A. Bruce Bielaski

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Alexander Bruce Bielaski (April 2, 1883–February 19, 1964) was an American lawyer and director of the Bureau of Investigation (now the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

Bielaski was born in Montgomery County, Maryland to the son of a Methodist minister Alexander Bielaski. He received a law degree from The George Washington University Law School in 1904 and joined the Department of Justice that same year. Like his predecessor Stanley Finch, Bielaski worked his way up through the Justice Department. He served as a special examiner in Oklahoma where he "straightened out the court records" and aided in the reorganization of Oklahoma's court system when the Oklahoma Territory became a state. Returning to Washington, Bielaski entered the Bureau of Investigation and rose to become Finch's assistant. In this position he was in charge of administrative matters for the Bureau. At the end of April 1912, Attorney General George W. Wickersham appointed Bielaski to replace Finch. As Chief, Bielaski oversaw a steady increase in the resources and responsibilities assigned to the Bureau.

After leaving the Bureau in 1919, Bielaski entered into private law practice. According to The New York Times, while on a trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1921, Bielaski was kidnapped. He escaped three days later, saving himself and the ten thousand dollars gathered to rescue him.

Bielaski worked undercover as a prohibition agent operating a decoy speakeasy in New York City. From 1929 to 1959 he headed the National Board of Fire Underwriters team of arson investigators. In 1938, Bielaski served as President of the Society of Former Special Agents. He died in February 1964, at the age of eighty.

His grandfather was the Civil War Captain Alexander Bielaski and his uncle was the first Polish American Major League Baseball player Oscar Bielaski.

[edit] Sources

• "BRUCE BIELASKI, JUSTICE AIDE, DIES", New York Times, 1964-02-20. Retrieved on 2008-03-28. 
• Federal Bureau of Investigation: Directors, Then and Now. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.

[edit] External links

Preceded by Stanley Finch

Director of the Bureau of Investigation 1912-1919

Succeeded by William E. Allen

v • d • e Directors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Finch • Bielaski • Allen* • Flynn • Burns • Hoover • Gray* • Ruckelshaus* • Kelley • Adams* • Webster • Otto* • Sessions • Clarke* • Freeh • Pickard* • Mueller * denotes acting

[edit] External links

• Official FBI bio of Alexander Bielaski (basis of original version of this article)