J. Edgar Hoover

John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from May 10, 1924, until his death in 1972, having been appointed to that position as acting director by President Coolidge to reform and clean up the bureau, which was considered a haven of corruption. During his tenure, Hoover attained extraordinary power and unusual discretionary authority, while also feuding with many adversaries. Some of his contemporary detractors and now some historians suspect or accused him of having links to the Mafia, of gathering information for the purposes of blackmail and of being a closet homosexual while persecuting others with similar preferences.

Department of Justice and FBI career

Rather than enlisting for military service during World War I, he found work with the Justice Department. He soon proved himself capable and was promoted to head the Enemy Aliens Registration Section. In 1919, he became head of the new General Intelligence Division of the Justice Department (see the Palmer Raids). From there, in 1921, he joined the Bureau of Investigation as deputy head, and in 1924 the Attorney General made him the acting director. He became the permanent director of the Bureau in 1925.

Related Topics:
World War I - Justice Department - 1919 - Palmer Raids - 1921 - 1924 - 1925

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When Hoover took over the Bureau of Investigation, it had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents. In great part due to several highly-publicized captures or shootings of outlaws and bankrobbers like John Dillinger, Alvin Karpis and Machine Gun Kelly the Bureau's powers were broadened and it was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. In 1939, the FBI became pre-eminent in the field of domestic intelligence. Hoover made changes such as expanding and combining fingerprint files in the Identification Division to compile the largest collection of fingerprints ever made. Hoover also helped to greatly expand the FBI's recruitment and create the FBI Laboratory, a division established in 1932 to examine evidence found by the FBI.

Related Topics:
John Dillinger - Alvin Karpis - Machine Gun Kelly - 1935 - 1939 - Intelligence - Fingerprint - 1932

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Hoover was noted for his concern about—some would say obsession with—subversion. He attacked and spied upon scores of suspected subversives and radicals throughout his career as FBI director. Hoover tended to exaggerate the dangers of subversives, and many believe he overstepped his bounds in his pursuit of eliminating this perceived threat. President Truman wrote in his memoirs: "The country had reason to be proud of and have confidence in our security agencies. They had kept us almost totally free of sabotage and espionage during the World War II". An example was his capture of the dangerous Nazi saboteurs in the Quirin affair.

Related Topics:
Subversion - Radical - President Truman - Espionage - Quirin

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Hoover amassed significant power by collecting files containing large amounts of compromising and potentially embarrassing information on scores of powerful people, especially politicians, which were kept separate from official FBI records. On his orders, the files were destroyed immediately after Hoover's death. In the 1950s, evidence of Hoover's apparently cozy relations with the Mafia became grist for the media and his many detractors, after famed muckraker Jack Anderson exposed the immense scope of the Mafia's organized crime network, a threat Hoover had long downplayed. Hoover's retaliation and continual harassment of Anderson lasted into the 1970s.

Related Topics:
Politician - 1950s - Evidence - Media - Muckraker - Jack Anderson - Organized crime - 1970s

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Presidents Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson each considered firing Hoover, but concluded that the political cost of doing so would be too great. Hoover maintained strong support in Congress until his death, whereupon operational command of the Bureau passed to Associate Director Mark Felt. Soon thereafter Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray, a Justice Department official with no FBI experience, as Acting Director with Felt remaining as Associate Director. As a historical note, Felt was revealed in 2005 to have been the legendary "Deep Throat" during the Watergate scandal. Some of the people who Deep Throat's revelations helped put in prison—such as Nixon's chief counsel Chuck Colson and G. Gordon Liddy—contend that this was, at least in part, due to Felt's being passed over by Nixon as head of the FBI after Hoover's death in 1972.

Related Topics:
Harry Truman - John F. Kennedy - Lyndon Johnson - Congress - Mark Felt - L. Patrick Gray - Deep Throat - Watergate - Chuck Colson - G. Gordon Liddy

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The FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. is named after Hoover. Due to the controversial nature of Hoover's legacy, there have been periodic proposals to rename it.

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