I've covered the FBI in Philadelphia and nationally for a good number of years.
Nationally, I've interviewed David G. Major, a former FBI counterintelligence official and President Reagan's counterintelligence advisor. And I've interviewed legendary undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone, AKA Donnie Brasco, and legendary FBI criminal profiler John Douglas.
In Philadelphia, I've interviewed former Philadelphia Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) Thomas Kimmel, as well as a good number of street agents.
So I was interested in a piece the FBI offered on the history of the FBI in Philadelphia.
You can read the piece below:
The FBI has had agents
stationed in Philadelphia since its earliest days as an organization.
Special
Agent Harry T. Donaghy, one of the original Secret Service investigators to
join the Bureau, took the oath of office in Philadelphia at the end of June
1908 and so was one of the first agents of the special agent force created by
Attorney General Bonaparte on July 26, 1908. By 1911, the office was located in
the U.S. Post Office Building on 9th and Market Streets.
Philadelphia
remained a small office during the Bureau’s first nine years, but with
America’s entry into World War I, it grew in size and responsibility along with
the Bureau itself. Philadelphia agents pursued hundreds of investigations under
the new Espionage Act; sought draft evaders like Grover Bergdoll (seen in the above photo), a fugitive
who Philadelphia agents chased for two decades; tracked terrorists in the
months following the war; and successfully handled a wide range of other
investigative responsibilities.
1920s and 1930s
The
early 1920s were a time of reform for the Bureau, and the Philadelphia Division
by extension, as a result of budget cuts, criticism from the Palmer Raids, and
the policies of a new administration. In a drastic reorganization of Bureau
field forces, the number of field offices was reduced from more than 125 to
nine. The Philadelphia office was closed, and its responsibilities were given
to the Baltimore Division.
Within
months, though, the Philadelphia Division was reopened under Special Agent in
Charge Walter Chapi Foster, who served from November 1920 to May 1925 before
being transferred to Pittsburgh to serve in a similar capacity.
In
1924, J. Edgar Hoover became Director of the Bureau of Investigation and began
a series of reforms to strengthen the organization, including a more forceful
supervision of field offices. The story is told, for example, of a Philadelphia
agent who was for years allowed to split time between doing his job and tending
to his cranberry bog in New Jersey. A more demanding Hoover made him chose
between the two.
In November 1924, Lenore
Houston (seen in the above photo), an employee in Philadelphia, became the first and only female special
agent hired by Director Hoover. While serving in the Philadelphia office, Miss
Houston received excellent performance ratings and was earning $3,100 a year by
April 1927. She resigned in 1928, shortly after being transferred to the
Washington Field Office.
During
this time, the Philadelphia office also joined in the nationwide battle against
a growing wave of gangsters. In early 1935, for example—in cooperation with
postal inspectors, Philadelphia police, and New York agents and
police—Philadelphia special agents tracked Walter Legenza, a member of the
notorious Tri-State Gang, to a hospital bed where he was recuperating from
injuries likely sustained from a previous shoot-out with police. Legenza was
arrested for murder and mail theft.
Professional
support personnel were becoming more important in the Division’s activities
during this period. By the early 1930s, clerical functions of the Philadelphia
Division were performed by three stenographers, who took dictation from special
agents, indexed reports, and filed correspondence, ensuring a clear record of
the Division’s work.
By
1937, there were approximately 17 special agents working in the Philadelphia
Division, including in its resident agencies in Harrisburg and Scranton.
The
office moved several times in the 1930s. At one point, it was located at 735
South 12th Street in the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society building, but moved
soon after. Sometime in 1934 or early 1935, the office relocated to the Liberty
Trust Building at Broad and Arch Streets.
1940s and 1950s
In
June 1940, the Division moved to the fourth floor of the new U.S. Courthouse at
9th and Chestnut Streets.
By
1942, the Philadelphia Division had a total of 74 special agents, who were
organized into accounting, security, and investigative squads. Programs and
social functions promoted camaraderie among its employees, and an office
newspaper called the “Philadelphia Scrapple” was published. This organizational
strength would be needed as another World War brought new challenges and
greatly increased the office’s workload.
The
outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939 led to great changes in the Bureau
and in Philadelphia.
As a
port city, Philadelphia’s national security work was crucial to homeland
security. The Philadelphia office provided security surveys for area
manufacturing plants, investigated hundreds of sabotage cases, detained known
enemy aliens in the area, investigated German-American Bund members suspected
of espionage, and pursued a wide range of other criminal and security matters.
In one espionage case late in the war, Philadelphia agents arrested Pablo Meso
Legarreta and Emilio Ipes Cazaux Hernandes, Spanish seamen who had been
smuggling espionage messages to German spies in Spain.
The
Division continued to focus on national security into the Cold War years.
During the summer of 1948, the Philadelphia office found itself at the
intersection of American politics and Soviet intelligence as it surveilled
several persons known to have worked with the OGPU (the KGB’s predecessor) who
were also influential advisors in Henry Wallace’s campaign for president. The
Progressive Party held their convention in Philadelphia that summer in order to
nominate Wallace, who had no connection to Soviet intelligence, but whose inner
circle of advisors had at least three known Soviet agents—Martha Dodd Stern,
Alfred Stern, and John Abt.
Philadelphia
also played a significant role in the investigations of Soviet spies Klaus Fuchs and Julius
Rosenberg, providing the key link between the two. Leads from
Special Agent Robert Lamphere’s interview of Klaus Fuchs in London led the
Bureau to Harry Gold (seen in the above photo), a chemist living in Philadelphia. Philadelphia agents
arrested Gold in May 1950 and connected him to a Soviet courier named David
Greenglass. Greenglass, the brother of Ethel Rosenberg, had been a courier for
Julius Rosenberg’s spy ring, collecting stolen secrets and transferring them to
Rosenberg. Philadelphia personnel also provided translation assistance for the
broader espionage investigation.
1960s
Organized
crime and growing domestic unrest became major concerns of the Philadelphia
Division in the 1960s. Under the FBI’s Top Hoodlum program, for example,
personnel gathered and analyzed criminal intelligence about the Bruno organized
crime family.
Meanwhile,
traditional criminal investigations continued in Philadelphia. Automobile
theft, extortion, the theft of interstate shipments, and a wide variety of
other federal crimes were all pursued.
On May 17, 1966, one kidnapping case turned tragic as Special Agent Terry R. Anderson (seen in the above photo) of
the Philadelphia Division was shot and killed while searching for a kidnap
victim in rugged mountain terrain near Shade Gap, Pennsylvania. William
Hollenbaugh, also known as the “Mountain Man,” had abducted a 17-year-old girl
and held her captive for seven days. Hollenbaugh killed Anderson while he and
another agent were pursuing the fugitive. Through Anderson’s sacrifice and the
heroism of his partner, the victim was rescued, and Hollenbaugh was killed.
1970s through 1990s
The
Philadelphia Division faced significant challenges in the early 1970s when it
had to deal with the burglary of one of its resident agencies in 1971 and the
changing national political climate after the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972
and the emerging Watergate scandal.
The
burglary of the resident agency had taken place on the night of March 8, 1971.
A radical group called “Citizens’ Committee to Investigate the FBI” broke into
the office in Media and stole a wide array of domestic security documents that
had not been properly secured. Some of the documents mentioned “Cointelpro”, or
Counterintelligence Programs—a series of programs aimed to disrupt some of the
more radical groups of the 1950s and 1960s. The leaking of those documents to
the news media and politicians and the subsequent criticism, both inside and
outside the Bureau, led to a significant reevaluation of FBI domestic security
policy.
In
September 1973, the Division settled into a new facility in the William J.
Green Federal Building at 600 Arch Street. From there it pursued serious color
of law and political corruption cases, investigating Philadelphia police
officers for alleged civil rights violations in 1977 and Philadelphia
councilmen for extortion in 1986. The office also broke new investigative
ground, investigating Norman Mark Allen of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, for
communicating false information regarding consumer product tampering. Allen was
the first person in the U.S. to be prosecuted for this crime and pled guilty in
1986.
Organized
crime became a Bureau priority in 1978, and Philadelphia stepped up its work in
this field. Using new laws like the 1970 Racketeer Influenced Corrupt
Organizations (RICO) Act, agents targeted organized crime leaders like Nicodemo
“Little Nicky” Scarfo (seen in the above photo). Agents arrested Scarfo in January 1986 along with 17
members of his criminal family. In the coming years, more charges were filed
against Scarfo, and additional members of his operation were arrested. Scarfo
was convicted of many of the crimes uncovered by the Philadelphia Division, and
his organization suffered significant damage.
The
Mafia wasn’t the only criminal enterprise pursued by Philadelphia agents. In
1996, for instance, a long-term, seven-city undercover operation worked jointly
with the Drug Enforcement Administration came to fruition. Named ZORRO II, it
targeted numerous Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers operating in the
United States. Through the operation, more than 400 kilos of cocaine were
seized, as well as half a pound of crack cocaine and approximately $700,000 in
cash and property. Arrests and seizures took place in Los Angeles, New York,
Miami, Newark, Philadelphia, Richmond, and the District of Columbia.
In
another undercover drug investigation, Philadelphia lost a second agent. In
March 1996, Special Agent Charles Leo Reed (seen in the above photo) met
Jonathan M. Cramer, a reputed Philadelphia drug dealer who was attempting to
purchase cocaine. The meeting took place in Agent Reed’s car, which was parked
in a hotel parking lot near the Philadelphia waterfront. Something went wrong,
a gun battle ensued, and Agent Reed and Cramer shot and killed each other.Post-9/11
The
terrorist attacks of 9/11 led to major changes within the FBI, including the
Philadelphia Division, as preventing future strikes became the Bureau’s
overriding priority.
Created
in 1985, Philadelphia’s multi-agency Joint Terrorism Task Force has become an
even more important resource in running down terrorism leads, vetting threats,
and developing intelligence; following 9/11, additional anti-terror task forces
were formed in Philadelphia and in various resident agencies. In 2003, a Field
Intelligence Group was also created to better collect and utilize intelligence
in the office’s jurisdiction and to share it nationwide.
In May 2007, the Philadelphia
Joint Terrorism Task Force and other authorities in both Pennsylvania and New
Jersey disrupted a potentially disastrous terrorism plot by six
men who were allegedly planning to attack soldiers at the U.S. Army base at
Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Philadelphia
has also played a key role in the Bureau’s growing Art Theft program, thanks to
the expertise of one of its agents. In one investigation, for example, the
office helped solve the theft of millions of dollars worth of historical
artifacts from the Philadelphia Historical Society; in another, it recovered
three stolen Norman Rockwell originals. The division also pursued public
corruption matters, successfully developing a case against Joseph Mazzatesta
and Bureau of Prison officials at the Allenwood federal penitentiary.
Mazzatesta had been bribing several prison officials to betray prisoners who
cooperated with law enforcement against the Mafia.
Like
the FBI itself, the Philadelphia Division has proudly helped protect local
communities and the nation for more than a century.
