Born on New Years Day in 1895 in Washington, D.C., to Dickerson Naylor Hoover and Annie Marie Scheitlin Hoover, John Edgar Hoover was destined to be one of the most powerful men in the world, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is remembered for fighting gangsterism during the Prohibition era (1919-1933) and for a vigorous anti-Communist campaign after World War II. He received an LL.B. from George Washington University and a master's degree in law in 1917. While he was attending night school there, Hoover worked at the Library of Congress for five years. After rising from the position of messenger to clerk, he left the Library of Congress and began work with the Department of Justice in 1919 and stayed there for two years as special assistant to the Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer. As Palmer's assistant, Hoover directed the Palmer Raids against suspected radical communist aliens. When he was thirty years old, perhaps younger, he earned the title of Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He held the appointment through eight presidents until 1972 when he died.
             When Hoover joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there were around six hundred and fifty employees, including 441 Special Agents. Upon arrival, he proceeded to fire all of the Agents that he considered unqualified and professionalize the organization. Hoover also abolished the seniority rule of promotion and introduced uniform performance appraisals. Regular inspections of Headquarters and field office operations were scheduled. New Agents had to be between twenty-five and thirty-five years old. Then, in January of 1928, Hoover established a formal training course for new Agents. He also returned to the earlier preference for Special Agents with law or accounting experience. He also realized that the Federal Bureau of Investigation could not fight crime without the help of the public. In 1925, he wrote to the Attorney Gener...