Title: J. Edgar Hoover
Karen - March 1, 2008 04:40 PM (GMT)
The pbs.com archives are a wealth of information about Hoover and the gangsters! As is the FBI on their own former leader. See a couple of articles below, so help get a better idea of who Hoover was.
Hoover1934 Crimelibrary.com
FBIpic (Purvis on Left, Hoover on right)
Read more here.
J. Edgar Hoover 1895-1972
In 1935 sensation surrounded the opening of Warner Bros.' newest film, G-Men. In the film, James Cagney did not play the "tough guy gangster" for which he was known, but rather a federal lawman. A press release for the event read, "Hollywood's Most Famous "Bad Man" Joins The "G-Men" And Halts The March Of Crime." The gangster-hero of early Depression films -- the self-made individual who defies an apathetic government and inept police agents in his quest for success -- had previously enjoyed immense popularity. Cagney's new role as a "government man" was a sign of the overall shift taking place in the public's mind about law enforcement as well as the efficiency of the entire democratic system itself. With its many bold initiatives to eradicate the Depression, the New Deal attempted to redeem itself to the people. In the same way, the newly-named and reorganized Federal Bureau of Investigation, with its "government men" clamping down on crime, set out to redeem American law enforcement. J. Edgar Hoover, the man responsible for the "G-man" hero in Hollywood and in real life, was to rule over the F.B.I. until his death in 1972. In that time, he created an elite organization dedicated to remaking America according to his own ideals.
Hoover lived in Washington, D.C. all his life. In 1895 he was born in a white, Protestant, middle-class neighborhood known as Seward Square, three blocks behind the Capitol. His family had been civil servants for generations, including his father, Dickerson Naylor Hoover, who worked for the Coast Guard. Yet Hoover was closest to his mother, Annie, who was the disciplinarian and moral guide of the family. He lived with her until she died in 1938 in the house at Seward Square. Hoover was forty-three years old at the time.
Hoover was extremely competitive during his young years. To overcome a stuttering problem, he developed a habit of speaking quickly, acquiring the nickname "Speed," and joined the debate team in high school. Desiring to enter into politics, he took night school courses while working at the Library of Congress. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Hoover obtained a draft-exempt position with the Department of Justice.
While working as a clerk, Hoover's efficiency and conservatism drew the attention of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. In the midst of general hysteria concerning Communist infiltration of America after the war, anarchists bombed Palmer's home in 1919. The Attorney General used the attack to initiate a widespread clamp-down on radicalism. Hoover, with his strait-laced morality, was the natural choice to head the campaign. Later known as the "Palmer raids," the widespread attack on radicals were largely Hoover's operation. He organized raids to be carried out in three different cities on January 2, 1920. Not possessing search or arrest warrants, the enforcers paid no regard to who was and who was not guilty of insurrectionary activity. In the end, mass arrests were made and 556 people were deported.
While the methods of the Palmer raids were to eventually come into question (causing Palmer to resign in disgrace), Hoover's reputation remained clean. He emerged with the distinction of a man who had been loyal to his country. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge appointed him head of the Bureau of Investigation, a position Hoover had long coveted. It was in this position that he finally received the power he craved. Hoover inherited the Bureau just after it had been severely tainted with scandal from previous administrations. Upon acceptance, Hoover demanded it be completely divorced from politics and responsible only to the Attorney General. Hoover's conditions were met and he set out on a rejuvenation campaign which would build the Bureau into one of the most powerful government agencies in twentieth century America.
Hoover was functioning against a backdrop of rampant crime rings perpetrated by bootlegging gangsters. Hollywood and popular culture romanticized these figures into lawless heroes. To make his agency respectable, Hoover assembled an elite group of men, white and college-educated, who would represent the Bureau as agents. He demanded conformity and a strict moral code from all of them, demanding them to abstain from alcohol and relations with women. He instituted a training school and effectively made his organization into the symbolic guardian of the country's laws, citizens, and its morals.
He chose to systematically eliminate the glorified gangsters who were, by their mere existence, defaming the government and its laws. The campaign gained momentum in 1933 after a mob gunned down several of Hoover's agents who were escorting bank robber Frank Nash. Popularized as the "Kansas City Massacre," the event led Hoover on a rampage against notorious criminals such as John Dillinger, "Ma" Barker, and "Machine Gun" Kelly. Hoover was also eager to have all kidnapping cases under his jurisdiction. The infamous kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932 produced enough outrage to grant Hoover his wish with the enactment of the Lindbergh Law that same year.
The image of the all-powerful "G-man" who hunted for criminals and sleuthed with the latest technology appealed to the nation's need for a strong, active government during the Depression. Hollywood, radio, the press, and comic strips played on this new image of the government agent. With the F.B.I.'s domestic surveillance records, which often contained damaging information on people of public importance, Hoover could easily wield control over the public image of his agency.
In 1936 Roosevelt instructed Hoover to keep him informed on fascist and Communist activities in the U.S. Hoover took the opportunity to increase his domestic surveillance efforts and to maintain a "Custodial Detention List" which included names of "questionable" individuals for possible accusations during wartime. This list included Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he personally despised for her liberal leanings, and later, Martin Luther King, Jr. and John and Robert F. Kennedy.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the secret authority which had appealed to the generation of the Depression -- a people who had been desperate for direction and security -- was no longer appreciated. Hoover's F.B.I. seemed a threat to personal freedom. The effectiveness of the F.B.I. was publicly questioned after the murder of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Yet President Lyndon B. Johnson, a personal friend to Hoover, postponed the F.B.I. director's retirement indefinitely. Hoover remained with the Bureau until his death at the age of seventy-seven in 1972.
By 1972 Hoover was approaching his fifty-fifth anniversary with the F.B.I.. He had never married or developed intimate relationships with women. He would not tolerate dissent and made public enemies out of anyone who dared to resist him. And while he often used means to secure information which curtailed personal freedoms, Hoover believed to the end that he had operated as the arbiter of the country's morals; to be, as his "G-men" were to the nation, the "guardian of the civic good."
And from: http://www.fbi.gov/libref/directors/hoover.htm
JOHN EDGAR HOOVER
Director
May 10, 1924 - May 2, 1972
John Edgar Hoover was born in Washington, D.C., on January 1, 1895. Upon completing high school, he began working at the Library of Congress and attending night classes at George Washington University Law School. In 1916, he was awarded his LL.B. and the next year his LL.M.
Mr. Hoover entered on duty with the Department of Justice on July 26, 1917, and rose quickly in government service. He led the Department's General Intelligence Division (GID) and, in November 1918, he was named Assistant to the Attorney General. When the GID was moved in the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) in 1921, he was named as Assistant Director of the BOI. On May 10, 1924, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone appointed the twenty-nine year old Hoover as Acting Director of the BOI and by the end of the year Mr. Hoover was named Director.
As Director, Mr. Hoover put into effect a number of institutional changes to correct criticisms made of his predecessor's administration. Director Hoover fired a number of Agents whom he considered to be political appointees and/or unqualified to be Special Agents. He ordered background checks, interviews, and physical testing for New Agent applicants and he revived the earlier Bureau policies of requiring legal or accounting training.
Under Director Hoover, the Bureau grew in responsibility and importance, becoming an integral part of the national government and an icon in American popular culture. In the 1930s, the FBI attacked the violent crime by gangsters and implemented programs to professionalize United States law enforcement through training and forensic assistance. For example, the Bureau opened its Technical Laboratory to provide forensic analysis on Bureau investigations as well as services to other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.
During the 1940s and 1950s, the Bureau garnered headlines for its staunch efforts against Nazi and Communist espionage. During World War II, the Bureau took the lead in domestic counterintelligence, counterespionage, and countersabotage investigations. President Roosevelt also tasked the Bureau with running a foreign intelligence service in the Western Hemisphere. This operation was called the Special Intelligence Service or SIS. In the early years of the Cold War, the Bureau took on the added responsibility of investigating the backgrounds of government employees to ensure that foreign agents did not infiltrate the government. More traditional criminal investigations including car thefts, bank robberies, and kidnappings also remained important.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Bureau took on investigations in the field of civil rights and organized crime. The threat of political violence occupied many of the Bureau's resources as did the threat of foreign espionage. In spite of Mr. Hoover's age and length of service, Presidents of both parties made the decision to keep him at the helm of the Bureau. When Mr. Hoover died in his sleep on May 2, 1972, he had led the FBI for 48 years.
Hoover1934 Crimelibrary.com
FBIpic (Purvis on Left, Hoover on right)
Read more here.
J. Edgar Hoover 1895-1972
In 1935 sensation surrounded the opening of Warner Bros.' newest film, G-Men. In the film, James Cagney did not play the "tough guy gangster" for which he was known, but rather a federal lawman. A press release for the event read, "Hollywood's Most Famous "Bad Man" Joins The "G-Men" And Halts The March Of Crime." The gangster-hero of early Depression films -- the self-made individual who defies an apathetic government and inept police agents in his quest for success -- had previously enjoyed immense popularity. Cagney's new role as a "government man" was a sign of the overall shift taking place in the public's mind about law enforcement as well as the efficiency of the entire democratic system itself. With its many bold initiatives to eradicate the Depression, the New Deal attempted to redeem itself to the people. In the same way, the newly-named and reorganized Federal Bureau of Investigation, with its "government men" clamping down on crime, set out to redeem American law enforcement. J. Edgar Hoover, the man responsible for the "G-man" hero in Hollywood and in real life, was to rule over the F.B.I. until his death in 1972. In that time, he created an elite organization dedicated to remaking America according to his own ideals.
Hoover lived in Washington, D.C. all his life. In 1895 he was born in a white, Protestant, middle-class neighborhood known as Seward Square, three blocks behind the Capitol. His family had been civil servants for generations, including his father, Dickerson Naylor Hoover, who worked for the Coast Guard. Yet Hoover was closest to his mother, Annie, who was the disciplinarian and moral guide of the family. He lived with her until she died in 1938 in the house at Seward Square. Hoover was forty-three years old at the time.
Hoover was extremely competitive during his young years. To overcome a stuttering problem, he developed a habit of speaking quickly, acquiring the nickname "Speed," and joined the debate team in high school. Desiring to enter into politics, he took night school courses while working at the Library of Congress. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Hoover obtained a draft-exempt position with the Department of Justice.
While working as a clerk, Hoover's efficiency and conservatism drew the attention of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. In the midst of general hysteria concerning Communist infiltration of America after the war, anarchists bombed Palmer's home in 1919. The Attorney General used the attack to initiate a widespread clamp-down on radicalism. Hoover, with his strait-laced morality, was the natural choice to head the campaign. Later known as the "Palmer raids," the widespread attack on radicals were largely Hoover's operation. He organized raids to be carried out in three different cities on January 2, 1920. Not possessing search or arrest warrants, the enforcers paid no regard to who was and who was not guilty of insurrectionary activity. In the end, mass arrests were made and 556 people were deported.
While the methods of the Palmer raids were to eventually come into question (causing Palmer to resign in disgrace), Hoover's reputation remained clean. He emerged with the distinction of a man who had been loyal to his country. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge appointed him head of the Bureau of Investigation, a position Hoover had long coveted. It was in this position that he finally received the power he craved. Hoover inherited the Bureau just after it had been severely tainted with scandal from previous administrations. Upon acceptance, Hoover demanded it be completely divorced from politics and responsible only to the Attorney General. Hoover's conditions were met and he set out on a rejuvenation campaign which would build the Bureau into one of the most powerful government agencies in twentieth century America.
Hoover was functioning against a backdrop of rampant crime rings perpetrated by bootlegging gangsters. Hollywood and popular culture romanticized these figures into lawless heroes. To make his agency respectable, Hoover assembled an elite group of men, white and college-educated, who would represent the Bureau as agents. He demanded conformity and a strict moral code from all of them, demanding them to abstain from alcohol and relations with women. He instituted a training school and effectively made his organization into the symbolic guardian of the country's laws, citizens, and its morals.
He chose to systematically eliminate the glorified gangsters who were, by their mere existence, defaming the government and its laws. The campaign gained momentum in 1933 after a mob gunned down several of Hoover's agents who were escorting bank robber Frank Nash. Popularized as the "Kansas City Massacre," the event led Hoover on a rampage against notorious criminals such as John Dillinger, "Ma" Barker, and "Machine Gun" Kelly. Hoover was also eager to have all kidnapping cases under his jurisdiction. The infamous kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932 produced enough outrage to grant Hoover his wish with the enactment of the Lindbergh Law that same year.
The image of the all-powerful "G-man" who hunted for criminals and sleuthed with the latest technology appealed to the nation's need for a strong, active government during the Depression. Hollywood, radio, the press, and comic strips played on this new image of the government agent. With the F.B.I.'s domestic surveillance records, which often contained damaging information on people of public importance, Hoover could easily wield control over the public image of his agency.
In 1936 Roosevelt instructed Hoover to keep him informed on fascist and Communist activities in the U.S. Hoover took the opportunity to increase his domestic surveillance efforts and to maintain a "Custodial Detention List" which included names of "questionable" individuals for possible accusations during wartime. This list included Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he personally despised for her liberal leanings, and later, Martin Luther King, Jr. and John and Robert F. Kennedy.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the secret authority which had appealed to the generation of the Depression -- a people who had been desperate for direction and security -- was no longer appreciated. Hoover's F.B.I. seemed a threat to personal freedom. The effectiveness of the F.B.I. was publicly questioned after the murder of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Yet President Lyndon B. Johnson, a personal friend to Hoover, postponed the F.B.I. director's retirement indefinitely. Hoover remained with the Bureau until his death at the age of seventy-seven in 1972.
By 1972 Hoover was approaching his fifty-fifth anniversary with the F.B.I.. He had never married or developed intimate relationships with women. He would not tolerate dissent and made public enemies out of anyone who dared to resist him. And while he often used means to secure information which curtailed personal freedoms, Hoover believed to the end that he had operated as the arbiter of the country's morals; to be, as his "G-men" were to the nation, the "guardian of the civic good."
And from: http://www.fbi.gov/libref/directors/hoover.htm
JOHN EDGAR HOOVER
Director
May 10, 1924 - May 2, 1972
John Edgar Hoover was born in Washington, D.C., on January 1, 1895. Upon completing high school, he began working at the Library of Congress and attending night classes at George Washington University Law School. In 1916, he was awarded his LL.B. and the next year his LL.M.
Mr. Hoover entered on duty with the Department of Justice on July 26, 1917, and rose quickly in government service. He led the Department's General Intelligence Division (GID) and, in November 1918, he was named Assistant to the Attorney General. When the GID was moved in the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) in 1921, he was named as Assistant Director of the BOI. On May 10, 1924, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone appointed the twenty-nine year old Hoover as Acting Director of the BOI and by the end of the year Mr. Hoover was named Director.
As Director, Mr. Hoover put into effect a number of institutional changes to correct criticisms made of his predecessor's administration. Director Hoover fired a number of Agents whom he considered to be political appointees and/or unqualified to be Special Agents. He ordered background checks, interviews, and physical testing for New Agent applicants and he revived the earlier Bureau policies of requiring legal or accounting training.
Under Director Hoover, the Bureau grew in responsibility and importance, becoming an integral part of the national government and an icon in American popular culture. In the 1930s, the FBI attacked the violent crime by gangsters and implemented programs to professionalize United States law enforcement through training and forensic assistance. For example, the Bureau opened its Technical Laboratory to provide forensic analysis on Bureau investigations as well as services to other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.
During the 1940s and 1950s, the Bureau garnered headlines for its staunch efforts against Nazi and Communist espionage. During World War II, the Bureau took the lead in domestic counterintelligence, counterespionage, and countersabotage investigations. President Roosevelt also tasked the Bureau with running a foreign intelligence service in the Western Hemisphere. This operation was called the Special Intelligence Service or SIS. In the early years of the Cold War, the Bureau took on the added responsibility of investigating the backgrounds of government employees to ensure that foreign agents did not infiltrate the government. More traditional criminal investigations including car thefts, bank robberies, and kidnappings also remained important.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Bureau took on investigations in the field of civil rights and organized crime. The threat of political violence occupied many of the Bureau's resources as did the threat of foreign espionage. In spite of Mr. Hoover's age and length of service, Presidents of both parties made the decision to keep him at the helm of the Bureau. When Mr. Hoover died in his sleep on May 2, 1972, he had led the FBI for 48 years.
nurseanne8 - March 1, 2008 05:30 PM (GMT)
Interesting information in some ways I admire his tenacity and dedication to the FBI and in other ways his tactics remind me of Hitler. Anne r
herestoyou - March 1, 2008 06:58 PM (GMT)
Thanks Karen--to be honest, I've never been a fan of Hoover as I only knew of his, at Anne put it, "Hitler" type tactics. However, reading this other background you supplied has given me more insight into his motivations. I do give him credit for getting the FBI rolling, but as the years progressed, his tactics were deplorable. I think he fits the old "power corrupts" mold.
-Donna
-Donna