50 Fun Facts About J. Edgar Hoover

Under how many US presidents did Hoover serve as head of the Bureau and then the FBI?

From the president who appointed him in 1924 to the one in office when he died in 1972.

For how many years in total did Hoover lead the Bureau of Investigation and the FBI?

He led the Bureau from 1924 and its successor agency until his death in 1972.

Which president first appointed Hoover director of the Bureau of Investigation in 1924?

The appointment came partly in response to the previous director's involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal.

In which year was the Bureau of Investigation renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

It was much more than a name change; the bureau was extensively restructured.

In which city was Hoover born on New Year's Day 1895 and did he live his entire life?

He was born on Capitol Hill, on the site of a church that now has a stained-glass window dedicated to him.

How old was Hoover when his birth certificate was finally filed?

Two of his siblings had certificates, but his was not filed until 1938.

How did the young Hoover overcome a boyhood stutter?

He ended up speaking so quickly that stenographers struggled to keep up.

Where did the 18-year-old Hoover take his first job, as a messenger?

He said the job trained him in the value of collating material, the foundation of the Bureau's files.

Where did Hoover earn his law degrees in 1916 and 1917?

He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order there and became fascinated by the anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock.

Which 1919-20 crackdown on radicals during the First Red Scare did the 24-year-old Hoover help carry out?

He headed the new Radical Division and considered a future Supreme Court justice the most dangerous man in America.

What did Hoover do to female agents when he took over the Bureau in 1924?

The bureau then had about 650 employees, including 441 special agents.

Which gangster was ambushed and killed by Bureau agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater in July 1934?

Agent Melvin Purvis got the tip; Hoover later allegedly forced him out of the Bureau out of jealousy.

What was the Wisconsin lodge where a botched 1934 raid on Dillinger's gang killed an agent and a bystander?

All the gangsters escaped, and Hoover realised his job was on the line.

Which Canadian forensic scientist's lab did Hoover visit in 1929 and 1932 while planning the FBI's?

The Bureau's laboratory was established in 1932.

What did Hoover persistently deny existed during the 1930s?

He feared such cases would take too many man-hours and expose underpaid agents to corruption by rich mobsters.

Which Attorney General forced Hoover into a reluctant campaign against the Mafia?

With the president's brother running Justice, Hoover could not go over his head to the White House as he had before.

Which two mobsters allegedly held compromising photos of Hoover with his deputy?

The theory is offered as one explanation for his refusal to pursue the Mafia.

How were the two teams of Nazi saboteurs landed by U-boat in Florida and on Long Island caught?

He was charged and convicted anyway, in what became known as the Quirin affair.

Which president gave Hoover 'qualified permission' to wiretap suspected subversives?

Attorney General Robert Jackson found the whole business distasteful and left the decisions to Hoover.

How many Americans did Hoover propose detaining in 1950 under a plan to suspend habeas corpus?

He submitted the plan to Truman at the outbreak of the Korean War; Truman did not act on it.

What was the name of the covert 'dirty tricks' programme Hoover formalised in 1956?

Its methods included burglaries, illegal wiretaps, forged documents and planted rumours; Charlie Chaplin was among its targets.

How was Hoover's covert dirty-tricks programme exposed in 1971?

The eight burglars mailed the documents to newspapers; the Church Committee later declared the programme unconstitutional.

Which senator chaired the 1975 committee that declared Hoover's dirty-tricks programme illegal?

The Idaho Democrat's committee studied government intelligence operations broadly.

To which civil rights leader did Hoover's FBI send an anonymous 1964 letter he read as urging suicide?

It arrived shortly before he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize; Hoover had told JFK he was arranging a sex party during the March on Washington.

Which Mound Bayou civil rights leader did Hoover attack in a 1956 open letter over the Emmett Till case?

Howard had accused the Bureau of failing to investigate racially motivated murders properly; Hoover called his statements irresponsible.

Which president waived the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 1964 so Hoover could stay on indefinitely?

It came days before Hoover testified to the Warren Commission, whose creation he had helped suggest.

Which president was recorded in 1971 saying he would not fire Hoover because he feared his reprisals?

Truman and Kennedy had also considered dismissing him and judged the political cost too high.

How did Hoover die on 2 May 1972?

He was still director at 77; Nixon named L. Patrick Gray acting director the next day.

What honour did Hoover's body receive after his death, reportedly a first for a civil servant?

Chief Justice Warren Burger eulogised him there, and Nixon spoke at the funeral.

Where is Hoover buried, next to his parents and a sister who died in infancy?

His long-time deputy, who inherited his estate, is buried a few yards away.

Who was the FBI associate director whom Hoover called his 'alter ego' and left his estate to?

The two dined, clubbed and holidayed together, and Tolson accepted the flag from Hoover's casket.

What limit on Bureau directors was introduced because of Hoover's abuses of power?

The term can be extended only by the Senate.

Which president said 'we want no Gestapo or secret police' and accused Hoover's FBI of 'plain blackmail'?

He added that Hoover 'would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him'.

What popular nickname for FBI agents did Hoover's publicity turn into a brand?

At its height it was said to be harder to become an agent than to get into an Ivy League college.

On which 1959 Warner Brothers film did Hoover serve as consultant and make a cameo filmed from behind?

He also advised the long-running 1965 television spin-off The F.B.I.

Which two dog breeds was Hoover particularly knowledgeable about breeding?

He buried seven dogs, including a Cairn named Spee De Bozo, at a pet cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Which British king made Hoover an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1950?

Eisenhower gave him the National Security Medal five years later.

What happened in 1994 to the Illinois grade school named after the FBI director in 1974?

The change came after information about his illegal activities was released.

Who played Hoover in Clint Eastwood's 2011 biopic J. Edgar?

Crudup played him in Public Enemies and Hoskins in Oliver Stone's Nixon.

What was the title of Hoover's 1958 book on communism in America?

Persons in Hiding was his 1938 book; his books were reportedly ghostwritten by FBI employees.

In 1920 Hoover was initiated into which fraternal organisation, later reaching its 33rd degree?

He was made a 33rd Degree Inspector General Honorary of the Scottish Rite in 1955.

What did the teenage Hoover argue against on his high school debate team?

The school paper praised his 'cool, relentless logic'.

How much did Hoover's first Justice Department clerkship pay in 1917?

The job was exempt from the draft, and he soon headed the Alien Enemy Bureau jailing suspect foreigners without trial.

Which future Supreme Court justice did Hoover call 'the most dangerous man in the United States'?

Marcus Garvey and Emma Goldman were among the Radical Division's other targets.

What was the name of the national blacklist that Hoover established and expanded?

Also called the Index List, it fed his collection of compromising files on the powerful.

Which two 1930s technological modernisations is Hoover credited with bringing to policing?

By 1939 the Identification Division held the largest fingerprint collection ever compiled.

Which 1979 congressional report criticised Hoover's FBI for not properly investigating a possible Kennedy conspiracy?

Hoover had written that his concern was 'to convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin'.

Hoover's father Dickerson was chief of the printing division of which federal agency?

Hoover's mother Annie, to whom he was closest, came from a Swiss family; her great-uncle was a Swiss honorary consul.

In 1917 the 22-year-old Hoover became head of which wartime Justice Department unit?

Authorised by Woodrow Wilson, it could jail allegedly disloyal foreigners without trial; of 1,400 suspect Germans it arrested 98.

What did Hoover call the FBI drive he launched against top Mafia bosses across the country?

It followed the 1957 Apalachin meeting, which made the Mafia's existence impossible to keep denying.