What cases have the FBI worked on?

• 

  One Family, Two Trailblazers

  July 11, 2022

  Retired Special Agent Paula Smith and her brother, Steve, a former NASA astronaut, share the story of how the FBI flag made it to space.

1 - 15 of 1159 Results

The FBI’s investigative authority is the broadest of all federal law enforcement agencies. The FBI has divided its investigations into a number of programs, such as domestic and international terrorism, foreign counterintelligence, cyber crime, public corruption, civil rights, organized crime/drugs, white-collar crime, violent crimes and major offenders, and applicant matters. The FBI’s investigative philosophy emphasizes close relations and information sharing with other federal, state, local, and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies. A significant number of FBI investigations are conducted in concert with other law enforcement agencies or as part of joint task forces.

For more information visit the What We Investigate section.

Major civil rights cases that the FBI has investigated over the years.

• 

  Emmett Till

  The tragic 1955 murder of an African-American teenager in Mississippi shocks the nation.

  More →

• 

  KKK Series

  This series details the work of the FBI to protect the American people—especially minorities—from the evils of the modern-day Klan.

  More →

• 

  Medgar Evers

  Justice is finally served in the 1963 murder of a civil rights activist in Jackson, Mississippi.

  More →

• 

  Mississippi Burning

  The murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964 turned into one of Bureau’s biggest investigations of the era.

  More →

1 - 5 of 5 Results

Significant counterintelligence and espionagecases worked by the FBI and its partners over the course of FBI history.

• 

  Aldrich Ames

  CIA case officer Aldrich Ames spied for the Russians for nearly a decade before his arrest in 1994.

  More →

• 

  Alger Hiss

  Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1950, following a lengthy espionage investigation by the FBI and its partners.

  More →

• 

  Atom Spy Case/Rosenbergs

  Using intelligence, the FBI uncovered an espionage ring run by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg that passed secrets on the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

  More →

• 

  Black Tom 1916 Bombing

  On July 30, 1916, German agents blew up the Black Tom railroad yard in New Jersey, killing four in a clear act of sabotage.

  More →

• 

  Brian P. Regan Espionage

  A former Air Force intelligence officer steals thousands of classified documents and tries to sell them to China, Iraq, and Libya before his arrest in August 2001.

  More →

• 

  Duquesne Spy Ring

  On January 2, 1942, following a lengthy investigation by the FBI, 33 members of a Nazi spy ring headed by Frederick Joubert Duquesne were sentenced to serve a total of over 300 years in prison.

  More →

• 

  Ludwig Spy Ring

  A fatal traffic accident in 1941 helps the FBI uncover a German spy ring headed by Kurt Frederick Ludwig.

  More →

• 

  Maksim Martynov

  Maksim Martynov, a member of the Soviet delegation to the United Nations, is identified as a spy in the 1950s.

  More →

• 

  Nazi Saboteurs and George Dasch

  In June 1942, German subs dropped off four saboteurs each in Long Island and northeastern Florida, but one of the men got cold feet and turned himself in to the FBI.

  More →

• 

  Pearl Harbor Spy

  On February 21, 1942, just 76 days after the tragic attack on Pearl Harbor, Bernard Julius Otto Kuehn was found guilty of spying in Honolulu.

  More →

• 

  Robert Hanssen

  On February 18, 2001, Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested and charged with committing espionage on behalf of the intelligence services of the former Soviet Union and its successors.

  More →

• 

  Vasilli Zubilin

  A mysterious letter identifies Soviet spies in the United States during World War II, including diplomat Vasilli Zubilin.

  More →

• 

  Vonsiatsky Espionage

  A major espionage ring led by a naturalized American citizen from Russia is broken up by the FBI during World War II.

  More →

• 

  Year of the Spy (1985)

  In 1985, a string of high-profile espionage arrests by the FBI and its partners led the press to dub it the “Year of the Spy.”

  More →

1 - 23 of 23 Results