On May 10, 1924, John Edgar Hoover was appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and remained in this position until his death in 1972.
The American Federal Police, created in 1908, is the largest police agency in the world. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pursues extremists, mobsters, spies and corrupt politicians and businessmen.
However, many completely innocent people also fall into its crosshairs. Today, this huge department has 35,000 employees.
The agency would not have its current reputation without J. Edgar Hoover as director, experts believe.
He is described by many as a bulldog clinging to a bone. For half a century, J. Edgar Hoover was the undisputed head of the FBI, feared even in the White House.
In the early 1920s, without having anything to do with the FBI, Hoover began collecting information about all kinds of anti-government activity. He decided to use his several years of experience as a librarian in Congress to create a card index, which included not only communists and socialists, but also participants in every anti-government rally, journalists, writers, and union activists.
Throughout his life, Edgar Hoover was a sworn bachelor, and somewhere in 1940, rumors began to circulate about him that he was homosexual. The basis of these rumors was his long-standing friendship with FBI Assistant Director Clyde Tolson.