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Nov 22, 2022 · November 22, 2022. Five decades after his death, J. Edgar Hoover still haunts the FBI. His nearly 48-year reign as its director, from 1924 to 1972, has come to symbolize the dangers of a...
The Hoover Legacy, 40 Years After: Part 5. J. Edgar Hoover led the FBI for nearly a half-century, from 1924 until 1972. Under Director Hoover, the Bureau grew in responsibility and...
- Overview
- FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI)
- History
- Statistics
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1924 to 1972, is remembered for transforming the “Bureau” into a professional and effective investigative police force but also for using its power against those seen as political subversives. In an article on the FBI first published in 1956 in the 14th edition of the Encyc...
Established in 1908 as the investigative arm of the U.S. department of justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a fact-finding agency which does not evaluate the results of its investigations or recommend prosecutive action. In general, it is responsible for the enforcement of all federal criminal statutes except those specifically delegated to other federal agencies. In 1958 there were approximately 140 federal matters over which it had investigative jurisdiction. The two primary areas of FBI activity are general investigations and security operations. Within the latter field, it has jurisdiction over espionage, sabotage and subversive activities on a nation-wide scale.
In addition to investigating violations of laws of the United States, the FBI is charged with collecting evidence in cases in which the United States is or may be a party in interest and with other duties imposed by law. It reports the results of its investigation to the attorney general, chief legal officer of the United States, his assistants and the various U.S. attorneys in federal districts throughout the United States for decisions as to prosecutive action. The FBI is also a service agency which assists law enforcement agencies in identification, technical and training matters.
Originally known as the Bureau of Investigation, the FBI was created by the then attorney general Charles J. Bonaparte on July 26, 1908. The internationally known name, Federal Bureau of Investigation, was adopted on July 1, 1935.
In 1924 John Edgar Hoover was appointed director of the bureau by Harlan Fiske Stone, then attorney general, and he was reappointed by each succeeding head of the department of justice. Hoover inaugurated the policies which constitute the foundation of the present organization. Political considerations were divorced from personnel appointments, and promotions were placed on a merit basis.
Less than a decade after this reorganization, the FBI was faced with enlarged responsibilities. A wave of lawlessness in the early 1930s aroused considerable public concern. Local police officers, often inadequately trained and hampered by the restrictions imposed by state boundaries, were unable to cope effectively with the modern weapons and transportation available to organized criminal gangs. To meet this situation, congress passed a number of laws which extended the jurisdiction of the FBI. In 1932 the federal kidnapping statute was enacted, making unlawful the interstate transportation of a kidnapped person. All kidnapping cases referred to the FBI the following year were solved. The federal Bank Robbery act was passed in 1934 to stem the rising tide of bank robberies. Again in 1934, special agents of the FBI were authorized by congress to carry firearms and to make arrests. With the passage of these and other crime bills, the FBI was given authority to act against the criminal gangs which previously had met little effective opposition. In 1934 alone, three vicious fugitives who had gained national notoriety were killed. John Dillinger, Charles Arthur (Pretty Boy) Floyd and Lester Gillis, alias “Baby Face” Nelson, met death while resisting arrest. In 1935 Russell Gibson and Kate and Fred Barker fell before the guns of special agents. The arrest of Alvin Karpis by Hoover in 1936 marked the end of the powerful Barker-Karpis gang, while Alfred James Brady and an accomplice were killed in a gun battle with FBI agents in 1937. Numerous other kidnappers, bank robbers and lesser criminals were sent to federal penitentiaries during this period.
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The war on crime was not halted but was overshadowed as the international developments leading to World War II placed additional responsibilities on the FBI. During this period, federal statutes relating to subversive activities were the basis for counteraction by the bureau against intelligence operations of foreign powers. Several espionage agents were arrested before the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. On Sept. 6, 1939, a presidential directive was issued providing that the FBI should take charge of investigative work in matters relating to espionage, sabotage, subversive activities and related matters. The president also called upon all enforcement officers, both federal and state, to report all information in these fields promptly to the FBI, which was charged with the responsibility of correlating this material and referring matters under the jurisdiction of any other federal agency with responsibilities in this field to the appropriate agency. The FBI’s responsibility in these matters was reiterated by presidential directives of Jan. 8, 1943, and July 24, 1950. By agreement, the armed forces handle investigations concerning their uniformed personnel. This action by the president obviated the confusion experienced in World War I when more than 20 agencies investigated security in the United States.
The effectiveness of FBI operations is indicated by the statistics reflecting its accomplishments through the years. In the five-year period which ended June 30, 1952, 34,629 fugitives had been located in cases investigated by the FBI. Fines, savings and recoveries in bureau cases totalled more than $227,400,000, and there were 44,746 convictions in cases which were presented in court during that five-year period.
The close of the 1952 fiscal year brought to 438 the number of cases investigated by the FBI under the federal kidnapping statute. Of these, 436 were solved. In the 1952 fiscal year alone there were 156 convictions in bank robbery cases investigated by the FBI. These convictions resulted in sentences totaling 1,533 years and fines and recoveries amounting to $253,369.
- J. Edgar Hoover
Jun 18, 2010 · J. Edgar Hoover was director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for 48 years, reshaping that organization from a small, relatively weak arm of the federal government’s executive branch...
Apr 30, 2024 · Hoover habitually used the FBI’s enormous surveillance and information-gathering powers to collect damaging information on politicians throughout the country, and he kept the most scurrilous data under his own personal control.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Who was J. Edgar Hoover?J. Edgar Hoover was a United States government official who served as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1924 until his dea...
- In which year did J. Edgar Hoover join the Department of Justice?J. Edgar Hoover joined the Department of Justice as a file reviewer in 1917. Two years later, he became special assistant to Attorney General A. Mi...
- What were J. Edgar Hoover's contributions to the FBI?After J. Edgar Hoover was named director of the Bureau of Investigation in May 1924, he reorganized and rebuilt the organization. He started recrui...
- How long did J. Edgar Hoover serve as chief of the FBI?J. Edgar Hoover retained his post as FBI’s chief until his death at age 77, by which time he had been the chief for 48 years and had served 8 presi...
- Which president gave J. Edgar Hoover the responsibility to investigate foreign and domestic espionag...In the late 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave Hoover the task to investigate both foreign espionage in the United States and the activiti...
Hoover expanded the FBI into a larger crime-fighting agency and instituted a number of modernizations to policing technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. Hoover also established and expanded a national blacklist, referred to as the FBI Index or Index List.
In fact, the detectives in J. Edgar Hoover’s Bureau of Investigation were so little known that they were often confused with Secret Service or Prohibition Bureau agents.
