John Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 until his death in 1972, was applauded for bettering the F.B.I by making it more efficient. However, Hoover was also notorious for his fixation with anti-communism and his collection of classified files on distinguished Americans like famed civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. who opposed discrimination against blacks. Unfortunately, around December 1955, since King’s name came to national prominence, Hoover began monitoring King’s daily life. [6] At first, Hoover’s interest in King was a matter of national security, but five years after he first started tracking King his interest developed into an obsession of ruining King’s career. Hoover…show more content… Unfortunately, it arrived well after the event. The note was a single, tightly spaced, yellowing sheet full of errors and attempted corrections. The tone was of a disappointed admirer unhappy with the affairs revealed to the public. The letter calls King a “colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that.” King’s supporters are even described as “filthy dirty evil companions” and “evil playmates” all deluded by “dirt, filth, evil and moronic talk.” As Gage writes in the Times: ”The effect is at once grotesque and hypnotic, an obsessive’s account of carnal rage and personal betrayal.” The unidentified writer indicates that he has intimate knowledge of King’s illicit affairs. He identifies one lover by name and claims to have detailed evidence of the others. Another passage suggests that the author has an audiotape to support his letter as expressed by this line “Lend your sexually psychotic ear to the enclosure.” The concluding paragraph can be interpreted in many ways. One possible meaning is that King should kill himself before the given deadline of 34 days or else his “filthy, abnormal fraudulent self” would be bared to the nation. Another, less violent interpretation, is that he should step down from his civil rights position of leadership and let other men handle the fight for racial equality. It is most widely believed that the letter was written by Hoover himself, if not, it was certainly written by his F.B.I.