As Ed Koch heaped praise on his gal pal Bess Myerson, an ex-husband called the former beauty queen a “bitch,” a “liar, a thief and adultress,” newly released FBI files show.
“Her first and last interest in everything she does is what can she get out of it,” Arnold Grant told federal agents who were investigating Myerson in 1976 for an appointment to a presidential commission.
Myerson, who died last year at age 90, fell from the glory of being the first and only Jewish Miss America, and a respected city commissioner, to the disgrace of a bribery scandal involving a judge.
FBI files released after Myerson’s death, and obtained by The Post under a Freedom of Information Act request, show her both as victim in the 1950s and a suspect in the 1980s.
In 1958, G-Men were called in to probe bizarre fan mail received by Myerson, then a model on the “Big Payoff” TV game show. An Army vet from Oklahoma sent her a letter with checks for $15,000 and $5,000 and instructions to cash them and “bring the money to spot marked X.”
The FBI called the case extortion but closed it without arrest, noting there was no real threat.
The FBI probed every corner of Myerson’s life in 1976 when she was nominated by President Gerald Ford to a commission on workplace issues. Agents interviewed more than 30 people and combed court and arrest records for any skeletons in Myerson’s closet.
They unearthed a 1970 arrest report from London where she had been busted for shoplifting. In the 1980s, she would be arrested again for lifting nail polish and other goods from a Pennsylvania department store.
The FBI file also cites an informant’s report from 1945, the year Myerson was crowned Miss America, calling her a communist.
“Miss Myerson was a member of the Nathan Hale branch of the Young Communist League until it was liquidated, and was a communist,” the informant said.
The FBI never found evidence of subversive activity, the report says.
Myerson’s friends all praised her to the FBI, except for Grant, a lawyer she divorced in 1971.
He called her “hard as nails” and said: “Unlike most celebrities, [she] asks and receives remuneration when speaking at charity drives.”
Myerson was named to the panel.
The next year, she was constantly at Koch’s side as he ran for mayor. She was credited with helping get him elected and he named her cultural-affairs commissioner.
But Myerson later resigned the post amidst a scandal dubbed the “Bess Mess.” She was having an affair with married sewer contractor Carl “Andy” Capasso. Myerson hired the daughter of Judge Hortense Gabel, who then lowered Capasso’s support payments in his divorce.
Myerson was indicted, but was acquitted.