A heavily-redacted portion of Ayn Rand’s Federal Bureau of Investigation file documents an investigation into a mysterious screenplay sent to the author. An inventor reached out to Rand, hoping for help in getting the Hollywood treatment for his life’s story. What was in that life story caused her to call the FBI.

Ayn Rand had a competitor for status as the most dizzyingly incoherent and morally questionable writer of the 20th century: her stalker. FBI files released to Emma Best show that the unnamed man sent Rand dozens of mommy issue-riddled letters over the course of the late ’60s, some making threats on her life.

Earlier this week, we looked at how the FBI spent two years hot on the heels of a bloodthirsty cult, only to find out it didn’t exist. Inspired by this magnificent waste of time and money, we decided to round up some of the more dubious cases the Bureau’s top men have cracked over the years.

When novelist Ayn Rand found out that Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover was an adherent of her Objectivist philosophy, she was thrilled, and immediately tried to set up a personal meeting. There was just one problem: Hoover had no idea what she was talking about.