The FBI's Vault

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced the opening of The Vault, a new electronic reading room with more than 2,000 documents and 25 files not previously available online. Access the contents of The Vault using the A-Z index or the categories list. Some of the A's in the A-Z index are:

• Al Capone


• Aristotle Onassis


• Aryan Nation


• Anna Nicole Smith


• Albert Einstein


• Amelia Earhart

Most of these documents have been scanned into PDF images. The handwritten and typed documents are often hard to read. Many documents have been heavily redacted.

Still, browsing The Vault for information about people in the Popular Culture category might provide some interesting trivia.

Of greater legal interest will be the files under the Supreme Court category, where you can find material about Hugo Black, William Brennan, Fortas, Thurgood Marshall, and the Court generally. The Supreme Court file is large, with 34 parts (each part consists of 100 pages or more).

Time will tell if the contents of the FBI's vault prove more interesting than Al Capone's secret vault.