28. Anslinger Harassed Billie Holiday Until Her Literal Final Breath
In real life, as in The United States vs Billie Holiday, Harry J. Anslinger sent a black undercover agent, Jimmy Fletcher, to go after the singer. Fletcher is depicted as becoming romantically involved with Holiday. However, it is unclear whether that romance was fact or silver screen fiction. Whatever the relationship, Fletcher got close enough to Holiday to bust her on a drug possession charge in 1947 that got her a year in prison. It also got her a felony record that limited the venues in which she could perform. In 1949, agent Fletcher once again busted Holiday on a possession charge after she was set up.
The movie shows a repentant Fletcher deliberately tanking the case on the witness stand. There is no record to show that Fletcher did, in fact, throw the case, but either way, Holiday was acquitted. The movie then depicts Fletcher trailing Holiday for years, and having a long affair with her. The historic record is silent as to whether such an affair occurred, but Fletcher was assigned to Holiday for years. It is also historic fact that, as depicted in the movie, Anslinger kept after Holiday until her final breath. In 1959, as she lay dying of cirrhosis, her hospital room was raided. She was kept under police guard until she died.
