Connelley 1930s Chicago - Courtesy the familyLike others of the period, E. J. Connelley's name has been overshadowed throughout the decades, not only due to the passage of time, but perhaps due to the media and the public's constant interest in SAC Melvin Purvis. Now, even more so with the release of the historically inaccurate movie, "Public Enemies" and Purvis' role in Bureau history.
Connelley was Hoover's top choice with regard to major investigations and specifically, the kidnapping cases of the era, which included many child kidnappings most readers aren't even aware of. He played a major role in the gangster cases of the day, and in one case, leading the raid and shootout with "Ma" Barker and her son in Florida and the capture of Alvin Karpis. Among other cases, during World War II, Connelley lead the major investigations relative to Nazi saboteurs landing off Long Island and Florida.
More about Connelley can be read in the biography section of this site, and by searching his name.
During the period of 2012 we had the fortunate experience of being contacted by Connelley's granddaughter in Cincinnati and during that contact, learned of a vast amount of photos, news articles and more that the family had of Connelley's Bureau career.
Just one of the many documents held by the Connelley familyFinally, in 2013, through the efforts of two of our retired Special Agents, Dennis Lengle and Jim Rogers, both from Ohio, we were able to meet with the granddaughters in that area and examine the Connelley papers. We put together a brief slideshow to give a "taste" of those documents and it's hoped that at some point we can arrange with the family to provide some of the material to the new National Law Enforcement Museum being constructed in Washington, D. C. Unfortunately, during that contact with the family, we learned that Connelley had been writing his manuscript about his career however after death, his wife destroyed it for some unknown reason.
Because of its size, we had to post the Connelley "slideshow" at Mediafire and readers can see/download it at this link. This file was tested with Windows 7 in March, 2013 .
Mac users can use this link for showing in Quicktime. Verified 3/2013