Hoover, John Edgar

Hoover, John Edgar (b. 1 Jan. 1895, d. 2 May 1972). Director of the FBI 1924–72 Born in Washington, DC, he studied law and received his LLM Degree from George Washington University in 1917. He entered the Federal Department of Justice, and in 1921 became assistant director of the Bureau of Investigation (FBI from 1935). As its director from 1924 he improved the Bureau's reputation by vigorous selection and training of personnel. Under his direction, the FBI pioneered techniques in forensic science. During the 1930s his widely publicized arrests of certain criminals, while not ending syndicate crime, earned the FBI a reputation for integrity, but his increasingly authoritarian style and his almost complete autonomy became more and more controversial. Most damaging of all was his antipathy to Black activists and to the civil rights movement, evident in his harassment of Martin Luther King. He also passed on incriminating material obtained illegally to McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He died in office after a career marked by the abuse of power rooted in files on thousands of politicians and prominent individuals with which he destroyed careers and refined the business of blackmail. These files disappeared on his death, thought to have been destroyed by his secretary, Helen Gandy, or his partner, Clyde Tolson.