John Edgar Hoover, the first and longest Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was a very powerful man who was not only lauded for building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency, but he was also an extremely controversial figure due to his secret abuses of power, and rumors of homosexuality and cross-dressing.
Credited with founding the FBI, instituting modernizations such as a centralized fingerprint file, forensic laboratories, and a national blacklist, he also used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, amass secret files on political leaders and Hollywood stars, and collect evidence using illegal methods. During these years, he also denied the existence of organized crime and intimidated and threatened others, including multiple sitting presidents of the United States. He held photos and information that could be used for blackmail purposes. Amidst all this, rumors began to fly as early as the 1930s about his sexual proclivities. In today’s more liberated world, these would be overlooked, but they could have destroyed his career and livelihood at that time.
