By JODI SOKOLOWSKI
Buffalo Law Journal

During ceremonies Friday marking the 100th anniversary of the FBI, former and current staff recalled a number of firsts the Buffalo field office was involved in.

Buffalo FBI agents were the first to use a plane to conduct undisclosed surveillance in the 1930s. The first successful undercover operation, "Operation Teepee," recovered the stolen Rembrandt painting "Le Rabbin" here in 1977.

A Buffalo man who tried to join the Magaddino crime organization prompted the creation of the Witness Protection Program in the late 1960s and was the basis for the 1980 movie "Hide in Plan Sight."

A former Sisters of Mercy nun from Niagara Falls became the bureau's first female agent in 1972, shortly after longtime director J. Edgar Hoover died.

The first wiretap on electronic surveillance was used to uncover draft e-mails between James Kopp, who killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998, and his supporters for his prosecution.

And the bureau's first intranet to communicate within the office and between divisions was started in Buffalo.

The local office, which covers 17 counties, opened in July 1924. The event Friday honored the 51 agents who have been killed in the line of duty since 1908 and also served as a reunion for about 20 former employees who worked in the Buffalo office.

Times have certainly changed, said several women who worked as stenographers and secretaries in the office over the years.

Norita Frenning didn't like working in the steno pool when she transferred to New York City from Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s. Because Hoover "ran a very tight ship," the employees were required to work up to exactly 5:30 p.m., she said.

"You better be working at 5:29 and not be packed up, ready to go," Frenning said.

She said there was a double standard in office policies then, as women were not allowed to smoke or drink coffee at their desks, although men were, nor were they permitted to wear pants or pantsuits.

Kathy Lambert, who started in the office as a receptionist, was the steno-pool supervisor for 30 years. She recalled one April Fool's Day when she assigned each of 25 stenographers to work three hours with the agent they most disliked taking dictation from.

While the management was strict and the work was challenging, the women said they enjoyed their experience working for the FBI.

"Everybody I worked with, I learned something from," said Felicia Felckowska, who retired in 2000 after 34 years as a secretary to the special agent in charge. "I was very happy to work here."

Marjorie Ewell, 91, brought to the ceremony the 1940 letter in which she was offered the job of stenographer, at $1,800 a year.

"I've always been proud to be a part of this office," said Ewell, who left the office after two and a half years because she was expecting a child.

Don Becker, now an investigative operations analyst, started as a clerk in 1970. The 56-year-old recalls working the old-fashioned "plug and cable" switchboards in the federal building at 68 Court St., which housed the FBI as well as federal court and a U.S. Post Office branch.

The days of the stereotypical agent dressed in dark suit, white shirt, thin black tie and sunglasses is over now that undercover agents are needed for undercover work, perhaps purchasing guns or drugs from gangs and organized-crime rings, Special-Agent-in-Charge Laurie Bennett said.

"You really have to fit in and dress to the person you're going to talk to," she said. "If you're in Miami, you're not wearing a suit, because it's just so out of the ordinary."

As time passed and technology evolved, so did the crimes.

In the early days of the agency, squads focused on violations such as public corruption, jury tampering, mail fraud, bank robbery and organized crime.

Modern squads handle counterterrorism, cybercrime and white-collar crime, and civil-rights violations. The FBI also does espionage work in protecting intellectual property for both private corporations and the military.

With 56 field divisions nationwide and many more resident agencies across the country and the world, the agency is growing exponentially. Starting with just 34 agents, the bureau has grown to 12,000 agents and 30,000 support staff, Bennett said.

"Unfortunately, the work seems like it will never be done, but we try to get ahead (of trends) to prevent the crime," Bennett said.