An internal review of Hoover`s time with the FBI using artwork

An internal review of Hoover’s time with the FBI using artwork created by his skilled Exhibits Section.
Alan Belmont had only been at headquarters for about four years when he wrote this letter to the Director, but he had been with the Bureau during its formative years and would have had personal memories of many of the events depicted. Hoover was just 29 years old when he was appointed Director of the Bureau of Investigation by the new Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone.
The nation’s two largest fingerprint collections—one from the Bureau of Identification housed at Leavenworth Prison and the other maintained by the International Association of Chiefs of Police—are merged under the Bureau. Hoover begins reforming the Bureau—firing corrupt agents, establishing higher qualifications for applicants, and developing a standardized training course for all agents. Martin J. Durkin was an interstate car thief with a tendency to shoot first and not ask questions. He killed FBI Agent Ed Shanahan in Chicago when Shanahan flashed his badge and asked him to move his car out of the way. Shanahan was the first FBI Agent killed in the line of duty and his death prompted a coast‐to‐coast manhunt for Durkin that finally ended with his capture on the Texas Special. The Bureau cut its teeth on this complicated homicide investigation into the violent or suspicious deaths of more than 20 people on the Osage Indian Reservation in Oklahoma. Huge oil reserves found on the reservation had made the Osage wealthy, but also drew scores of evildoers to their lands.
Hoover described Clyde Tolson as his alter ego—they commuted to and from work together, ate lunch together, and vacationed together. Tolson was appointed Associated Director of the FBI in 1942 and retained that position until his retirement a few days after Hoover’s death in 1972.
Though faced with the worst depression in American history, President Herbert Hoover (1929‐1933) was hell bent on putting an end to the crime wave sweeping the country. He supported enhancing the powers and budgets of federal law enforcement in order to fight powerful, well‐connected criminal outfits like Al Capone’s.
Newspaper headlines touted a crime wave in America, but there were no national statistics to back that up until 1930. The FBI became the clearinghouse for uniform crime data gathered by departments across the country. The Criminological Laboratory (as it was initially called) started small—literally with a microscope, a sink, and one full‐time employee. That employee, Charles Appel, was a meticulous investigator and his diligent work garnered greater resources for the lab.
The capture of bank robber and kidnapper George “Machine Gun” Kelly was the Bureau’s first high profile arrest and they publicized it for all it was worth. The famous “Don’t Shoot, G‐Men!” phrase comes from a book by crime writer Courtney Ryley Cooper, but was never uttered by Kelly.
The high profile take down of bank robbers John Dillinger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and “Baby Face” Nelson brought the national spotlight on the FBI and Hoover’s publicity machine kept it there. Hoover was a master at turning that publicity into larger budgets and expanded authority for the Bureau.
The FBI National Academy offered continuing education for law enforcement officers across the country and throughout the world. It was a product of the Wickersham Commission, a national commission on crime and law enforcement, which recommended centralized training and standardization.
While the FBI’s stature was growing by leaps and bounds, Hoover himself was sometimes derided for his lack of field experience. When Alvin Karpis of the Karpis‐
Barker gang, was tracked to New Orleans, Director Hoover made a point of being there to arrest Karpis personally.