Bet
you didn’t know: this organization
got its first name 97 years ago this
month—and it wasn’t the FBI. And our
Director then wasn’t J. Edgar Hoover,
but the man shown here—Stanley
Finch. Here’s the story of how FBI’s
name evolved—and it’s more complicated
than you might think.
First,
it had no name. In 1908 when Attorney General Charles Bonaparte created the entity that would become the FBI, he didn’t name it. He simply referred to it as a “special agent force” when announcing his work to Congress in the 1908 annual report. Finch, a chief examiner in the Department of Justice, was named its first leader.
Second, it was
named the Bureau of Investigation but,
sometimes, called the Division of Investigation. In 1909, Attorney General
Wickersham formally named Bonaparte’s “force” the
Bureau of Investigation (BOI). At the time,
the Bureau had less than 70 employees.
Over the next several years, the Bureau
was also referred to as the Division of
Investigation, but this title didn’t stick.
Between 1913 and 1933, the Bureau remained
the BOI. In 1933 it was named the United
States Bureau of Investigation.
Third,
and most confusingly, the Bureau became
the Division of Investigation. In the
spring of 1933, newly elected President
Franklin Roosevelt reorganized the
Department of Justice. This reorganization
grew out of the end of Prohibition:
in 1919, the 18th Amendment had outlawed
the sale and manufacture of alcohol
and enforced by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Prohibition (BOP). In 1929, the BOP was transferred to the Justice Department from the Treasury Department. But what does this have to do with the FBI?
Well....in June 1933, President Roosevelt
ordered the formation of a Division of
Investigation composed of the Bureau
of Investigation and the Bureau of Prohibition.
Director Hoover—first named Director in
1924—was appointed Director of Investigation
but also remained BOI Director. In the
fall of 1933, the 18th Amendment was repealed
and the Bureau of Prohibition withered
and died. Its enforcement functions were
ended or dispersed so its agents were transferred
or fired; a small number became FBI agents.
Finally,
the FBI. By default, the Bureau of
Investigation had become the Division
of Investigation. This was confusing
as there were several “Divisions of Investigation” in the federal government then. Director Hoover, therefore, asked that his Division be given a distinctive name. Attorney General Cummings broached the issue with President Roosevelt and Congress, and they agreed. In the 1935 Department of Justice appropriation, Congress officially recognized the Division as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI. The name became effective on March 22, 1935, when the President signed the appropriation bill. We’ve been known under this name ever since.
Resources:
FBI History
webpage |
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