Fbi melvin purves biography
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Purvis, Alston W. 1943–
PERSONAL: Born 1943; son of Melvin Purvis (a lawyer and law enforcement agent). Education: Virginia Commonwealth University, B.F.A.; Yale University, M.F.A.
ADDRESSES: Office—Boston University College of Fine Arts, 855 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215. E-mail—[email protected].
CAREER: Graphic designer, translator, writer, and educator. Cooper Union, New York, NY, instructor, 1969–70; Royal Academy of Fine Arts, The Hague, Netherlands, associate professor, 1971–82; School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, director ad interim, 1998–2002; Boston University, Boston, MA, chairman of Graphic Design, c. 2002–; freelance graphic designer and translator for major galleries, corporations, and publishers. Also presented lectures at the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Wolfsonian Foundation at Florida International University, and elsewhere. Exhibitions: Solo and group exhibitions, including exhibitions in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Lo
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In 1934, The Literary Digest's poll of the 10 most famous people in amerika named Franklin D. Roosevelt number one and Melvin Purvis number two. Purvis, in charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), became famous in the 1930s for bringing down the notorious outlaws John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
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Melvin was born in 1903 in the small town of Timmonsville, South Carolina, with a family of six sisters and two brothers. He was devoted to all his sisters, especially my mother, Callie Mims or “Cal,” who was born in 1899. In his 1920 high school yearbook, Melvin was said to be “charming and athletic with his love of horses”; he was said to be a “crack shot,” and he later became an avid gun collector. He was also popular, having been elected captain of his high school military company, and he played football and baseball in Timmonsville.
He attended
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General - South Carolina History
Melvin Horace Purvis. To many people today, the name means nothing. But it was not so long ago that Purvis was a household name, and over 260,000 boys and girls were digging through boxes of Post Toasties breakfast cereal to get their very own decoder rings and Junior G-Man badges. Purvis, the Timmonsville native with the unassuming name, skyrocketed to such fame in the 1930s as the leader of the FBI team that took down some of the biggest gangsters of his day, including John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson and "Pretty Boy" Floyd. His death in 1960 from a gun shot to the head is still shrouded in mystery. Was it a suicide, as first reported? Was it an accidental shooting? Or was there something more sinister behind it?
Learn about the man behind the badge in a new "Carolina Stories" program, "G-MAN: The Rise and Fall of Melvin Purvis." Presenting "just the facts, ma'am," the documentary examines Purvis' life and sheds some light on his gruesome death