On March 8, 1971, an activist group called the Citizens‘ Commission to Investigate the FBI burglarized a local office of the FBI in Media, Pennsylvania and stole classified documents. Part of those documents revealed a secret FBI operation called COINTELPRO. Those documents were later sent to newspapers and members of the United States Congress. During the Church Committee hearings and investigations in 1975, a copy of the „suicide letter“ was discovered in the work files of William C. Sullivan, deputy FBI director. He has been suggested as its author.