBI-KGB War, by Bob Lamphere
• My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI, by Candice DeLong

The net helps in our lobbying efforts, such as securing credentials for retired agents and Social Security matters. Xgboys was very instrumental in denying Leonard Peltier parole and clemency, and continues to work in denying him parole in the future.

Some of the more amusing threads included stories of lost credentials, lost guns and shooting oneself in the foot, the legend of Charlie Donlan and his great characters that inspired us all during training days, and Jelly Bryce, the fastest draw in law enforcement.

BICS investigators and PI’s exchange recent information that is helpful to all, i.e. Waco, Ruby Ridge, the Birmingham Bombings, the Wen Ho Lee Case, the Chandra Levy case, the Oklahoma bombing and McVeigh's execution, Verona, Carnivor, and Whitey Bulger. Job offers and opportunities for employment are often discussed as well as the merits of background investigations with MSM, Omnisec, GBSG, etc. All major cases currently under investigation are thoroughly discussed on xgboys and open source information is exchanged.

FBI News is covered daily in publications such as the Washington Post and many of the nation’s other newspapers, as well as the Media in general. If the FBI is mentioned, someone picks up on it and reports it to the group.

Retirement matters, planning and benefits, Fedweek, training class updates, reunions, anniversaries, and 50th wedding anniversaries, major dates and events in FBI history, FBI offices, and Legates abroad are also featured.

Many have e-mailed concerning the need for better PR on the part of the Bureau and the Society to combat misinformation and anti-Bureau prejudice. Letters to the Editor and to Congressman and Senators are often posted for others to emulate.

Many articles that eventually make the Grapevine have their origin on the xgboys net. Xgboys has been very instrumental in locating retired agents who are not in the Society or on the Xgboys net. A request for information concerning an agent sent to 1000 retired agents usually ends up with positive results.

Xgboys is a varied group of people, some with very specific interests, such as Organized Crime, Espionage, White Collar Crime, Bank Robbery, Kidnapping, Crimes against Children, Polygraph, Firearms, Profiling, Lab, DNA, Fingerprints, Polygraph of new agents and agents working security, computer news, and virus problems, health issues such as prostate cancer, colon cancer, and heart attacks, retired agents dying of ALS, agents and spouses with serious health problems, and Bureau critics such as 60 minutes, Senators Grassley and Leahy, and Ron Kessler. The good old days are often discussed, such as pay in the 50's and per diem in the 60's,

Xgboys is intertwined with links to the Internet, such as:

All in all, xgboys is a fascinating medium for old memories and new information. For many of us it has replaced the daily newspaper and turned off our TV sets. It has become a specialized library of FBI memorabilia and has given us a comfortable place in the FBI family. It fills in the gap between our monthly issues of the Grapevine and allows us to communicate with agents we thought we would never hear from or about again. Obscenity is prohibited and rancor is inappropriate and strongly discouraged. Email is only as private as a telephone and some computers are monitored by spouses and children, so discretion is important.

If you don't own a computer, get one, no matter your age. The computer today is equivalent to the telephone fifty years ago. Do not let the world pass you by. If you do own one, give Xgboys a try, and subscribe to the Digest with its table of contents. It's only one email a day, and a click of your delete button removes it from your hard disk. If you do not like what you see you can unsubscribe with a simple email or an interactive form.

(7-27-01) Tom McGorray

...XGBOYS Home Page