Gangster Hunters: How Hoover’s G-Men vanquished America’s deadliest public enemies
John Oller
Dutton
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was established in 1908 when Theodore Roosevelt set up a small corps of detectives within the US Department of Justice. Their brief: to investigate corporate wrongdoing and fraudulent government land deals. Its most famous head, J. Edgar Hoover, took over Directorship of the Bureau in 1924. Ironically his predecessor was implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal. Hoover was ambitious to expand the FBI brief beyond its limited duties. He cleared away a lot of what he considered dead weight in his department and promoted clean-cut men, especially favoring those with a college legal education and preferably membership of a fraternity.
In 1933 a whole series of kidnappings of millionaire businessmen began to raise the FBI’s public profile with their pursuit of notorious gangsters including Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, and the most infamous of all the “Public Enemies,” John Dillinger. From their first involvement the FBI made serious mistakes and suffered the consequences. Hoover came close to dismissal after a disastrous attempt to capture Dillinger led to the deaths of several lawmen and civilians, yet curiously the event led to an expansion of FBI powers. New federal laws and the death penalty option for kidnapping gave the FBI agents the power of arrest and the right to carry guns irrespective of any state law impediments. Hoover decided the war on crime needed fewer lawyers and more gunslingers. Dillinger was killed eventually during an ambush staged by FBI agents outside an East Chicago cinema, ironically after watching a gangster movie. This and other incidents firmly established the FBI as America’s (and one of the world’s) premier law enforcement agencies.
In Gangster Hunters Oller presents a warts and all portrayal of an era of glamorous criminals, their molls, and the FBI agents who pursued them. It’s an entertaining read from start to finish, both for casual readers and fans of true crime.
