FACTS ABOUT THE F.B.I.

1. It was created in 1908 under President Teddy Roosevelt and was originally simply called the “special agent force”. One year later, it became the Bureau of Investigations and then the Department of Investigations. It became the FBI in 1935.
2. J. Edgar Hoover got his first job with the Department of Justice at age 22 in 1917. By 1924, he was the head of the FBI and stayed in that position until his death 48 years later.  He replaced William Burns, who was fired for trying to get dirt on Sen. Burton Wheeler to try to derail his investigation of the Teapot Dome Scandal.
3. The famous laboratory started with one technician, Special Agent Charles Appel. He had a borrowed microscope, a wiretapping kit, and basic chemicals for handwriting analysis and crime scene investigating.  Today the lab employees more than 500 scientists. 
4. The “Ten Most Wanted List” started in 1950 after the press hounded Hoover to provide a list of the ‘toughest guys”. Recently the list reached 521 names, of which 488 had been located and/or arrested.  There have been only ten women who have made the list.
5. Before Hoover became its head, there were three female agents. He ended that by refusing to hire women as agents.  And the women employees had to wear dresses and could not smoke at their desks (like the men could).
6. It spent two years investigating the lyrics to the song “Louie, Louie” because of complaints about its possible obscene messaging. It filed a 120-page report that concluded that the song was “unintelligible at any speed”.
7. It has an art theft team that has recovered 2,500 items worth about $150 million.
8. It recovered Dorothy’s slippers from the “Wizard of Oz” when they were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota. That took years.
9. It looked into using ESP in the 1950s, but found it of no use.
10. It started wiretapping in the 1920’s to catch gangsters violating Prohibition.
11. Walt Disney was an FBI informer for decades. He ratted out “subversives” in film and animation.  In exchange, Hoover allowed him to film episodes of the Mickey Mouse Club at FBI headquarters.
12. It investigated and had files on: Einstein, Sinatra, Hemingway, Phil Ochs (protest singer), Sacha Baron Cohen (for his Borat stunts), John Lennon, and most famously, Martin Luther King, Jr, who Hoover considered a communist and pervert (because of his affairs that were caught on wiretaps).
13. It did not switch from paper files to digital until 2012.
14. In 1965, it allowed four innocent men to be convicted of murder in order to protect a gang informant. By the time the scandal was rectified, two of the men had served almost 40 years and two had died in prison.  The families were paid $100 million in compensation.

https://www.history.com/news/9-fbi-fast-facts

https://www.factinate.com/things/42-extreme-facts-fbi/

https://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/surprising-things-you-never-knew-about-the-fbi.html/

                                                   J. Edgar Hoover