Edgar Hoover and his fight against organized crime
A retrospective look at the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigations will be inconclusive without specific acknowledgement of the specific yet controversial role played by its former director, Edger, J. Hoover. A man whose professional and personal influences on the agency in its quest to wrestle down organized crime has come under intense scrutiny and a resulting sharp criticism from a segment of the American public who have good reasons to discredit his celebrated achievements. In this brief review, Edgar Hoover will be presented as a caricature of the overall campaign to dismantle the structures of organized criminal activities in America.
In a series of highly misleading propaganda, Edgar Hoover’s lead FBI succeeded in assuring the public that they were on top of the fight against centralized orchestrated acts of criminality, whilst in the actual sense, it is reported that the Mafia gang, the world’s most notorious organized criminal group were actively carrying out their operations with gross impunity. To add insult to injury, Hoover was personally culpable for his persistent reluctance to conduct a thorough enough investigation into the Mafia and a subsequent all out crack down. In fairness to Hoover, it should be acknowledged that some level of investigations were carried out against the Mafia, however, the source of worry is the scale and intensity of such an investigation—which was very insignificant in comparison to the outlawed group in question. It is suggested in some quarters that, the reason for Hoover’s visible reluctance to address the Mafia menace was based on a legitimate fear he had about a highly classified blackmail information that was in the possession of the Mafia. The fear of the possible distractive effect such information could possibly have on his reputation and the legitimacy of his leadership of the FBI perhaps caught him glued to the dilemma of action and inaction.
The early 1930s witnessed an unacceptably hike in the number of bank robberies across the country, perpetrated by well organized criminal elements. The efficiency with which these gangs carried out their operations left the security agencies flat footed. Public outrage and discontent also brought the security agencies to the spotlight, sparking questions as to the significance of the security apparatus. Moved by the mounting public sentiments and criticism, Hoover’s lead FBI embarked on a successful crackdown campaign on the robbery menace. This however, did not come on a silver platter in view of the high cost of human and logistical resources that went into this fight. Hoover ultimately became the celebrated hero in this battle.
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