National Law Enforcement Museum staff has been working tirelessly to develop a comprehensive collection in time for its opening in 2011. In August 2007, the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI named the Museum to be the official repository for one of the most interesting and elaborate collections yet, a series of Oral History Transcripts from top special agents of the FBI.

The FBI Oral History Heritage Program started as a pilot project in 2002. In 2003, the project became a formal Society program under the leadership of former Special Agent Brian Hollstein. With the help of Dr. Susan Rosenfeld, a former FBI Historian, the Society has collected more than 130 interviews and four written memoirs concerning events dating as far back as the 1930's. Interviews detailing Watergate, the Joseph McCarthy hearings, Cold War counterespionage, organized crime, the neutralization of the Ku Klux Klan and more have all been carefully documented and recorded by former special agents trained as oral history interviewers.

After conversations with a number of institutions, the Society decided to sign the use of the transcripts over to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund to be available for research, education, and exhibition in the National Law Enforcement Museum. Representatives from the Society met with NLEOMF Chairman and CEO Craig W. Floyd and Senior Director of Museum Programs Laurie Baty at Memorial Fund offices in Washington, D.C., on August 7 to finalize the agreement. Those present included the Society's President Andy Palumbo, President-Elect Richard Berness, Foundation Administrator Sandra Robinette, Executive Director Scott Erskine, Oral History Project Manager Brian Hollstein, and Dr. Susan Rosenfeld.

The transcripts will be available online through the NLEM collection catalog by the end of 2008.

Please visit the website for the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI http://www.socxfbi.org/.