WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Newseum's first major
 changing exhibit features some of the biggest cases -- and dramatic
 evidence -- from the FBI's first 100 years, including the Unabomber's
 cabin, John Dillinger's death mask and the electric chair in which
 convicted Lindbergh baby kidnapper Bruno Hauptmann was executed.
 
     "G-Men and Journalists: Top News Stories of the FBI's First Century"
 opens Friday, June 20. With themes and artifacts drawn from FBI case files
 and the nation's front pages, the exhibition explores the role of the media
 in shaping the bureau's image and the sometimes cooperative, sometimes
 combative relationship between the press and the FBI.
 
     The exhibition, on display through June 2009, features approximately
 200 artifacts drawn from the FBI evidence vaults and the collections of
 other museums, reporters, law-enforcement professionals, private collectors
 and the Newseum. The largest artifact is the 10-by-12-foot cabin where
 Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski lived -- and was arrested -- in rural Montana.
 Among the smallest is a hollow nickel that held a coded message and was
 linked to the arrest of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
 
     "G-Men and Journalists" also features nearly 300 photographs and dozens
 of historic newspaper front pages and magazines from the Newseum
 collection.
 
     The exhibit introduction explains how the press was crucial to the
 creation of the FBI's carefully-crafted image of trained agents using
 scientific methods to stamp out crime. The FBI needed public support, and
 the press helped them get it. In turn, the news media used sensational
 crime stories to stoke sales.
 
     "Before the FBI building tour closed to the public after 9/11, it was
 one of the most popular attractions in Washington," said Newseum Executive
 Director Joe Urschel. "We want to share these amazing artifacts from the
 FBI evidence vault with the public in an exhibit that looks at the
 complicated relationship between the FBI and the media."
 
     One of the FBI's longest-running programs -- the Ten Most Wanted
 Fugitives -- was the result of a newspaper story. In 1949, International
 News Service reporter James F. Donovan asked the FBI: "Who are the 10
 toughest guys you are looking for?" The FBI gave him a list. Donovan's
 front-page report in The Washington Daily News displayed photos of four
 escapees, three con men, two murder suspects and a bank robber. The list
 was a hit, and some of the fugitives were captured as a result. The next
 year, the FBI started the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program.
 
     The FBI's law enforcement responsibilities and the news media's role as
 watchdog put them at odds. Both say the other sometimes overstepped its
 bounds. With the cultural and political shifts of the 1960s --
 characterized by a mistrust of government -- that tension increased.
 Journalists chronicled stories of FBI abuses that tarnished the bureau's
 reputation. In the post-9/11 era, balancing national security and civil
 liberties has added new complexities.
 
     Hoover and the Media
 
     Visitors first encounter a display on J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director
 from 1924 to 1972. Hoover cultivated friendly reporters, sending them
 "Interesting Case" memos with inside details about the FBI's crime-solving
 skills, but he also called journalists who wrote negative stories "jackals"
 and monitored some of them, including muckraking columnist Jack Anderson,
 Los Angeles Times reporter Jack Nelson, publisher I.F. Stone, Marvin Kalb
 of CBS and The New York Times' William Beecher and Hedrick Smith.
 
     Artifacts in this section of the exhibit include the desk, chair and
 office accessories that Hoover used during his career, a Hoover memo urging
 wiretapping of the telephone of New York Times reporter William Beecher,
 and several magazines featuring Hoover on the cover, including a 1935 Time
 ("His quarry has a gun in his hand, murder in his heart"); a 1947 Newsweek
 ("How to Fight Communism by J. Edgar Hoover"); a 1971 Life ("Emperor of the
 FBI"); and a 1975 Time ("The Truth About Hoover") published three years
 after Hoover's death.
 
     The Stories
 
     The exhibition is divided into 14 main sections, each examining a major
 case or aspect of the FBI's first century and the related role of the
 media.
 
     "Crime of the Century" recalls how the world was shocked in 1932 when
 the 20-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped. A go-between
 communicated with the kidnapper via newspaper ads, and the Lindberghs paid
 a $50,000 ransom. Soon after, the child's body was found, and President
 Herbert Hoover ordered the Bureau of Investigation into the case. In 1934,
 carpenter Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested. The trial was a media
 circus, with as many as 500 journalists chronicling the courtroom drama.
 Unauthorized newsreels appeared, leading most states to ban cameras in
 court. Artifacts in this display include the electric chair in which
 Hauptmann was executed in 1936.
 
     "Don't Shoot, G-Men!" looks at the gangster crime wave of the 1930s and
 how newspaper tales of the FBI's pursuit of John "Public Enemy No. 1"
 Dillinger, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, George
 "Baby Face" Nelson and other high-profile gangsters captivated
 Depression-weary Americans and raised the agency's profile. Along with Page
 One coverage of the "war on crime," this area of the exhibit features a
 variety of weapons from the gangsters and the straw boater, eyeglasses and
 La Corona-Belvedere cigar that Dillinger had on him the night the FBI
 gunned him down outside Chicago's Biograph movie theater.
 
     "A Mad Bomber and His Manifesto" focuses on the FBI's 17-year search
 for the Unabomber, whose homemade bombs killed three people and injured 23
 others. Despite an investigation that spanned eight states and involved
 approximately 500 agents, the FBI was making little progress until, in
 1995, the Unabomber mailed a 35,000-word essay to The New York Times and
 The Washington Post. If it was published, he vowed, he would "desist from
 terrorism."
 
     After much debate, the Post printed the manifesto, with the Times
 sharing the costs. Months later, a tip arrived from the bomber's brother,
 eventually leading the FBI to a small cabin in rural Montana where the
 Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, was arrested.
 
     One of the central artifacts in "G-Men and Journalists" is the
 10-by-12-foot cabin that was Kaczynski's home for 20 years.
 
     Among other exhibit displays: "America's Protectors: The FBI Snares
 Nazis"; "Getting the Godfather: The FBI and Organized Crime"; "Spy
 Catchers: Fighting Espionage, From the Rosenbergs to Hanssen"; "Mississippi
 Burning: The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement"; "Kidnapped: Patty Hearst
 and the SLA"; "Disaster in Waco: Branch Davidian Siege"; "Terrorism in the
 Heartland: Oklahoma City Bombing"; and "The Terror of a Random Killer: D.C.
 Sniper."
 
     "G-Men and Journalists" also includes interactive experiences and a
 number of brief video documentaries about several of these
 ripped-from-the-headlines cases, featuring interviews with FBI agents and
 the reporters who covered the stories.
 
     Throughout the summer, the Newseum will present a series of public
 programs featuring current and former FBI agents, authors, historians and
 journalists. Guests already scheduled to participate in the "G-Men and
 Journalists" public programs series include best-selling author Ron Kessler
 (June 21); CNN correspondent Kelli Arena and FBI public affairs director
 John Miller (June 22); ABC News correspondent Pierre Thomas (June 29); FBI
 historian John Fox (July 26); and ABC News "Nightline" correspondent Vicki
 Mabrey (Aug. 23).
 
     "G-Men and Journalists: Top News Stories from the FBI's First Century"
 is located in the Newseum's ABC News Changing Exhibits Gallery on the
 Concourse Level. This is the first major exhibition in the gallery, which
 was developed to explore a wide range of media issues with displays on
 breaking news, media trends, news-event anniversaries and top photography.
 
     About the Newseum
 
     The Newseum -- a 250,000-square-foot museum of news -- offers visitors
 an experience that blends five centuries of news history with
 up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.
 
     The Newseum features seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces
 and visitor services. It offers a unique environment that takes
 museum-goers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made.
 
     The Newseum is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and
 Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., on America's Main Street between the
 White House and the U.S. Capitol and adjacent to the Smithsonian museums on
 the National Mall. The exterior's unique architectural features include a
 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment and an immense front
 wall of glass through which passers-by can watch the museum fulfilling its
 mission of providing a forum where the media and the public can gain a
 better understanding of each other.
 
     The Newseum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and is closed on
 Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is $20 for adults,
 $18 for seniors (65 and older), $13 for youth (7-12). Press Pass annual
 memberships are available for $75 for adults, $50 for seniors, and $25 for
 youth. For additional information, the public may call 888/NEWSEUM
 (888/639-7386) or visit newseum.org.
 
 
 

SOURCE Newseum