Revealed, the vile FBI letter urging King to kill himself
THE uncensored contents of an anonymous letter to Martin Luther King have revealed how the FBI branded him an ‘ evil abnormal beast’ and urged him to commit suicide.
The letter also accuses the civil rights leader of taking part in ‘sexual orgies’ with ‘filthy, dirty, evil companions male and female’.
The existence of the poorly spelt, clumsily typed letter has long been known but it was previously made public only in heavily redacted form.
Although it was purportedly written by a disillusioned, black civil rights activist, Dr King was convinced it was an attempt by FBI boss J Edgar Hoover to unsettle him weeks before he received the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
It later emerged that the so- called ‘suicide letter’ had been written by one of Hoover’s deputies. Although it is no secret King was a compulsive womaniser, there is no evidence he was bisexual.
However, some believe Hoover may have been homosexual, citing his unusually close relationship with his deputy director, Clyde Tolson.
A Yale historian, Beverly Gage, said she found an unredacted copy of the letter in the National Archives in Washington, tucked into Hoover’s confidential files.
Within a single page of tightly typed hatred, the letter’s writer claims he or she had been appalled to discover ‘hidious [sic] abnormalities’ in a man they had previously admired. It continues: ‘You are a colossal fraud and an evil vicious one, at that.’
The letter claimed Dr King had conducted ‘ countless acts of adultery’ with men and women, some of whom ‘pretend to be ministers of the Gospel’.
The writer implied he had included with the letter taped recordings, which had likely been the result of the FBI
‘Countless acts of adultery’
bugging King’s hotel rooms, out of the mistaken conviction he was a closet communist.
‘It is all there on the record, your sexual orgies. Listen to yourself you filthy, abnormal animal,’ said the letter.
The recording, it claimed, was just a ‘tiny sample’ of adulterous acts and orgies ‘extending far into the past’.
The letter urged him to ‘look into your heart. You know you are a complete fraud and a great liability to all of us Negroes.’ The letter named one of his lovers and promised to release the tapes to the press in 34 days if Dr King did not do the ‘ one thing left for you to do’.
The writer advised him: ‘There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.’
The l etter arrived after Dr King had left for Sweden for the Nobel ceremony and was opened by his wife, Coretta. A decade after it was s ent, its existence was revealed by a Senate committee which confirmed it had come from the FBI.
‘It is an even more appalling letter than we thought it was,’ said Professor Athan Theoharis, a researcher on the FBI. ‘It raises questions about the FBI officials and their violent attitudes towards King.’
Experts believe the letter was written by Willi am Sullivan, one of Hoover’s deputies, shortly after Hoover denounced Dr King publicly as the ‘most notorious liar in the country’ after he questioned the FBI’s willingness to tackle civil rights abuses.