The death certificate of Martin Luther King, Jr., along with other documents following his assassination, is seen below a picture of the family at his funeral, at the new National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia June 19, 2014.
The death certificate of Martin Luther King, Jr., along with other documents following his assassination, is seen below a picture of the family at his funeral, at the new National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia June 19, 2014. The museum opening on Monday links the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s to modern fights for human rights across the world to give visitors new insight on how the struggles are related, organizers said. REUTERS/Tami Chappell

The original copy of an FBI letter sent to Martin Luther King does not seem to have spared any words to describe the reverend hero of the Civil Rights Movement. It begins by calling him "a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that."

Next, his alleged lovers are called the "filthy, dirty, evil companions" who are "all engaged in "dirt, filth, evil and moronic talk." The letter goes on to talk about his "sexual orgies," "adulterous acts" and "immoral conduct," and finally ends with a denouncement of him as an "evil, abnormal beast." The anonymous letter has been called "the suicide letter," as it closes with the condemnatory paragraph asking him to kill himself, because there is "only one thing left for you to do." It says that he has just 34 days to do it -- a number selected for a specific reason, with "definite practical significance."

Yale historian, Beverly Gage, who is writing a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, says that she was "amazed" when she found the complete 50-year-old letter in the National Archives. It was sent by the FBI days after Hoover himself had called King the "most notorious liar in the country" at a press conference in 1964, according to Gage. She has revealed and critiqued the letter in NY Times.

Gage later clarifies in an interview to npr.com that it had not been sent to King by Hoover. It was sent by the former assistant director of the FBI, William Sullivan, though so far it was thought to have existed only in a censored form. "It's sort of like this Holy Grail," she says. The letter seems to be typewritten, with some handmade corrections. It addresses the hero as "King," refusing to "dignify your name with either a Mr. or a Reverend or a Dr."

Criticising his sex and personal life, the letter has obviously been an attempt by the FBI to denigrate his Civil Rights efforts and discredit him for his extramarital affairs. Taking the information about his sex life, the FBI has talked to a lot of reporters in Washington and other places about it. However, the press has not reported the information on the extra-marital affairs on Dr. King. The press had a different kind of personality in those days. The journalists were aware that the FBI was spying, and many of them also supported the Civil Rights movement. The discussions began only years after he had died. However, FBI's wiretap recordings of his affairs were included with the original letter sent by the FBI to his house, and was discovered by his wife.

Gage points out that King is a hero today, so the public could be "shocked" by the letter. However, it was tougher condemning this letter or the government's attitude in the '60s, when he was seen as a "hugely controversial figure." She adds that there were lots of people then who did think that he was a "threat to the social order." That's when it would have become that much more difficult to judge rationally, she says.