ABSTRACT
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a division of the US Department of Justice and is its principal investigative arm charged with analyzing violations of federal laws. The FBI has the broadest investigative authority of all federal law enforcement agencies. The agency was founded in 1908 under the guidance of then President Theodore Roosevelt and Attorney General Charles Bonaparte. President Roosevelt issued an executive order creating an investigative force within the Justice Department. In 1909 Attorney General George Wickersham named the force the Bureau of Investigation. The FBI's overall mission is to uphold the law through the investigation of violations of federal criminal statutes and to protect the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities. During the 1930s, the FBI gained wide support for its capture of a handful of highly publicized gangsters.
