Frederick Chaille Handy was born on May 23, 1875, in Richmond, Virginia. Handy served as a special agent in Greensboro, and later agent-in-charge of the Carolinas, for the Department of Justice from November 1917 to about 1923. In 1938, Handy was appointed by Gov. Clyde Hoey to be the first director of the newly-organized North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and was charged with building out the agency. He died in Raleigh (Wake County) on March 27, 1951.