George Russell Wackenhut, (September 3, 1919 December 31, 2004) was the founder of the

Wackenhut G4S Secure Solutions (USA) is an American / British-based security services company, and a subsidiary of G4S plc. It was founded as The Wackenhut Corporation in 1954, in Coral Gables, Florida, by George Wackenhut and three partners (all are f ...

private security corporation.

Biography

George Russell Wackenhut was the son of William and Frances (Hogan) Wackenhut. He grew up in

Upper Darby Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a Home Rule Municipality (Pennsylvania), home rule Township (Pennsylvania), township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The township borders Philadelphia, the List of United States cities b ...

, outside

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and graduated from

Upper Darby High School Upper Darby High School (UDHS) is a four-year public high school located in Upper Darby Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, as part of the Upper Darby School District. UDHS is also the oldest high school in Delaware County, ...

in 1937. He was inducted into the school's Wall of Fame in 2000. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II and witnessed the Japanese bombing of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

. He graduated from what is now known as

West Chester University West Chester University (also known as West Chester, WCU, or WCUPA, and officially as West Chester University of Pennsylvania) is a public research university in and around West Chester, Pennsylvania. The university is accredited by the Middle ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. and a master's degree in education from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

, then taught classes in physical education and health. In 1951, Wackenhut joined the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

as a special agent in Indianapolis and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, handling counterfeit money and bad-check cases and tracking down Army deserters. He resigned in 1954 to launch Special Agent Investigations in

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...

, with three other former agents - William Stanton, A. Kenneth Altschul and Miami lawyer and FBI agent Ed Du Bois, Jr., Following an in-office fist fight with Du Bois in 1955, a professional split occurred and Du Bois went on to form his own company, Investigators, Inc., focusing on private investigations. In 1958, Wackenhut bought out his remaining partners, renamed the company after himself and expanded into the security guard field, then went

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

in 1965. Even with a profit margin of only 2.5 percent, the company's earnings, inflated by massive overbilling, allowed Wackenhut to live lavishly in homes scattered throughout the country. Prior to his move to

Vero Beach, Florida Vero Beach is a city in and the seat of Indian River County, Florida, United States. Vero Beach is the second most populous city in Indian River County. Abundant in beaches and wildlife, Vero Beach is located on Florida's Treasure Coast. It is thi ...

in 1995, his primary residence was his "Tyecliffe Castle", in Coral Gables, Florida. It was known in Miami as Castle Wackenhut. It was, in 1995, a $10 million turreted mansion complete with moat, decorated with firearms and medieval suits of armor. His house was wired with infrared and laser sensors, closed-circuit television monitors, photo-cell surveillance and had private radios for his family. The 18,000 sq ft, 57 room Tyecliffe Castle was sold to Ponzi schemer

Allen Stanford Robert Allen Stanford (born March 24, 1950) is an American financial fraudster, former financier, and sponsor of professional sports. He is serving a 110-year federal prison sentence, having been convicted in 2012 of fraud, on charges that his i ...

and was demolished about 2008. In 1994, ''The Quiet American'', an 800-page authorized

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

of Wackenhut by John Minahan, was published. George Wackenhut was known as a hard-line right-winger. He built up dossiers on Americans suspected of being

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

left-leaning Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

"subversives and sympathizers" and sold the information to interested parties. Frank Donner claimed in his book ''Age of Surveillance'' the Wackenhut Corporation maintained and updated its files even after the McCarthy hysteria had ebbed, adding the names of

antiwar An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to ...

protesters and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

demonstrators to its list of "derogatory types." By 1965, Wackenhut was boasting to potential investors the company maintained files on 2.5 million suspected dissidents - one in 46 American adults then living. In 1966, after acquiring the private files of Karl Barslaag, a former staff member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Wackenhut could claim, that with more than 4 million names, his company had the largest privately held file on suspected dissidents in America. In 1975, after the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

investigated companies which had private files, Wackenhut gave its files to the now-defunct anti-Communist

Church League of America {{Short description, Anti-communist organization The Church League of America was founded in Chicago in 1937 to oppose left-wing and Social Gospel influences in Christian thought in organizations. The group's founders were Frank J. Loesch, a lawyer ...

of Wheaton,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. When he sold his company for $570 million in 2002 ($ today), he owned more than 50 percent of its stock. Wackenhut died on 31 December 2004 of heart failure, at his home in Vero Beach, Florida, at the age of 85.

References

External links

* FBI file on George Wackenhut {{DEFAULTSORT:Wackenhut, George 1919 births 2004 deaths People from Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania People from Vero Beach, Florida People from Coral Gables, Florida University of Hawaiʻi alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Private detectives and investigators West Chester University alumni 20th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Pennsylvania Businesspeople from Florida 21st-century American businesspeople G4S American military personnel of World War II Deaths from congestive heart failure