As I've been working on these racket buster and racket buster-related stories, I have to wonder why it is that the FBI is so protective and proud of Hoover, especially considering all the shady stuff he did - major ethical infractions, no less. And even when that one House representative - during the Salvati hearings - wanted to have Hoover's name removed from the FBI building, he was stonewalled and it was dismissed.

So, what is everyone's thought on why Hoover is still held in high regard by the FBI? Even their bio on him on the FBI site doesn't mention any of the things he did wrong. Thoughts?

The Gay Mafia Lol Lol (just kidding)

From a strictly law enforcement point of view, he is popular because he wanted his agents to be on the field and work cases. While he was himself a bureaucrat and not a field agent, he fought against the bureaucratic culture of the administration by implementing the famous "Hoover Rule" which states that an FBI agent must spend 90% of his day on the field and only 10% in the office.

He also focused on bank robbers and political activists which got a lot of good attention from the public.

He didn't focus on the Mob but it didn't impact him negatively at the time because people didn't know the actual power of the mob and the Mafia wouldn't affect them too much.

Interestingly, all the main FBI agents who actually worked undercover in the Mob (Pistone, Garcia, Ruskin) are all praising Hoover because he understood the importance on being on the field .

Are you saying his past transgressions should be ignored? Because going after political activists ala the Cointelpro program was illegal, in addition to everything else he did. He's certainly not someone I would prop up as a hero.

I was not talking from a personal point of view. I was simply answering your question by sharing my thoughts on why he has been so popular.

I understand what you're saying and the point of view from which you're saying it, but the whole idea of propping up Hoover is hypocritical. From the FBI's website on the origins of their motto and logo created in:

But “F B I” is the best and one from which we might well choose our motto, for those initials also represent the three things for which the Bureau and its representatives always stand: “Fidelity - Bravery - Integrity.”

Obviously, Hoover lacked in the integrity department. So, why not just say, hey this guy did things in his past that we're not proud of such as x, y, and z instead of just totally ignoring them?

Maybe they are protecting his reputation to protect their own?

BINGO… your statement is right on F A

He is seen as the founder of the FBI, and as the man who built it up into a major crime fighting and nation protecting group. He knew how to work the media, until the 1950's when the country started going to the left politically. An example of him using the media was making John Dillinger and others into a threat to the country, when him and others were just small time bank robbers He also made as if he himself was out there fighting them, when he was just a a figure head. He looked the part. He was like Fauci, who never saw a patient but is known as a great doctor. I think in the future when the left in America wants his name off the FBI building, he will go the way of Confederate generals and certain former presidents.

He did build a great organization that has done a lot of great work, but it became a mess when he lost control of it.

Short answer: there's no political capital to be made from renaming the Hoover FBI Building.

Hoover was a nationally acclaimed figure in his era. But, he's been dead for almost 50 years. Unlike our Presidents, whose names and bios appear in textbooks in every school in America, Hoover's name and bio don't. Most people today don't know who he was, and those wo do, remember him as the nation's top cop, the bulldog-visaged G-Man, the scourge of commies and bank robbers--not the bureaucrat who harassed Martin Luther King, deliberately undermined antiwar, women's lib and civil right movements, placed illegal wiretaps, and kept voluminous files on the peccadilos of politicians and public figures. So, while some local Board of Ed officials score political points with some constituents by renaming schools because George Washington and Thomas Jefferson held slaves, or because Lincoln was a bigot, or because Woodrow Wilson re-segregated the Civil Service, nobody sees any political points from renaming the Hoover Building. And, it'd further demoralize the FBI. It's a political sleeping dog--let it lie.

For the record: Hoover did a lot of his dirty work at the behest of Presidents, who used the dirt he dug up against their political foes. He also turned a corrupt federal agency into a first-class investigative and law enforement body, and created a world reknowned crime lab and fingerprint and criminal records archive system that are widely used by state and local police agencies.

1000%

10,000%

Thats a bullseye!

Makes total sense. Never thought about the "political points" aspect. It just seems that the FBI is flippant about some things they shouldn't be flippant about. Like they're "untouchable"....lol. One recent example is the new Netflix "Waco" series. I watched it and the agents interviewed seemed to be having too much fun telling their side of the story. I realize that a lot of these things have some "scriptedness" (not a word, I know) to them, but it just seemed a little over the top to me. Nonetheless, as I mentioned, I have an interesting FBI story (I think, anyway) coming out soon.

On another note, have you (or anyone) read that new Hoover book that came out last November by Beverly Gage?

The Beverly Gage book on Hoover looks interesting, one positive thing I gather from the reviews is that it does not go with the outlandish story of the mafia blackmailing him for being gay, or of Hoover dressing as a woman.

I purchased the book for some information I needed for something I'm working on but it seems she paints him in a different light. - not as a hero or villain but more of the complicated person he was on both sides of the coin.

It sounds like a good book. Most books on Hoover have taken a position for or against him, it will be nice to see a fair sided story on him.

Hoover started COINTELPRO… looks like th Bureau is back to those tactics. The name should stay

J. Edgar was one very weird individual. (to say the least). lol.

He became an iconic figure for the FBI. Their "poster boy" so to speak, and mascot. But he was also a weird guy (with a lot of secrets and propensities hidden away the best he could in the closet). No doubt about it.

In the "Closet" no doubt ;-)

...And inside the cupboard and under the bed frame too, no doubt! LOL

I posted this about Hoover and the Mob back in '09:

Myth: The FBI for decades ignored the Mafia for two reasons: First, J. Edgar Hoover was a degenerate gambler who got tips on fixed horse races from senior Mafia people. Second, Hoover was gay, and the Mob had a photo of him in full drag that they used to coerce him.

Reality: Neither is true. Hoover was an avid horseplayer who regularly visited racetracks and had himself photographed there. But he was strictly a two-dollar bettor. He did get tips on fixed races from agents who wanted to suck up to the boss. He knew that the agents got the tips from underworld informants. Probably some of them were Mobbed-up, but there was (and is) nothing irregular or unusual about law enforcement using (and paying) informants for information—even info on fixed races.

Hoover was a mama’s boy and lifelong bachelor. He shared a home and vacationed with Clyde Tolson, assistant FBI director, whose only qualification seemed to have been his friendship with Hoover. Several competent biographers have investigated Hoover’s alleged homosexuality since his death in 1972, and have been unable to confirm it. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t gay—it means there’s no hard evidence that he was. He did what he did behind closed doors and shuttered windows, not in public--or in drag.

As a man who owed his 50-plus years’ tenure as FBI director to his ability to collect juicy data on other powerful men’s vices, Hoover knew better than anyone that his own personal life could be prime territory for blackmailers and political opponents. Probably the reason he had himself photographed at racetracks and on vacation with Tolson was to make those peccadilloes just public enough to pre-empt potential foes. The last things Hoover would have done would be to meet Frank Costello on park benches to get horse tips, or to attend gay orgies in drag.

So, why did Hoover ignore the Mafia for so long? His personal popularity and his secret files on politicians enabled Hoover to run the FBI as a personal fiefdom. He was obsessed with the Communist Party USA, and directed a huge share of FBI resources to “the enemy within” (a contemporary joke was that the only thing keeping CPUSA afloat was the dues paid by undercover FBI agents and informants). He also favored high profile, short-turnaround investigations such as bank robbery and kidnappings. He gave Mob-controlled gambling and narcotics a wide berth because he knew that the profits they generated enabled organized crime to corrupt law enforcement almost at will.

So, he preferred to consider gambling and drugs as “local issues.” When the Kefauver subcommittee’s televised hearings on gambling and organized crime (1950-51) raised questions about why the FBI wasn’t stopping them, Hoover replied: “If the laws against gambling presently on the state and local statute books were earnestly and vigorously enforced, organized gambling could be eliminated within 48 hours in any community in this land….The basic answer, is an aroused public opinion which will act on a local level through local enforcement to wipe out the problem.”

One of the most funny things for me are some reports from the 1920s and 30s in which Italian bootleggers and racketeers were labelled as "Sicilian communists" Lol

Also dont forget operation "Hood Winked" from the 1960s in which the feds tried to make a conflict between the Mafia and Communist leaders, by sending threatening letters to both sides.

"Hood Winked" was one of the many FBI counterintellegence operations that was aimed at the Communists party in the U.S.,but not only them,it was laso used fot the Black Panthers, Ku Klux Klan and many other organizations.The point was that if theres a dispute between the Communists and Cosa Nostra, the two organizations would spend their money and energy fighting each other.

One example when N.Y. agents sent a phony letter (allegedly from the Communists) to one unknown Cosa Nostra leader in which they attacked his labor operations of one of his enterprises. Another situation was when the FBI sent a letter to three unknown but reputed mob leaders, purportedly from a communist party member, that organized crime was responsible for the bombings in some party headquariers and threatened that they will chase the organization out of the country.

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I agree with you on a lot of this. And the explanations provided seem to jibe with common sense. But I also believe that some of this "counter data" that was written in defense of Hoover was orchestrated and put public by the Federal Bureau of Investigation itself in an attempt to counteract the negative barrage of publicity that hit the fearless leader, besmirching his reputation, and by extension, the entire bureau itself. After all, we know that nobody is better than muddying up the truth and creating a smokescreen than the G when they want to.

Hoover thought leftists working for the Communists wanted to infiltrate the schools and colleges, and United States politics. He thought they wanted to hijack the civil rights movement, and go after traditional religions. Looks like he was right.

Hoover being gay was a rumor started by his enemies to destroy his reputation. There was never proof of it. He did not concentrate so heavily on the mafia for a few reason, one being the FBI was more focused on interstate robbers, and the Narcotics Bureau and Treasury were going after them. Look what Hoover did when he did go after them. All out war, including using Cointelpro on them.