The
New Deal:
1933 - Late 1930's
The
1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression
brought hard times to America. Hard times, in turn,
created more criminals--and also led Americans to
escape their troubles through newspapers, radio,
and movies.
To
combat the crime wave, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
influenced Congress in his first
administration to expand federal jurisdiction, and
his Attorney General, Homer Cummings, fought an unrelenting
campaign against rampant crime. One case highlighting
the rampant crime included the swindling and murder
of members of the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma
for the rights to their oil fields.
Noting
the widespread interest of the media in this war
against crime, Hoover carried the message of FBI
work through them to the American people. For example,
in 1932, the first issue of the FBI Law Enforcement
Bulletin - then called Fugitives Wanted by Police,
was published. Hoover became as adept at publicizing
his agency's work as he was at administering it.
Prior to 1933, Bureau Agents had developed an esprit
de corps, but the public considered them interchangeable
with other federal investigators. Three years later,
mere identification with the FBI was a source of
special pride to its employees and commanded instant
recognition and respect from the public. By the end
of the decade, the Bureau had field offices in 42
cities and employed 654 Special Agents and 1141 Support
Employees.
During
the early and mid-1930s several crucial decisions
solidified the Bureau's position as the nation's
premier law enforcement agency. Responding to the
kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, in 1932, Congress
passed a federal kidnapping
statute. Then in May and June 1934, with gangsters
like John Dillinger evading capture by crossing over
state lines, it passed a number of federal crime
laws that significantly enhanced the Bureau's jurisdiction.
In the wake of the Kansas City Massacre, Congress
also gave Bureau Agents statutory authority to carry
guns and make arrests.
The
Bureau of Investigation was renamed the United States
Bureau of Investigation on
July 1, 1932. Then, beginning July 1, 1933, the Department
of Justice experimented for almost
two years with a Division of Investigation that included
the Bureau of Prohibition. Public confusion between
Bureau of Investigation Special Agents and Prohibition
Agents led to a permanent name change in 1935 for
the agency composed of Department of Justice's investigators:
the Federal Bureau of Investigation was thus born.
Contributing
to its forensic expertise, the Bureau established
its Technical Laboratory in 1932. Journalist Rex
Collier called it "a novel research laboratory
where government criminologists will match wits with
underworld cunning." Originally the small laboratory
operated strictly as a research facility. However,
it benefitted from expanded federal funding, eventually
housing specialized microscopes and extensive reference
collections of guns, watermarks, typefaces, and automobile
tire designs.
In 1935, the FBI National
Academy was established to train police officers
in modern investigative methods, since at that time
only a few states and localities provided formal
training to their peace officers. The National Academy
taught investigative techniques
to police officials throughout the United States,
and starting in the 1940s, from all over the world.
The legal tools given to the FBI by Congress, as well as Bureau initiatives
to upgrade its own professionalism and that of law enforcement, resulted in
the arrest or demise of all the major gangsters by 1936. By that time, however,
Fascism in Adolph Hitler's Germany and Benito Mussolini's Italy, and Communism
in Josef Stalin's Soviet Union threatened American democratic principles. With
war on the horizon, a new set of challenges
faced the FBI.