Law Enforcement: The Hoover-Donovan Feud

"Wild Bill" Donovan.

In autumn 1924 J. Edgar Hoover, acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was displeased to discover that an old rival would be his immediate supervisor. He was William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, a protégé of U.S. Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone. In Washington, D.C., Donovan was a "real comer." An army colonel in World War I, he had received decorations for bravery on the battlefield, including the Congressional Medal of Honor. Following the war he had begun a successful legal practice in New York City and was suggested as a potential director of the Bureau of Investigation (the original title of the FBI). Donovan was appointed assistant attorney general with the specific task of overseeing the Criminal Justice Division, which then had jurisdiction over the FBI. Hoover would therefore be obliged to report directly to Donovan.

A Power Struggle in the Justice Department.

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