J. Edgar Hoover
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"John Edgar Hoover" was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Federal Bureau of Investigation/FBI) of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972 at age 77. Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a larger crime-fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modernizations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories.

Late in life and after his death Hoover became a controversial figure, as evidence of his secretive, somewhat questionable, actions began to surface. His critics have accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI

and claim that he used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files on political leaders,

Cite journal

/ title = "Hoover, J. Edgar", The Columbia Encyclopedia

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Banks are an almost irresistible attraction for that element of our society which seeks unearned money.

We are a fact-gathering organization only. We don't clear anybody. We don't condemn anybody.

I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce.

Just the minute the FBI begins making recommendations on what should be done with its information, it becomes a Gestapo.

No amount of law enforcement can solve a problem that goes back to the family.

Above all, I would teach him to tell the truth. Truth-telling, I have found, is the key to responsible citizenship. The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40 years of law enforcement have had one thing in common: every single one was a liar.