Margins
The FBI Story book cover
The FBI Story
A Report To The People
1956
First Published
3.41
Average Rating
368
Number of Pages

Part of Series

What is the FBI? How did it come into being? What has it accomplished? What are its powers? Above all, what does the mere fact of its existence mean to every citizen of the United States? This book, written with the cooperation of J. Edgar Hoover and FBI personnel, will answer these questions once and for all. The FBI Story, written by one of America's top reporters, Don Whitehead, and with a Foreword by J. Edgar Hoover, takes you behind the scenes to reveal the record of America's crusade against crime and subversion. The FBI Story names names, places and events. You'll read about cases which have made today's headlines as well as about the celebrated cases and notorious events which made yesterday's. You'll read about the Black Tom explosion and other acts of sabotage which were the prelude to America's entrance into World War I. You will find the case histories of the Wall Street Explosion and "Palmer's Raids"; the Harding Era and Gaston Means. The gangsters' rise to power in the roaring twenties and the "lady in red," Pretty Ana Cumpna, who betrayed John Dillinger, and Al Capone. Here too are the Lindbergh Kidnapping, the Kansas City Massacre and many other cases which placed the FBI in the forefront of the public's imagination. The FBI Story is also the story too of Pearl Harbor, the capture of the Japanese espionage messages, the German saboteurs' invasion of the United States and their capture, and other behind-the-scenes dramas of World War II. The book tells of the FBI's secret operations in South and Central America and the experiences of its Special Intelligence Service (SIS). How the FBI tricked the Germans through double agent radio stations is a "stranger than fiction" story. You'll read of the FBI's role in combating postwar crime as Don Whitehead reports on the kidnap murder of little Bobby Greenlease and the murder of a mother by her son high over a Colorado beet field when a plane fell carrying passengers and crew to their deaths. The fight against Communism in the United States, Smith Act prosecutions and the gathering of evidence which made these prosecutions possible are all portrayed. Also related are the cases of Hiss and Klaus Fuchs and the theft of the atomic secrets and the Rosenberg and Greenglass cases, which are revealed in detail. The history of the FBI in reality represents the people's efforts to achieve government by law. The FBI Story, then, is the story of America itself and the struggles to attain this ideal.
Avg Rating
3.41
Number of Ratings
51
5 STARS
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4 STARS
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3 STARS
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2 STARS
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Author

Don Whitehead
Don Whitehead
Author · 2 books

Don Whitehead was an American journalist. Among his many awards were the Medal of Freedom, the 1950 George Polk Award for wire service reporting, the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, and the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. He studied at University of Kentucky from 1926 to 1928.He worked for the newspapers Lafollette Press (Harlan, Kentucky), and the Daily Enterprise beginning in 1928 where he covered the Harlan County War. He became a reporter for the Associated Press, in 1935. Whitehead was a combat reporter during World War II.He covered the Eighth Army (United Kingdom) in Egypt, for the AP in September 1942 and then the American Army in Algeria and Tunisia in 1943. He covered the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 with the First Infantry Division. In addition he reported on the Allied invasion of Italy at Salerno in September 1943, the bloody Italian campaign in the fall of that year and the Anzio landings in January 1944. Don Whitehead was on Omaha Beach with the 116th Infantry Regiment on June 6th, 1944 and was present for the Liberation of Paris and the first meeting of American and Russian forces on the Elbe River in May, 1945. All total Don Whitehead made five amphibious landings with assault forces during World War II. He received his first Pulitzer Prize, for international reporting (1951), for his coverage of the early months of the Korean War - where he again experienced months of front line combat. He received his second Pulitzer, for national reporting, in 1953 for his coverage of President Eisenhower's post-election trip to South Korea in 1953. He was Washington bureau chief for the New York Herald Tribune, from 1956 - 1957 and later a columnist for the The Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel. His book, The FBI Story was adapted into a 1959 film starring James M. Stewart, aka: Jimmy Stewart. His papers are held at the University of Tennessee. Don Whitehead married Marie Patterson on December 20, 1928. They had a daughter, Ruth, and two grandchildren.

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