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Inside the FBI highlights news, cases, and people from around the Bureau—in audio form. For more information, visit fbi.gov.
[The episode opens with a dramatic musical track featuring pulsating synthesizers.]
Ellen Ferrante: Since its beginning in 1908, the FBI has been an influential force in shaping the landscape of America.
From 1934, when notorious gangster John Dillinger drew his gun for the last time as FBI agents closed in, which marked the beginning of the end of our country’s lawless gangster years—to the FBI’s role in 9/11, when our agents worked to identify the hijackers and their sponsors and, with other agencies, to head off any possible future attacks.
Each point in Bureau history has had its own influential investigative milestones and successes, as well as challenges. Here at the FBI, we have an extensive archive, and our very own historian, to preserve these stories—and share them with the public.
On this episode, we’ll talk about why Bureau history matters, the role of our historian, the types of records we curate, and how you can access FBI historical information.
I’m Ellen Ferrante, and this is Inside the FBI.
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Dr. John Fox: Our past informs our actions and understanding today. We use our history to understand what has changed, what hasn't changed, and where we need to improve. It shows us how we have built up a reservoir of trust with our fellow Americans, a reservoir that is necessary for us to do our job. And our past shows us where our actions can empty that reservoir very quickly.
Ferrante: That was FBI historian Dr. John Fox. Dr. Fox researches and analyzes records and other primary sources to provide historical insights and expertise to both people within the FBI and the general public.
Dr. Fox: As historian, I have a wide range of things that I try to help people with, and they all have to do with understanding the FBI and its history and the role that it’s played in our nation since its creation back in 1908. So, I do everything from advising kids on their middle school history day projects all the way up to talking to reporters or academics about books they're writing or stories they're doing for the national press.
Ferrante: Dr. Fox also consults with outside creatives who work in the film and media industries. He makes recommendations so they can more accurately depict the FBI in movies, podcasts, books, and more. In addition, Dr. Fox liaisons with the Bureau’s staff who manage FBI records under the Freedom of Information Act.
But before we learn about how the FBI preserves its history, Dr. Fox explains why it’s so important to preserve it in the first place.
Dr. Fox: There are several reasons why the FBI preserves its history. First, we work for the American people, they have a right and a need to be able to learn what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. Our history helps inform them so that they can evaluate the job we do.
Second, we need to understand these things so that we can make informed decisions about what we’re doing now and what we might be doing in the future.
And lastly, it’s the law. Our records, the very sources that tell our history, are the property of the American people and the historic ones must be preserved by the National Archives when they are no longer needed by us to do our current work.
Without our records and key physical artifacts to help us explain our past and to make our understanding of it concrete in our minds, we can't succeed in the critical mission we have been given, protecting our fellow Americans while upholding those rights and liberties we all claim under our Constitution.
Ferrante: Ultimately, insight from our history can assist in operational matters that keep the public safe in addition to providing transparency about what we do.
Records are key building blocks that form the foundation of the Bureau’s history program. They are pieces of evidence about what happened in the past. The FBI as a federal agency by law must adhere to specific standards in record keeping and record transparency. Dr. Fox explains more:
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Dr. Fox: Well, the FBI's records are vast, and they go from everything to, you know, paying for gasoline for a car that one of our employees drives, to, of course, the collection of evidence in the most significant or horrific cases that we might face. And under the federal records laws, the National Archives works with us and identifies those aspects of our records, those parts of our records that must be maintained in perpetuity.
Ferrante: The Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, is a key federal records law that has shaped how government agencies archive information and ensure its accessibility to the public. Passed by Congress in 1966, FOIA requires federal agencies to release their records to the public, while still ensuring certain protections for records that must be withheld for a certain amount of time—this may be perhaps due to the need to protect national security or someone's privacy, such as an informant’s identity. Over the past decades, the FBI has released millions of pages of its records.
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Dr. Fox: Some of them are controversial. Some of them are tremendously significant for telling the story of our nation. And, of course, all of them help to tell the story of the FBI.
Ferrante: Many of our historic records are available at the National Archives. But another key source is the FBI’s online FOIA library, called The Vault, which contains 6,700 documents and other media that have been scanned from paper into digital copies accessible online. These records typically include investigative files, personnel files, and policy guides. You can access The Vault at vault.fbi.gov.
But our records don’t stop there. To receive records that are not already in The Vault, you may submit a Freedom of Information/Privacy Act or FOIPA request by fax, standard mail, or through eFOIPA, the FBI's electronic FOIPA portal. Visit efoia.fbi.gov to learn more.
In addition to maintaining a vast collection of documentation, the FBI also curates historic artifacts that further help tell the FBI’s story.
Dr. Fox: There are aspects of materials that we create in doing our jobs that sort of fall outside of the collection of federal records. And I'm thinking specifically here of historic artifacts.
Ferrante: Artifacts usually include objects related to FBI cases or the work Bureau employees do day in and day out on the job.
Dr. Fox: We have artifacts that range from the gun that John Dillinger was carrying the night he was killed to a cookie recipe from Ma Barker's papers that were found after her death—to, of course, the Unabomber's cabin where he was building bombs to send out in the mail to kill people.
Ferrante: The FBI displays many of its artifacts at our FBI Experience, which is our latest iteration of the FBI tour in Washington, D.C. We also loan artifacts to other museums and for events where their display might help people to better understand what we do. You can check out some of the artifacts we have online at fbi.gov/history.
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Ferrante: It’s not always easy being a historian at the FBI—you need to balance the concerns of the Bureau and the law with the goal of offering objective information to public.
Dr. Fox: In telling the history of the FBI, a federal historian like me comes under a few constraints that outside historians perhaps don't. For instance, I possess a security clearance which requires me, by law, to protect certain kinds of information, because it could—its release—could harm the U.S. government. I also have responsibilities under both the Freedom of Information law and the Privacy Act law to protect personal information about people who have interacted with the FBI and with other government agencies that I come across in the course of my duties.
If you think about it, the work of the FBI brings us into contact with lots of different people from lots of different areas of our country, lots of different backgrounds, lots of different experiences. It brings us into contact with people oftentimes when they're at their lowest, they've been victimized, they've been abused, they've been defrauded. They know that somebody might be planning to do something bad.
And these all mean that we are being trusted with some of the most sensitive information about our fellow Americans’ lives. You know, these are things that could damage the security of our nation or ruin somebody else's life.
Ferrante: To learn more about our FBI history, check out these resources:
-For copies of records, visit The Vault at vault.fbi.gov.
-To learn more about the stories behind famous cases and criminals, artifacts, and more, check out fbi.gov/history.
-If you have FOIA requests, visit efoia.fbi.gov.
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Ferrante: This has been another production of Inside the FBI. You can follow us on your favorite podcast player, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. You can also subscribe to email alerts about new episodes at fbi.gov/podcasts.
I’m Ellen Ferrante from the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs. Thanks for listening.
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