THE FBI: Dipping into the Cookie Jar

Bit by bit, J. Edgar Hoover's image as an incorruptible crimebuster has crumbled since his death in 1972. Congressmen and journalists have exposed the late FBI director as a petty tyrant who conducted vicious personal vendettas, trampled on citizens' rights and all too eagerly carried out requests from Presidents to investigate their political rivals (TIME cover, Dec. 22). Now federal investigators have found that Hoover and his cronies in the bureau improperly dipped into FBI funds for private parties, vacation trips and other personal expenses.

Hoover's fingerprints on the cookie jar turned up during a probe into charges of corruption...

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