For much of the 20th century, there was little question who Americans considered the greatest director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation: J. Edgar Hoover. Really, nobody else was even discussed. Hoover helped to create the FBI from the ground up, and led it for an unprecedented 48 years straight. He revolutionized the field of forensic science, but his real genius was for public relations, creating the image of the heroic “G-Man.” He helped to end the golden age of organized crime in the United States, jailing or killing legendary gangsters like Al Capone and John Dillinger, while his enthusiasm for wire-tapping laid the groundwork for the terrifying systems of mass surveillance that confront Americans today. He was, by most estimates, the most effective law-enforcement agent in U.S. history. Which is why the conventional wisdom is wrong, and the best FBI director is actually Kash Patel.

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