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The FBI originated from a force of Special Agents created in 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. The two men first met when they both spoke at a meeting of the Baltimore Civil Service Reform Association. Roosevelt, then Civil Service Commissioner, boasted of his reforms in federal law enforcement. It was 1892, a time when law enforcement was often political rather than professional. Roosevelt spoke with pride of his insistence that Border Patrol applicants pass marksmanship tests, with the most accurate getting the jobs. Following Roosevelt on the program, Bonaparte countered, tongue in cheek, that target shooting was not the way to get the best men. "Roosevelt should have had the men shoot at each other, and given the jobs to the survivors."

Roosevelt and Bonaparte both were "Progressives." They shared the conviction that efficiency and expertise, not political connections, should determine who could best serve in government. Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States in 1901; four years later, he appointed Bonaparte to be Attorney General. In 1908, Bonaparte applied that Progressive philosophy to the Department of Justice by creating a corps of Special Agents. It had neither a name nor an officially designated leader other than the Attorney General. Yet, these former detectives and Secret Service men were the forerunners of the FBI.



President Roosevelt personified Progressivism at the national level. A federal investigative force consisting of well-disciplined experts and designed to fight corruption and crime fit Roosevelt's Progressive scheme of government. Attorney General Bonaparte shared his President's Progressive philosophy. However, the Department of Justice under Bonaparte had no investigators of its own except for a few Special Agents who carried out specific assignments for the Attorney General, and a force of Examiners (trained as accountants) who reviewed the financial transactions of the federal courts. Since its beginning in 1870, the Department of Justice used funds appropriated to investigate federal crimes to hire private detectives first, and later investigators from other federal agencies. (Federal crimes are those that were considered interstate or occurred on federal government reservations.)

By 1907, the Department of Justice most frequently called upon Secret Service "operatives" to conduct investigations. These men were well-trained, dedicated -- and expensive. Moreover, they reported not to the Attorney General, but to the Chief of the Secret Service. This situation frustrated Bonaparte, who wanted complete control of investigations under his jurisdiction. Congress provided the impetus for Bonaparte to acquire his own force. On May 27, 1908, it enacted a law preventing the Department of Justice from engaging Secret Service operatives.

The following month, Attorney General Bonaparte appointed a force of Special Agents within the Department of Justice. Accordingly, ten former Secret Service employees and a number of Department of Justice peonage (i.e., compulsory servitude) investigators became Special Agents of the Department of Justice. On July 26, 1908, Bonaparte ordered them to report to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch. This action is celebrated as the beginning of the FBI.

Both Attorney General Bonaparte and President Theodore Roosevelt, who completed their terms in March 1909, recommended that the force of 34 Agents become a permanent part of the Department of Justice. Attorney General George Wickersham, Bonaparte's successor, named the force the Bureau of Investigation on March 16, 1909. At that time, the title of Chief Examiner was changed to Chief of the Bureau of Investigation.




Over the next few years, the number of Special Agents grew to more than 300, and these individuals were complemented by another 300 support employees. Field offices existed from the Bureau's inception. Each field operation was controlled by a Special Agent in Charge who was responsible to Washington. Most field offices were located in major cities. However, several were located near the Mexican border where they concentrated on smuggling, neutrality violations, and intelligence collection, often in connection with the Mexican revolution.

With the April 1917 entry of the United States into World War I during Woodrow Wilson's administration, the Bureau's work was increased again. As a result of the war, the Bureau acquired responsibility for the Espionage, Selective Service, and Sabotage Acts, and assisted the Department of Labor by investigating enemy aliens. During these years Special Agents with general investigative experience and facility in certain languages augmented the Bureau.



The years from 1921 to 1933 were sometimes called the "lawless years" because of gangsterism and the public disregard for Prohibition, which made it illegal to sell or import intoxicating beverages. Prohibition created a new federal medium for fighting crime. But the Department of the Treasury, not the Department of Justice, had jurisdiction for these violations.


Through these investigations and through more traditional investigations of nuetrality violations and antitrust violations, the Bureau of Investigation gained stature. Although the Harding Administration suffered from unqualified and sometimes corrupt officials, the Progressive Era reform tradition continued among the professional Department of Justice Special Agents. The new Bureau of Investigation Director, William J. Burns, who had previously run his own detective agency, appointed 26-year-old J. Edgar Hoover as Assistant Director. Hoover, a graduate of George Washington University Law School, had worked for the Department of Justice since 1917, where he headed the enemy alien operations during World War I and assisted in the General Intelligence Division under Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, investigating suspected anarchists and communists.

After Harding died in 1923, his successor, Calvin Coolidge, appointed replacements for Harding's cronies in the Cabinet. For the new Attorney General, Coolidge appointed attorney Harlan Fiske Stone. Stone then, on May 10, 1924, selected Hoover to head the Bureau of Investigation. By inclination and training, Hoover embodied the Progressive tradition. His appointment ensured that the Bureau of Investigation would keep that tradition alive.

When Hoover took over, the Bureau of Investigation had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents. He immediately fired those Agents he considered unqualified and proceeded to professionalize the organization. For example, Hoover abolished the seniority rule of promotion and introduced uniform performance appraisals. Regular inspections of Headquarters and field office operations were scheduled. New Agents had to be between 25 and 35 years old. Then, in January 1928, Hoover established a formal training course for new Agents. He also returned to the earlier preference for Special Agents with law or accounting experience.




By the end of the decade, Special Agent training was institutionalized, the field office inspection system was solidly in place, and the Identification Division was functioning. In addition, studies were underway that would lead to the creation of the Technical Laboratory and Uniform Crime Reports. The Bureau was equipped to end the "lawless years."




Noting the widespread interest of the media in this war against crime, Hoover carried the message of FBI work through them to the American people. He became as adept at publicizing his agency's work as he was at administering it. Prior to 1933, Bureau Agents had developed an esprit de corps, but the public considered them interchangeable with other federal investigators. Three years later, mere identification with the FBI was a source of special pride to its employees and commanded instant recognition and respect from the public.

During the early and mid-1930s several crucial decisions solidified the Bureau's position as the nation's premier law enforcement agency. In 1932, Congress passed a federal kidnapping statute. Then in May and June 1934, with gangsters like John Dillinger evading capture by crossing over state lines, it passed a number of federal crime laws that significantly enhanced the Bureau's jurisdiction. Congress also gave Bureau Agents statutory authority to carry guns and make arrests.

The Bureau of Investigation was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation on July 1, 1932. Then, beginning July 1, 1933, the Department of Justice experimented for almost two years with a Division of Investigation that included the Bureau of Prohibition. Public confusion between Bureau of Investigation Special Agents and Prohibition Agents led to a permanent name change in 1935 for the agency composed of Department of Justice's investigators: the Federal Bureau of Investigation was thus born.



The legal tools given to the FBI by Congress, as well as Bureau initiatives to upgrade its own professionalism and that of law enforcement, resulted in the arrest or demise of all the major gangsters by 1936. By that time, however, Fascism in Adolph Hitler's Germany and Benito Mussolini's Italy and Communism in Josef Stalin's Soviet Union threatened American democratic principles. With war on the horizon, a new set of challenges faced the FBI.


Germany, Italy, and Japan embarked on an unchecked series of invasions during the late 1930s. Hitler and Mussolini supported the Spanish Falangists in their successful civil war against the "Loyalist" Spanish government (1937-39). Although many Europeans and North Americans considered the Spanish Civil War an opportunity to destroy Fascism, the United States, Great Britain, and France remained neutral; only Russia supported the Loyalists. To the shock of those who admired Russia for its active opposition to Fascism, Stalin and Hitler signed a nonaggression pact in August 1939. The following month, Hitler seized Poland, and Russia took Finland and the Baltic States. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, which formed the "Axis" with Japan and Italy--and World War II began. The United States, however, continued to adhere to the neutrality acts it had passed in the mid-1930s.

As these events unfolded in Europe, the American Depression continued. The Depression provided as fertile an environment for radicalism in the United States as it did in Europe. European Fascists had their counterparts and supporters in the United States in the German-American Bund, the Silver Shirts, and similar groups. At the same time, labor unrest, racial disturbances, and sympathy for the Spanish Loyalists presented an unparalleled opportunity for the American Communist Party to gain adherents. The FBI was alert to these Fascist and Communist groups as threats to American security.

Authority to investigate these organizations came in 1936 with President Roosevelt's authorization through Secretary of State Cordell Hull. A 1939 Presidential Directive further strengthened the FBI's authority to investigate subversives in the United States, and Congress reinforced it by passing the Smith Act in 1940, outlawing advocacy of violent overthrow of the government.

With the actual outbreak of war in 1939, the responsibilities of the FBI escalated. Subversion, sabotage, and espionage became major concerns. In addition to Agents trained in general intelligence work, at least one Agent trained in defense plant protection was placed in each of the FBI's 42 field offices. The FBI also developed a network of informational sources, often using members of fraternal or veterans' organizations. With leads developed by these intelligence networks and through their own work, Special Agents investigated potential threats to national security.






All were tried shortly afterward by a military tribunal and found guilty. Six who did not cooperate with the U.S. Government were executed a few days later. The others were sentenced to life imprisonment, but were returned to Germany after the war. The swift capture of these Nazi saboteurs helped to allay fear of Axis subversion and bolstered Americans' faith in the FBI.

Even before U.S. entry into the War, the FBI uncovered a major espionage ring. This group, the Frederick Duquesne spy ring, was the largest one discovered up to that time. The FBI was assisted by a loyal American with German relatives who acted as a double agent. For nearly two years the FBI ran a radio station for him, learning what Germany was sending to its spies in the United States while controlling the information that was being transmitted to Germany. The investigation led to the arrest and conviction of 33 spies.

War for the United States began December 7, 1941, when Japanese armed forces attacked ships and facilities at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States immediately declared war on Japan, and the next day Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. By 9:30 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on December 7, the FBI was in a wartime mode. FBI Headquarters and the 54 field offices were placed on 24-hour schedules. On December 7 and 8, the FBI arrested previously identified aliens who threatened national security and turned them over to military or immigration authorities.

At this time, the FBI augmented its Agent force with National Academy graduates, who took an abbreviated training course. As a result, the total number of FBI employees rose from 7,400 to over 13,000, including approximately 4,000 Agents, by the end of 1943.


The most serious discrimination during World War II was the decision to evacuate Japanese nationals and American citizens of Japanese descent from the West Coast and send them to internment camps. Because the FBI had arrested the individuals whom it considered security threats, FBI Director Hoover took the position that confining others was unnecessary. The President and Attorney General, however, chose to support the military assessment that evacuation and internment were imperative. Ultimately, the FBI became responsible for arresting curfew and evacuation violators.

While most FBI personnel during the war worked traditional war-related or criminal cases, one contingent of Agents was unique. Separated from Bureau rolls, these Agents, with the help of FBI Legal Attaches, composed the Special Intelligence Service (SIS) in Latin America. Established by President Roosevelt in 1940, the SIS was to provide information on Axis activities in South America and to destroy its intelligence and propaganda networks. Several hundred thousand Germans or German descendants and numerous Japanese lived in South America. They provided pro-Axis pressure and cover for Axis communications facilities. Nevertheless, in every South American country, the SIS was instrumental in bringing about a situation in which, by 1944, continued support for the Nazis became intolerable or impractical.

In April 1945, President Roosevelt died, and Vice President Harry Truman took office as President. Before the end of the month, Hitler committed suicide and the German commander in Italy surrendered. Although the May 1945 surrender of Germany ended the war in Europe, war continued in the Pacific until August 14, 1945.

The world that the FBI faced in September 1945 was very different from the world of 1939 when the war began. American isolationism had effectively ended, and, economically, the United States had become the world's most powerful nation. At home, organized labor had achieved a strong foothold; African Americans and women, having tasted equality during wartime labor shortages, had developed aspirations and the means of achieving the goals that these groups had lacked before the war. The American Communist Party possessed an unparalleled confidence, while overseas the Soviet Union strengthened its grasp on the countries it had wrested from German occupation--making it plain that its plans to expand Communist influence had not abated. And hanging over the euphoria of a world once more at peace was the mushroom cloud of atomic weaponry.


In February 1946 Stalin gave a public address in which he implied that future wars were inevitable until Communism replaced capitalism worldwide. Events in Europe and North America convinced Congress that Stalin was well on his way to achieving his goal. The Russian veto prevented the United Nations from curbing Soviet expansion under its auspices.

Americans feared Communist expansion was not limited to Europe. By 1947, ample evidence existed that pro-Soviet individuals had infiltrated the American Government. In June, 1945, the FBI raided the offices of Amerasia, a magazine concerned with the Far East, and discovered a large number of classified State Department documents. Several months later the Canadians arrested 22 people for trying to steal atomic secrets. Previously, Americans felt secure behind their monopoly of the atomic bomb. Fear of a Russian bomb now came to dominate American thinking. The Soviets detonated their own bomb in 1949.

Counteracting the Communist threat became a paramount focus of government at all levels, as well as the private sector. While U.S. foreign policy concentrated on defeating Communist expansion abroad, many U.S. citizens sought to defeat the Communist threat at home. The American Communist Party worked through front organizations or influenced other Americans who agreed with their current propaganda ("fellow travelers").


Despite the threats to the United States of subversion and espionage, the FBI's extended jurisdiction, and the time-consuming nature of background investigations, the Bureau did not surpass the number of Agents it had during World War II--or its yearly wartime budget--until the Korean War in the early 1950s. After the Korean War ended, the number of Agents stabilized at about 6,200, while the budget began a steady climb in 1957.



Advances in forensic science and technical development enabled the FBI to devote a significant proportion of its resources to assisting state and local law enforcement agencies. One method of continuing assistance was through the National Academy. Another was to use its greater resources to help states and localities solve their cases.

A dramatic example of aid to a state occurred after the midair explosion of a plane over Colorado in 1955. The FBI Laboratory examined hundreds of airplane parts, pieces of cargo, and the personal effects of passengers. It pieced together evidence of a bomb explosion from passenger luggage, then painstakingly looked into the backgrounds of the 44 victims. Ultimately, Agents identified the perpetrator and secured his confession, then turned the case over to Colorado authorities who successfully prosecuted it in a state court.






Although federal racketeering and gambling statutes were passed in the 1950s and early 1960s to aid the Bureau's fight against mob influence, the two strongest weapons for combatting organized crime were given to the FBI during President Richard Nixon's Administration. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 provided for the use of court-ordered electronic surveillance in the investigation of certain specified violations. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Statute of 1970 allowed organized groups to be prosecuted for all of their diverse criminal activities, without the crimes being linked by a perpetrator or all-encompassing conspiracy. Along with greater use of Agents for undercover work by the late 1970s, these provisions helped the FBI develop cases that, in the 1980s, put almost all the major traditional crime family heads in prison.












Hoover's successor would have to contend with the complex turmoil of that troubled time. In 1972, unlike 1924 when Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone selected Hoover, the President appointed the FBI Director with confirmation by the Senate. President Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray as Acting Director the day after Hoover's death. After retiring from a distinguished Naval career, Gray had continued in public service as the Department of Justice's Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. As Acting Director, Gray appointed the first women as Special Agents since the 1920s.









During Kelley's tenure as Director, the FBI made a strong effort to develop an Agent force with more women and one that was more reflective of the ethnic composition of the United States.






On another front, Webster strengthened the FBI's response to white-collar crimes. Public corruption was attacked nationwide. Convictions resulting from FBI investigations included members of Congress (ABSCAM), the judiciary (GREYLORD), and state legislatures in California and South Carolina. A major investigation culminating in 1988 unveiled corruption in defense procurement (ILLWIND).









While world leaders scrambled to reposition their foreign policies and redefine national security parameters, the FBI responded as an agency in January 1992 by reassigning 300 Special Agents from foreign counterintelligence duties to violent crime investigations across the country. It was an unprecedented opportunity to intensify efforts in burgeoning domestic crime problems--and at the same time to rethink and retool FBI national security programs in counterintelligence and counterterrorism.

In response to a 40-percent increase in crimes of violence over the previous 10 years, Director Sessions had designated the investigation of violent crime as the FBI's sixth national priority program in 1989. By November 1991 the FBI had created "Operation Safe Streets" in Washington, D.C.--a concept of federal, state, and local police task forces targeting fugitives and gangs. It was now ready to expand this operational assistance to police nationwide.

At the same time, the FBI Laboratory helped change the face of violent criminal identification. Its breakthrough use of DNA technology enabled genetic crime-scene evidence to positively identify--or rule out--suspects by comparing their particular DNA patterns. This unique identifier enabled the creation of a national DNA Index similar to the fingerprint index, which had been implemented in 1924.


At the same time, the FBI reassessed its strategies in defending the national security, now no longer defined as the containment of communism and the prevention of nuclear war.



Eight months later, at a remote compound outside Waco, Texas, FBI Agents sought to end a 51-day standoff with members of a heavily armed religious sect who had killed four officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Instead, as Agents watched in horror, the compound burned to the ground from fires lit by members of the sect. Eighty persons, including children, died in the blaze.





Freeh came to the Bureau with impeccable credentials and unusual insight into the Bureau. He had served as an FBI Agent from 1975 to 1981 in the New York City Field Office and at FBI Headquarters before leaving to join the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Here Freeh rose quickly and prosecuted many major FBI cases, including the notorious "Pizza Connection" case and the "VANPAC" mail bomb case. He was appointed a U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York in 1991. On July 20, 1993, President Clinton nominated him to be FBI Director. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 6, 1993.

Freeh began his tenure with a clearly articulated agenda that would respond both to deepening crime problems and to a climate of government downsizing. In his oath of office speech he called for new levels of cooperation among law enforcement agencies, both at home and abroad, and he announced his intention to restructure the FBI in order to maximize its operational response to crime.

Six weeks after taking office, he announced a major reorganization to streamline Headquarters operations of the FBI. Many management positions were abolished. Selected divisions and offices were merged, reorganized, or abolished. Soon after, Freeh ordered the transfer of 600 Special Agents serving in administrative positions to investigative positions in field offices. To revitalize an aging Agent work force, Freeh gained approval to end a 2-year hiring freeze on new Agents.

Freeh also instituted changes which affected current FBI employee policies and standards of conduct. These changes strengthened the FBI's traditionally high requirements for personal conduct and ethics, and established a "bright line" between what would be acceptable and what would not.

In continuation of the FBI's commitment to the advancement of minorities and women within the ranks of the organization, in October, 1993, Freeh appointed the first woman, the first man of Hispanic descent, and the second man of African-American descent to be named Assistant Director.

In late 1993, Freeh was given a simultaneous appointment to serve as Director of the Department of Justice's new Office of Investigative Agency Policies. From this position, he has been able to work effectively with law enforcement agencies within the Department of Justice to develop close cooperation on criminal law enforcement issues, including sharing information on drug intelligence, automation, firearms, and aviation support.

Also in late 1993, Freeh moved strongly to dramatize the importance of international cooperation on organized crime issues. He traveled to Sicily to honor his late friend and colleague Giovanni Falcone, who had been killed in a bomb blast with his wife and three bodyguards the year before. On the steps of the Palatine Chapel of the Palace of the Normans, in the face of the Mafia presence, Freeh challenged the Sicilian people "to oppose them with your minds and hearts and the rule of law." This message was to be repeated and strengthened the following year in the new democratic capitals of Russia and Eastern Europe.

In the summer of 1994, Freeh led a delegation of high-level diplomatic and federal law enforcement officials to meet with senior officials of 11 European nations on international crime issues.

At the outset, Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, declared, "This is the evolving American foreign policy. Law Enforcement is at the forefront of our national interest in this part of the world." Meetings were held with officials of Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Ukraine, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. On July 4, 1994, Director Freeh officially announced the historic opening of an FBI Legal Attache Office in Moscow, the old seat of Russian communism.

Subsequently, international leaders and law enforcement officials have focused on ways to strengthen security measures against possible theft of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials from Russia and other former republics of the Soviet Union. They have sharpened joint efforts against organized crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism. They have also strongly supported the FBI's efforts to institute standardized training of international police in investigative processes, ethics, leadership, and professionalism: in April 1995, the International Law Enforcement Academy opened its doors in Budapest, Hungary. Staffed by FBI and other law enforcement trainers, the academy offers five eight-week courses a year, based on the FBI's National Academy concept.

To prepare the FBI for both domestic and foreign lawlessness in the 21st century, Freeh spearheaded the effort by law enforcement to ensure its ability, in the face of telecommunications advances, to carry out court-authorized electronic surveillance in major investigations affecting public safety and national security. This ability was secured when Congress passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act in October 1994.

He also mounted aggressive programs in specific criminal areas. During the years 1993 through 1996, these efforts paid off in successful investigations as diverse as the World Trade Center bombing in New York City; the Archer Daniels Midland international price-fixing conspiracies; the attempted theft of Schering-Plough and Merck pharmaceutical trade secrets; and the arrests of Mexican drug trafficker Juan Garcia-Abrego and Russian crime boss Vyacheslav Ivankov.

In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Economic Espionage Act were passed in the closing days of the 104th Session of Congress, then signed into law. These new statutes enabled the FBI to significantly strengthen its criminal programs in health care fraud and the theft of trade secrets and intellectual property.

At the same time, Director Freeh initiated many changes to prepare for evolving criminal challenges. For example, he began construction of a new state-of-the-art FBI forensic laboratory. He formed the Critical Incident Response Group to deal efficiently with crisis situations. He created the Computer Investigations and Infrastructure Threat Assessment Center to respond to physical and cyber attacks against U.S. infrastructure. And, in 1996, he initiated a comprehensive and integrated FBI response to nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) crisis incidents when the FBI was designated lead law enforcement agency in NBC investigations.

Robert M. Mueller, III became the sixth FBI director one week before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The failure to anticipate and prevent those attacks revealed serious shortcomings in the FBI and its previous leadership. Modernization became the order of the day.

Federal Bureau of Investigation and Prior Names

Designated as Date
No specific name assigned; referred to as Special Agent Force July 26, 1908
Bureau of Investigation March 16, 1909
United States Bureau Of Investigation July 1, 1932
Division of Investigation (The Division also inculded the Bureau of Prohibition.) August 10, 1933
Federal Bureau of Investigation July 1, 1935

Leaders of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Predecessor Agencies

Leader Date Assumed Office
Stanley W. Finch
(After March 16, 1909, when AG Wickersham erected the BOI, Finch took the title Chief of the BOI.)
July 26, 1908
Alexander Bruce Bielaski April 30, 1912
William E. Allen (Acting) February 10, 1919
William J. Flynn July 1, 1919
William J. Burns August 22, 1921
J. Edgar Hoover (Mr. Hoover was designated Acting Director on May 10, and permanent Director on December 10, 1924.) May 10, 1924
L. Patrick Gray (Acting) May 3, 1972
William D. Ruckelshaus (Acting) April 27, 1973
Clarence M. Kelley July 9, 1973
William H. Webster Febraury 23, 1978
John E. Otto (Acting) May 26, 1987
William S. Sessions November 2, 1987
Floyd I. Clarke (Acting) July 19, 1993
Louis J. Freeh September 1, 1993
Robert S. Mueller, III September 4, 2001


Created by John Pike
Maintained by Steven Aftergood
Updated June 18, 2003