American bureaucrat and spymaster John Edgar Hoover was BOTD in 1895. Born in Washington D. C. to an affluent family, he studied law at George Washington University. During World War One, he worked for the Justice Department, leading a campaign to imprison foreign immigrants without trial. In 1919, he became head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s intelligence division, responsible for investigating “radical” left-wing movements. He was promoted to bureau director in 1924, a position he held for the rest of his life. Hoover built the FBI into an efficient crime-fighting agency, developing a centralised fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. He also used his powers to harass political dissidents (notably Communists and homosexuals) and blackmail high-profile figures, often via illegal methods. His surveillance targets included Emma Goldman, Charlie Chaplin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Muhammed Ali, Jean Seberg and John Lennon. An opponent of the Black civil rights movement, Hoover refused to investigate the 1963 Alabama Church bombings and spread rumours to discredit Dr King and other activists. A lifelong bachelor and closeted gay man, Hoover had a 30-year relationship with his assistant director Clyde Tolson. He was also rumoured to be a transvestite and the subject of blackmail attempts due to his closeted sexuality. Hoover died in 1972, aged 77. He has been portrayed onscreen many times, notably by Leonardo diCaprio in the 2011 biopic J Edgar.