During the Great Depression, the “Division of Investigation” or what we know now to be the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was just starting out. A man named J. Edgar Hoover led the FBI during this time period. He directed the FBI for an astonishing 48 years! Under his command, the Bureau brought many criminals to justice. His “right hand man,” Melvin Purvis, was the mastermind behind many of these justices. Hoover left Purvis in charge of the Bureau’s office in Chicago. This meant that he was in charge of bringing some of the most dangerous gangsters and criminals of this era to justice- including a man by the name of John Dillinger. By doing this, Purvis became a very famous man. Soon, Hoover became quite jealous of Purvis’ newly found fame, this led to tension between the two men. In all, the Federal Bureau of Investigation defended the law, J. Edgar Hoover shunned Melvin Purvis, and the American people idolized John Dillinger.
Soon, John Dillinger rose to be one of the most notorious criminals of this time period. Dillinger began committing crimes at a very young age, but his claim to fame did not begin until he created the plan that helped eight inmates escape from Lima County Jail. Less than an month later, three of these convicts, disguised as prison officials from Indiana State Prison, returned to supposedly retrieve Dillinger for parole violation. When the sheriff of Lima County Jail asked to see their credentials, one of the men pulled out a gun, shot the sheriff, and beat him into unconsciousness. Then, the men stole the keys to the prison cells, and freed Dillinger. After the incident, Lima County police requested the FBI’s assistance in bringing the fugitives to justice.
While on the run, Dillinger robbed several b...
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...rounded his body on the street, and woman even went as far as dipping the hems of their skirts in his blood. They did this because they idolized him as a Robin Hood type person. He stole from the same banks that took people’s houses, and put them in the debt that they were in. This is probably why Dillinger led such a normal life while he was a fugitive.
However, after Purvis captured Dillinger, Purvis gained a lot of fame. Young boys and girls across America were wearing FBI badges, and playing the Melvin Purvis board game. Hoover soon became extremely jealous of Purvis’ newfound fame. He began to assign Purvis “bad” cases, “…and put him under increased scrutiny.” This is what allegedly led to Purvis’ resignation less than a year after Dillinger’s death. Even after Purvis resigned, Hoover sabotaged Purvis’ chances of getting any jobs in the law enforcement field.
The murders he committed showcased the power he had, and being convicted of tax evasion seemed like a joke. Although Al Capone was a ruthless gangster, there was a side to him that many still don’t know about; a kinder side. Al Capone’s family came with a wave of other Italian immigrants that migrated to the United States in the 1800’s. Most immigrants in that time were living in poverty and in very urban areas. Capone’s family lived in the heart of Brooklyn, but his father was a successful barber, which allowed them a slightly better lifestyle than most.
Officers were rewarded and reprimanded appropriately for the amount of arrests that were made. When Officers successfully prevented or deterred crime it didn’t show on paper. This tied in with officer morale in a big way. The book illustrates that when departments put out arrest quotas for the east side arrests fell, usually to the minimum. Mosko is often very critical of upper police managements distance and ignorance to the actual problems out there.
Joseph Pistone was an undercover FBI agent who went under the codename of “Donnie Brasco”. Pistone is to a lesser extent known for the infiltration of the Colombo Crime Family which was one of the “Five Families” that organized crime activities in New York City (The American Mafia), and most famously known for the infiltration of the Bonanno Crime Family. The importance of his job was to earn the trust of the mafia in a 6 year operation that would lead to the arrests of hundreds of mafia members. In the end the FBI had pulled him from the operation for Pistone’s own safety.
John Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in Indianapolis. Three years later his mother died; his father remarried six years afterwards, but Dillinger resented his stepmother. Being raised by a very strict father, who invoked disciplinary extremes, Dillinger became a troublemaker. Dillinger quit school and got a job, but quickly got bored and decided to stay out all night. His father was concerned that city life was corrupting his son, so he decided to move his family to Indiana. However, the move made no difference, since Dillinger began to act the same as he had in the city. After a “break with his father and trouble with the law” Dillinger enlisted in the Navy (“Famous Cases,” n.d). In the Navy, Dillinger got into trouble and decided to leave his ship and move to Indiana, where he married 16-year-old Beryl Hovius in 1924. Both Dillinger and Hovius moved to Indianapolis with a “dazzling dream of bright lights and excitement” (“Famous Cases,” n.d). However, Dillinger had no luck finding work due to the Depression, and joined the “town pool shark, Ed Singleton” in search of easy money.
The mission and values of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is up held with strong Constitutional values. Over the years since the FBI was created in 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As a progressive during this time period Bonaparte applied his philosophy to forming the FBI with several corps of agents. His thought was that these men should have expertise and not political connections. With the U.S. Constitution based on “federalism” a national government with jurisdiction over matters that cross boundaries, such as interstate and foreign affairs.
“Mitchell Palmer started the General Intelligence” (http://law2.umkc.edu) or the anti-radical Division of Bureau Investigation on August 1, 1919, with Edgar Hoover another Justice Department employee. The mission o...
John Wayne Gacy was a U.S. serial killer who was found guilty of killing 33 boys and young men (McCormick, 1998). Gacy was born on March 17, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois (Sullivan, 2013). John Wayne Gacy had two sisters, Joanne and Karen and had a difficult relationship with his father. His father was an auto repair machanic and World War I veteran (Jones, 2012). Whenever his father came home from work, he would go to the basement and drink. His father was an alcoholic and used physical punishment on all of his children (Jones, 2012). He would even beat the children with a razor strap if they misbehaved (Sullivan, 2013). Gacy’s mother tried her best to protect the children, but Gacy’s father physically assaulted her as well (Jones, 2012). Additionally,
August Vollmer was the police chief of Berkeley (CA) Police Department from 1905 to 1932. He served as the first professor of police administration at the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1930, and he was a professor of criminology at the University of California at Berkeley. He served for one year as the police chief of Los Angeles Police Department (1923-1924) and he was the President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police from 1921 to 1922. A progressive-minded chief and a key advocate for the police professionalization movement, Vollmer often held viewpoints that ran counter to many of his contemporary police chiefs. He was against police brutality and their use of the “third degree,” he opposed the death penalty, and he did not believe that law enforcement was the proper response for illicit drugs in America.
Throughout all of American history there have been those who are well known for committing what are classified as deviant or criminal acts. Most of those who are well known by the public for their actions have committed deeds seen as extremely controversial such as being cult leaders, gang or mafia members, terrorists, rapists, or killers. The lists of members for each topic is numerous, however, there are a certain few that are more prominent than others. One criminal that stands out when speaking of killers in particular is Gary Ridgway, or as he is better known, the Green River Killer. Gary Ridgway is the nation’s most abundant serial killer, with the highest murder rate in America’s history (Gibson).
History of the FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation was founded in 1908 when the Attorney General appointed an anonymous force of 34 Special Agents to be investigators for the Department of Justice. Before that, the DOJ had to borrow agents from the U.S. Secret Service. In 1909, the Special Agent Force was renamed the Bureau of Investigation, and after countless name changes, it became The Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. When the FBI was established, there weren't an abundance of federal crimes, so it investigated criminal acts that dealt with national banking, bankruptcy, naturalization, antitrust, peonage, and land fraud. In June of 1910, the FBI grew larger because of the "Mann Act" (Made it a crime to transport women to other states for immoral reasons).
In The Watergate Crisis, Michael A. Genovese analyzes the factors leading up to the Watergate crisis, what the whole scandal meant to Americans at this time, what the Watergate scandal has come to mean currently, and how it has molded American politics permanently. Genovese offers a detailed psychoanalysis of Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, and the possible motivations behind his actions before, during, and after the Watergate crisis. Genovese provides a thorough and superb record of the events of Watergate in which he includes the ways many members of Nixon’s Administration got their hands dirty and their futile efforts at washing them clean.
In the 21st century, the world as we know it suffers from psychotic, demented, treacherous and, sophisticated crimes. This world would be corrupt without a tunnel of light if it was not for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, also known as the FBI, is a corporation that seeks fidelity, bravery and, integrity for the United States of America. The FBI researches shocking and concerning crimes the news reports about politics, war and, safety that we hear on the television about issues that are being reported to the people. These cases of transgression are missions the FBI analyzes, such as hacking information from double spies, locating terrorists, seeking pedophiles, cracking down unknown mobsters, gang leaders and serial killers, white-collar crime, public corruption, cyber-crime, counter intelligence and civil rights.
Previously in the year, “the Plumbers”, a nickname given to the future burglars of the Watergate Scandal by President Nixon, raided Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office to find his file after he leaked the “Pentagon Papers” which was classified information about the Vietnam War. This was quite a big deal that he leaked classified information, not to mention Ellsberg was anti-war. This was also the “first spying” done by President Nixon, which led up to the Watergate Scandal.
The “Plumbers”, as they were nicknamed, were headed by two of Nixon’s top aides, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt. In order to prevent all information leaks, the “Plumbers” investigated the private lives of Nixon’s political enemies and critics. The White House rationalized the actions of the plumbers by saying that they were protecting National Security.
Reformers wanted to stray away from political influences and believed that policing should be in the control of police executives (Peak, 2015). While the Political era’s goal was social services, the Reform Era began to shift policing to controlling crime. In addition, the police organizations were reorganized through the study of scientific theory of administration advocated by Fredrick Taylor, which led to the development of maximizing police efficiency (Peak, 2015). To improve professionalism within police departments, O.W. Wilson began emulating what J. Edgar Hoover did with the FBI. In 1924, the FBI director began to raise eligibility standards to develop an incorruptible force. As a result, it had a direct influence on local police agencies by placing emphasis on education, training, honesty and professionalism. Professionalism in police departments came about in the form of new Technological advances and a focus on crime fighting. During this period there were three major advances in technology: two-way radio, police cars and the telephone. Unlike the problems faced during the political era, the advent of these technologies changed everything. With two-way radios, supervisors now had the capability to notify patrol officers of calls and maintain accountability. Patrol cars allowed for greater mobility, which led to officers responding to calls more efficiently. Then telephones allowed for citizens to have a direct line to the police and were encouraged to call for any problem. However, while the advances in technology greatly increased police efficiency, it had unexpected consequences. In contrast, during the political era, officers patrolled on foot, which allowed them to engage citizens and develop a relationship within the community. With the use of police cars, officers no