Born January 1, 1895
Washington, D.C.
Died May 2, 1972
Washington, D.C.

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

J. Edgar Hoover joined the Bureau of Investigation (later called the Federal Bureau of Investigation) in 1917 and became its director in 1924. He would remain in that position for the next forty-eight years until his death in 1972, serving under both Democratic and Republican presidents. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Hoover transformed the organization from a scandal-ridden agency into an elite corps of highly regimented special agents. The American public was hungry for a return to law and order. Its confidence in law enforcement was badly shaken by the lawlessness of the Prohibition Era (1920–33), a period when liquor was illegal and organized crime grew wealthy by supplying Americans with various forms of alcohol. Then, just as Prohibition...