Coretta Scott King's Wiretap Ends
December 18, 2006 | Issue 42•51
January saw the passing of 78-year-old Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and with it, the end of the FBI's around-the-clock phone surveillance of Mrs. King.
"After Mrs. King's death, the Bureau determined that the threat she posed to American security was significantly minimized to the point that the wiretapping should not continue," said Charles Torcello, special agent in charge of the FBI's Coretta Scott King surveillance unit.
The FBI had monitored King since 1955, when her husband, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., first gained the attention of law-enforcement officials by leading the Montgomery bus boycott against segregation in public mass transit.
"Our vigilance paid off for America, even if it wasn't always pretty to witness an old woman slowly deteriorate," said Torcello, who admitted to a grudging respect for King, calling her "in many ways a subversive member of my own family."
"She was a dedicated and admirable enemy," Torcello added.
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