In all, we investigated, I think, close to 50 rumors about offers to kill Dr. King around the country. But we found no evidence to support rumors of FBI involvement in the assassination.
The purpose of sealing the records was not to conceal them or to conceal the facts from the American people.
In my opinion, assassination theories will continue to revolve around these assassinations as they have around several other significant assassinations in American history. The assassination of President Lincoln comes to mind.
Firstly, we have personnel records of persons we hired, persons we fired, reasons we fired them and so forth. These records have nothing to do with the assassination of the president and, therefore, ought to remain in the files.
There have been a couple of instances prior to now where members of the House have filed resolutions calling for release of the sealed files which were developed during the course of our committee's investigation.
There are, in the King case in particular, some names of confidential informants, persons to whom we promised confidentiality in return for their testimony. We have put their testimony in the public domain, but feel that their names should continue to be anonymous.