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09/26/03
 Before
1934, “G-Man” was underworld slang for any and all
government agents. In fact, the detectives in J. Edgar Hoover’s
Bureau of Investigation were so little known that they were
often confused with Secret Service or Prohibition Bureau agents.
By 1935, though, only one kind of Government employee was
known by that name, the Special Agents of the FBI.
How
this change came about is not entirely clear, but today’s
date, September 26, plays a central role in the apocryphal
origins of this change.
Seventy
years ago today, Bureau of Investigation Agents and Tennessee
police officers arrested gangster George “Machine Gun”
Kelly. He was a “wanted fugitive” for good reason.
Two months earlier Kelly had kidnapped oil magnate Charles
Urschel and held him for $200,000 in ransom. After Urschel
was released, the Bureau coordinated a multi-state investigation,
drawing investigative information from its own field offices
as well as from other police sources, as it identified and
tracked the notorious gangster across the country.
On September
26th, “Machine Gun” Kelly was found in a decrepit
Memphis residence. Some early press reports said that a tired,
perhaps hung-over Kelly stumbled out of his bed mumbling something
like “I was expecting you.” Another version of the
event held that Kelly emerged from his room, hands-up, crying
“Don’t Shoot G-Men, Don’t Shoot.” Either
way, Kelly was arrested without violence.
The
rest is history. The more colorful version sparked the popular
imagination and “G-Man” became synonymous with the
Special Agents of J. Edgar Hoover’s Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
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