Charles Joseph Bonaparte served as U.S. attorney general under President Theodore Roosevelt. Bonaparte, a prominent civic reformer, was the grandson of Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest brother of the French emperor Napoleon I. Bonaparte is best remembered for creating an office in the Department of Justice for criminal investigation, which later evolved into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Bonaparte was born on June 9, 1851, in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Harvard College in 1871 and from Harvard Law School in 1874. Admitted to the Maryland bar, Bonaparte established a private law practice in Baltimore. While in practice, Bonaparte became interested in civic reform. The Baltimore city government was regarded as one of the most corrupt in the United States. Bonaparte sought to change what was widely believed to be a national problem by helping to found the Civic Reform League in 1881. As part of this reform movement, Bonaparte urged citizens...