About this episode

This episode explores the complex legacy of J. Edgar Hoover, the long-time FBI director, following his death and the immediate actions taken by the U.S. government regarding his secret files.

On May 2, 1972, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI for 48 years, through eight presidents and two world wars, died in his sleep, and within hours the President of the United States sent men to seize his secret files. They arrived too late. This episode explores the full complexity of Hoover's legacy: the man who built modern American law enforcement and the man who ran a covert surveillance apparatus against his own citizens, and why the pattern he perfected has never fully stopped repeating.

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