William Hedgecock Webster

Webster, William Hedgecock (1924– ), U.S. jurist and director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Webster was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (1971) by Pres. Richard M. Nixon. In 1973 he began serving in the U.S. Court of Appeals, and in 1978 he was appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by Pres. Jimmy Carter. An expert on terrorist tactics, Webster was made director of the CIA in 1987. He retired in 1991.