William H. Webster, the only person ever to lead the FBI and the CIA, switching from lawman to spymaster while the bureau was investigating high crimes at the White House and the CIA, died Friday in Warrenton, Virginia. He was 101.

A family spokesperson, Jim McGrath, confirmed the death, at a care center, but did not specify a cause.

Webster was born two months before J. Edgar Hoover took command of the FBI in 1924. Hoover, who governed the bureau for almost half a century, was not yet six years in his grave when Webster was sworn in as the FBI’s third director on Feb. 23, 1978, a time when Hoover’s long shadow still darkened Washington.

Senate hearings had exposed the bureau’s Cold War history of warrantless wiretaps and burglaries and laid bare its vendettas against the Rev. Martin Lu

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