RALEIGH, N.C., May 27 (UPI) -- The late Jesse Helms, a five-term U.S. senator, has an FBI file thick with death threats, a Raleigh television station says.
WRAL-TV obtained the 1,600-page file through a Freedom of Information Act request. The file also shows Helms was an FBI "contact" while he was an executive with Capital Broadcasting Co., WRAL's parent, in the 1970s.
Helms, an extreme conservative, received many threats over the years, including one saying he should be hanged from a tree the next time he visited his home state. He also asked the FBI to investigate his own suspicions that another government agency was spying on him and leaking his activities to the news media.
In the 1970s, when J. Edgar Hoover, a man even more controversial than Helms, headed the FBI, Helms provided information.
"Mr. Helms is most cooperative and has offered the facilities of his station to assist the FBI at any time," a document said. "He is a great admirer of the Director and the FBI and for a long period of time has been a staunch defender of the Director and his policies."
The FBI investigated allegations Helms gave the Raleigh mayor $10,000 to be used to suppress the black vote. Agents closed the case within a few days, apparently finding no support for the charges.
Helms died at age 86 in 2008, five years after giving up his Senate seat.
