Charles Joseph Bonaparte, who served as U.S. attorney general under president theodore roosevelt, was one of the organizers of the Civic Reform League and the National Municipal League, and he helped to found a Special Agents Force within the justice department that was the forerunner of the federal bureau of investigation (FBI).
A grandson of Jerome Bonaparte, who was Napoleon's youngest brother, Charles Joseph Bonaparte was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 9, 1851. After graduating from Harvard College in 1871, he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1874. Bonaparte returned to Baltimore and established a private practice. At the time, public corruption of elected officials was widespread in the United States and the political situation in Maryland was considered to be the worst in the country. Bonaparte, of Italian-American descent, became interested in civic reform, commenting in an article published in Forum magazine that the politicians of that period if not technically criminals themselves, were the "allies and patrons of habitual lawbreakers."
In 1908, Roosevelt directed Bonaparte to create an investigative force that would be a subdivision of the Justice Department. Before he left office, Bonaparte suggested making the division permanent. His suggestion was upheld by his successor, george wickersham, who called the group the Bureau of Investigation. The 23-member unit developed by Bonaparte was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1935.
After leaving office in March 1909, Bonaparte continued to pursue his advocacy of civil reform. He died on June 28, 1921, at his estate, Bella Vista, located outside Baltimore.
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