The Rise of J. Edgar Hoover

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

J. Edgar Hoover was the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 48 years. He grew the FBI from a small, obscure operation to one that employed thousands of agents, investigating everything from kidnapping and bank robberies to political subversion and international espionage. Beverley Gage tells Don how Hoover guided every aspect of the FBI's operation for his decades in charge. And how, if he had decided to step down at the end of the 1950s, we might remember him very differently.

Produced by Benjie Guy. Mixed by Joseph Knight. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Once upon a time in medieval England, there was a young king who would do just about anything for his favorite night.
0:06.5	They were inseparable.
0:08.5	With love at the front of a king's mind, instead of war or ambition, you'd think the kingdom would be in for a golden
0:15.0	era of peace. But England is headed for the most catastrophic collapse seen for hundreds of
0:20.4	years. The saga continues, Join me Dan Jones on This is History, a Dynasty to
0:26.4	Die for. Available wherever you get your podcasts. It is the morning of Monday, July 23rd, 1934.
0:40.0	The director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, sits poised at his breakfast table, an array of the day's front page headlines spread before him.
0:49.0	Agents kill Dillinger. Dillinger shot dead.
0:53.0	Dillinger led to death by girl in red dress.
0:57.0	John Dillinger, one of the most notorious gangsters of the Great Depression, had finally been brought down.
1:03.0	His criminal gang was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations.
1:08.0	Dillinger was imprisoned several times and had escaped twice.
1:13.0	After evading police across four states for a year,
1:16.0	a brothel owner in Chicago informed authorities of Dylinger's whereabouts.
1:21.0	He was tracked down to a movie house and fatally shot in the back by federal agents as he attempted to flee.
1:27.0	Hoover peruses each paper with supreme satisfaction.
1:31.0	He has used the pursuit of John Dillinger to improve the FBI's
1:35.4	investigative techniques and address the rising threat of organized crime.
1:39.4	Before him is the result of that dogged work by the crime fighting agency he has created.
1:45.4	All of it, solid evidence of his own rising star. Hi everybody welcome to American history hit. I'm going to
1:59.6	American history hit. I'm Don Wildman. I'm going to date myself a bit here and flashback to one of my favorite
2:05.7	TV shows of my youth, the FBI, starring Ephraim Zimbliss Jr. that ran from 1965 to 1974, some 200 episodes. The series is rarely
	...

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