◆ SpookStack

vos Justice, a clerkship. His rise was . rapid. . OPEL. Within two years Attorney .~ | General Mitchell Palmer picked him to prosecute a large nuinber of aliens seized in roundups of suspected subversives, He per- sonally conducted Emma Gold- man, the anarchist, to the ship when she and others were de- ported in 1918. : A reporter who watched him described the future FBI head . . as “that slender bundle of nigh- : charged electric wire.” Origin of ‘G-Man’ While working as a sneciai . B attorney in the *tice Depart- ment, Hoover begun signir.g his name J. Edgar instead of John .- E. That was to avoid confusion with a fellow emplore. In 1921 Hoover became assist- ant director of the PBI and on May 10, 1924, at the age of 29, was promoted to director. The bureau then had 657 employes. A quarter of a century later. there were more than 14,000. It was an underworld charac- ter, “Machine Gun” Kelly, one of the kidnapers of Charles Urschel, wealthy oi] man, who gave the name “G-men” to FBI agents. When an FBI agent cornered Kelly in his’ Memphis hideout, the gangstcr pleaded: “Don't shoot. G-man.” “Don't shoot, what?” asked the agent. “G-man, Government man,” Kelly explained. The name stuck. Hoover Directed Bie Cases To Hoover. a major violation of a Federal law wus a personal challenge. With high-strung en- ergy, he himself directed most big cases. After the Lindbergh Law was enacted, he had the telephone company assign 6 number just for persons reporting xidnap- ings. The number couid be called collect from anywhere in the country. Hoover usually: an- swered the phon. himscli. He had one next to his bed. There was much praise for Hoover's accomplishments, bt+ the record showed some criti- eis, too. Senator Kenneth D. McKellar (D—Tenn.) was 2 severe critic at one time. He called the FBI director a swivel chair detective who leffit to his men to make arrests and risk their lives, He was particulariy caustic at a Congressional committee hear- ing in 1936. It was brought out that Hoover had never made an arrest personally. At the time an airplane was warming up to take Hoover to New Orleans, where Alvin Kar- pis, kidnaper and desperado, Nad been locnted. Kerpis had been writing needung letters to the FBI chief, threatening to go to his office and shoot him. _ -— Personally Grabbed Karpis Hoover and several agents posted themselves in front of the house where they had learned Karpis was staying to Sheet 3, J. EDGAR HOOVER, Sketch 4ur> ” wait for him. When the gangster _ finally came out, a group of children were playing on the street. oe oo Hoover took no chances of a gun batile that might harm tne voungsters. He leaped from the car alone, ran to Karpis and grabbed him. The criminal was taken so completely by surprise that he didn't have time to draw his pistol. Nob. dy ever questiored Hoo ver’s courage after that... - The Karpis arrest had its amusing sidc. Hoover turned to his agents us they closed in and asked for handcuffs. No one had thought to bring any. They had to use their neckties to tie the criminal’s hands, v2. oi Hoover personally Jed many : other raids. One of these was in New York in 1936 when Harry Re $4 Brunetie, a bank robber .and kidnaper, was captured acter a frenzied 45-minute gun battle in a New York apartment. New York Police Commission- er Lewis J. Valentine accused the government men of adopt- - ing a “melodramatic” procedure — in making what he considered a routine arrest. Friction Turned to Cooperation For a time there were con- fiicts between the FBI men and polLce departments, but eventu- allv thes; were smoothed out und complete harmony existed. In 193%, Louts (Lepke) Buc- halter, one-time overlord of a criminal syndicate called “Mur- der, Inc.,” surrendered in New Yo:k to Hoover. Walter Win- batt eomic hn e onli: ne Kalter, eGlumnist and Uta talor, acted absaediator. coe Winchell, tela in an anony- mous telephone cal! that the racketeer would give himseli up to “someone he can trust,” gave a promise of safe delivery dur- went alone to meet the gangster and arrest him. Lepke subse- quently was electrocuted. Senator McKellar became an admirer of the man he once cha:tised. In 1343 he appeared unexpectedly at graduation ex- ercises of one of the FBI Na- tiona] Academy classes and made a little specch. Hoover, he said, was ‘one of the strongest and ablest men in the country.” He added that the head G-man was ‘doing a work in this war and has done work before this war which has been exceeded by none.” - . Congress thovzht so Lighly of the FBI's work that it seldom cut @ senny from the appro- priations Hoover sought. Hoover the Man For recreation, Hoover went tc night clubs and sports events, ‘ particularly championship prize fights and horse racing. He fikea _*e play tenpis, He toon long. , brisk walks and setting-un ex 'ercises to keep in tr: He a - oo re See 6 miclitadloesly. Hoover's drinking was of the social kind and he limited his smoking to one after-dinner cigar. There was a deep religious “streak” in his makeup. He fre-. ‘quently attended Presbyterian taught a Sunday school class. He “was planning to weligious flavor. In an address in ’ phasis were placed on the gospel _ on 52 consecutive Sundays, and - Arch and Scottish Rite, 33rd de- - services. As a boy, he ina Lutheran Church choir and later be s minister. :. Sometimes his speeches had a 1942 he said: 7 “f am sure that if more em- of salvation and less on social - justice, the latter would become a greater reality. What we need is a return to God, more cally a return to the practice of religion. That is without doubt ihe greatest need in Ame _ Had Religious Hom He ‘was reared in“a religious home, where grace was said be- fore ccery meal and Bible-reac- ing was 4 regular custom. “We didn’t have much—but we had everything we needed,” -~ he recalied. “I always had to go to Sunday School. I was given a Ettle Testament for attendance™ it was one of my treasures.: 1-7 still) have it.” a - He was a Mason, both Royal grec, and a Shriner.: 0 +: Hoover rarely stepped into + the limelight, but when he did * he was outspoken—particularly in cases where he thought there had been a slur against the FBI... His speeches crackled with: outbursts against Communis and Fascists; “pseudo-liberals”; parents who failed their chil- tren: “sob sisters” und “moo- cow” sentimentalists who pam- pered criminals; lawbreakers; and “midget politicians.” i Administrations came and: went, but Hoover stayed on. He * held the aii-time record for. tenure as head of ao Federal: agency. br wte TITTITIT Ti tet itt. Art for Sketch 4014 PABLO PICASSO {1957}