FBI Agent Narcotics Diary Collection

Meet Max H. Roder (1892-1988). Special Agent who covered narcotics his entire 34 year career. Collection of 28 diaries kept on a day to day basis so he could recall things if he had to go to court .1931 to 1959. the 1939 diary is missing. TWO addition diary type books of how to mix fingerprint power, names and address of other fellow agents, wire taps made in 1935,(many pages torn out) etc. Counting the diaries and these two books makes a total of 30 books in all. The diaries from 1931 to 1937 are his narcotics work in Philadelphia Pa. Diaries from 1938 to 1959 are New York City work except for a brief period Sept 46 to Sept 47 when he went back to Philadelphia Pa. It appears the New York City cases were mainly targeted again Italian Americans in Little Italy. You'll be amazed how many people smoked opium in NYC. A lost practice in today's world.

FBI Agent Narcotics Diary Collection
eBay Item # 330116018905    

Comments

[J. Edgar Anslinger]

I thought it was odd that the guy said it was an FBI agent's diary because I thought the Treasury Department had jurisdiction over all narcotics investigations back then - there was a division called the Federal Bureau of Narcotics that handled that enforcement. Also, J. Edgar Hoover wanted nothing to do with drug law enforcement because he didn't want his agents to run the risk of being corrupted. And another thing - I went to the FBI's homepage and if you look through the history of the FBI's major cases from back in those days - you don't find many (if any) drug related busts. They focused on gangsters, corruption, bank robbers, etc. I'm not even sure if they had jurisdiction over drug crimes back then - I know it was added for sure in 1982 though.