. >> that's who john felt it was: tom pickard. and john really never knew. he was out to get john for a long time, and john never really knew why. >> narrator: at the time, tom pickard was interim director of the fbi. now retired, pickard would not agree to an interview, but in a letter to frontline, he wrote, "i did not leak it, and there are no facts that even remotely suggest that i did." earlier, esquire magazine, pickard was further quoted on the matter: "the briefcase was a big deal. it was not so much that he lost it; he shouldn't have had those materials with him in the first place. losing the briefcase just added to it. let's just say it was not john o'neill's finest hour." at the end of august 2001, agent o'neill ended his 25-year career with the fbi. he was 49 years old. o'neill needed to make some money. just being john o'neill had gotten very expensive. jimmy kallstrom and others made some calls. there was one job in particular he was really interested in. it paid $350,000 a year. but it also had a special kind of sig