J. Edgar Hoover - America’s Top Cop or Chief Inquisitor?

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[skyden]

Col. Mustard: "Why is J. Edgar Hoover on your phone?"
Wadsworth: "He's on everybody else's phone, why shouldn't he be on mine?"

[MrLimitHoldem]

funny how he had a "Morality" clause for agents yet he himself was acting unmoral by his own standards

[ignitionfrn]

0:45 - Chapter 1 - Meet speed
4:45 - Chapter 2 - The FBI is born
9:45 - Mid roll ads
11:15 - Chapter 3 - Red scares
13:35 - Chapter 4 - Washtub !
15:55 - Chapter 5 - The trolling bureau
22:35 - Chapter 6 - Aftermath

[TihetrisWeathersby]

The man had dirt on a lot of people, No wonder he was able to stay in power so long

[ms.blackcat]

If he were born in the internet age, he would have a field day with so much information on people. He would have been even bigger.

[johnnymansker]

Learning American history from a British man living in Czech. Awesome 🎉

[FrankieBlueEyes]

There is a story that when Nixon was elected president he summoned Hoover to the Oval Office intending to fire him. After their meeting was over, Hoover had a new contract with a raise. Don't know if it's true or not but it makes for a good story.

[chickendrawsdogs]

There are surprisingly few videos on YouTube about J Edgar Hoover. Your timely contribution helped me leap over nagging writer's block.

[cliffordnewell]

Hoover appointed himself judge, jury and prosecutor for America, and our horrific and cowardly leaders let him get away with it.

[jayyydizzzle]

Hoover had such an interesting bio, it's easy to see why he's controversial as well. Takes over an hour to read his Wikipedia page. He was involved in just so much, there's reason to the argument, Hoover had as much power as the president. Man, I wish this was a two or three part series, Hoover's just a fascinatingly complex individual with a huge amount of secrets he brought to the grave

[adamb]

Thank you for making this channel. I grew up in a house where A&E was on nearly all the time and its a wonderful hit of nostalgia how similar this feels to their Biography series.

[kathyastrom]

Back in the mid-‘80s, I had a college class about Hoover’s FBI taught by an expert on the man and his agency (I’ve since seen the professor in tv documentaries on the subject). For our group project, we were all given actual (redacted) FBI documents as primary source material. My group was assigned the student left movement of the 1960s, and my part was on the FBI’s use of fake propaganda that they created to interfere in the student organizations and to make them look bad. Fascinating stuff, especially working with official government files. 

My favorite one was a report that I couldn’t work into my paper because it didn’t apply to my subject matter. It was written by a young rookie agent temporarily reassigned from NY to Chicago for the ‘68 Democratic convention to pose as a student and blend in with the protestors. He says he was walking down Michigan Avenue at 3:00 one morning when he was approached by [REDACTED FOR SEVERAL PARAGRAPHS]. The final line of the report was the only one left unblocked—it said, “Regardless of what happened to me, I do not think that the CPD used excessive force.” IOW, he got the crap beat out of him by the city’s cops.

FYI, our group paper got top marks!

[shakiMiki]

Has there ever been a blackmailer so compromised themselves? The accusation of homosexuality & cross dressing is not just salacious rumour, but with his gambling may account for him going easy on organised crime.

[pamelamays]

J.Edgar was also obsessed with Robert F. Kennedy. The film Blood Feud depicts that obsession in great detail.

[charlessaint]

Colonel Mustard, "Why is J. Edgar Hoover on your phone?
Wadsworth, "I don't know. He's on everyone else's, why shouldn't he be on mine?"

[--enyo--]

Awesome! I’d been waiting for this one. I knew you’d have to cover him at some point. Thanks!

It’d be pretty cool to have a Decoding the Unknown video on him as well about all the crazier conspiracy theories (some of which might be true).

[rickerogers]

He is and was my favorite "Cross.Dresser"!! That girl had style!!

[wernervanderwalt]

One of the few cases where the rugged was yanked out from under the FBI'S feet was the apprehension of Bonnie and Clyde. LOL. Hoover didn't get to close that one!

[danielsmith]

You’re the best Simon! Thanks for uploading, he was beyond prolific and one of the defining men of the 20th Century America.

[d.c.]

As a gay man, seeing J. Edgar's early photos, my gaydar went off the charts!