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FILE 044 · VOL VII · They Lied to Your Parents
The FBI Mailed Dr. King a Letter Telling Him to Kill Himself
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Based on: The FBI Letter to Martin Luther King Jr.
Intake record
| Recovered from | Estate of a former FBI stenographer, Silver Spring, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Contents | A typewriter ribbon (51 feet), a diary (1964 to 2014), a newspaper clipping |
| Finder | Executor |
| Status | The ribbon has been read under magnification. Its contents are summarized below, not reproduced. |
Recovered file
From 1956 to 1971 the FBI ran COINTELPRO, a secret program to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt political groups it considered dangerous, including civil rights organizations. Its methods included forged letters, informants, and anonymous smears. The public learned of it after activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, on March 8, 1971, and mailed the stolen files to newspapers. [1] The Senate's Church Committee confirmed the program's scope in 1976. [2]
In November 1964 the FBI anonymously mailed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a package containing recordings from bugged hotel rooms and an unsigned letter urging him, in effect, to take his own life before a deadline. The full uncensored letter was published in 2014. [3] Coretta Scott King opened the package.
Dr. King was murdered in Memphis on April 4, 1968. In 1999 a Memphis civil jury found that a man named Loyd Jowers and others, including governmental agencies, had conspired in the killing, and awarded the King family the one hundred dollars it asked for. In 2000 the Justice Department said it found no reliable evidence to support the claims. [4]
The rest of this file is sealed. The ending, the sources and the archivist's note unseal with the file.
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