Dargan Frierson, native of South Carolina, graduated from The University of South Carolina in 1942 and then entered the United States Air Corps. In 1946, he left the Air Corps and returned to USC to finish law school. In 1947, Frierson became an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He received his initial training in Washington, D.C., and was then posted in Cleveland. From 1949 to 1951, he was stationed in Detroit, and in 1951 was transferred to FBI office in Greensboro, where he remained until 1971.