S TUTTERING FOUND A TION CELEBRITY CORNER
J. EDGAR HOOVER THE CONTROVERSIAL MAN BEHIND THE FBI
On October 20, 2023, the movie Killers of the Flower Moon was released in theaters. The film is both directed and produced by Martin Scorcese. It stars Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone. It has a strong supporting cast with actors like John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser.
It is based on a 2017 book of the same name by David Grann that explores murders of wealthy Osage people in Oklahoma in the 1920’s, after massive oil deposits were found on their land. While the official count was twenty murders of Osage Indians, Grann speculates that it could be in the hundreds. It is ironic that David Grann’s 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI went into detail about the start of the FBI and its founder, the highly controversial J. Edgar Hoover. Ironically, it brought to light the issue of Hoover’s stuttering.
J. Edgar Hoover was the sixth director of the Bureau of Investigation, the agency that was the forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was the catalyst in the founding of the FBI in 1935 and remained the director until his death at age 77 in 1972.
As a young person, he made an effort to overcome his stuttering by teaching himself to speak very quickly. This speaking style carried on throughout his life and was noted by others. His speech was so fast as an adult that stenographers regularly had difficulty following him.
Killers of the Flower Moon states, “Hoover, who believed that his men should conquer their deficiencies the way he conquered his childhood stutter, purged anyone who failed to meet his exacting standards.” The April 28, 2017 New York Times review of the book, “Solving a Reign of Terror Against Native Americans” states about Hoover being an unlikely candidate to
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law-enforcement administrator who served as the final Director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Hoover became instrumental in founding the FBI in June 1935, where he remained as director for an additional 37 years until his death in May 1972 – serving a total of 48 years leading both the BOI and the FBI and under eight Presidents.
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