page_title: William J. Flynn
section_title: BOI career
hierarchical_section_title: William J. Flynn / BOI career
caption_attribution_description: English: William Flynn, 1917
context_page_description: William James Flynn was the director of the Bureau of Investigation from July 1, 1919, to August 21, 1921.
context_section_description: In 1919, Flynn was named director of the Bureau of Investigation. Attorney General Palmer praised his new appointee as "the leading, organizing detective of America...Flynn is an anarchist chaser...the greatest anarchist expert in the United States." In one of Flynn's high-profile incidents, one of his operatives who was trailing the German diplomat Dr. Heinrich Albert on a streetcar, snatched Albert's briefcase, which contained sensitive documents. The papers documented Albert's having spent $27 million to build up a spy network in the United States, using German money to fund dock strikes, attacks on shipping, and bombs planted in munitions plants.
caption: William Flynn, 1917[4]
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