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J. Edgar Hoover
[1895-1972]
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Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1924 until
his death in 1972.
"What are the dangers to a democracy of a national police organization,
like the FBI, which operates secretly and is unresponsive to public
criticism?" - The essay question that pissed off Hoover. It was
optional question number 7 on UC's 1959 English aptitude test
for high school applicants. See: Reagan,
Hoover and the UC Red Scare - a SF Chronicle Special
Report
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Biography
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John Edgar Hoover was born on New Year's Day in 1895 in Washington,
D.C. He was the youngest of the three surviving children born
to Dickerson Naylor Hoover and Annie Marie Scheitlin Hoover.
J. Edgar's only brother was Dickerson, Jr., fifteen years
his senior and his sister Lillian who was thirteen years older.
Another sister, Sadie Marguerite was born in 1890 and died
of diphtheria in 1893.The
Young Man ...
Is this the truth? Apparently just about everything that
is known about Hoover's early life comes from a 500 word 1937
profile in the New Yorker magazine written by one Jack
Alexander. See: The
Mysterious Origins of J. Edgar Hoover by Edward Spannaus.
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| Palmer
Raids |
In 1919 Woodrow Wilson appointed A. Mitchell Palmer as his
attorney general. Palmer recruited John
Edgar Hoover as his special assistant and together they
used the Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918)
to launch a campaign against radicals and left-wing organizations.
[more]
J. Edgar Hoover turned the deportation of Emma Goldman and
Alexander Berkman into a personal crusade. In this letter
he brands them as "beyond doubt, two of the most dangerous
anarchists in this country." As special assistant to Attorney
General A. Mitchell Palmer, Hoover amassed evidence against
Goldman and Berkman and presented the case against them at
their deportation hearing. Hoover was also present at 5:00
a.m. on the morning of December 21, 1919, when the Buford
set sail for Russia carrying Goldman, Berkman, and the other
deportees. Hoover and the FBI monitored Goldman's activities
closely for the remainder of her life in exile from the United
States. Emma
Goldman Papers @ sunsite.berkeley.edu
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May 10, 1924
Hoover selected to head the Bureau of Investigation.
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When Hoover took over,
the Bureau of Investigation had approximately 650 employees,
including 441 Special Agents. He immediately fired those Agents
he considered unqualified and proceeded to professionalize the
organization. For example, Hoover abolished the seniority rule
of promotion and introduced uniform performance appraisals.
Regular inspections of Headquarters and field office operations
were scheduled. New Agents had to be between 25 and 35 years
old. Then, in January 1928, Hoover established a formal training
course for new Agents. He also returned to the earlier preference
for Special Agents with law or accounting experience.
The new Director was also keenly aware that the Bureau of
Investigation could not fight crime without public support.
In remarks prepared for the Attorney General in 1925, he wrote,
"The Agents of the Bureau of Investigation have been impressed
with the fact that the real problem of law enforcement is
in trying to obtain the cooperation and sympathy of the public
and that they cannot hope to get such cooperation until they
themselves merit the respect of the public." --THE
"LAWLESS" YEARS at fbi.gov
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. - pbs.org
One-time number three man in the FBI, William C. Sullivan,
sated in his book, The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover’s
FBI (published just after his accidental death): “. . . the
Mafia is powerful, so powerful that entire police forces or
even a mayor’s office can be under Mafia control. That’s why
Hoover was afraid to let us tackle it. he was afraid that
we’d show up poorly. Why take the risk, he reasoned, until
we were forced to by public exposure of our shortcomings.”
- anzwers.org
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| on
Communism |
"I would have no fears if more Americans possessed
the zeal, the fervor, the persistence and the industry to learn
about this menace of Red fascism. I do fear for the liberal
and progressive who has been hoodwinked and duped into joining
hands with the communists..." Testimony
of J. Edgar Hoover before HUAC - March 26, 1947 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr. |
J. Edgar Hoover's obsession with King is also well-documented
in FBI files. These files show examples such as the FBI calling
Marquette University in 1964 to tell them not to award an
honorary degree to King. At Springfield College (Mass.) a
month later, the FBI told the college that King's SCLC was
"Communist affiliated". J.
Edgar & Martin
Hoover's FBI mailed tapes of King's sexual affairs to his
wife and tried to blackmail him politically; in an anonymous
letter, encouraged him to commit suicide; and, among other
disinformation successes, convinced Marquette University officials
in 1964 to back out of giving King an honorary degree. [source]
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Nixon and the Plumbers |
As the late FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover told the journalist Andrew Tully in the days
before June, 1972, "By God, he's [Nixon's] got some former
CIA men working for him that I'd kick out of my office. Someday,
that bunch will serve him up a fine mess." [fn 20] Chapter
-XII- Chairman George in Watergate, George Bush: The
Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
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| on
motorcycles 1960 ... |
The popularity of the motorcycle
-- both in connection with its use as a sport and as a means
of rapid transportation -- makes it imperative that the individual
owner exercise every precaution against the possibility of theft.
--Your
Motorcycle And You by John Edgar Hoover, AMERICAN MOTORCYCLING
- November, 1960 |
Hoover
dies -
May 2, 1972 |
James Crawford came to work a little early that Tuesday morning.
The Boss had ordered some rosebushes and Crawford promised
him that he would be there at 8:30 to help him plant them.
... " J.
Edgar Hoover, by Marilyn Bardsley, May 2, 1972
A university professor of forensic science [James Starrs],
suspecting foul play in J. Edgar Hoover's death, has been
granted access to the District of Columbia medical examiner's
records to reinvestigate how the former FBI director died.
J.
Edgar Hoover death records getting another look by Kalpana
Srinivasan The Associated Press, Seattle Times January
18, 1998
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Books
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- Hoover's FBI : The Inside Story by Hoover's Trusted
Lieutenant, by Cartha 'Deke' Deloach (1997) @amazon.com
- Official and Confidential: The Secret LIfe of J. Edgar
Hoover by Anthony Summers (1993) @amazon.com
- The Real J.Edgar Hoover for the Record, by Ray
Wannall (2000) @amazon.com
- The Union Station Massacre : The Original Sin of J.
Edgar Hoover's FBI by Robert Unger @amazon.com
- The F.B.I. Story, by Don Whitehead
- Honk If You Love J. Edgar Hoover - by By Allyn
Baskerville and Bill Gillespie
- Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America
and How to Fight It, by J. Edgar Hoover, 1958 [excerpt
]
Hoover
Book Titles at amazon.com
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