J. Edgar Hoover Politician

• Gender: Male
• Citizenship: United States
• Born: Jan 1, 1895
• Died: May 2, 1972

John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation 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; his critics largely claim that he used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files on political leaders, and to collect evidence using controversial methods. Hoover consequently amassed a great deal of power and was in a position to intimidate and threaten sitting Presidents. However, according to biographer Kenneth Ackerman, the notion that Hoover’s secret files kept presidents from firing him is a myth.