Teddy Roosevelt & the Founding of the FBI

The True Origin of the FBI Guest: Willard Oliver, Professor of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University, and author of “The Birth of the FBI: Teddy Roosevelt, the Secret Service, and the Fight Over America's Premier Law Enforcement Agency” Federal law enforcement was weak at the beginning of America. Counterfeiting, assassinations, land fraud deals, and a conflict between Teddy Roosevelt and a Congress led to the eventual creation of the FBI. The Pinkertons  Guest: Paul O’Hara, Associate Professor of History, Xavier University, and author, "Inventing the Pinkertons: Or Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs, Being a story of the nation’s most famous (and infamous) detective agency" A cooper named Allan Pinkerton fell into detective work quite by accident, but he soon found himself in high demand. His foiling of a plot to assassinate President-Elect Abraham Lincoln vaulted him to national renown, and he worked across state lines with government agencies on every level.