Page 73 - All About History - Issue 08-14

HOOVER’S WAR ON CRIME

ORGANISED CRIME

Organised crime had become endemic in the
Hoover’s leadership. Dillinger was responsible for
United States during the Twenties and Thirties
numerous escapes from jail at a time when the
because of the prohibition laws on alcohol
FBI was saying they were closing in on him. The
that gave rise to criminal networks running
‘shoot first and ask questions later’ approach also
speakeasies and racketeering throughout the
landed the Bureau in hot water, with accusations
country. The federal government could only offer
that Hoover’s agents were little more than
limited support in helping local law enforcement
trigger-happy government thugs.
because of the lack of national resources.
After the end of World War II the bootlegger
Hoover changed this by lobbying for more
age faded and crime families like the Costellos
funding into fighting federal crime through the
and Carmines began to take over the gambling
FBI. He went after some of the most notorious
and racketeering rings of major US cities.
criminal gangs in the country, in particular the
Hoover and the FBI set about shutting them
Mobster Frank Costello was Dillinger bank robbers of the Midwest. Despite
reported to be Hoover’s friend down through covert surveillance operations,
the attention these arrests received, there
infiltrating the crime networks and bringing them
were a number of high-profile screw-ups under down from the inside.
The Costello story began in New York when he
met Hoover during a shopping trip. They talked
pleasantly and then met again at the Waldorf
Hotel and drank together at the Stork Club. in the first century CE can you imagine what

Sources in and out of the mafia claimed Costello he would have put into his files about a certain Gestapo or secret police. The FBI is trending in that
would indulge Hoover’s passion for gambling troublemaker from Nazareth?” Roosevelt was direction … this must stop.” In response, Hoover
by giving him tips on horse races he had fixed. angered by Hoover probing into his wife’s affairs set up a file on Truman but found precious little to
The relationship got so close that Costello once and was anxious for the FBI to stop invading feed it with. As such Hoover feared Truman above
remarked to Hoover: “I’ve got to be careful about the privacy of US citizens. After one spectacular all other presidents who were in office during his
my associates; they’ll accuse me of consorting with argument, Roosevelt told Hoover to get out of his time as FBI director. Truman had the power to clip
questionable characters.” White House and after that he would only speak to his wings and Hoover had little mud to sling back
Of course, people started talking about these him on formal occasions when he had to. at him. According to one contemporary working in
associations but by the end of the Thirties Hoover After Roosevelt died and Harry Truman took the FBI at the time: “Hoover was frightened of his
had become almost untouchable through his over as president he wrote a memo: “We want no life with Truman – I know that personally.”
power as director of the FBI. He had capitalised
on his self-aggrandisement to turn a small “The rise of the FBI’s status worried
department within a department into a crime-
fighting juggernaut with far-reaching powers of many within the US establishment”
investigation. New ways of detecting crime were
pioneered by his FBI laboratory; he used up-to-
date technology like phone tapping to probe into
otherwise undetectable conversations and created
huge files on investigation targets.
After the Lindbergh kidnapping, where a
young boy was snatched from his bedroom in
1932, the arrest and conviction of prime suspect
Bruno Richard Hauptmann was made through
the use of marked bills and by the FBI identifying
handwriting from ransom notes. Fingerprinting
was also used and after the case was closed Hoover
insisted all criminals arrested by the FBI should
have their fingerprints placed on file so his agents
could keep track of persistent offenders. These
innovations elevated Hoover’s political and media
profile to such heights that he was soon considered
untouchable by his political enemies.
The rise of the FBI’s status worried many within
the US establishment, including two consecutive
presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Both were in office during Hoover’s war on crime
and both challenged his seemingly unquenchable
thirst for more power over the lives of ordinary
citizens. Phone tapping and covert surveillance US vice president John Nance
was becoming an area of increasing concern, with Garner being fingerprinted by
J Edgar Hoover in person
a contemporary noting: “If there was a Mr Hoover
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