Louis J. Freeh

Appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1993, Louis J. Freeh (born 1950) was selected for this promotion because of the reputation he had earned in federal law enforcement. As an FBI agent and then a federal prosecutor, Freeh had helped win convictions in high-profile criminal cases. Despite controversy that swirled around the FBI during his watch, Freeh remained committed to running the bureau for as long as he could be effective.

The son of Beatrice and William Freeh, Sr., Louis Freeh was born on January 6, 1950, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Although a youth of considerable promise and ambition, Freeh came from a family of modest means. As a result he attended local public universities and worked to defray his expenses. His family lived in three rooms on the first floor of their house, renting the second story, after his father, a transplanted Brooklynite and real estate broker, moved the family to Hudson County. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers University in 1971, Freeh earned his law degree in 1974 from Rutgers Law School at Newark. In 1974-1975 he served as a law clerk in the Newark office of New Jersey's Republican senator, Clifford Case, leaving in 1975 to accept an appointment as an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Assigned to New York Office

Assigned to the FBI's New York office, Freeh worked in the organized crime unit. His diligence and skills were fully demonstrated in a major investigation he headed of corruption on the New York waterfront that resulted in the conviction of 125 union and waterfront officials on federal racketeering charges. Anthony Scotto, the president of the International Longshoremen's Union, was one of those convicted. For this achievement Freeh was awarded a special FBI commendation and was promoted to supervisor in the Organized Crime Unit at FBI headquarters in Washington. While employed as an FBI agent Freeh met his future wife, Marilyn, at the time employed as a clerk at FBI headquarters. They became the parents of five sons.

Freeh's demonstrated skills and close cooperation with federal prosecutors earned him a further promotion in 1981 to assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York (New York City). Concurrent with this assignment, Freeh attended New York University Law School, earning the LLM degree in 1984. From 1988 to 1992 he served as adjunct associate professor at Fordham Law School. His matriculation and part-time teaching reflected his desire to enhance his knowledge of criminal law and his credentials for promotion in the federal judiciary.

Rose On His Record

His impressive record as prosecutor ensured such promotion, with his most important case involving the successful indictment and eventual conviction in 1987 of 16 of 17 crime leaders in the so-called Pizza Connection case. This complex criminal case involved a Sicilian-based drug-dealing (heroin) and money-laundering operation stretching from Turkey to Brazil that in the United States used pizza parlors as fronts for money laundering. Freeh not only won the respect of the law enforcement community for his skill in recruiting informers and tracing the elaborate ruses employed to sell drugs and launder money, but even defense attorneys praised his fairness when arguing the government's case in court. An innovative prosecutor, Freeh, for example, secured the cooperation of second-level criminals who provided the testimony that helped convict high-level Mafia leaders by setting up a U.S. witness protection program for foreign informers.

The successful prosecution of the Pizza Connection case led in 1987 to his promotions first to head the Organized Crime Unit in the New York office and then, in January 1989, to deputy U.S. attorney. In addition, in 1989 he received the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Achievement Award.

A Leading Prosecutor

Recognized as one of the leading prosecutors in the nation, Freeh was selected by Attorney General Richard Thornburgh in May 1990 to head a special federal investigation into the mail bombing deaths of Federal Judge Robert Vance of Birmingham, Alabama, and Savannah (Georgia) alderman and NAACP official Robert Robinson. Freeh masterminded a nationwide investigation that culminated in the arrest and conviction of Walter Lee Moody for terrorist acts (which also included sending mail bombs to other civil rights offices throughout the South). His handling of this investigation earned him the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 1991 and then, in July 1991, his nomination by President George Bush and Senate confirmation as federal district judge in the Southern District of New York.

Only 41 years old at the time of his appointment to the federal bench, Freeh's meteoric rise was based on his credentials as a skilled investigator and prosecutor and on his ability to work closely and effectively with others. Unlike others whose judicial appointments had been based on political connections, Freeh had never been directly involved in partisan politics.