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Hoover served under late FDR — (1) and Harry Truman.
J. Edgar Hoover
The start of the legend
By SAM FOGG
WASHINGTON (UPI) - J. Edgar
Hoover joined the government in 1917 as a
S9OO-a-year law clerk. At his death more
than half a century later, he personified a
sense of power in Washington without
parallel in American history.
A few people, including the eight
presidents he served, had more authority
over shorter periods of time but none held
power longer and more surely than did
Hoover.
His career was a case study of almost
classic dimensions of how single-minded
dedication and talent can achieve power,
exercise it and—if you believe his critics—
misuse it.
It was a career unlikely to ever be
matched as a result of a four-year-old law
under which his successor, to be chosen by
President Nixon, must be confirmed by the
Senate and will serve at the pleasure of the
chief executive.
In the Beginning
In the beginning, in 1924, he moved in as
chief of a corruption-tainted government
bureau of investigation and cleaned house,
stamping his own brand of Puritan virtue
on the agents who worked for him.
In the 30’s, with the help of an intensive
public relations effort, he arrested or
eliminated a galaxy of criminals and
thereby gave the FBI legendary status.
In World War II and the Cold War that
followed, Hoover became a spy-hunter,
uncovering Nazi saboteurs and later
Communist atomic espionage rings.
When he died Tuesday, he was a center
of mounting controversy, assailed by the
New Left and under fire from civil rights
spokesmen and militant blacks.
During his 48 years as director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and its
predecessor agency, Hoover dealt with
eight presidents from Coolidge to Nixon
and 16 attorneys general. Some of the chief
executives and a number of the attorneys
general were privately critical of the FBI
chief but none dared fire him.
Reaches Retirement Age
After he reached the mandatory
retirement age of 70, both Lyndon B.
Johnson and President Nixon kept him on
anyway. Congress all but rubber stamped
his budget requests which rose from $2.4
million in 1921 to $235 million in 1971. In
1939, he commanded 727 agents. At his
death, there were 8,600.
Hoover made his agency one of the best
in the world, utilizing the most modern of
techniques, including top-notch
laboratories, a police training school and a
fingerprint file that is unmatched.
He ran the bureau in martinet style.
Agents whose personal lives were less than
conventional or whose attitudes were less
than loyal were either ousted or punished
by being sent to outrof-the-way Butte,
Mont.
On May 10, 1924, when he was named to
command the agency, Hoover needed all
the disciplinary tools he could get.
Father Was Printer
The son of a government printer, he had
joined the Justice Department less than
two years before, after finishing law
school. It was just before scandal engulfed
the Harding administration, including
Attorney General Harry Daugherty, a
free-booting member of the Ohio Gang.
When Harlan Fiske Stone replaced
Daugherty, one of the first moves was to
fire the head of the government’s Bureau
of Investigation as the FBI was then
known. The agency had fallen into
disrepute for rifling senators’ files during
the hearings on Teapot Dome and because
of corruption and highhandedness during
the Palmer raids to deport aliens.
Hoover accepted only on condition that
he have full authority, that the bureau be
divorced from politics and that
appointments and promotions be strictly
on merit
Top Policeman at 29
At age 29, J. Edgar Hoover became the
federal government’s top policeman.
It was the era of the Tin Lizzie and “keep
cool with Coolidge.” It was also the era of
Prohibition and bootlegging that spawned
the beginnings of organized crime.
Hoover, reared by a strict mother of
Swiss descent, imposed draconian
standards. His men had to be neatly
dressed and discreet in personal habits at
all times.
Without hesitation, he resisted political
pressures, including a visit from a senator
trying to block Hoover’s transfer of an
agent to an undesirable post.
Even a critic such as author Fred Cook
wrote of his efforts: “Hoover, by his tough
and demanding standards, gave the men
of the bureau pride in themselves and the
agency to which they belonged. They were
an elite outfit.” .
Hoover survived his first power struggle
in 1933 when there was speculation newly
elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt
might abolish the agency in favor of a new
setup. Instead, the FBI was formally
created with Hoover in charge.
His luck was running. The depression
and Prohibition had created a crime wave
and made headline figures of such
desperadoes as Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby
Face Nelson, Ma Barker, John Dillinger,
Alvin Karpis and Machine Gun Kelly.
Pretty Boy was the first to lose to the
FBI. Wanted for his part in the “Kansas
City Massacre,” Floyd was slain in an
Ohio cornfield on Oct. 21, 1934, when he
tried to shoot it out.
Kelly, who got his nickname by tattooing
his initials on rural barns with his machine
gun, was taken in Memphis, Tenn., for
kidnaping a wealthy Oklahoma oilman and
coined a new term in the American
language by pleading “Don’t shoot, Gmen;
don’t shoot!”
Symbol of Enforcement
But it was John Dillinger who made the
FBI the symbol of law enforcement in
July, 1934. Dillinger, an Indiana farm boy,
had achieved folklore status by his bank
robberies and escapes from jail and police
ambush.
The outlaw, hiding out in Chicago, took
up with Anna Sage, a bawdy house madam
who tipped off a police captain in East
Chicago. Fifteen FBI agents, along with
East Chicago police, set a trap at the
Biograph Theater.
As Dillinger emerged with Anna “The
Woman in Red” and another woman, he
apparently sensed the trap and fled down
an alley. Moments later he lay dead and
Hoover’s agency became a household
word.
In January, 1935, Ma Barker and her
son, Fred, were tracked to a cottage near
Ocala, Fla., and shot to death in a gun
battle.
Still at large was another member of
their gang, Alvin “Old Creepy” Karpis
who had vowed to kill Hoover.
Personal Target
Hoover, taunted by a senator for never
having personally “made a pinch,”
singled out Karpis as his personal target.
On April 30, 1936, the tip came that
public enemy No. 1 was holed up in a New
Orleans apartment. Hoover caught a
plane, assembled his agents and set up a
raid. As they neared the premises Karpis
and a friend emerged, heading for a car.
At that point, a boy pedalled between the
parties on a tricycle, preventing any FBI
gunfire. Instead, Hoover strode forward to
seize Karpis as his first prisoner.
It later came out that the FBI chief
snapped to his agents: “Put the cuffs on
him” and none of the agents had any.
Instead, one of the G-men bound Karpis’
wrists with his necktie. J. Edgar Hoover
didn’t find it funny then or later.
(Tomorrow: War, cold war and
subversion)
Hoover’s successor
sought more than year
By ISABELLE HALL
WASHINGTON (UPI)-Find
ing a successor to J. Edgar
Hoover is both a rare
opportunity and a touchy
election year decision for
President Nixon.
But die administration may
be closer to making its choice
than is generally realized. It is
believed to have had at least
one or two men under
consideration for more than a
year to replace Hoover.
As eulogies continued to rise
from all segments of American
society, the body of the 77-year
old FBI director was to be
taken to Capitol Hill at 11 a.m.
EDT where it will lie in state in
the Rotunda—the first civil
servant accorded an honor
usually reserved for presidents
Thru
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The Rotunda was to remain
open to the public through the
night and until 9:30 a.m. EDT
Thursday, when the body will
be moved to National Pres
byterian Church for an 11 a.m.
service, followed by private
burial at Congressional Cemete
ry.
Appointment Planned
Nixon planned to appoint an
acting director for the FBI
later today. But speculation
mounted on who he would pick
to permanently head one of the
world’s most respected and
powerful crime fighting agen
cies.
The chance to name an FBI
director is both a rare and an
important task. In an election
year, however, it was certain
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Page 13
that the Democratic-controlled
Senate would accord Nixon’s
choice closest scrutiny.
The President could, of
course, delay a decision until
after the November election,
but that was considered unlike
ly since his failure to act would
in itself become an election
issue—as big or bigger than
any issue created by whomever
he might name to the post.
Hoover, who died in his sleep
of a heart attack Tuesday, had
suffered from high blood
pressure. In recent months
reporters working at the
Justice Department noticed
that once-robust face had
become more sunken, although
his gait and manner did not
change.
The accolades from President
Nixon on down were inter
spersed with a few comments
which reflected in death the
controversy which surrounded
Hoover in life.
— Griffin Daily News Wednesday, May 3,1972
Mrs. Coretta Scott King,
widow of the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr., said:
“We are left with a
deplorable and dangerous cir
cumstance. The files of the FBI
gathered under Mr. Hoover’s
supervision are replete with lies
and are reported to contain
sordid material on some of the
highest people in government,
including presidents of the
United States. Such explosive
material has to be dealt with in
a responsible way.”
King had been subject to an
attack by Hoover, who at one
point said the late Sen. Robert
F. Kennedy, when he was
attorney general, ordered
King’s telephone tapped.
The agency technically was
left in the hands of Hoover’s
long-time associate and compa
nion, Clyde A. Tolson, who is 71
and not in the best health. It
appeared that Hoover’s person
al choice might have been W.
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Mark Felt, 58, who was
elevated to No. 3 man in
September.
Gallagher Claims Blackmail
Rep. Cornelius E. Gallagher,
D-N.J., who was recently
indicted for perjury and tax
evasion and who claimed the
FBI tried to blackmail him,
said a civilian review board
should be created to “cleanse
and purify” the FBl’s records.
“As is widely known, what
goes into the files of the FBI as
garbage comes out as gospel,
and it is undeniable that those
files have been used for
political and publicity purpo
ses,” he said.
There were also comments
from antiwar activist Dr.
Benjamin Spock who said he
was "relieved” at Hoover’s
passing, and from Gus Hall,
general secretary of the Ameri
can Communist party who
added “no decent American
will have cause for sorrow.”