Home > J. Edgar Hoover

He was born in Washington, DC, but the details of his early life are almost unknown; a birth certificate for him was not filed until 1938. All known information can be usually traced back to a single 1937 profile by the journalist Jack Alexander. He was educated at George Washington University, graduating in 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti- with a degree in law. Rather than enlisting for the war he found work with the Justice Department. He soon proved himself capable and was promoted to head the Enemy Aliens Registration Section. In 1919 he became head of the new General Intelligence Division of the Justice DepartmentThe United States Department of Justice DOJ is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice f (see the Palmer RaidsThe Palmer Raids were a number of attacks on Socialists and Communists in the United States from 1918 to 1921. The raids are named after Alexander Mitchell Palmer, United States Attorney General under Woodrow Wilson. Palmer stated his belief that Communis). From there in 1921 he joined the Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as deputy head and in 1924 the Attorney General made him director.

When Hoover took over the FBI it had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents. It was renamed and empowered as the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. In 1939 the FBI became pre-eminent in the field of domestic intelligence.

Evidently, Hoover amassed significant power by collecting files on people, especially politicians, that were kept off of the official FBI records. This unofficial legacy is speculative because his secretary of decades, (Miss) Helen GandyGandy was the personal secretary to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover from the time he became director in the 1920s until his death in 1972. She kept the most sensitive of J. Edgar's personal files in her office, instead of Hoover's; thus when Hoover died, Nix, spent the days after Hoover's death destroying all of these files.

Speculation and rumors that Hoover was gay and, as well, a secret cross-dresser, have never been confirmed. However, Hoover's right-hand man, Clyde TolsonClyde Anderson Tolson ( May 22, 1900 April 14, 1975) was associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was primarily responsible for personnel and disciplinary matters in the bureau, rather than crime-fighting. Tolson was born in Laredo, M, was a constant companion for more than 40 years, and they often vacationed together. Hoover and Tolson were both lifelong bachelors and Hoover lived with his mother until her death in 1938 when he was 43 years old. Hoover was raised a devout Presbyterian, considered the ministry as a career, and used this publicly known fact to render his personal conduct, sexually or otherwise, unimpeachable during his tenure at the FBI.

An FBI memorandum dated June 11, 1943 mentions rumors of Hoover being " queer" and keeping "a large group of young boys around him," and notes that such rumors had circulated since at least two years earlier. The memorandum declares such rumors are "malicious and unfounded" and " libelous." [1]