The year was 1971 and eight brave activists decided to break into a Pennsylvania FBI office and steal documents that would reveal domestic espionage by the agency. Now, 43 year later, these men have come forwarded and admitted that they did it for the reason that no one else had the courage.
However, just five of the eight burglars involved have decided to break their silence through a new book released today that describes the bold break-in during the time of the Vietnam War era - 'The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI.
The files seized from the FBI office in Media, Pa., were nothing small but uncovered big-scale operations done behind closed doors. Behind these padlocked doors, the agency intended to provoke fear and propagate suspicion between civil rights groups and anti-war groups.
For the group of daring activist, the forced entry was nothing more than a demonstration against the Vietnam War and also the FBI's efforts to overpower conflict.
"Nobody wanted to believe it when you talked to people outside the movement about the things the FBI was doing behind closed doors, it was just too surreal," mentioned one of the burglars, Keith Forsyth, now 63. "The only thing left to do in order to convince people that it was true was to get it in their handwriting."
"Then it dawned on us," he added, "that if we don't do this thing, nobody will."
Nothing happened over night but the group, established by William C. Davidon, a university teacher of physics at Haverford College, watched the office for months.
Bonnie Raines, one of the female activists came up with a clever plan to work her way into the office by faking to be a Swarthmore College student doing research on employment prospects for females in the FBI.
That same night, a 1970 memorandum from then-Director J. Edgar Hoover was stolen. In all, this eight-member ring of anti-Vietnam War activists took over 1,000 documents.
Later on, one of the activist John Raines told NBC News. "In this situation, by violating a law -- entering, stealing files - we uncovered a corruption that was going on that people were not even aware of."
As far as fears go, the group is not worried about disclosing their identities now since the five-year of statute of limitations on the crime was terminated in the mid-70s.
Why so long to spill the beans? Inquiring minds might want to know. "We were not looking for any attention," John Raines told the Times. "What was done was done."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
